The mall was in shambles. Cars and trucks were parked and crashed on the east side blocking the entranceways. The lights above showed the masses of zombies trying to get through them. Most of the doors and windows were broken out to the west, and the lights were out. Though even in the dim moonlight we could tell the number of zombies to the west weren't even a hundredth of that in the lights.

"We'll have to get in that way." John said. "If we're lucky they won't get us."

There were still too many of them for that, and we all knew it. "Hold on!" Elizabeth stopped the group. "I come here all the time. A lot of people don't know this, but there's extra parking and a smaller public entrance around the other side. It's walled off back there, so there should be less of them."

"Good thinking."

"But... the doors might be locked." She added. "They close them early."

"I can break a glass door." John replied.

We ran to around the edges of the parking lot, trying to attract as little attention as possible. It didn't work as well as we should have liked. John kept having to stop to shoot a zombie to clear the path, and we were getting more and more surrounded the closer we got to our destination. If this plan didn't work it was the end for us.

When we finally got around the corner of the building we found the back side almost empty. We ran past the shutter doors which closed off the loading bays. It wasn't too much further when we had our eyes on the entrance. It was small, just one glass double door, and not even an automatic one at that. John grabbed the handle and gave it a tug. "Yup locked." He looked around. "Hang on." He grabbed the concrete ash tray and swung it like a battering ram through the glass. It shattered into a million little pieces but didn't make a hole big enough to crawl through. John used the barrel of his shotgun to clear out the broken glass, and we were in.

We couldn't see any zombies from where we were. It was a long hallway that led out just behind a small clothing store and into the main strip of the mall. On the right there was a closed shutter door, it was the spot the cars had been used to block. We looked to the left. "Shit they're coming!" Will spouted.

We could see them in the distance maybe a hundred feet off moving our direction. "We have to get this shutter open!" I yelled looking for a control panel.

"I hear people over by the big door." We heard someone say from somewhere in behind the metal mesh.

"We're here! Someone open up the gate!" I yelled and pounded on the screen. We could hear people mumbling to each other until finally a young security guard approached. "Yes! Open the gate those things are right behind us!"

"Sure let me..." He looked at my shirt. "You've got blood all over you."

I reached down and pinched my shirt between my fingers to look at it. "Oh yeah, it happened earlier."

"We don't have time for this open the damn gate!" John was justifiably impatient.

"I'm not letting anyone in that's been bitten!" He shouted back.

"What? No, I haven't been bitten, it's not my blood!"

"I can't take your word for it. It's too risky..."

John hit the butt of his gun on the gate to get his attention. "Hey! You see my uniform? I'm a cop, I picked him up like this, but he wasn't bitten. Now open this fucking thing up before we die!"

"Are you sure?" He waited for a reply while the zombies got closer."

"Yes! And if he's lying I'll shoot him myself!"

His response was delayed while he thought things over. "Ok I'll open it, but only enough to crawl through." He walked out of sight to the control panel, and we heard the motor starting to whir. The steel wall creaked as it started to rise. True to his word he only opened it about a foot and a half so we could crawl inside. It was wide enough that we all crawled under at the same time.

"Alright close it close it!" Will shouted.

"I'm on it." The wall came down slowly, and it was just in time. The zombies started grabbing at it not a moment after it was fully closed. "I don't suppose anyone else is getting through this way." He walked over and locked the gate down to the floor. He jumped back when he looked up to see a zombie drooling over him on the other side of the gate.

We all collapsed on the floor. We had just run maybe three or four miles without taking a break, and it was hard on all of us. "Thanks kid." John said between heavy breathing. "This part of the mall is completely sealed off right?"

"Yes Sir. We were able to seal off the other entrances by pushing vending machines, benches, you know, whatever was heavy and sturdy in the doors."

"What about the cars out front?" I asked.

"Oh those didn't stop them all that well, also they weren't really intended to be a barricade, people just wanted to get close to the door before they got out of their cars."

"People? How many are there?" John asked.

"Nobody's sure yet. It's a lot though."

"Great..." John was not excited to hear it. "You can go back to doing whatever you were doing, give us a minute to rest here." The guard nodded his head and walked off. As soon as he was out of earshot John started talking again. "I know I should be grateful more people lived, but this isn't good. There likely isn't a lot of food here, and depending on how many people a lot is, we could have problems."

"Like what?" Will asked.

"Like fighting. Being alive doesn't help anyone if we all just tear each other to pieces. I'm sticking to the plan. Wait a few days then get back to the quarantine zone." John said searching through his pockets to get an idea of how many shotgun shells he had left.

"What about us?" I asked.

"I'm not your mommy, do whatever you want. You're welcome to follow me, or stay here. I don't care." He was still catching his breath when he got to his feet again. "We're not getting out the way we came in, that's for sure. He gestured to the zombies behind the cage. " I'll have to find another way out of here." He got up and walked in the same direction the guard had walked off in.

"Something not quite right about that cop." said Will.

"I'm not so sure, he's just in a bad situation. I wouldn't put it past anyone to act weird with what he's going through." I replied.

"No..." Elizabeth chimed in. "He's right, there's something... off."

"Like what?" I asked.

"He' just..." she continued. "Just off... I can't put my finger on it but something is definitely wrong."

"Hmm." I wasn't sure what to make of their perception. "Well there's nosense sitting around here. Let's go see what 'a lot' of people means."