[6] Chasing Trisha

[Piper Juunanagou]

At a snail’s pace, the trio had managed to slowly make their way down the elevated balcony that made up the mall’s second floor. Along the way, they hadn’t met an overwhelming amount of resistance from the shambling masses of undead flesh. However, by the time they made their way almost to the center of the mall’s elaborately branched layout, they found themselves stopping almost abruptly.

Olde Town had been tense, but the scene inside the mall reinvented the concept of the word. Piper, Kaden, and Sophia stood in the utmost silence—their eyes trained on the massive horde of undead creatures milling about on the first floor of the mall. Aside from the few that were meandering about ahead and a few stumbling around behind them, they were somewhat secure—for the time being, at least. Unfortunately, that did little to curb the tension that hung in the air.

“We have to make a move for it,” Sophia mumbled. The woman’s voice was slightly shaking, and she was still cradling the large red mark on her face with one of her skinny little hands.

“Where did they all come from?” Piper rasped beneath her breath as she stared down toward the courtyard. Just twenty or thirty minutes ago, there had been nothing but particles of dust and a few discarded cups of soda. Now, however, the entire area was thoroughly saturated with a rich amalgam of decayed corpses, and the air was rich with the stench of week-old meat.

“I think a better question is how they came about,” Kaden replied as he clenched his fists around the metal railing. “Who would go through the trouble of scrounging together this many zombies?” The courier added with a furrowed brow as he leaned a little further over the safety guard.

“Maybe you shouldn’t lean that far over…” Piper muttered as she took a step toward the blonde and went to pull him back. As she reached for him, Kaden casually took a step to his right.

“Don’t be so para—” At that moment, a vaguely human scream pierced through the chorus of groans and moans. Kaden’s eyes went wide as one of the formerly shambling creatures suddenly leapt up off the ground and closed its decaying fingers around his neck. “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” the man rambled as he tried to pull away from the guard rail.

Unlike the previous undead, the one latched around Kaden was emitting a hideous gurgling noise, like the sound someone makes when they’re gargling salt water. On top of that, it was also thrashing and moving with the grace and strength of a grown man. As the courier tried to smack the zombie off of him, it retaliated by vomiting a viscous green liquid all over his face and down the front of his brand new outfit.

“Hold still,” Piper screamed as she dashed forward, got in between the creature’s legs, and then wrapped her arms around its knees. With a grunt, the woman gave the zombie a vicious tug. As the creature fell away from Kaden, the redhead took a step backwards and proceeded to lob the reanimated corpse back over the guard rail like a bail of hay.

“What was that?” Sophia exclaimed as she backed up against the glass exterior of a nearby store. Kaden, who still seemed relatively shaken from being puked on, remained silent as he stared down at his tarnished jacket. Meanwhile, Piper had her eyes locked on the crowd that had been milling about in the courtyard just prior to Kaden little scuffle.

“Something’s wrong,” the redhead shouted without taking her eyes off the zombies. After all, the entire horde of undead abominations was glaring right at her. The dozens of creatures seemed to be panting like overworked dogs, and their eyes seemed to be glowing with a dull shade of red. Suddenly, one of the zombies let out a gurgled scream and started stampeding right toward Piper. With a single, fluid leap, it managed to clasp its shriveled fingers around the banister.

“Fucking run!” The woman screamed as the rest of the horde followed suit. Turning around, Piper gestured only once for her companions to join her before she began sprinting down the hallway. Upon seeing the zombies scaling up to their level, it took Kaden and Sophia all of a split-second to run shouting after their redheaded ally.

Up ahead of the twosome, Piper was virtually galloping down the elevated hallway. Around her, the other members of the undead horde were begin to grow more active, which meant that their little task force needed to find someplace to escape and quick before they were stampeded by the screaming, frothing army of corpses amassed by their friend and comrade, Kai Demolic.

Amidst her sprint, something caught the woman’s weary eyes—a store with a half-closed security gate. Coming to a screeching halt, Piper then darted to the storefront where she quickly noticed that the mechanized gate had gotten snagged on a broken sign. With no other options and the sound of the zombie horde growing louder and louder, the woman sprung forward and wrenched the grate off the sign.

“Get inside!” She shouted to Kaden and Sophia as they came to a quick stop a few feet away. Nodding their heads, Piper’s two teammates broke through the bottom half of the store’s door and slipped inside.

“Come on, Piper,” Kaden shouted from behind the glass storefront. “Get inside!” He added as he started to point frantically to the creatures closing in on their little group. Clenching her jaw, the redhead let go of the security gate, dropped to the ground, and quickly shuffled through the hole in the door. A heartbeat after she got her feet safely into the store, the heavy gate slammed loudly onto the tiled floor of the mall.

“Are we safe?” Sophia asked as the zombies quickly smashed through the glass storefront and began to tug and yank at the heavy gate. A few of the monstrosities tried to reach out and grab the threesome through the bars.

“If that gate’s just as snazzy as the one in the lobby, then we ought to have some time to catch our breath,” Piper remarked as she turned around to face the inside of the store. Almost immediately, her jaw dropped to the floor and an incredulous gasp escaped her open mouth. “Gun store,” she added as she advanced toward one of the large display cases behind the front counter.

Like a child in a candy store, the soldier hopped over the desk and shattered the glass case with a nearby cash register. Reaching inside, she removed a large, double-barreled shotgun from one of the racks and proceeded to snap open the portion at the back of the barrel. As if she had done it a thousand times before, the woman grabbed a box from inside the display case and proceeded to load the weapon. When she was satisfied, the rest of the slugs found a new home inside the pockets of her vest. Snapping the gun back together, Piper turned to face her companions and smiled faintly as she let the weapon rest on her shoulder.

“Groovy.”