Sarah started to hobble toward the open door, feeling knives of icy cold pain run up her leg every time she put her weight down on her bad ankle, but she forced herself to carry on.
They flew through the threshold and found themselves in a dark hallway. The fleeing group of bandits in front of them had broken out flashlights, and beams of white light swept across the stark walls.
"Come on!" one of the bandits yelled. "Open it!"
It was hard to see through the crowd ahead, but it looked like they had stopped at the other end of the hallway, waiting on one of them to pull a door open.
And suddenly the confusing scene turned to chaos as the door burst open toward the bandit and knocked all of them back. A wave of hungry zombies poured in through the door and caused them to stumble backward.
Gunshots rang out in the narrow space, deafening all of them. Cries of "go back!" and "shit!" were repeated as the pack of bandits changed direction and started to retreat back to the food court. Clint, having lagged behind, was in front of the group now. His eyes were wider than golf balls as he rushed past Sarah and Dale, who had come to a stop halfway up the hallway.
And like a cruel act of torment from the Devil himself, the horde of undead that had been chasing them from the food court poured into the hallway, blocking their retreat, and Clint screeched to a halt, his boots scraping along the tile floor and leaving two long black streaks. He raised his gun and started firing at the crowd in front of him, waving the assault rifle back and forth to pepper the whole crowd.
The bullets struck the zombies in nonvital areas and proved to be useless as the dead kept coming, undeterred and still just as hungry. Their eyes glimmered in the sea of flashlights being waved around, and their chanting groans came from both ends of the hallway, sounding like rushing waves coming to swallow them all up.
The bandits frantically looked back and forth, torn by indecision and fear. They all started unleashing torrents of bullets in both directions as Sarah and Dale crouched down against the wall to keep themselves from getting shot.
In the confusion, all of them seemed to overlook the closed door a few feet away from Dale, and when he spotted it, he nudged Sarah with his shoulder and made his way to it. Sarah followed him, crouched low, but still hobbling in an awkward fashion. Dale stood up when he got to the door and turned his back to it, using his restrained hands to turn the knob.
To his absolute astonishment and joy, the door opened and he shoved himself backward into it. Sarah was right behind him and hurried through the threshold.
Clint turned around as she did and saw what was happening, and he quickly ran for the door and scurried through. The other bandits in the hallway noticed the three of them enter the room and they shouted to each other, pointing out the door. The crowd of bandits ran for it, but just as the first one reached it, Clint stood on the other side and wrenched it shut and locked it.
Fists pounded on the other side as the men screamed to be let in. They pleaded with him for a few brief moments, and when that didn't work, gunfire began to puncture the door.
Clint dove for cover in the dark room and Dale hurled himself into Sarah, knocking them into a corner. They landed on boxes and lumpy bags, sharp edges and corners poking into their bodies.
The bullets tore apart the doorknob and the latch mechanism, and the door creaked open. But before any of the bandits outside could get in, the zombies closed in from either side, highlighted in the white glow of the flashlights. They fired one last volley of bullets dangerously in every direction as the dead descended upon them and started tearing apart their flesh with cold and sharp rows of teeth.
One of the bandits pushed open the door before collapsing on the floor, causing it to swing open and slam against the wall inside the small room before swinging back until it was only open a foot or two.
Sarah, Dale and Clint pressed themselves against the back of the room, their wide eyes staring at the mound of zombies piled on top of the bandits right in front of them. All of them were dead, and their flashlights pointed in all directions, creating bizarre silhouettes and shadows. The three of them held their breath, terrified that one of the zombies would notice them. Clint's rifle had already fallen off his shoulder and clattered onto the floor next to him, and he could just barely see it in the faint white glow coming from the hallway. He stared at it, heartbroken, and he wanted to grab it in case they came for him, but he knew if he did, that would be the very thing that set them off.
