Overrun

The Beuford shopping mall's ten story structure loomed high and strong into the dark sky overhead. A few crumbled columns laid broken off and decaying next to it along the ground.

  It was one of the few buildings in the area, Kirken had always thought, that even after all these years still seemed strong and secure. It refused to die under the constant bombardment of the unchecked sun.

  When he was almost through the parking lot and close to the front entrance, he looked up towards the roof where they would await their transport.

  Mel darted under the concrete pillars still attached to the building's side looming protectively over its front doors. When she was safely covered by the overhang, she pressed her back against a wall and slid noiselessly down to the hot pavement to wait.

  The glass doors across the entrance were covered with thick layers of years of blowing sand and dirt.

  Through expressionless staring eyes, she watched Kirken and Brandon sprint across the vast open lot to join her. Kirken ran first and was almost halfway across. Brandon had just backed from where they had hidden in the hills and started to run.

  Soon they were beside her, both trying to control their loud harsh gasps from their lengthy sprint.

  Kirken crouched next to Mel and aimed his weapon across the empty parking lot. Nothing but a few patches of sand carried by a gentle wind disturbed the sanctity of the quiet night.

  Brandon ran away to the furthest door and swung his tire iron against the glass. Without looking back towards the lot, he stepped carefully through the broken pieces still hanging from the doorframe. A few fell free when his body brushed past and broke softly across the ground.

  Mel followed after him first. Kirken backed slowly in after her. Both headed towards where Brandon had disappeared through the door. While Mel moved carefully across the shattered glass, Kirken scanned the open area one last time through his weapon sight.

  Again seeing nothing, he turned around and hurriedly followed her in.

  * * *

  Two jeeps rolled slowly towards the mall’s decrepit parking lot. Their headlights were off allowing their small black frames to hide easily in the night. They emerged from the cover of the hills where they had first observed the three figures emerge from the dark just before the open vastness of the lot.

  Three of the four vehicle doors opened slowly, and five J.G.U. soldiers stepped wordlessly out. Two walked to the front of the jeep and standing side by side watched them enter the building. Their home base had alerted them to their presence only a few minutes ago after analyzing the surveillance feed from the most recent satellite pass.

  Light from the city’s fires still cast a glow across the sky in the distance. The slight quiet sound of breaking glass drifted through the open air.

  Two of the other soldiers walked to other end of the vehicles and pulled rifles, flamethrowers and an assortment of other assault weapons from the back compartments of each.

  The fifth soldier stared through a set of old-model binoculars towards the broken doors at the mall’s entrance and whispered quietly into a tiny transmitter at his wrist. From the jeep's radio unit, a static-filled voice answered him just as quietly back.

  All five quickly strapped full loads of weaponry and ammunition to their limbs and backs. Two of the soldiers also pulled small fuel tanks across their shoulders for the flamethrowers that hung halfway down their sides.

  They quietly closed the doors to the jeeps and stealthily approached the mall's entrance. They didn't follow the figures directly across the lot but walked around its perimeter careful to keep hidden amongst the shadows of its darkened sides.

  When they had finally reached the broken door, it had been more than fifteen minutes since they had seen the three figures enter the facility. Their boots made a soft crunching sound across the shattered glass as one by one they lowered their heads and followed them in.

  Chapter 32

  With his assault rifle held straight out in front of him, Brandon led them deeper into the darkness of the abandoned mall. Mel followed just at his heels. Kirken walked backwards behind them with his own weapon trained in the direction they had just come.

  Kirken breathed in deeply the suffocating years of stale air that lingered about the tightly sealed facility. Thick layers of dried filth and grime covered the walls, the floors and every other thing in sight. Their feet left deep tracks in the area they walked.

  "Brandon," Kirken spoke quietly without turning around. His voice echoed slightly through the decomposing walls of the empty complex. "Let's just find a way to the top, get up there and wait. There’s got to be some sort of stairway we can still use."

