Stage 6 (17 page)

He then said excitedly, “The sign says ‘We are alive’!”

Kevin said sarcastically, “Well whoopee let’s go on up there and have a party!”

I glared at Kevin, but then reluctantly said, “Kevin’s sort of right. I mean the sign says they’re alive, who’s to say they don’t need even more help than we do? We can’t assume they are going to be helpful to us.”

Lucy said, “I don’t know about you guys, but I’d feel safer with a larger group of people. Besides they look pretty safe up there in the mall. The Infected aren’t even going for them. For all we know they could be having a ball.”

Kevin asked, “Well why would they have a sign up there asking for help if they’re doing all fine and dandy?”

Steve cut in, “The sign doesn’t actually ask for help. It simply states they’re alive; perhaps they are looking out for other survivor’s well being? Additionally, they probably have the information we so desperately need. I vote we find a way in.”

There was a chorus of agreement from everybody except Kevin, but I ignored him.

I grinned and said, “Let’s go?”

Everybody yelled, “Let’s go!”

I nervously turned to look at the minefield of Infected in front of us, and started to slowly move towards them. I carefully avoided running into any of them, and they seemed to ignore us for the most part. The most any of them ever did was stop and look at us, perhaps wondering if we were prey.

We began to aim towards the mall parking lot, and were almost there when suddenly Karen turned and said, “Look behind us! Some of them are following us!”

I glanced in the rearview mirror to see that we had attracted a trail of Infected, curiously following the van. I drove in circles around the parking lot for a bit, not wanting to draw any Infected into the mall. Lucy burst out laughing for some reason, and I looked around to see that some of the Infected following us were growing confused and stopped in their tracks. It reminded me of how a cat will play with a toy for sometime, but then will eventually grow bored and leave it alone. They left without incident, and I pulled the van up by the front entrance to the mall.

I asked, “So should we just go in?”

Before anybody could reply I noticed something interesting, and mused aloud “Well would you look at that!”

The doors to the mall were broken and smashed in, and there were Infected wandering around the inside.”

Steve mused, “The survivors must have managed to secure off access to the second floor, so I’m guessing we might find it hard to reach them. Everywhere else in the mall is probably flooded with the Infected.”

Karen wondered out loud, “So how do we get up there?” I asked with a grin on my face, “We drive?”

I gunned the car smashing through the glass doors, and I screeched the tires turning it to face the map of locations in the mall.

I asked, “So should we go up the stairs?”

There was a chorus of agreement, and I drove the car towards the nearest stairs. We reached them and immediately saw that the stair case was entirely blocked off. There were whole shelves, desks, and mall-gates tied and locked down across the stairway.

A face appeared across the barricade, and shouted something to us that I barely could hear through the car windows. I caught the world “elevator” and took the meaning. I started to back up when suddenly there was a thud, and then a bump. I looked behind us only to realize I had just run over an Infected. Suddenly the Infected around us were no longer just curious followers. They started moving towards us, fast and purposeful. I screeched the tires, heading across the mall towards the elevator on the other side. Infected from all sides began to break off from their aimless shuffling, and I quickly wondered what had caused such an interest in us. I performed a race-car-driver worthy move, and hit the brakes and spun the car to the side, crashing sideways into the elevator doors.

Ian opened the sliding door facing the elevator really quick, and hit the button opening the doors. He helped my Mom out, and then reached in to take Lucy out. She fell as he was taking her out and he picked her up and moved her to the side of the elevator well she sat silently holding her legs. I knew she was in great pain but she didn’t show it. The first few Infected sprinted at full speed straight into the sides of the Van, and I could hear the sickening crunch as their bones met glass and each shattered. I jumped out of my seat and rolled over the middle row of the van and into the elevator, followed closely by Kevin. I quickly grabbed my shotgun after the floor, and then we collapsed the middle row as Infected began to reach through the shattered windows. Suddenly Karen screamed as they broke the window in the back. Glass fell and Victoria started crying, and Steve reached through the glass and grabbed the Infected with one massive hand of his. He thrust it backwards and it flew through the air until crumpling into a heap on the ground. Karen crawled into the elevator quickly, followed by Sarah and then finally Steve who held Victoria in his arms. We hit the last floor button, and the doors closed just as Infected began to force themselves through the windows into the car. I was breathing fast, I had just barely been able to grab my gun, and now I held it securely, giving me confidence. There was a few seconds where only Victoria’s crying broke the silence. Then a “ding” and the doors opened to greet us with a group of people aiming guns at us.

