Generation Dead - 07

by Joseph Talluto

  “You know what? Just shut up.” Jake ran headlong into the crash bar on the door to the shopping area of the mall, knocking it open and tripping over a pile of boxes that had been left by the door.

  I followed, and as I watched the door close, I could see dozens of glowing eyes coming towards us. I pulled off my pack and quickly rummaged through it. The door conveniently had no handle, so it was going to open easily when the zombies hit it in force. I pulled out a small wooden wedge, and jammed it in the small space between the door and the door jam.

  “What’s that for?” Jake asked.

  “Something Uncle Duncan taught me. Can buy you ten seconds or more when you really need it,” I said, tapping the wood with the butt of my pistol.

  Jake looked put out. “How come he never taught me that?”

  “Probably because you preferred to listen to yourself,” I said, not to put too fine a point on it.

  Whatever he was going to say was lost as the first zombie plowed into the door. The whole thing shook, and the wedge was nearly knocked out.

  “Damn!” I said, pounding it back into the crack. “We gotta get the hell out of here!” I said, backing away from the door.

  “Where the fuck is Julia?” Jake said, turning and running down the hall. Storefront after storefront was smashed and looted, although the dust indicated that there had been some time in between visitors.

  As if in answer, a single wail drifted to us from the darker recesses of the mall. Jake and I traded looks as we bolted in that direction. The mall was laid out in a cross pattern, with longer halls on the north and south ends. There was a food court in the middle, but that place had long gone to the dust and decay. I had dared Jake to open one of the fridges, but he had impolitely declined.

  We had not originally wanted to come to this mall. Malls were generally bad news. Either they were full of zombies, from people trying to take refuge when the original outbreak had occurred, or they had kept the virus out, and had become little communities of their own, with interesting ways of doing things. One mall had a community where the rule was clothing was not allowed. We didn’t stay long, although we looked for a while.

  This mall was definitely not one of the latter. As we ran down the dark wing, a black groaning shape reared up out of the darkness and confronted me. I barely slowed down as I swung my axe, slamming the blade into the skull of the zombie in front of me. It went down without a twitch and I yanked my ‘hawk out as I passed.

  Another shape rose up, but it was too slow to intercept me. Jake nailed it with his mace, and we were still moving. As we went deeper into the darkness, we could see a small bit of light coming from a side corridor to the left. We could also see about a half dozen glowing eyes turn our way as we thumped through debris and decay. This mall had definitely seen better days. I think it might have been used as a refuge for about a day, but then people got greedy, looted it, and took off. Then the zombies moved in and there went the neighborhood.

  “Baby Gap! Baby Gap!” Jake yelled, and at first I thought he was nuts, but then I saw the sign, and realized he was trying to avoid the horde that was headed our way. I dove sideways and went through a hole in the window, miraculously avoiding cutting the hell out of myself. I rolled out of the way, as Jake dove after me and we both stood up, ready to fight.

  Not surprisingly, we heard a noise in the back. Jake nodded to the left and I took the right. We crept past bare shelves and creepy mannequins, trying to stay silent so the horde outside would pass us by. The noise repeated itself, and then there was a curse.

  I looked over at Jake and we both nodded. Julia. Stepping quickly to the back counter, we could see a red light flashing back and forth, obviously looking for something. Jake stepped closer and suddenly the light shifted and two feet of sharpened steel flashed past his face.

  “Hey!” Jake slipped back and I stepped forward in his place. The blade came towards me, but I knocked it out of the way with my axe.

  “Knock it off,” I said quietly. “What the hell are you doing in here? You were supposed to have come to the utility door.”

  I think Julia actually blushed. “I wanted some jeans.”

  “Are you fucking serious?” Jake asked. “There’s about thirty zombies headed this way!”

  “Hey, we were always taught to take advantage of opportunities as they presented themselves. Here is a jeans store, why the hell not?’ Julia said defiantly.

  “Was that you we heard wailing?” I asked, changing the subject.