For over five minutes they stayed still and didn't move, barely breathing, as they watched the dead feast. To them, it felt like hours, the fear of knowing it could all be over in a matter of seconds holding dominion over them.
But mercifully, the dead finally got weary of their food and one by one stood up and began to wander off down to the far end of the hallway away from the food court.
The three of them waited in the cramped room for a minute or two longer, still not daring to move, until Clint finally roused. He reached over and snatched up his gun then glanced over at Sarah and Dale before he quietly got up to his feet and poked his head out into the hallway, looking in each direction.
Dale started to shift around on a bag he had fallen on, as if he was trying to get up, but he didn't seem to be exerting himself very much. Sarah looked around for the first time and saw that they were in what looked like a small storage closet, and though they were safe from the zombies for the moment, she still felt trapped and didn't know what to do. She looked at Dale, but he just stared straight ahead at the wall, seemingly focused on something.
Clint turned around suddenly and pointed his gun at them. "Come on!" he said. "Get up!" A measure of confidence had returned to him, and now that he was safe, he was still intent on doing as his boss ordered and keeping guard over the prisoners.
Sarah got up to her feet first and watched as Dale slowly rose to his. She noticed he had been lying on the green garbage bag that the bandits had taken away from him, and she saw something slip out of it, being hidden behind his back as he stood up.
Clint stood to the side in the hallway, crouched on top of a dead bandit's torso as he waited for the two of them to exit and head back for the food court.
"Come on!" he hissed. "They might come back!"
Sarah hobbled out of the room, the pain still strong in her ankle, but subsiding as her footing got more and more stable.
Dale followed behind and paused in the doorway, looking at Clint.
"Get your ass out there, you sack of shit!" the bandit said, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him out. He stumbled over the bodies then came to flat footing and quickly caught up to Sarah, who was almost at the end of the hallway. "Hey, not so fast!" Clint called after them, trotting to catch up.
They exited the hallway and moved to the middle of the food court, not knowing where Clint wanted them to go. Dale watched him as the squirrely bandit ran ahead of them to the partially demolished wall of sandbags and barbed wire and looked out at the chaotic mall in each direction.
Dale smirked to himself, amused that Clint never noticed his hands. He ended the charade and pulled his arms in front of him, reaching one of them into his coat pocket and pulling out the hammer he had taken from the garbage bag.
Sarah looked at him in astonishment as she saw the broken tape hanging off his wrists. He made his way over to her quietly while Clint was still distracted and he whispered for her to stay still. He grabbed hold of one of her arms and turned the hammer around, carefully raising it up in the air and swinging the corner of the claw down onto the taut duct tape tying her wrists. The hammer pierced through it and he shoved his fingers in the hole, prying them around and widening it.
The tape snapped at last and she was free. Sarah reached in front of her and started pulling off the remnants as they painfully yanked at the hairs on her skin.
Dale snuck up behind Clint, holding the hammer by his side. He still had the claw side facing down, and he was ready to strike. But just as he almost reached
him, Clint turned around and saw what was happening.
The bandit raised his rifle and managed to get off a small spray of bullets before Dale lunged forward, knocking his gun out of the way and burying the claw of the hammer into his shoulder.
The bullets flew past Dale and buried into the wall of one of the fast food kiosks as Clint screamed in agony. He raised the gun to fire again, and Dale let go of the hammer and reached for the rifle with both hands.
The two men struggled for it with Clint's finger still on the trigger. Sarah took cover as more bullets sprayed from the rifle in a wide spread. She slid behind a table propped against the edge of the area and kept her head down until the gunshots stopped.
Clint shoved himself into Dale as the hammer pried itself out of his shoulder from its own weight and fell to the floor. Dale staggered backward and Clint raised the rifle at him and pulled the trigger.
The assault rifle clicked, out of ammo.
