The kitchen wall shook. Iron pans and kitchen knives rattled until they fell to the stove. One rather large cooking fork stuck into the tile at Jimmy's feet, "that wall's not gonna hold."

"Quick! To the freezer!"

"We can't just hide in the freezer!"

A tusk pierced the door and tore a line out of the middle making a top and bottom door. The Elephant's meaty trunk punched a hole through the top half and gently pulled it off. The hinge bending like it was butter.

"Okay, yeah, freezer."

They slipped, quite literally into a metal room. The freezer walls were thick and robust. Maybe even thick enough to keep out an elephant, unless its tribal bands had been imbued with the strength of, well, an elephant. If they were lucky, and there was no elephant magic at play, than the two of them could survive for a while on cold meat and frozen bread.

Once locked safely inside they spoke in hushed whispers, starting with the chef, "We can turn the cold off from in here, but we shouldn't. It'll suppress the smell."

"How do you know that?"

"Cause I'm the best damn Chef you know."

For a while their time was spent in a silent focus on the door. Everything else melted away as adrenaline stole their peripherals.

"So," the chef began, "what was your plan before you pissed off the elephant?"

"Getting back to the safe zone, with food," Jimmy looked around at the boxed goods, "I mean, preferably, if you're not going to charge full price."

Remembering the blood squirting out of his finger stubs like a water gun, Jimmy dropped his crumpled shield and pulled a single needle of cure out of his pocket.

"I've got a business to..."

...

"You've been bit!? Stay away from me! I didn't know you were bit!" The chef brandished a massive butcher's knife at Jimmy.

"Relax, this is the cure," Jimmy jammed the needle into his arm above the missing fingers, "Edwardo has five, I've got the only other one since I'm not in the safe zone and Scar should be immune."

"Immune? Safe zone? What are you talking about!? Who are you!?"

"Jimmy."

"What are you?"

"The best damn janitor you know!"

"....."

"What?"

"That's a weird thing to be proud of is all."

"Well fuck you pal! What's your name?"

"Fuck you pal! Jeremy."

"Well, nice to meet you Jeremy. How did things get this bad in the mall?"

"Well, I don't know. I was getting ready to open last week and nobody else had showed up for their shifts. I bring out one batch of roast beef for the pot and go back for another, except when I come back the pot is swarming with some kind of wasp-fly things. They chased me into the supply closet and I think I'm safe, but they start crawling under the door! I doused those bitches with all sorts of cleaning fluid until they couldn't move their wings, but the cleaning fluids caught fire-"

"Pesticide and bleach?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Best damn janitor you know."

"Anyway, I come out of the closet spraying that shit everywhere, filled my pot of roast beef with it, saw everyone freaking out and eating each other and I closed shop. I ain't trying to be a horror movie statistic."

"Fair enough. We need to stick to the plan. Get whatever food you have."

"Plan? My food!?"

"Yes, Fifi's plan. She's a twelve year... You know what, nevermind that. I'm with the circus, we need to bring supplies to the safe zone "

"Circus? Right, that explains everything. Jimmy..."

"What?"

"You're bleeding on my food. I'll get some ice from the wall."

•~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~•
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The battle axe careens down as Jessica lays there. The incoming blade reminding her of being strapped to a red and black spinning target wheel with Richie's voice telling her little jokes only she could hear, "you know why you wear red? So they can't see Scarlett bleed."

The whole time the crowd cheered him on like he was the best thing in the world but occasionally they would go silent out of fear for her. These were the best and worst moments. She would feel the fear more than anyone in the crowd obviously, but for that moment it felt like they cared. Then again, she'd be lying if she said she didn't like the thrill. She was in the circus after all.

A zombie leans over her with grasping hands nearly pulling off her helmet, but it only managed to block the axe with the back of its skull. With years of practice watching the trajectory of blades fly towards her, Jessica pulls it free and stands almost before the blade stuck. She neatly decapitates two zombies with one swing.

A dozen more fall with the guitar strings humming on every strike until at last the stage was empty, but the crowd was packed and ravenous.

With a sea of glowing brass eyes looking up at the stage, Scarlett had a rush that she never felt as Richie's second. Not even with the wheel spinning fast and knifes nicking her skin.

She let out a dark chuckle, kicked the radio off, plugged in the amp and finished Slash's solo. Tonight she was the star and the crowd was just eating her up.

•~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~•
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The sound of metal breaking and a colossal crash down below washed out Scarlett's solo for a moment as Jimmy peeked out of the kitchen.

"Is it still out there?" Jeremy asked.

"It just jumped off of the railing..."

"Like... It did what?"

"It's going after Scarlett. She's insane! It's going to kill her! Change of plans, let's go stock up on guns while Scarlett has the elephant distracted. Maybe we can kill it before it kills her."