  “Yes, that was me.” Julia looked embarrassed again.

  “Why, dare I ask?” Jake said.

  “I can’t find my size.” Julia pouted. “There’s all kinds of fat people sizes and super-skinny sizes, but nothing in my size.”

  Jake had never been known for his tact. As a matter of fact, his honest nature has caused more fights than a body has a right to. “Well, you could lose weight.”

  Julia stared daggers at Jake. I was actually surprised he didn’t fall dead right there.

  “Or gain it to fit in the fat jeans,” I tried helpfully with a smile.

  Julia turned her gaze on me and I was shocked I didn’t disintegrate in a pile of ash. I swear lasers came out of her eyes for a second and singed my eyebrows.

  “All right, enough of this,” Jake said. “We have about a minute before the ones outside figure out where we wandered off to. We weren’t exactly subtle in our choice of entrances to this place.”

  “Any back exits?” I asked, although I was leery of them since the utility tunnel was such a fun place.

  Julia shook her head. “None that I want to use. I definitely heard something when I checked the door.”

  “Well, what then? We can’t get out the back and the front is out of the question. Wait. How did you get here? You didn’t go through the window, did you?” I asked Julia.

  “I came in through the regular GAP store,” Julia said.

  “They’re connected?” Jake asked.

  “Yeah, you passed the connecting corridor to come back here.”

  “So there could be a whole mess of zombies right around the corner?”

  “Suppose so.” Julia shrugged. “As long as they don’t have a reason to come back here, we should be okay. We can sneak out later.”

  “Jake?” I asked suddenly.

  “What is it, Aaron, I’m trying to get us out of here.” Jake sounded exasperated.

  “Do mannequins move?”

  Chapter 27

  “Shit!” Jake figured out in a hurry what I was referencing to, and immediately drew his knife for confrontation.

  “Got it,” I said, moving forward. The zombie, an advance scout for the horde that was milling about in the main hall walked out of the darkness towards me. I couldn’t see it all that well, but it’s glowing eyes were as clear to me as if it was outside in the sun. I used those eyes as an aiming point and drove the spike end of my tomahawk right between them. The zombie fell backwards, and its outstretched arm caught a display rack, pulling it down against a glass table. The rack shattered the table with a huge crash, sending a shower of broken glass cascading to the tile floor. The sound was a waterfall of tinkling notes, and in the immediate silence following the crash, Jake only had to say one thing.

  “Damn.”

  An ear-splitting chorus of groans flew in from the outside of the store, matched by another chorus coming from ghouls inside the store as well. They were actually a lot closer than I had wanted to admit, so the quiet talking was pretty much over.

  I took the lead. “Follow me!” I ran towards the front with Jake and Julia close behind. I could see several dark shapes working their way towards the other door where zombies were already streaming in, and so their attention wasn’t on us, thank God.

  I grabbed a low display table and heaved it over my head. The thing was a lot heavier than I thought it was, but that would help with what I had in mind. I waited a second for about three or four zombies to be in the line of fire, and then I heave
d the table through the window. Since the window had already been broken, the rest went easily with little resistance.

  The table crashed into the trio of zombies on the other side, and we were right behind it. We had no room for error in this place. The table did not hit two of the dead, and they came right at us. Jake took a wide swing and literally knocked the one on the right completely off its feet.

  Julia was right behind on the one on the left, and the weighted end of her staff swept the legs out from under the zombie who fell as the spear head streaked for its eyes. A quick crunch and the job was done. I was already past the two and heading back the way we had come. The side door was out, a glance back showed dozens of zombies that way, so we had to return through the mess we had run from.

  I darted from one side to the other, dodging debris and overturned kiosks. Julia and Jake were right behind me. It was dangerous, since it was fairly dark, and there was a lot of crap on the floor.

  In the middle of the center of the mall was a glass elevator. Surrounding that elevator was a defunct waterfall. Long-dried pools had revealed their treasure, coins were all over the bottom of the waterfalls. We didn’t stop to pick any up, since there was about five zombies waiting for us under the dull glow of the skylights which illuminated the mall’s center court.

