I walked through the mall calling out for them, well, I guess I was more interested in finding Elizabeth than Will. She held my thoughts captive at work for more hours than I would like to admit. It was something about her kindness that drew me to her, the way that she genuinely treated people with care, rather than just faking it for the sake of the job. I think that's what made finding out she had a boyfriend suck so bad. It didn't help that she was beautiful either. Although, I don't think she saw herself that way.

"Elizabeth?" I called out walking past the empty stores.

"Mark over here!" she finally called back. I started to jog, but my legs were too tired from all of the running earlier, so I walked the rest of the way. When I approached I found her sitting in a chair in front of a desk in some jewelry store. "Did you need something?" she asked resting her head on her hands, with her elbows on the counter. She was hiding it, but I could tell she was shaken.

"Yeah. Good choice by the way." I said taking a chair next to her.

"What do you mean?" She leaned back in the chair.

"The jewelry stores always have the comfiest chairs." I snickered. "It helps increase sales."

She smiled briefly. "What did you need?"

"John wants to talk with us, is Will around?"

She pointed to the cell phone store across from where we were. I looked over and could see him rummaging through the shelves. "What's he doing?"

"He started off looking for a charger, but I think he's stealing a new phone now..." She sighed.

"Well, I don't think anyone's going to miss it." I said back to her.

"We shouldn't keep John waiting." She put her hands on the armrest of her chair to get up.

"It's not like it's time sensitive, he just wants to go over things before we talk to anyone else. Take a moment to rest..." I watched her slump back down in her chair. "Are you ok? You don't have any family out there do you?"

She rubbed her eyes. "No, I'm not from around here. I just moved here for college."

"Hey we're in the same boat then. At least no one we care about is in danger." I said just a little too cheery.

She scowled. "I still have friends you know."

"Oh, yeah... I'm sorry." I broke eye contact to look back at Will. He was still shopping for a new case. "I didn't mean to..."

"Don't worry about. I know you were trying to cheer me up."

"It's still inconsiderate." We fell silent. "How is Will holding up?"

A grimace slipped across her face for only a fraction of a second. "He's fine."

"Sweet!" We heard him yell from the store across from us.

"Maybe too fine." She added in a whisper that I wasn't supposed to hear.

"Hey babe! Check it out!" He was holding up the phone with pride so she could see it while he walked over. "What are you doing here?" He was clearly upset by the fact that I had been talking to Elizabeth.

"John wanted to talk to us before we talked with anyone else. I just came to get you."

"Uhuh, right." He was glaring at me.

"He's waiting for us Will, let's go." Elizabeth stood up and grabbed his arm to drag him away.

He looked her in the eyes. "Yeah ok. Where is he?"

"He's in the security office, but let me get a different shirt before we get there." I said leading the way. We stopped at some small clothing store in the mall, and I grabbed something plain in my size. I replaced my shirt, throwing the old one into the trash and began to walk out of the store. I stopped, not quite feeling right about taking it.

"What?" Elizabeth asked.

I rolled my eyes feeling like a goodie two shoes as I took out my wallet and placed the cash on the counter next to the register. Will looked at me like I was some kind of idiot. "Dork." He said to Elizabeth's dismay. She punched him in the arm. "What? It's not like anyone is going to know."

"That's not the point." She added following after me.

It was only a short walk to the security room. When we got inside John was by himself, he appeared to have some ability to control the cameras at this point, as he was switching through them. "Took your sweet time didn't you?"

"Sorry." I replied. Elizabeth wasn't thrilled with the fact that I made John wait when we could have left sooner, and her face showed it. I looked at the ceiling to avoid the awkward situation. "Where'd Dennis go?"

"He went to get his wife and kid." John didn't bother to look at us while he talked, he was too absorbed in trying to find a clean exit through the cameras. "Sit down they'll be here in a minute." There was a small table that ran the length of the room, it must have been used for meetings with the security staff. We took a seat, Will and Elizabeth sat opposite of me.

"Any luck finding a way out of here?" I asked John.

"Yeah, I'm just doing this for fun now." His words dripped with sarcasm.

We waited for a few minutes. Will was still fiddling with his new phone, and Elizabeth was sitting there trying her best not to stare at anyone. I have to say it was a longer wait than I had expected, but sure enough, Dennis opened the door with his family in tow. "Sorry about the wait, Jill was using the restroom." He gestured to his daughter, she was eight years old, with brown hair like her father's, and obviously not at all comfortable with what was going on, not that I could say any of us were. "And this is my wife Helena."

