"What the hell are you doing?!"

Marco's strained voice seemed to bounce off every wall of the otherwise empty mall. His question was only met with laughter though.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm testing your upper body strength!" Lumberjack seemed to think that his little joke was particularly hilarious as he guffawed. He even went as far as to bend over, clutching his knees as his laughter echoed around us.

"And what does that do? You already have our supplies." I heard Cory's voice, just as strained from supporting his own weight, from my right.

Lumberjack straightened his stance, the smile slowly vanishing from his face as he leaned over the railing and looked directly down at Cory.

"You don't get it do you? We don't need any newcomers. The more people there are the more mouths we have to feed and the more likely we are to let somebody in with that damn disease."

"Then just let us go! We'll leave and never come back." This time it was Arden's desperate voice that called out.

Lumberjack shook his head as if he were talking to a bunch of children.

"Can't risk it sweetheart. Some people tend to hold grudges."

"I'm slipping!" Danny's voice suddenly cried out from my left and I turned and watched in horror as his little hands began to lose their hold on the railing.

Lumberjack leaned back from the railing and looked down at where Danny was trying his best to hang on. A look of mock sympathy was on his face as he shook his head. "Looks like the kid will be the first to go."

"My money's on the Chinese girl." I heard another one of Lumberjack's friends snicker as they eyed Arden.

"I'm Korean you racist piece of shit." I heard Arden's irritated voice call out.

"Well you're not going to be much of anything in a few minutes." He shot back, a nasty smirk on his face.

"I can't hold on anymore!" Danny's panicked voice cried out again.

"Danny yes you can. You have too." I tried to console him, but the reality of it was grim.

We couldn't hang here forever. Eventually all of us would end up letting go and plummeting to our deaths.

"I can't! My hands are slipping!" Danny's voice was almost delirious now and I watched helplessly as he tried to adjust his hold but it was useless.

The moment he lifted his hand to try and get a better hold on the rail his other hand slipped and he lost hold of the railing completely.

I don't know how I did it and if anybody asked me I wouldn't have been able to tell them.

The moment Danny's hand left the railing my left hand left the railing and shot out and grabbed onto his right hand.

While Danny wasn't particularly heavy, given the fact that I was now supporting my own weight plus his was almost too much for me to bear.

The moment all of Danny's weight was being supported by my left arm I let out a cry of my own at the strain it put on my arm and shoulder.

To Danny's credit though, he didn't scream or squirm around as he now sat dangling in the air.

I think he realized just like I did that the
only thing keeping him from falling to his death now, was me.

"Holy shit, would you look at that!" Lumberjack yelled out clapping as he hurried over to Danny and I.

"You've got some serious strength in those arms sweetheart." He taunted, but I could barely pay attention to him.

I was trying my best to keep my hold on both Danny and the railing but my own hand was slipping. I felt a single line of sweat drip down the side of my temple.

That's when I heard it.

It was in the distance and low but I heard it all the same.

Growling.

I had enough strength left to lift my head and wasn't surprised when I met the wide eyes of Lumberjack.

He'd heard it too.

"Let's pack it up and get the hell out of here!" He called out to his men as he began to back away from the railing.

I heard the shuffling of feet as they began to leave.

"While I'd love to wait around and see how this all ends I think we'll have some guests in a minute here and I don't want to be around when they get here." Lumberjack's voice sounded from farther away.

The last sound we heard was the dark chuckles of him and his friends and their footsteps as they hurried away from us.

***
The moment he was sure that we were alone Cory called out to the rest of the group.

"Can anybody manage to pull themselves up and over?"

He was met by a bunch of 'no's' and I heard him swear.

My own hand had nearly lost its grip on the railing. It was only a matter of seconds before I'd be forced to let go.

I glanced down at Danny, feeling utterly hopeless and that's when I noticed it.

There on the first floor, a few feet to the left of where Danny and I were hovering sat a ball pit. It was a part of the play place that was set up for children in most malls. There was a slide, a fake tree, and a bunch of other objects all made of that shiny soft material that children could crawl on to their hearts content, but I wasn't worried about the other objects.

It was that ball pit that my eyes were locked on.

From this distance, maybe, just maybe the ball pit would be able to break our falls.

"Danny listen to me." I said suddenly, as a plan started to form inside my head.

"Do you see that ball pit down there?"

I felt him as he turned his head and looked down before looking back up at me. He nodded vigorously. "I see it."

"Good. That's where you're going."

"Huh?" The look of utter confusion on his face would've been funny if it weren't for our current situation.

"I'm going to swing you to the left and your going to land on that ball pit. It'll be like landing on a big pillow.

I hope.

Danny glanced down again at the ball pit before I watched him visibly swallow and then nod.

I felt my heart give a little tug. What I was asking him to do, to trust me to do, took a hell of a lot of courage and he did it without even questioning it.

"Alright Danny, on the count of three I'm going to let you go okay?"

He simply nodded.

"Before we get to three, I'm going to need you to swing back and forth to build up your momentum too."

That was the part I was worried about. I didn't know if I had the strength to physically swing him back and forth with one hand while still supporting both of our weights with the other.

But I didn't really have a choice.

"Alright, here we go."

I began to swing him backwards, gritting my teeth at the pain and trying my best to not lose my grip on the rail

"One."

I swung him back forward.

"Two."

His little body swayed backward.

"Three!"

I used all the strength I had left to propel him forward and then...I let go.

I watched with my heart in my throat as Danny's small body sailed through the air. Somewhere from behind me I heard Marie cry out, and then he was landing in the ball bit.

I waited, refusing to breathe as his body disappeared beneath the plastic balls.

My eyes searched for him frantically and after a few seconds a wave of relief coursed through me as I watched his head appear.

"I'm okay!" He yelled up at us, and he even had a bright smile on his face.

"That's great sweetheart! You just stay right there okay?" Marie called down to him.

I turned to the left to face the others.

"Okay, guys we all need to move to this side and do what Danny did. The ball pit will break our falls." I instructed everyone.

Everybody nodded and slowly began to maneuver themselves to the left along the railing. When we were all hanging right above the ball pit I glanced down at Danny who was now standing just outside of the pit before looking back at everyone.

"Alright guys, I suggest we go one by one." I suggested and everyone silently nodded in consent.

"Ok, I'll go next then." I offered, sounding a lot more confident than I felt.

I took a deep breath and decided to count down to three in my head again.

One.

Deep breath in, deep breath out.

Two.

I could do this.

Three...

I sucked in another deep breath of air and released my grip on the railing, free falling through the air...just as one of those creatures appeared, standing on its hind legs, leaning over the railing, and its jaws snapping the empty space where my head had been just seconds before.

***