Bank Visit

"Sweep on thermal for anything that looks like shelter, the forest that surrounds the mountains is not a place we want to be in at night. It's going to be 1700 (5pm) soon, we're not taking the risk!" Laban declared several hours after they left the gas station.

"Jiang, how are you holding up?" Laban called back in a softer tone of voice as everyone looked around slowly.

"Turns out Doc is actually pretty skilled. I have not shed another drop of blood since. Everything is sore as hell though." Jiang said with confidence as he ran his fingers over the stitches Ma had sown on him.

"Heads up, looks like the Greenwood mall is ahead." Anders yelled out from the front.

"The mall? Might have some resources, alright let's go!"

"Sgt, wait!"

"What is it, Jiang?"

"From what I know, malls are usually pretty big and have multiple areas of entry. We haven't seen any people around, and a big place would probably have them. You know, people who don't have access to gas masks and could possibly be vampires?" Jiang explained as he could faintly see what looked like a large structure that was at least 3-4 stories tall.

"Sir, those zombie movies have malls to be a pretty lethal zone. And with vampires they're probably juiced on speed, we'd be overwhelmed." Ibarra agreed with Jiang and seconded finding another place.

"Anders? Your thoughts?"

"Sgt, whatever works. But I would not prefer to fight a horde or a clan or whatever of vampires."

"Gagnon?"

"Agreed."

"Lt.?"

"The bank is located across the parking lot and is smaller. We're gonna have to pray the doors are unlocked though."

"Can I say something?" Sean breathed out as he rubbed his knees in pain.

"What?" Laban said with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"I could really use some pain relieving cream or something. My knees and feet are killing me!"

"Let us get settled first."

Just like at the gas station, they approached the bank cautiously and began to sweep the place.

"Clear!"

"Clear!"

"Clear! Alright, looks like the first floor is fine. Let's go up the stairs, Jiang, come with us."

Anders with Ibarra behind him, went up on the left side of the stairs while Laban with Jiang behind, went up the right.

"This is not ideal." Ibarra whispered as he got a view of the second floor's surroundings.

"Shh!" Laban nearly had it in his mind to smack Ibarra.

When Jiang got off the last step, he also agreed with Ibarra. It looked like the entire second floor was filled with nothing but office cubicles, and they were all ceiling to floor.

Laban gave out the hand signals to fan out and they started to slowly look through each cubicle with their thermal vision. There should only be four heat signatures there right now.

It was slow and meticulous but there seemed to be nothing there.

Next thing was the private offices, which were thankfully empty as well. For the final doors, they met back up and opened together.

"Supply closet."

"Storage closet."

"And… what do you know, another closet." Ibarra jokingly said as they aimed their weapons into each room.

"This is more of a lounge." Anders frowned as he approached the large glass wall that overlooked the outside. The other three walked behind Anders and noticed what he was staring at. It looked like there were small heat signatures in the distance, almost like they were flickering.

"The range for these thermals is excellent to have noticed that. Well, looks like you were right Jiang. We have a mission to complete, I would like not to have to explain to civilians that we can't rescue them right now."

"They beat each other for deals on Black Friday in this mall, they'll probably kill and strip us of our gear if things get bad enough." Anders said as he fixated on the flickering in the distance. Night was actually approaching extremely quickly, and soon the lights were more noticeable on their thermals.

*CRUNCH*

Jiang, Laban, and Anders all raised and whipped their weapons behind them. But all they saw was the thermal image of Ibarra biting a cookie that was left in an open container.

"Wha-? Swee-tsh miggh go exshtink at dis point (Sweets might go extinct at this point)."

"That thing probably has mold on it with all this humidity outside." Laban rubbed his temple in frustration as waved for them to go back downstairs.

"You might be right, that tasted like shit!" Ibarra started to spit out the cookie and rinsed his mouth with his canteen.

"Auuggghh!"

As soon as they went downstairs, they were greeted by the sounds of someone moaning in pain. The figure of someone curled up and hugging their knees was very noticeable on a sofa in the lobby.

"What's wrong with him?" Laban sighed as he shook his head.

"He claims he had bad knees and now they're flaring up along with his lower back. His knees, lower back, and feet are starting to swell as well." Ma quickly explained as he and Gagnon overlooked this operatic performance of Sean's painful howls.

"Let's get behind the tellers' counter first, then we can lock it and rest with some added security."

"Sgt, I don't think he wants to move from that spot. His pain prevents him from moving." Ma was rummaging through his medkit for any kind of salve to help.

"Someone get the door open, we'll just have to lift him and the damn sofa he's on."

"1, 2, 3, lift!"

With six people lifting, it was pretty easily carried and Sean lucked out in a way. The door to the back was left unlocked and the sofa actually fit through the doorway, but not without some difficulties.

*SCREEECH*

The sofa could just barely fit through the doorway, which meant they had to push and pull it through the frame. This movement jostled Sean all over and he howled in even more pain. Jiang couldn't tell which was worse, the sofa scraping on the floor or Sean's cries.

As soon as they settled Sean in a corner, Ma started to monitor his condition. He came to the conclusion that they would need to give him rest and some meds to help with the swelling. Laban turned to Jiang and Ibarra as soon as he heard the diagnosis from the Lt.

"Alright, guess where you two are going!"