He turned the gun around and tried to use it as a club, swinging it back and forth at Dale's head. Dale leaned backward as the butt of the rifle barely missed his nose, then he sprung forward and tackled Clint to the ground. He was surprisingly agile for his size, and once he was on top of Clint, there was nothing the scrawny bandit could do to overpower him.
But Clint's small stature came to his advantage as he slipped out from under Dale like a bar of soap and wormed his way across the floor. He reached out for the hammer nearby and Dale grabbed him by the ankle, taking the wind out of his sails and causing him to fall down and smack his chin on the tile. It dazed him for a moment, but when he flipped over onto his back, Dale saw that he was holding onto the hammer.
Clint sprang off the ground and started swinging at him, and Dale took a blow from the blunt face of it in the ribs. He winced in pain as he struggled to get the hammer away from Clint, taking a few more blows in the process. Clint worked his way higher on Dale's body, hitting him in the chest, shoulder, and neck. As he swung the hammer down again, aiming for his head, Dale managed to shove him to the side and sent him sliding across the floor.
Dale was battered and bruised but he got up and came after the scrawny bandit.
Sarah slowly got back to her feet and started to move toward the two men, still staying in the periphery so Clint hopefully wouldn't notice her approach.
Clint defensively lay on his back with his knees up in the air and his arms out, still clutching onto the hammer.
Dale lurched forward and descended on him quickly, planting a knee down on his body and shifting his weight to throw a heavy punch down on his face.
But he wasn't quick enough.
Clint twisted his body out of Dale's grasp and swung the hammer, hitting him right in the temple.
Dale dropped like a sack of bricks and hit the floor with his face. It looked like he was out cold, and Sarah nearly cried out in surprise.
Clint got to his feet and approached his felled prey. He crouched down and grabbed a handful of Dale's collar as he raised the hammer above his head.
Sarah dove into him, knocking him on the floor. She reached for the hammer and grabbed it, refusing to let go as he tried to pull it away from her. As the two of them struggled, Dale started to rouse from the knockout blow, and he groaned as he rolled around on the floor. When his senses returned and he saw what was happening, he groggily crawled across the tile and grabbed the loose belt on Clint's torn jeans and held him in place.
Clint threw a glance over his shoulder, surprised that Dale was still in fighting spirit. In his shock, his grip on the hammer loosened just enough for Sarah to pull it away. Realizing he was defenseless and outnumbered, he shot up to his feet and tried to run away past the wall of sandbags to escape.
But Dale reached out like a lumbering bear and caught his heel.
Clint tripped and hit the ground again, then he tried to scramble up to his feet, but Dale got up and bowled him right into the edge of the sandbags. He squirmed under Dale's strong grip, but Dale got a good hold on him.
He planted his feet firmly on the ground and hoisted the skinny bandit up. With one hand holding an elbow and the other holding a clump of the bandits hair, he shoved him forward into the barbed wire strung up over the sandbags.
Clint threw his hands out to shield the blow and protect his face and neck from the sharp barbs, but Dale was too strong. Dale kept yanking him back and throwing him forward again, causing the bandit to get more cuts on his hands and arms in the process as he tried to protect himself.
He was shoved forward again and his face scraped along a barb, creating a deep gash along his cheek up to his eye. The sudden shock to his body stunned him, and he was defenseless on the next turn when Dale picked him up again and threw him forward, causing his throat to fall onto a razor-sharp barb. He struggled uselessly against it, becoming weaker and weaker as blood started to ooze out of his throat. Dale pressed his body up against the bandit's and grabbed the wire on either side of his head with both hands, pulling it back into Clint's throat as hard as he could.
The bandit began to choke as blood gurgled in his throat. Dale wrenched the wire and started to drag it from side to side. Clint's arms shot out in the air suddenly, his fingers twitching and shaking, until finally his arms dropped and his whole body slumped forward against the wire as Dale let him go.