We stood still for a second, shocked at this reception for people we just risked our lives to get to, until one of them stepped forward and said, “Drop your gun, and kick it over here. Then raise your hands all of you, and slowly step out.”

Seeing no real choice in the matter, I complied. We stepped out slowly, and one of them, who looked to be about thirteen years old, warily walked into the elevator with a roll of tape, and used an obscene amount of it before walking out satisfied.

Seeing my questioning look he said defensively, “Hey I tape the ‘hold open’ button shut to keep the elevator on this level. Might as well do everything we can to keep the damn zombies from getting up here.”

Kevin shouted, “Yes! I LIKE this kid!”

There were a few confused looks from their group, and it was my turn to do the explaining.

I said, “Oh that’s just Kevin. He’s disappointed that we don’t view the Infected as zombies. I guess you guys do?”

They all grinned, and the same guy who told us to step out of the elevator said, “No we didn’t really know what to call them so we’ve just been going with insults. Some days we call them jackasses, some days they’re stupid cannibals, but we all get the idea. Infected is a good name for them though.”

Kevin and the guy with the tape spoke simultaneously, “So is zombie!!”

They beamed at each other, and I smiled and said, “I hate to break up the moment guys, but can we lower our hands yet? Some of us are injured.”

The stranger who seemed to lead the other group agreed, and said, “Alright you can lower your hands. Are any of you Infected with the virus?”

We all looked at each other and laughed. I said, “Look, we just got out of Texas. None of us are Infected or we wouldn’t be here right now.”

There were some gasps, and the leader whistled and said, “Well now I’m sure that’s a story worth telling. Why don’t you come on in, to our spacious living quarters! We’ll make introductions there.”

I agreed, and we slowly moved into a store on the left which sold furniture. The store had been entirely cleared out, except for a bunch of couches and tables which were arranged like you might expect to find in a large home.

We all found comfortable spots, and then I reached my hand forward and said, “I’m Jack.”

He gripped my hand tightly, and said, “Nice to meet you Jack. I’m Benjamin, but you can call me Ben.”

He introduced the guy with the tape as Shawn, and the girl of the group as Emily. I made quick introductions with our group, which was quite considerably larger and took some time. By the time introductions were made, we were both anxious to hear each other’s stories. They asked to hear ours first, and I obliged seeing as we were guests in their mall floor level.

Over the next few hours I told our story, while occasionally they would break in with questions. Finally, I finished with us arriving here, and I sat back, exhausted from the story-telling.

Ben has a shocked look on his face, and he asked, “So you don’t know what’s happened out here?? You went through all of that just to get out of Texas?”

I replied slowly, defensively, “Yeah but Texas was pretty bad man that’s where all the Infected are.”

