A startled scream escaped me as I scrambled backwards, trying to get as far away from the gate as possible, the noise instantly waking everyone else and in just a few seconds everyone was sitting up and alert.

I counted ten. Ten heads, human heads, that were all staring inside the store like they had just won the lottery.

"What's going on?" I heard my dad's tired voice from behind me at the same time I heard Marco mutter "What the hell?" from over in the corner.

I didn't bother answering either of them. I was too busy scanning each of the faces that stood only a few feet in front of me.

I jumped as I felt a pair of hands gently grab my arms before pulling me to my feet. It was only once I was standing that I finally tore my eyes away from the people in front and saw that it was Cory who had pulled me up.

Cory wasn't looking at me however. He was staring intently at our new guests. It wasn't until he had gently pushed me behind him so that I was no longer  directly in their line of sight that he finally spoke.

"Who are you?"

A man standing in the center of the others and who stood closest to the gate cocked his head to the side, the smile on his face spreading even wider as he eyed Cory. He was big and burly with short dark hair and a scraggly beard. He reminded me of a psychotic lumberjack.

"A friend." The man spoke before gesturing to the rest of the people with him. "We're all friends."

Cory eyed the man as if he had lost his mind, and judging by the crazy smile on on his face I'd wager he was right.

"As your friend I think it's only right to tell you that this place here," the man gestured to the entire mall with his arms. "It's ours."

The smile had dropped from his face now.

"But we're friends right? So, I'd be happy to let you all stay here," the man eyed our bags full of supplies. "For a price."

"And what exactly would that price be?" By the tone of Cory's voice it was clear he was only entertaining the man, he had no intentions of giving up anything.

The man laughed, the sound loud and grating and I glanced around nervously. Didn't they know those things had bat hearing?!

"Well, for starters you can toss us all of your supplies. But don't worry, we'll take good care of them for you."

That creepy smile was back on his face again.

"And what if we say no?" Cory asked.

That smile was spread so wide on his face now that you could count every single tooth in his mouth.

"I wouldn't recommend that."

The sounds of several guns being cocked and raised filled the space and I felt the breath freeze in my lungs.

"So, what do you say friend? How about you hand over those bags?"

***

Being in situations like this just goes to show why people died out so fast in apocalyptic movies.

People were selfish.

People were greedy.

There were plenty of supplies in this mall and yet they still wanted ours.

The moment we were forced to lift the gate, two of the men from the group rushed in and instantly went for the bags while the rest, the crazy lumberjack included, stayed at the entrance with their guns trained at us to make sure no one tried anything.

The two men made quick work of loading up our bags and swung them over their shoulders, passing us with smirks on their faces as they quickly made their way back out of the store.

I happened to glance down and saw that Cory's hands were clenched into tight fists.

"See, that wasn't so bad now was it?" The lumberjack's voice bellowed and I cringed. He really was too damn loud.

"Now, that we have what we need you all can follow us." He continued, but when no one bothered to move he took a threatening step forward. "Did no one hear me? I said let's go." He raised his gun so it was pointing directly at Cory. "Now."

Seeing as there was really no other alternative, everyone slowly filed out of the store and out into the open one by one.

"This way everyone." Lumberjack gestured for us to follow him, like he was our damn tour guide or something.

Like he hadn't just held us all at gunpoint and stolen all of our supplies.

He really was a psycho.

A psycho that we were currently being forced to follow through an abandoned mall.

As we walked past the different stores I was expecting us to stop at one of them, thinking they had set up a base in one of the stores like we had.

Instead we kept going until we got to a set of escalators.

We slowly made our way up to the second floor and then...continued up to the next set of escalators.

Why were we going all the way up?

Once we finally stepped off the escalators and were on the third floor, Lumberjack turned around to face us, his crazy grin almost maniacal now.

He clapped his hands together and ushered us forward, towards the railing.

It was only once we were all lined up in a row in front of the railings with Lumberjack looking at us like our executioner that my blood started to run cold.

He had no intention of letting us live, supplies or not.

I watched in almost slow motion as he raised his gun at us before gesturing toward the railings.

"It's time for you guys to take a little jump."

I could hear the outraged cries from the others but it felt like they were far away. As if I was listening to it from the other side of a pane of glass.

All this worrying about whether or not we would survive those things outside and it was humans that were going to kill us now.

"Please, he's just a little boy. Let him go at least." I heard Marie's pleading, but as I looked at the man before us I knew her pleading would fall on deaf ears.

He didn't care whether we had people who were five or seventy five in our group.

"Now, what kind of man would I be if I separated a son from his mother?" He said scrunching his face up in mock sincerity.

I saw a look of relief briefly flash across Marie's face.

"I'll make sure he dies with you."

And just like that the relief was wiped from her face.

"Listen, you can keep the supplies. Just let us go on our way and we'll forget about the whole thing." Cory tried to reason with the man, but I could've told him it was a waste of breath.

"Let you go?" The man laughed before shaking his head. "And how do I know you won't come back to try and kill me huh?"

Cory shook his head quickly. "We don't want any trouble. We're just trying to survive man. Like everybody else."

Lumberjack cocked his head and even scratched his chin as he pretended to think about Cory's words before his malicious grin was in full effect.

"I don't think so. Don't want to leave any loose ends now do we?"

And with that Lumberjack marched forward before any of us could blink,  grabbing Arden who was right next to Cory by the front of her shirt.

We only had time to shout in protest before he pushed her forward, Arden's own body weight and momentum causing her to tumble over the railing, a scream tearing from her lips.

I watched in horror as he held on to Arden long enough for her to reach up and grab onto the railing before letting her go, leaving her to dangle in the air on the other side.

The only thing keeping her from plummeting three stories was her own strength.

Cory rushed forward to try and grab her but Lumberjack raised his gun so it was pressed against his forehead, stopping him from moving another inch.

The rest of Lumberjack's group raised their own guns at the rest of us to make sure none of us tried anything.

Lumberjack made a tsk tsk noise as he looked at Cory down the barrel of his gun.

"No need to get so jumpy son. You'll be joining her real soon."

Lumberjack made a small gesture with his head and the rest of his men were moving forward grabbing on to each of us.

I barely had time to brace myself before I was being roughly grabbed and pushed backwards.

I felt my hips press against the railing, my feet scrambling to try and keep my footing for only a second before I was facing the same fate as Arden.

I had one horrifying moment of weightlessness as my own body tumbled over the railing before I was right side up again and forced to grab onto the railing with my hands, now hanging over the side.

I grit my teeth as I supported all of my weight with just my hands as gravity tried its best to do its job.

I watched as everyone else faced the same treatment,  being pushed over the edge of the railing and then forcibly being made to literally hang on for dear life.

I heard Marie's horrified scream and looked up just in time as one of Lumberjack's men stepped up to the railing in front of me with Danny in his grasp before carelessly tossing him over the side.

I watched helplessly as Danny's little hands tried their best to grab hold of the railing's bar.

I heard the loud booming laughter of Lumberjack as he stepped right up to the railing, leaning forward so that he could rest both arms on it as he looked down at all us of.

"Now let's see which one of you drops first."