Johnson regretted bringing Connar into the mall as soon as he twirled the knife and stabbed the air. They crept through the mall as they made their way to the hardware store at the end of the hall. Connar was slicing through the air with his blade. Johnson stopped and turned to scowl at Connar.

"Stop it," Johnson whispered. "Or I am leaving you behind."

Connar lowered the blade.

"I'm just being prepared," he said.

"Focus on keeping your eyes open," Johnson said. "I'll do the killing."

Connar stuck his lip out in a pout.

"Come on," he said. "I want to kill a zombie."

"They're not zombies."

Johnson turned and continued to walk. Connar sighed and followed.

They made their way to the hardware store. The glass door was shattered. The faint sound of growling came from deep in the store.

"You'll probably get to kill one," Johnson mumbled to Connar.

"What are we even looking for?" Connar asked.

"I thought that you were the apocalypse master? Shouldn't you know?"

Connar scoffed.

"I am," he said. "We need camping gear and weapons."

"Good," Johnson said. "Now, let's go."

Johnson walked through the shattered door and into the store. He stepped into the first aisle to see it was full of gardening tools. Johnson smiled as he put his knife in the sheath. He grabbed an ax hanging on the wall. Connar's eyes went wide as he looked at the variety of tools.

"Pick a weapon," Johnson said. The inhuman cries grew louder. "You're going to need it."

Connar picked a pair of garden shears off the wall. There was a screech, and they turned to see an Infected man. Blood was pouring from his eyes and he chomped at the air before running forward. Johnson tightened his grip on the ax and swung. The blade buried deep into the side of the Infected's head. Johnson struggled to hold onto the handle as the blade stayed in his skull while his body fell. Johnson put his foot on the man's chest as he pulled the ax free.

A growl came from the other side of the aisle. A woman, who was foaming at the mouth, was standing there. She let out a screech.

"This one is all you, bud," Johnson said.

Connar sucked in a deep breath. The woman ran with her arms reaching out into the air. Connar opened the blades and ran forward. He stabbed the blades into the Infected woman's chest. Blood spurted from her mouth and mixed with the saliva foaming on her chin.

"The head," Johnson said. "I thought you knew what you were doing."

Connar gritted his teeth as he ripped the garden shears free. The woman charged at Connar and knocked him off of his feet. She swiped at Connar and he dodged her attack. He put her head between the two blades and he forced them closed. Blood sprayed down at him and soaked his clothes as he cut her head off.

The woman's head rolled to the side and Johnson kicked the head out of his way. The decapitated body fell onto Connar. He shuddered and pushed the body off.

"Good job, killer," Johnson said. He turned his wrist to look at his watch. "Let's get what we can carry and get out of here."

Johnson reached down and helped Connar back up onto his feet. They hurried to the camping aisle and were grabbing supplies when they heard gunshots.

--

Gomez had not lowered his gun since going down the still escalator. Ivan led the way as he walked down the hall. Gomez was behind and was on high-alert pivoting.

"Where are we going?" Ivan asked.

"Let's go," Gomez said. "We are going to get killed."

"We can't go back empty-handed," Ivan said.

"What are we going to get?" Gomez asked. "Clothes?"

Ivan rolled his eyes. He walked up to the mall directory. He ran his finger along with the map.

"We can get into the department store from here," he said.

"What good us a department store?" Gomez asked.

Ivan shrugged.

"Clothes and shoes," he said. "Not everyone is dressed for the end of the world."

"I am not risking my life for fashion," Gomez said. "Let's get outside."

"What was even the point of coming in here?"

"Listen, I am not sacrificing myself."

Ivan sighed. He wondered how he got stuck with Gomez. He didn't want to go deeper into the mall without backup. If he got surrounded by Infected, he did not know if he could fight them off. He needed to get back outside to Nicole.

"Fine," Ivan said. "Let's be useless to the group."

"We're no use dead," Gomez said.

Ivan threw up his hands in frustration. Gomez scowled and tightened his grip on the gun. Ivan turned and walked back toward the escalator. His footsteps echoed through the somewhat empty mall.

Ivan stopped when he heard a growl. A woman came out of one of the stores and was frothing at the mouth. She screeched before charging forward. Ivan's heart pounded as he prepared to kill for the first time. He had been a vegetarian for the past five years and hated the thought of anything dying. However, he knew it was his life or hers.