  I dodged into a jewelry store, hoping to take a side route around the five, and that was when Jake said, “Where…”

  I didn’t catch the rest since the distraction caused me to slam into a display case. I hit the thing dead center, and it was solid enough to knock me back on my ass. Julia was right behind me, and my sudden stop and fall, caused her to slam into my back and be on the bottom when I sat down.

  “OOOOF!” She said as the air left her lungs.

  “Sorry!” I rolled off of her and Jake helped us both to our feet. The five in the court headed our way and I ran out of the jewelry store, moving through the scattered tables of a coffee shop. Jake grabbed up one of the chairs as he went by and hurled it at the group. Knocking two of them down, the chair wrapped up the legs of a third.

  “Nice!” I called as we raced towards the longer end of the mall. We passed by a couple of stores that looked like they hadn’t been looted, but since one was a lingerie store and the other a greeting card store, it wasn’t that big of a surprise. No one needed that stuff in a zombie apocalypse.

  Passing a Pottery Barn, I moved under a stairwell and skidded to a stop. Several zombies, which must have been inside the stores when we first went by, and were prompted to explore in search of food, blocked our path.

  Julia was paying attention this time and avoided running into me. She moved to the left side and Jake moved to the right. The zombies groaned and moved towards us in a group, making things difficult for a fight.

  “Call it,” Jake said, hefting his weapon.

  I very nearly said we should take them when I happened to see movement in the darkness behind the zombies. I couldn’t tell how many there were, but the amount of shifting told me there were quite a few.

  “Upstairs. Now!” I turned and bolted for the stairs, taking two at a time. I reached the top and ducked under the arms of a zombie that came limping out of a candle store. I stood up and with a swift backswing of my ‘hawk, smacked the zombie in the head. It hit the railing and was sufficiently overbalanced that it fell over the side, falling hard to splatter on the floor below.

  We were alone for the time being, although the ones we ran from were slowly making their way up the stairs.

  “What now?” Julia whispered. Jake was at the top of the stairs, eyeballing the oncoming horde and hefting his weapon. I knew if I didn’t get things moving, he’d probably wade into them and start killing.

  “There’s got to be an exit from the second floor up here.” I said, looking for the telltale signs of light from doors and windows. I thought there looked to be some sunlight down the way towards Macy’s, but it was hard to tell.

  “Well, there isn’t one from that side.” Julia pointed across the mall chasm to the other side.

  “Maybe there’s one around this area here.” I started in that direction and Jake came up the stairs. I knew if we left this area, we had to be sure, otherwise we were in for a fight to come back this way.

  I stepped forward and checked the corner. There wasn’t a zombie nearby, but I was hearing some strange things. It sounded like something was bumping into something and couldn’t get away. I didn’t have the time to check it out, so I moved past it.

  At the corner of Abercrombie and the Bedding Experts, two well-dressed zombies stumbled into view. Julia didn’t waste time and speared one of them, and Jake hammered the other. I wasn’t too worried about what we might encounter as long as they came out in small doses.

  We moved forward into the darkness, and I was happy to report to the other two that it looked like we were going to find an exit after all. I could definitely see some light at the end of this tunnel, and for once, that wasn’t metaphorical.

  I stepped up the pace and approached the corner, stealing a look around, hoping we would be all clear, but I would be okay with a few zombies.

  What I wasn’t expecting was to come face to face with a ghoul that was slowly working his way along the wall in the opposite direction as myself.

  “Whoa!” I said, jerking my head back as the little nasty lunged forward in an attempt to bite my nose off. He reached out and caught hold of my backpack strap, pulling me in for a bite. I slammed a hand up into its throat and forced myself back, keeping the teeth away from my face and wrist. I twisted to the right, slamming the ghoul up against the wall and getting a real good look at it. It was male, like I thought, and it was sparsely dressed in a pair of long shorts and a t-shirt. The t-shirt was streaked with black, and the zombie grabbed and pulled at me with its other arm, latching onto my other strap. I increased my push and felt my hand start to slip on the dead skin that was shifting under my grip.