She was a short blonde haired woman with kind eyes, and a timid voice. "Hello, nice to meet you."

We shook hands, but Will didn't seem to care. "So what are we doing here?" He asked impatiently.

John turned around to face us. "Alright here's what's going on. What we say in this room doesn't leave this room, you got that?" I nodded, but already knew everything they were going to say. When nobody answered him John continued. "Ok? Good. So here's what's going on. We're going to make a break for the quarantine zone."

Helena spoke out. "Wait why just us?"

"It's not because we don't want to bring everybody else and their dog along, it's just that we can't. From what we can tell we've only got three guns between the lot of us, and we don't even have a lot of ammo to boot." John leaned forward to rest on his hands. "We may be able to get there by ourselves, but we can't take everyone. Plus, we had a situation when we tried to get through the quarantine the first time. There were too many people for the soldiers to check quickly, and the... zombies, were right on top of us. It didn't work out so well for those who stayed behind. We can't have that situation happen again." He leaned back and closed his eyes.

"So what happens to the people who stay here?" Elizabeth asked.

"Who cares?" Will's words were only full of self-interest. "At least we'll be safe."

"We're no-" John started speaking but Elizabeth interrupted him.

"That's just like you." She said with malice in her words.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Will asked.

"You don't give a shit about anybody but yourself!" Her words were becoming heated. Helena covered her daughter's ears.

"That's not true, I care about you."

"No you don't! You only care about having me as your 'girl!' You never gave a damn about anything I ever cared about!" We were all just staring shocked at the train wreck that was happening before us.

"I put up with so much of your stupid ass shit! You have no idea how much bullshit I've gone through for you!" They were yelling over each other's voices at this point.

Dennis grabbed a hold of his wife and pulled her to the side. I could barely hear him whisper in her ear. "Take Jill and wait outside."

"You fucking piece of shit! I can't believe I ever even bothered with someone like you." Elizabeth stood up from the table, her shoulders tensed.

"Oh yeah, what are you going to do about it?" Will stood up yelling in her face.

"I'm breaking up with you, you dumb motherfucker!" Elizabeth's words brought a flush of blood to Will's face, he was beet red.

"No you're fucking not!" Will screamed.

"Alright break it up!" John tried to interrupt, but they were too busy yelling to even notice him. "Help me out here Mark." He said to me, and we grabbed a hold of Will pulling him back.

He struggled violently, elbowing me in the face. "Let me go you fuckers!"

"Elizabeth get out of here, you've already made your point! There's nothing more to say." John said getting her to back off.

"Fine!" She yelled and walked out slamming the door behind her.

"Let me go!" Will screamed at us till John forced him into a chair.

"Shut up! We've got bigger shit to deal with than your stupid relationship bullshit right now! People could die if you don't keep your shit together!" John was yelling down at him. "Now you're going to take this shit like a man! Do you hear me? You can settle things later. For now, we're going to focus on getting out of this city alive."

"But I-" Will started.

John cut him off though. "No 'buts' just shut up! You can deal with this later." John was authoritative in his words.

Will looked around the room frustrated. "Alright!" He was still red in the face. "Can I go now? I want to be alone."

John looked at Dennis and I to make sure we weren't going to add anything else. "Yeah, get the fuck out of here." He let him up, and Will stormed out of the room. John closed his eyes and sighed deeply.

"Is he going to be a problem?" Dennis asked in a serious tone as soon as he was sure that Will couldn't hear him.

John opened his eyes and looked over at Dennis. "Yeah! He's been a pain in my ass the whole night, I'm sure he will. But if he causes too much trouble I'll just have to read him his rights again. Right Mark?" He looked over at me and stopped talking for a second. "Go change that shirt."

I felt my nose where Will's elbow had hit me in the face and I was bleeding. It ran down onto the new shirt I had just put on. "Awe, come on!" I said to myself.

"Well if you think you can handle it I'll leave it to you." Dennis added, and left the room to be with his family.

John sat back down at the computer. "Are you alright?"

"I think so, it's just a nosebleed." I paused.

"Good!" He started looking through the screens again. "And at least you've got a shot now."

I was embarrassed by his comment. "Now's not a good time."