Jeremy pulls a cross necklace out from under his apron and makes several motions while following Jimmy. Sure enough the railing outside of the restaurant was bent and smashed outward. The duo waited for the rest of the undead to rush the steps or topple over the railing themselves. Anything to get to the promise of meat downstairs.

Once the chaos cleared enough, they ran the length of the mall. A particularly confused zombie turned his vacant glare from the railing to the duo. Something in the poor fellow snapped as Jimmy shoulder checked it over the railing.

It landed in a half-alive splatter reaching up at them as if pointing, before the mob trampled him into nothing.

One more undead had its arm stuck in the gate of the gun store. As they approached the door it leaned towards them until its arm came off at the elbow setting it free. Jimmy's boot knife went into its eye, but not deep enough to damage the brain. Jeremy brought his butcher's knife around to the back of its neck and severed all movement in the body. Its mouth continued to open and close in a soundless question for flesh and the one eye darted between the two of them, unsure who would answer.

They stepped careful over the snapper into a store that smelled lightly of muddy creek boots and woodland smells, if woodland smells include freshly skinned deer carcass.

Needless to say, this store was filled to the brim with useful merchandise. Rows of fishing gear, high dollar boots, camping supplies, canoes, flashlights, machetes and crossbows; but the most important find was a display desk on the back wall filled to the brim with all manner of guns.

Jimmy climbed the counter and began loading shotguns and rifles as if he still had two hands worth of fingers. Jeremy smashed open the display case, found a speed loader and filled up damn near every pistol in the store in record time. He only slowed down to ask Jimmy, "what are you military?"

"Nope, just from the woods, you?"

"Nope, just from the hoods."

In almost no time at all, Jimmy was loaded down like the real life version of that video game character. You know, insert generic space-marine/super-cowboy with too many guns. What I mean to say is that Jimmy was carrying five AR-15s, six shotguns, a duffle bag full of pistols, three hunting rifles and duel-wielding AK-47s.

He had also donned a black-felt cowboy hat with a belt strip full of empty shells and a skull emblem, a pair of aviators, and a biker vest with a screeching eagle on the back.

Jeremy looked like a modern day pirate with a dozen smaller shotgun, pistols, and submachine guns many with extended clips, fancy sights and red dots. He chose an urban camo jacket that blended in with most of the mall and a fishing cap with actual fishing gear which looked extremely silly, but Jimmy was the one who felt silly when he noticed how practical the city-slicker had been.

Jeremy's duffle bag was also filled, but with fifty pounds of meat that he fully intended to sell for cash money, demand was very high after all.

As they stood there looking like bad mamma jammas, Jimmy exclaimed, "I have to piss."

"Shouldn't you wait?"

"If I have to fight the zombie virus like this then I'll tinkle myself."

"Eh... did you say tinkle? Alright, whatever, do you."

There were two stalls, the first was destroyed both physically and emotionally. The porcelain throne had been cracked in half with the word donations written on what was left. The walls had very un-inspired political thoughts and swastikas. (When a person thinks the best place for their politics and nazi-ism is the wall of a bathroom stall, they're probably right.)

The second stall contained a creature whose legs had melted to the floor. Its torso was human aside from a head with large fly eyes and a toothless mouth with lips that were raggedy, like paper repeatedly wadded up until soft.

This soft and harmless mouth opened up wide and a squat bug shaped like a heart, colored in brassy-vomit, and filled with holes containing smaller bugs resembling wasps. Another two large heart-bugs flew out of the mouth, not born quite as lame as the first, and Jimmy opened fire.

His screaming almost drowned out the rapid fire noise of two AK-47s. Jeremy ran into the room to find two things: one; Jimmy had pissed his pants, and two; Jimmy was pumping rounds into the stall floor while wasps flew about overhead.

Not knowing what was in the stall, he was more worried about the wasps, rightfully so, and began putting buckshot into the air.

After switching guns and spraying for several minutes of both men getting stung, all of the bugs were laying on the ground dead or had fled out of the vents and past Jeremy out the door. Jimmy took a breath and fired one more round into the thing in the stall.

That was the round that did it. The round that caused the floor to open up and swallow the bathroom stall, toilet and Jimmy included.

Jimmy landed next to Scarlett just as she lodged her spiky fantasy-witch-queen helmet into a zombie skull. She pulled her head out of the helmet and threw her hair into the non-existent wind as if she were frozen in some kind of slow-motion Hollywood tornado.

She struck one cord and brandished her guitar axe in a brutal uppercut. Her look of radiance and glee turned to confusion, concern and disgust at Jimmy with a toilet bowl seat as a necklace and piss running down his leg. Jimmy caught both expressions in slow motion from his embarrassing spot on the floor.