He exclaimed, “So you really don’t know! No man, that’s what we all thought, and that’s when the quarantine was put in place but the virus was other places also. All over the country there were small, isolated reports of people going crazy and quickly being put down, and we hoped we would get it under control while the majority of the problem was being quarantined in Texas. But almost overnight we started losing contact with people in other cities, other states. While the Infection was taking its slow time to reach you guys, it was ravaging the rest of us. You must not have known because the government was attempting to lock down communications in and out of Texas. With the internet and all obviously that is nearly impossible to do, but they did a pretty good job of keeping things under wraps. And then suddenly, a few days ago the Infected came flooding out from Texas and we got the news the quarantine had broke. Once it broke in one place, it began to break all over the place and the Infected spread out from Texas and over into the borders of every state nearby. We were pretty well prepared for something like this, and we managed to get to this mall while there was panic in the streets. We think there are quite a few other survivors holed up in their houses, but eventually they will all be Infected. Even worse, the last newspaper we got, right before the waves of Infected reached us from Texas, confirmed the first reports of the Infection from outside the United States. The paper referenced a bizarre incident where a plane flight to China had somebody turn Infected on board, and Infect everybody else on the plane before it landed. When it landed... Well let’s just say that airport was not a fun place to be in. It also said something about a water supply being contaminated, which brought the Infection to a huge amount of people in California. Combined with thousands of Infected flooding out from Texas, it just became too much. We had some success keeping the Infected at bay before the quarantine broke, but after it broke... We’ve been holed up here ever since, after blocking the staircase. There was one other, Zachary, but he got caught searching the mall for survivors yesterday, and, well you’ve probably seen what happens to those who get caught.”

I paused for a moment, and replied, “Yeah we’ve seen what happens.”

Ben said, “Well I understand it might take a while for that to sink in. Please, make yourselves at home. We’ve been here for three days now and not once have the Infected even tried to get up here. I used to work the night shift as a security guard so I normally patrol the area at night, and trade off with somebody as it gets closer to morning. It’s pretty safe up here.”

I thanked him, and asked, “Where do you guys normally sleep?”

He said, “Hey Shawn show them the bedroom. I need to go check out the situation downstairs.”

Shawn bowed, mocking Ben and said, “Yes your highness.”

I could sense this wasn’t intended to be rude, and Ben smiled as he left the room.

Shawn looked at all of us and suddenly said in a loud voice, “This is the living room, and is quite extensive as you can see. Now if you’ll just follow me, next we’ll move onto the bedrooms and then perhaps the kitchen later.”

He dashed across the room, scooted by a stereo and turned on some dramatic, fast paced song. He then came back, and began to walk off in another direction in dance, stepping and dropping to the floor to break-dance every few steps as we slowly followed him, supporting Lucy and my Mom. Kevin laughed, and jogged up to talk with Shawn. I didn’t catch all that they said, but I got the distinct feeling they were discussing various zombie movies they’d seen. Eventually we came to a store that obviously sold beds, as it was completely filled in every corner with all manner of beds. I asked Ian what time it was, and after glancing at his watch in a double take, told me it was almost eleven at night. I helped life Lucy into a comfortable bed, and the others found similar such arrangements. Kevin and Shawn were still talking, and Ben said he’d take the night shift so I didn’t see any harm in getting some needed sleep. After the last couple days I felt like I needed to sleep for a year. I hopped on to a very, very comfortable bed and rejoiced in its soft feeling. As I fell asleep, I wondered just how many more surprises were in store for us...

I awoke to the sounds of hurried conversation. Feeling instantly alert, I rolled out of bed and looked around to see most of the others still asleep. I walked out of the comforter store to see Steve and Ben talking together in the center of the mall. Both had their weapons drawn, and looked anxious.

Confused I approached them and asked, “Hey, what’s going on?”

Ben replied curtly, “You and your group attracted the Infected. They are surrounding the mall, and the floors below and from what Steve tells me once they find prey they don’t give up until they’ve caught it.”

Stunned I ran over to the stair case, to see a horde of Infected pressed up against the blockade and around it, trying to push their way through. And they were seeing progress as well, slowly but surely.

I walked slowly back to Steve and Ben, and asked, “Well... What do we do?”

Ben turned and pointed off in the distance, at a door near a corner. He said, “You see that door over there?”

I replied, “Yeah. Where does it go?”

He continued, “That door leads to the roof. On the roof, there is a fire escape leading down to the parking lot. I was just up there a while ago, and I think it’s possible to sneak down the fire escape without being detected. The problem is once we’re down there, where will we go then?”

I thought for a second and then said, “On the way out of Texas, when that small car we randomly picked up ran out of gas do you remember me telling you how we sent Steve in to look for a new car, and then followed him to it?”