Copious amounts of blood poured out of his chewed-up throat, and Dale pilfered the flashlight off the dead bandit's belt and went back to Sarah. He grabbed her and headed past the gruesome scene, not wasting any time. His head pounded from the pain of the hammer and his broken jaw from earlier, but he tried to stay focused and tried not to blackout as he became fatigued from all the action.
They ran up to the railing overlooking the first floor of the mall below and they took in the full scene of chaos and horror that was playing out in front of them. There were still pockets of zombies and bandits fighting on the second floor toward the outer wings of the mall, but most of the action was happening on the ground floor.
Huge swarms of zombies littered the floor below as an increasingly dwindling number of bandits ran for cover, popping up here and there and trying to fire at the horde, most of them cornered and hopeless.
Dale looked around, trying to find a way out, but he had no idea where he was going. He decided that wherever their salvation lay, it definitely wouldn't be on the second floor, and he grabbed Sarah by the arm and pulled her over toward the escalator. He handed her the flashlight and she flicked it on, helping to light the path in front of them.
When they got halfway down the escalator, they heard glass shatter from the second floor far behind them. They twisted around just in time to see one of the fire barrels that sat against the railing tipping over from the edge and crashing down onto the ground floor. The wood inside the barrel exploded out the end as a rush of fire shot out in a wide fan.
A few moments later, more glass shattered from the second floor and another barrel tipped over the edge, raining fire down. This barrel fell directly on top of a tight cluster of zombies and set their rotting skin ablaze. The dead wandered around in circles, moaning mindlessly as their vision was obscured by the flames and the smoke, and they bumped into each other before their motor functions failed and they fell into a big useless pile.
A small group of bandits hiding behind an overturned bench nearby poked their heads up in surprise and relief, thinking that someone was helping them. But in the next moment, a third barrel came over the edge, this one right above their heads. None of them even saw it before it reached them, hitting one of them in the neck and killing him instantly on its way down. It collided with the floor and the fire burst out from inside and engulfed the other men. They screamed and ran in all directions as their flesh burned. The bench they'd been hiding behind caught fire and went up in a towering blaze as the small fires all around started to light up the walls and other materials throughout the mall, creating thick plumes of smoke that wafted throughout the building.
Sarah stared up at
the second floor and couldn't see anyone. But she knew who was doing it and her heart sunk in horror as each barrel that was dropped got closer and closer to her. "We have to go!" she yelled, and she almost shoved Dale down the rest of the escalator in her excitement. They made their way to the bottom as the bandits and the zombies alike were completely swept up in the chaos.
They ran for the doors that they were brought in through, but when they approached them they saw a large group of the undead lingering around just inside the mall, chewing on a pile of dead bandits.
They turned and ran to the north side of the mall just as the raining barrels from above stopped, but the fire had already spread around the corridor and choked off the escape route that Dale had pointed out. They turned around and stood back in the middle of the mall, glancing around frantically. They were unarmed and trapped, and the thick clouds of black smoke were closing in, even if the fire didn't get to them first.
"Dale," Sarah said.
Dale looked around, still trying to figure out a direction for them to go.
"Dale," she repeated, tugging on his arm.
When he was finally pulled out of his trance for a moment and looked where she was looking, he saw the zombies from the west who had already turned their attention from the dead bodies on the floor and started to come after them.
"Oh, shit!" Dale cried, and the two of them instinctively ran into the nearest store. They sailed past old mannequins and dusty stacks of shirts and pants as they made their way to the back while the dead piled in behind them. The beam of the flashlight swung all around as Sarah frantically pumped her arms, ignoring the pain in her ankle as she tried to get away from the horde.
Just as they thought they were closed in, Sarah spotted a door sitting in the back corner behind the counter. "Over there!" she cried, pointing.
They ran for it and Dale fumbled with the handle, his heart pounding like crazy and his hands shaking. He managed to twist it and the door opened. He cried out in joy as he threw it open and the two of them ran inside.
Zombie Apocalypse Series (Book 3): Ashes in the Mouth Page 12