  Brandon didn't answer. He just continued to lead them ahead.

  The faint echoes of Kirken's words lingered for a few seconds in the crusty air and then faded away. Kirken did not look back to see if he had been heard. He continued to direct his eyes and weapon back into the darkness behind them.

  "Brandon," Kirken's voice edged higher in volume and tone. "Brandon, do you hear me?"

  Again his words went unanswered.

  Kirken pulled his eyes from behind his weapon sight and was about to turn around when he sensed Mel, walking quietly in front of him, suddenly stop. His back pressed up against hers, and the heel of his boot brushed up against the bottom of her legs.

  Still keeping it pointed away from his chest, Kirken lowered his weapon and rotated his head partially around. The movement brought him about to the frightened stare in his daughter's quiet eyes.

  She didn't react when his face was directly in front of her, and she didn’t make a sound. Her cheeks had sunk further into the bones of her face, and her pasty skin had become an even lighter shade of white. Kirken forced himself to look away from her towards whatever Brandon was eyeing up along the ground further ahead.

  A soft scratching sound wafted across the crusty air and fell across his ears.

  "Brandon," Kirken called again.

  Mel turned away from Kirken and looked toward Brandon and what he was watching along the floor. Kirken lowered his weapon all the way down and stepped to her left side.

  Brandon carefully lowered his own rifle and leaned it against the wall next to him. He pulled his hand slowly across his belt and popped open the clasp that held the tire iron hanging at his side.

  It was then that Kirken saw the large darting shapes of a handful of rats that had detached themselves from the shadows. They scurried together straight toward them in a quick-moving pack.

  When they reached Brandon's legs, they broke in different directions to get around. Two pulled away, one to either side, while the third rushed around Mel's legs.

  Mel didn't move or scream. She only raised her eyes and stared away into the emptiness of the mall. Brandon reached his hand out to her and gently pushed her back against the wall and out of his way.

  In a tightly grasped fist, he raised the tire iron high over his head and brought it down heavily across the center of the largest rodent's back. The blow was so powerful and brutal Kirken thought he heard the animal shriek in horror and pain.

  Blood, fur and bone splattered across the tips of Brandon's boots.

  Kirken stepped away from Brandon and stood closer to Mel along the wall. While he did, Brandon raised his arm and brought the tire iron down again. Two additional furious blows left the animal still in a bloody pulp at his feet.

  Kirken held his daughter and tried to look away from the ruthless spectacle. A haunting chill fingered its way along his back and across his heart when he realized that he couldn’t.

  He watched Brandon club the shredded carcass again. The other two rats that had broken from the darkness had long since escaped away to the safety of the surrounding gloom.

  Brandon's breath wheezed out in short gasps. A dark welling rage that had finally been let loose blazed in his eyes.

  Kirken pressed his back against the wall next to his daughter, closed his eyes and tried to erase what he had just seen from his mind.

  He sav
ored the fiery jolts of pain that raced from his fractured shoulder and occupied at least some of his consciousness of the world around. His stomach felt like it would turn on him again and fatigue threatened to topple him to the ground. He raised his hand and wiped fresh blood from a deep cut just above his face.

  He feared it was only a matter of time before death tired of its chase and finally moved to claim them all.

  "Brandon," Kirken pointed to a wall and a line of steps leading to the upper floors.

  There were decayed pieces of metal that had long ago broken off on both sides of the escalator structure, but most of the metal stairs appeared strong and still intact.

  "That still looks pretty sound. We can probably get most of the way up on it…before it starts to break." Kirken finished the last part of his sentence silently in his own head.

  Brandon nodded in acknowledgement. He turned from the bloody mess he had created and began to walk away. Moonlight through a broken window splashed across his back when he moved towards the open courtyard at the mall's center.

  Kirken was about to follow when the loud sound of exploding weapons rounds tore through the still dusty air.

