Past 8 - Escape

I stood on a road which was further behind from the mall, at least a hundred meters away. The road was behind the mall. I held a handgun from which I fired gunshots. And before I noticed, the big horde of zombies came running down towards me. 

I stopped firing shots and ran with my full speed towards West on the road. Zombies came running from the mall which was at North. I had to move as far away from my location where I fired the gunshots. 

These zombies had lost their senses except for hearing and their sense of hearing became unexpectedly very sharp. If they heard the slightest of the sound then they will do whatever to track down the source of it.

Zombies which were inside the mall started running out towards the back. They fell from the 6th floor. The mall became empty in no time. Zombies above the lift also started running out of the ground floor. The shaft started getting emptied but some zombies remained in there, trying to climb the ladder. It was as if they exactly knew that there was a group of people on the seventh floor.

I still ran on the straight road to the West. I took a glance while running, at the right side over my shoulder. They almost reached the road but I had covered quite a distance from my previous location so they weren't too near me.

Upon reaching the road all zombie's moments slowed down. They surely were searching for the source of previous gunshots which was of course me.

I had been living my life for one month with these zombies and had understood their weaknesses. All I needed to do was to suppress any source of the sound. 

After running for so long my lungs gasped for air. I sat down on the road and took heavy breaths. 

Zombies scattered in every direction. Some went towards the mall, some were approaching me but slowly. I came back on my feet and turned towards the mall. I wanted to go back to everyone, to Sheila. I started a very slow walk towards the mall.

Little by little I covered a small distance, taking special care not to make any noise. Mostly zombies had gone past the road to the other side but some were also approaching the mall and me.

The mall wasn't fully empty. Few zombies stayed there who weren't able to make their way out in all the fuss earlier. Most of them had gotten crushed under the feet of other zombies and some tried to slowly find their way out. The shaft was mostly empty too but few zombies were on the ladder and inside the pit who couldn't reach the ground floor so the ladder was their final option.

My group didn't let this opportunity slide. Everyone was already ready to get the hell out of there. Sheila was quick to respond too and made everyone jump to the sixth floor. 

There wasn't much gap between the half-destroyed escalator and the seventh floor so it was easy to jump. 

Smith and Willson were the first to jump off on Sheila's command and others followed their lead.  As our group was making it to the sixth floor, the zombies kept on coming from the ladder. Sheila and Toshi were taking care of them with their machetes and sword. Before the zombies could enter the seventh floor their heads were being cut in mid-air. 

Now everyone except for Sheila and Toshi made it to the sixth floor. They all waited there for Sheila's further commands.

"Toshi, now you go," Sheila said as she sliced one head with her machete.

"You are coming with me too," Toshi responded.

"If we both go down at the same time then these zombies will come falling from the seventh floor and there are still some zombies on the lower floors. We will get sandwiched."

"Then I'm staying here with you too until the other makes it out safely from the malls. They will most likely kill all the zombies down there."

"No!" Sheila looked over at Toshi. "If you don't go now then who will take care of Raiden. He might still be running away from the zombies. You have to save him no matter what."

Toshi made eye contact with Sheila. 

"You know what? If I go and you die behind me then Raiden will curse me till his whole life."

"That's so like Raiden," Sheila said with a smirk. "But you don't have to worry about me, I won't die here by these pathetic zombies." Sheila cut down another zombie who had jumped after reaching the seventh floor on the ladder.

Toshi put his sword back to his scabbard and moved away from the lift's entrance. "Don't die," he said as he jumped off.

Toshi asked Smith and Willson to take the lead and appointed kingslayer and some other boys to protect the children. They made their way down. There were few zombies present in the mall which came to senses after hearing everyone's footsteps.

They killed every zombie which came in their way. Smith and Willson did most of the work but others got few kills too. 

On the other hand, Sheila held a torch in her left hand and a machete in right. She was holding off the zombies which were coming from the ladder. She pointed her torch at the very bottom and there were still at least 10 or 15 zombies down in the pit. She killed another one which jumped on her. 

Sheila immediately ran towards the railings and took a quick peek to check where others had reached. They were still on the middle floor.

Sheila quickly turned back and noticed a zombie managed to get its feet on the seventh floor. She aggressively reached towards him, cut off its neck, and kicked it back inside the pit. It hit another zombie who was attempting to make a jump and they both fell.

Toshi and others finally made it out of the mall, they had killed every single zombie which was left behind in the mall.

"Smith, take the command, lead everyone to the base. Do not stop and come back whatever the case and be prepared at the base for a sudden ambush." Toshi murmured near Smith's ear.

Smith simply nodded and went straight away from the mall, taking all group members with him.

Toshi looked over at the seventh floor and headed behind the mall. He reached the backside and after slowly walking further he saw me. 

At the same time, I also saw him. I was slowly approaching the mall but after seeing him alone I picked up speed. 

We both reached towards each other. 

"You are alive?" Toshi murmured.

"What? Did you expect me to die or something? And where is Sheila?"

"She is still on the seventh floor and fighting those zombies from the shaft alone."

"And you left her alone?"

"She ordered me to check on you whether you were alive or not. Well don't mind these stuff, we have to go and get her."

I nodded and we both headed towards the mall. The zombies who were behind the mall had closed in the distance too. 

We reached the entrance to the mall and saw that Sheila had already made the jump. She landed on the sixth floor and ran downwards from the accelerator. A zombie came from the seventh floor and jumped off from the railing. It continued jumping down the floors and Sheila kept running down.

We stood at the entrance waiting for Sheila. Later several more zombies came down from the seventh floor. They all jumped down and hit the floor. Some rolled down on the accelerator. All these noises attracted the zombies who had reached directly behind the mall.

Sheila reached the first floor, several zombies were behind her. She came by the exit where we had stood. 

"Here!" Toshi shouted as he made a run towards the right. Sheila and I followed him. It was a different path to our base as Smith had already taken the ground from the straight path.

We ran and almost 20 zombies were behind us. It was the time when we crossed the mall, I noticed that a big horde of zombies was coming from behind the mall. They were only one-fourth part of total zombies that were present in the mall.

Big blocks of ship containers laid ahead of us. That area was a harbor. It was caged by chain-link fences and those fences were directly attached to the containers which were placed in a line. That was our only way to out run these zombies, to climb over the fence and containers. 

We three ran towards the fence, Toshi was little ahead of us. Those 20 zombies were directly behind us, the distance wasn't more than 5 feet. And, behind those 20 zombies at least more than 50 meters, there was the big horde.

"We won't be able to climb the fence if these zombies are right behind our trails," Sheila shouted.

"Just climb it over," Toshi yelled.

Sheila took a glance behind. "It's not possible, they are too close to us."

Sheila tightened the grip on her machetes which she held in her hands while running.

I took a glance over her. "Are we doing this?"

"Yes, we have to," Sheila insisted.

I grabbed my sword with my right hand, Toshi did that too. He was now running at the same pace with us.

"On my mark…." Sheila commanded.

"3,"

"2,"

"And,"  

"...1."