  I squeezed hard, feeling the dead thing’s throat and bones, and I wished I had the strength to crack its neck. The dead face snapped and groaned at me, opening its maw and it tried to take a huge bite out of my face.

  I couldn’t get it to release its grip, and I dared not release mine, so I had to do the next best thing, and that was to draw my grandfather’s knife and try for a kill. Trouble was, my angle was wrong, thanks to the zombie’s arm that was holding my strap. I had little choice but to place the knife against the zombie’s throat, just above my hand and start sawing.

  It took a little time, but I finally got the knife to the spine and severed the cord. The second my blade touched the spinal cord, the zombie dropped to the ground. Its head was still deadly, and I was careful as I let go of the gooey throat. Reversing my grip on the blade, I spiked it down and it easily pierced the skull, killing the zombie for good.

  Chapter 28

  I stood up, and was about to berate my companions when I saw they were having some trouble of their own. The zombies on the stairs had finally reached the top and had managed to come up to us from behind. Jake was standing on a bench, methodically cracking zombie skulls with what looked like a bored expression on his face.

  Julia was spinning her staff, alternately killing with her blade or the metal ball on the other end. She would hack on their necks with the big blade, more often than not killing her attackers, or she would use the ball to crack a head or two.

  Julia had one zombie left, and it was a big one. This guy must have been six foot five and he came charging at the little woman. Julia took one look at him and suddenly jumped into the air, bringing the ball down as hard as she could on his crusty head. The metal ball landed with a crunch, and the undead giant toppled forward without a sound.

  Jake was fairly indiscriminate when it came to his killing. He didn’t think anything about it, he did not even see the zombies as little more than an annoyance. It always got to me how cool Jake was able to stay in the face of danger. At least, he was according to what Jake had said. Jake was play
ing a kind of game, which he cheerfully described as death by gravity. He wouldn’t kill them when he smacked them, he preferred to hit them in the shoulder and knock them over the side of the railing. Each one that he hit made a squishing sound that really sounded disgusting. I was glad we weren’t able to see over the side into the gloom.

  Jake smacked the last one on his side, and it slammed against the railing, but it didn’t go over. Julia kindly provided assistance in the form of a push with her metal ball, and the zombie went over obligingly.

  Jake looked at me. “How’s the exit looking?

  “As good as can be expected. I haven’t had a chance to look, so I’ll head over there now.

  “Mind yourself,” Jake said, pausing to grab a golf towel from the store to wipe off his mace.

  “No worries this time,” I said. “I think all of the activity is concentrated at the end with the zombies looking out.” I thought for a second. “I just hope there’s not too many of them, since I am running out of ideas.”

  “We got your back,” Jake said, winking a Julia.

  I grinned and went back to where I had first encountered my gruesome friend. I took the corner wide this time, not looking for any errant behavior, I just wanted to get out of this crazy place. I was starting to wonder if we were ever going to get out of this place.

  One look down the hallway and I knew it wasn’t going to happen. Not unless we decided to open up with our guns. If there was one zombie down there, then there was at least thirty. And the ones closest to me, which were about twenty feet away, slowly turned and started their inevitable shuffle in my direction.

  I looked back at Jake and Julia. “Moving on,” was all I said.

  Julia and Jake cleared the corner and then hurried to catch up. We normally didn’t use our guns unless we absolutely had to, and then it was not something we did on a routine basis. Ammo was plentiful for us, but we had been trained for so long in gun-less fighting that it didn’t make sense to start shooting now. Besides, Jake and I weren’t the greatest shots. Dad used to kid us, telling us the safest place to be when we opened fire was to be near the target. He had room to talk, being able to zap a zombie at fifty yards with a pistol, six hundred with a rifle.