  Brandon's head snapped around at the sound of the first shot. He lunged through the air towards Kirken just as the floor beneath his feet erupted into a flash of obliterated steel. His body slammed hard into Kirken's broken shoulder. All three fell across each other along the ground.

  The obliterated floor where Brandon had just stood fell around them in a hot rain of shredded metal. A jagged hole the size of a man's chest in the wall still standing next to them marked the path of the grenade launcher's round.

  Feeling like his body moved in slow motion, Kirken whirled around. Five soldiers stood behind them with their weapons raised. Three of them dropped to their knees and again opened fire.

  Automatic weapons fire shredded the walls just above their heads. Orange and yellow fire from the tips of two flamethrowers engulfed the air around them.

  Brandon was the first to crawl from beneath the shattered floor that covered them. Pulling one of his arms free, and with his legs and back still covered with debris, he brought his own weapon around and began to fire.

  The five soldiers scattered into the shadows of the surrounding walls to escape the return burst of weapons shots.

  A few feet away Kirken dropped his body across his daughter to shield her from the falling rubble. Large pieces of shredded metal fell across his back and pinned his left arm and leg to the floor.

  Mel squirmed beneath him trying to push enough of the wreckage away to allow them both to get up.

  With his own free arm, Kirken yanked out the hand weapon strapped to his side and pulled rapidly on its trigger. Bright streaks of light flew from its tip. Its deafening thunder rammed against his ears as he emptied his remaining ammunition in the direction of their attackers.

  Return fire from the soldiers' weapons flashed from where they sought cover behind fallen steel girders and crumbling cement walls. Except for these brief flashes of light, they were completely hidden within the mall's dark enclosure.

  "Brandon! Find the stairs! Find the stairs!" Kirken heard himself scream. He pulled himself from the last of the twisted wreckage holding him and stood up. He reached down to grab Mel by the wrist and pulled her forcefully upright next to him. "We're still going up!"

  Brandon scurried across the floor to an old section of wall still standing at the center of the huge lobby. Pressing his back against the protection it offered and following Kirken's voice with his eyes, he reloaded his assault rifle.

  Giant walls of flame licked the air around them. Exploding weapons rounds shredded the floor near his feet.

  The weapons fire started coming from many directions as the soldiers began to spread themselves further apart. Shots blazed from both in front and now at their sides. Huge flames made it impossible to see their source.

  The escalator steps behind them, silent and unmoving from many years of disuse, offered the only means of escape.

  "Get up there!" Kirken shrieked to his daughter. He jumped from behind the wall with his rifle roaring at his hip. Brandon jumped and did the same spraying weapons fire across the entire area they had just come.

  Mel covered her head with her arms and hands and dashed towards the elevator base. Kirken sprinted along after her turning every few steps to let loose new bursts of shots at anyone that might have been following behind.

  Brandon crouched back down to avoid the rounds exploding around him and didn’t follow.

  Mel had almost reached the escalator when the J.G.U. soldiers swung their shoulders out from behind the thick concrete beams and again opened fire. Mel dove to the small rectangular floor of the escalator base and pulled her tiny body and feet into the tiny space of protection offered within its steel walls.

  Kirken threw himself to the ground to avoid the fresh flurry of weapons shots ripping past his ears and over his head. The new burst held him pinned down and unable to move twenty feet from where Brandon crouched with his back pressed against a shredded concrete wall for protection.

  Brandon then leapt up again and brought his weapon around. His finger flashed across its trigger sending the soldiers scrambling back for cover behind the walls and flames.

  He took two steps back towards Kirken when his rifle clicked empty. A new round of shots chased him back down to the floor.

  Still lying face down across his chest at the center of the open floor, Kirken fired off the remaining rounds in his own weapon and pulled the last of the ammunition either of them carried from his belt.

  With a flick of his wrist, he sent the final rifle clip sliding over to Brandon along the ground. Brandon snatched it up quickly and jammed it into the base of his weapon. He then stood and let loose their final barrage of fire.

