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Darkness and smoke suffocated me as glass fell from the sky and heat sliced through me like a knife. My lungs felt thick and my chest felt tight.

It didn't take long for me to realise what had just happened. 

There were weights littered on my back as I slowly tried to crawl onto my knees after being thrown onto my stomach. I tried to look around but the thick smoke clouded my vision, as I looked up, I could only just see that all the glass had been thrown out of the windows frames and littered on the mall floor and on me.

There was a throbbing in my head and a ringing in my ears as I managed to pull myself to my feet. My rifle had been thrown a few feet away from me and so I quickly reached for that before calling out, "Harvey..?" I coughed, my words spluttering.

"Harvey!" I called out again, this time louder but I still got no answer.

I sighed and stumbled over to the railings to peer down onto the bottom floor. Most walkers were now splattered around the floor and up the walls. "Kelly" A voice whispered causing me to rip myself away from the railings and over to where the quiet voice came from.

I stopped half way, my legs like jelly as he ambled towards me, "What just happened?" He asked, his face dark and covered in soot.

"An explosion..must've been what the wires we saw on the way in were for" I muttered and glared around the structure of the mall.

His eyes went wide, "How did we survive?"

"I don't think that's a question you want to ask..-Are you alright?" I asked, finally looking back at him.

He nodded, "Yeah, I'm alright, we should see if we can find anyone else.." As he turned around I spotted the metal rod protruding from the back of his hip, just under his ribs. It wasn't going all the way through him and he seemed fine.

"Harvey..." I whispered with concern.

He looked at me over his shoulder, "Yeah?"

"Stay still" I spoke quietly, taking a few steps towards him. "You've got a metal pole stuck in your back.." I explained as calm as I could.

Immediately, his face flooded with fear, "What do you mean? I'm walking and talking, I'm fine"

I shook my head and stood next to him, inspecting the wound, "The pole must be acting as a plug. We have to get you out of here"

"Well pull it out!" He screamed.

I snapped my head up at him, "I can't!" I yelled, "If I pull it out you'll die! That pole is the only thing keeping you alive right now!"

His chest heaved up and down as his breathing became irregular and I could see he was going slightly faint. "No, no, no, Harvey, look at me" I stuttered. "Breathe in, and out, just like normal"

"I've got a fucking pole inside me" He shouted, clearly very panicked.

I nodded, "I know, but the only way either of us are going to get out of here is if you stay calm and concious! I need your help, that explosion could've attracted walkers for miles, once we get out of here, we might need to fight" I explained.

He nodded and soon got his breathing under control. "Good" I nodded, "Now we need to go, we can head down the fire escape, see if we can find anyone on our way down, you good?" I asked one more time, making sure I could rely on him.

He nodded and we began making our way to the stairs with the green sign above them. Thick smoke still blanketed the mall and would for some time, making our job of finding anyone that much more difficult.

I held my gun up, aimed at all times as I lead the way to the 3rd floor where Owain and his partner were headed.

The metal door creaked open as I checked each side before leading the two of us out, "Owain?" I whispered in a loud voice as smoke poured from the ground floor where all the walkers had been incinerated.

"Owain?" I continued, slowly making my way around the 3rd level of the mall in search of him.

We heard coughing from just ahead of us and we quickly rushed forward to find a body laid on its side. He was breathing and spluttering as he writhed about. "Owain?" I asked as I rolled them on their back to find that it was indeed him.

The smoke had too, covered him and his grey hair was now darker. "What the Hell happened?" He grumbled as I sat him up.

"An explosion, someone must have triggered it, are you alright?" I asked, my words falling from my mouth in a hurry.

Owain batted my hands away as he nodded, "Kelly, Owain.." Harvey called to us with a saddened look on his face.

I stood, leaving Owain's side just for a second to inspect Harvey's find. It was Fraiser, Owain's partner.

He was laid on his side. The whites of his eyes were visible as he lay dead, there was a dark red blood oozing from his chest and small rivers falling from his mouth. "Fuck.." Was all I managed to utter.

Owain shuffled and stood on his feet, seeing what we were both staring at. He said nothing, his head only fell to the ground. "We should go, see if we can find anyone else, maybe others survived"

No one disagreed with me as we rushed down the fire escape once more, heading to the 2nd level.

The blast seemed to have come from the ground floor and so most of the floor was destroyed and collapsed as we arrived. "Stay here," I ordered Harvey, visibly seeing that he was struggling.

Owain and I headed around what part of the level we could, "Doug? Hector?" Owain called out in between his coughs and gasps for air.

"There" I whistled Owain's attention over in my direction where I could see a pair of feet in the doorway of a store.

We slowly shuffled over, our guns aimed and gripped tight. "Hector" Owain muttered as he placed two fingers on his neck, checking for a pulse. "He's alive" Owain informed me as we grabbed his feet and pulled him from the doorway.

"You stay with him, let me check see if Doug's inside" I ordered, seeing his chest wheezing up and down.

I held my gun close to me as I waded through the smoke covering the air. "Doug" I called out quietly, passing each isle slowly.

Suddenly, I was thrown into a shelf, hands wrapped around my neck violently. Using the butt of my gun, I swung it into the attackers head, knocking him off me with a growl.

I pointed the rifle at him, "Doug?" I asked with a low growl.

"Who the Hell are you? What happened?" He snarled under the eye of my gun.

"It's Kelly, Owain and Hector are outside, we have to go" I explained in a hurry.

He hesitated for a few seconds, stepping slightly into the clouded light before he nodded and followed me to where Hector sat with Owain. "We have to go," Owain rushed nodding his head over to Harvey who was leaning against a pillar, struggling to walk.

"What about the others?" I asked reluctantly.

Owain shook his head, "With any luck, they're gone with the trucks, but we have to go, he wont make it much longer"

Harvey was struggling, his eyelids falling on him every now and again as he relied more and more on the pilar. Sweat was dripping from his forehead and he was now beginning to mumble random words. "He's going into shock" I noted with a worried sigh.

I turned to Doug, "You got your gun?"

He shook his head quickly, "The explosion must have knocked it out of my hands"

I growled slightly before pulling my pistol from the sheathe on my thigh, I checked the clip before handing it to him with a stern voice, "Don't shoot unless you have to"

That being said, I supported Harvey and Owain threw Hector over his shoulders and our challenge to get to the trucks began..