He grabbed her hand as she tried to grab his hair. He yanked her forward by her wrist and forced the blade under her chin and up into her brain. He gagged as the warm blood gushed onto his hand.

Ivan turned to see Gomez had his gun up and was aiming at him. His finger wavered over the trigger. Ivan's eyes went wide and he shook his head.

"Put that away," he said. "You're going to get us killed."

Gomez let out a shaky breath before lowering the gun. He let go with one hand to wipe the sweat off of his forehead.

His weapon was soon up again when he heard a chorus of screeching. Ivan spun around to see people leaving a handful of stores. All were foaming at the mouth and bleeding from the eyes. Ivan swore as he tightened his hold on the handle of the knife.

"Run!" he shouted.

Ivan took off sprinting and the Infected shrieked as they chased him. He pushed his body as fast as he could, but he kept looking over his shoulder to see them close behind. Gomez was running with his gun in his hands.

An Infected man reached out and grabbed Gomez's shoulder. Gomez's heart jumped in his chest as he spun around. He swung his gun, knocking the Infected man back into the crowd. Hands were reaching for him, and he knew that he would have no time to stab each of them. He raised his gun and fired.

The bullets echoed through the silent mall. The Infected fell as their brains and blood splattered on each other. More growling came as more Infected staggered out of the stores. Ivan's jaw dropped when he spun around to watch Gomez set off another series of bullets.

Gomez had just given them the death sentence. Ivan resumed running and Infected from all angles ran toward him. The escalator came into sight, and Ivan thought that he was going to make it back outside to Nicole.

The growling grew louder as the Infected closed in. They were surrounding him and he knew that he would have to do more than run. He stopped and thrust his blade forward to stab the Infected in the head. He struggled to pivot to fight equally from all sides.

Hands grabbed his shoulders. He tried to pull himself free, but multiple Infected had a hold of him. He was yanked back and the knife fell from his grip.

"Gomez!" Ivan called out.

Gomez turned around and watched a man bite into Ivan's neck. He ripped the flesh from his body and blood sprayed. Ivan's screams turned garbled as the blood rushed into his throat. Other Infected grabbed him and tore chunks of flesh. They swarmed and knocked him to the floor.

"Fuck, no," Gomez said.

He turned and fired into the crowd until he ran out of bullets. He did not want to waste preccious moments reloading, so he ran. The Infected piled on top of Ivan and his screams had stopped. A few Infected who could not get to his body were licking his blood off the floor.

Gomez ran around the gruesome scene and headed for the escalator. A couple Infected left Ivan's body and chased Gomez up to the second level. He pushed himself and he did not think that he had ever ran that fast before. Relief washed over him when he saw the shattered door. He jumped through the door and ran into the parking lot.

He could see the civillians waiting around the trucks. Harrington turned when he heard Gomez's boots pounding against the pavement. His eyes went wide when he saw the two Infected chasing Gomez. He raised his gun, and Gomez ducked as he ran. Harrington fired two shots and the bodies fell to the ground.

Gomez leaned forward as he was panting for breath. There was a moment of silence before realization hit Nicole. Her eyes were glassy as she gasped.

"No," she said. "No, don't tell me."

Gomez straightened his posture.

"I'm sorry," he said.

Tears poured down Nicole's face as she gritted her teeth and balled up her fists. She ran forward and punched him in the chest. She raised her hand to slap him, but he dodged her attack.

"How could you?" she cried. "You were supposed to keep him safe!"

Nicole swung again and Gomez ducked. She raised her fist. Harrington snatched her wrist before she could try and hit him again.

"Let me go!" Nicole screamed. "I'm going to kill him!"

"He knew the risk that he was taking," Gomez said.

Harrington let go of Nicole's wrist. She hastily wiped the tears off her face. She took in a sharp breath before storming toward the mall.

"I have to get him!" she cried.

Harrington ran and grabbed her arms. She tried to yank herself free, but he tightened his hold. Nicole screamed as she thrashed in his grip. She was desperate to get free.

"We can save him," she cried. "Anjo is a doctor!"

"He's gone," Harrington said softly. "You'll die if you go in there."

Nicole crumpled and Harrington was the only thing keeping her up on her feet. The rest of them watched the mall and prayed that the others would get out.