  Kirken pulled his legs into his chest and covered his head with his hands while he waited for the return fire to cease. The roaring flames and the stinging heat against his eyes made it nearly impossible to see.

  "Go! Go! Go!" Brandon screamed. He dropped back behind the concrete structure while rifle fire chewed along its side. Brandon stood again and fired off a few more short bursts of shots.

  "Can you see them?" Kirken yelled back at him over the deafening thunder of weapons fire and flames. Through the corner of his eye, he saw Mel run up the escalator steps behind him and disappear into the upper floors.

  "I can't see anything!" Brandon dropped again and pressed his back against the obliterated wall. "Not even the flashes from their shots! The flames and smoke are too much. But some of it is starting to come from the side! Not all of it from up front!"

  "They're splitting up and coming around!" Kirken yelled. "Trying to cut us off. Go now! Go fucking now!"

  Brandon turned from the lessened firing coming from the front of the mall and started to run. Just as he did, another rocket-propelled grenade whistled through the air and tore into the floor just behind him.

  The blast tossed him into the air past Kirken. His body dropped heavily at the bottom of the escalator stairs in a dazed smoking heap. Shredded concrete and metal fell heavily down on top of him.

  Kirken leapt up and ran towards him. Bullets ripped past him and chased at his feet. He dove through the air and landed next to Brandon at the bottom of the steps.

  Kirken pulled up his rifle with his good arm and sprayed weapons fire out in front of them while trying to pull Brandon upright with his damaged other.

  Blasts of excruciating pain seared like lightning from his shoulder threatening to rob his mind of its consciousness. Kirken blinked it madly away and pulled harder at Brandon's limp figure with his fractured shoulder and arm.

  A few short seconds later his weapon clicked empty, and he threw it on the ground. Using both arms, he grabbed Brandon around his smoking shirt collar and tried desperately to haul him up to stand.

  Brandon's eyes fluttered slightly, but his body did not move.

  "Brandon, get up!" Kir
ken’s voice shrieked.

  He lowered him back to the ground and pulling out his sidearm squeezed off a few more bursts into what lay hidden behind the flames.

  "Get up now, goddamn it!"

  Intense heat and a monstrous barrage of exploding cannon fire ignited even more of their clothing and hair. Small flames and thick wisps of smoke attached themselves to the equipment and material covering their backs.

  Kirken continued to strain frantically with both arms to pull up his son when a shudder suddenly moved through his body and he finally rolled over. Brandon rose groggily to his feet and scrambled on unsteady legs after Kirken up the escalator.

  The barking sound of J.G.U. voices followed close behind. Their shapes and the directions they came from were still masked by the fire.

  Kirken and Brandon climbed almost halfway up the ancient stairs when ignited fuel from a flamethrower splashed at the back of their ankles and across their feet. At the same time, two more whistling rocket-propelled grenades pounded into either side of the structure tearing away pieces of concrete and steel around them.

  The blasts caused Brandon to stumble along the stairwell, now completely engulfed in flames, and drop to his knee. Kirken reached his arm around Brandon's chest and hauled him back to his feet.

  They sprinted up the burning stairs away from the soldiers now finally visible on the floor below.

  Two more grenade shots pounded into the base of the stairway causing the entire structure to sway. Kirken tightened his grip around Brandon and half-dragged, half-pulled him faster to the top of the disintegrating stairs.

  They were two steps from the top when what was left of the obliterated escalator crumbled away from beneath their feet. Brandon lunged past his father and grabbed hold of a piece of the floor just above them before the flaming structure caved completely in on itself and plummeted below.

  In the same movement, he turned his body around and grasped Kirken by the wrist while the wreckage fell away from under him.

  Kirken dangled in the open air and clawed for the broken pieces of floor hanging in front of him. Brandon's arm shook with the strain it took to hold Kirken's weight.