“Keep calling,” he said.
“Kylie!” I yelled louder.
“Let’s go this way,” he said, pointing toward another corridor.
“Okay.”
We neared a clothing store that my sister adored. “Hold on,” I said, sticking my head inside of the dark entrance. “Allie!?”
“She’s not in there.”
“How do you know?” I asked, looking back at him.
He shrugged. “She would have answered you, right?”
I sighed. “Yeah, I suppose.”
We continued down the corridor.
“Allie!” I hollered again.
No answer.
“Are you sure they’re safe with all of these zombies walking around?” I asked, as two more rounded the corner.
“The zombies aren’t interested in them. Don’t worry.”
“But why?” I asked. “Why would they suddenly not give a damn about us? We’re their food supply, right?”
“It appears that way,” he replied, sniffing the air. “They’re close. I can sense them.”
Sense them?
He turned to me. “Keep calling.”
“Allie! Kylie!” I screamed.
“Cassie!” hollered Allie. “Get away from him!”
I turned around and found my sister standing at the end of the hallway next to a toy store. Relieved, I grinned. “Allie!”
“Get away from Billie!” she yelled, looking panic-stricken.
I glanced at Billie. “What did you do to piss her off so much?”
“Nothing.”
“He’s trying to kill Adria!” hollered Allie.
He looked down at his nails and frowned. “What a little drama queen. God, she’s really starting to piss me off.”
I narrowed my eyes. He’d done nothing but piss me off in the last few hours. “Okay, you stay here. I think I need to talk to her alone.”
“Dammit, time is running out. Where is the baby, you little bitch?!” growled Billie.
I stared at him in shock. “Billie?”
“Run, Cassie!” hollered Allie.
“Run, Cassie,” he mimicked. “Like you can really escape.”
I started backing away from him. “I… I’m going to talk to her, okay Billie? I’m sure she’s just upset and scared after everything that’s been happening.”
“Stay where you are,” he ordered, the rings of his eyes beginning to glow.
I paused.
He smiled and held up his right hand. “Allie,” he hollered. “If you want to see your sister’s beautiful face again, you’ll come here. Now.”
He’s threatening me?!
I glared at him. “You stay there right there, Allie! Don’t you dare move a muscle.”
Billie’s hands began to glow. “Remember this?” he asked, looking into my eyes.
I stared back at him in horror.
“Yes,” he replied, answering the question jumbling around in my mind. “It’s really me.”
“Travis?”
He grinned wickedly. “Would you like to see how quickly skin melts from the bone, Allie?”
My sister began to cry. “No!”
Fire flowed out of his hand, forming a small ball. It hovered in the air next to his face. “Last chance.”
“Run, Allie!” I screamed and began running toward her.
“Cassie!” she cried.
I’m not sure what exactly I tripped over, but my foot caught something on the linoleum and I fell forward just before the ball of fire shot past me and hit a wall. Staring at the flames in horror, I quickly got back to my feet and began running again.
“No, please, Billie!” screamed Allie, peeking around the corner.
Knowing he was launching another fireball, I spun to the side and ducked right before it hit me.
“Impressive!” hollered Billie. He smirked. “You just never disappoint, do you?”
When I reached Allie, I pushed her around the corner and grabbed her arm. “Where’s Kylie and Adria?”
“I don’t know. We split up,” she said.
I pulled her down the corridor toward Nordstrom’s. “I’m going to find a place for you to hide, and then search for them,” I said, grabbing her hand. “There should be plenty of places in Nordstrom’s.”
“What about Billie?”
“I’ll deal with him, too.” I hoped to at least.
We hurried into the store. I looked over my shoulder and was surprised to find that he hadn’t followed us.
“How did he do that?”
“What?” I asked as we passed the perfume department and headed toward the escalators.
“The fire? How did he make the fire?”
We began climbing the escalator. “I don’t know.”
“Is he a demon?”
When we reached the top, my eyes stopped at the Linens Department. “Come on,” I said, pulling her hand.
“Cassie? Would you answer me? What is going on with Billie?”
“Uh, a demon?” I wanted to shrug it off by laughing, but her question actually scared the hell out of me. He obviously wasn’t my friend Billie anymore. He was Travis. The problem was, I had no idea what Travis was. “I really don’t know.”
“I’m so scared,” she said, squeezing my hand.
I led her to an assortment of hanging shower curtains and stopped. “I know,” I said, turning to her. “But I’m here now and I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Her blue eyes searched mine. “Are we going to be okay?”
“Yes, we are.”
“I don’t want him to kill us.”
“He’s not going to, Allie. I won’t let him.”
“What about that hole? Did you see it?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think Satan is going to come out of it?”
I paused. “Satan?”
She nodded. “That’s what Kylie and I were thinking. Billie wants to sacrifice Adria and then Satan will know she’s dead. Then he’ll come here to try and rule the world.”
“That’s really… dark,” I replied.
She smiled grimly. “I know, but it’s starting to make sense.”
I sighed. “Listen, nobody is sacrificing Adria and you’re going to be safe, too.”
“How can you be so sure?”
I smiled. “Because, I’m your older sister. I know everything.”
She snorted.
I sighed. “Look, I don’t know for sure what is going to happen, but we’ve survived a lot and I’m not going to let that freak kill any of us, okay?”
She nodded.
“Now listen to me - you have to hide and stay hidden. Here,” I handed her my ax. “Hide behind these curtains and wait for me to come back for you.”
“What if you don’t come back?” she asked, her eyes filling with tears.
I hugged her. “I will, Allie. I promise. Just don’t leave here unless… there’s a fire or something.”
“And if there’s a fire?” she asked as I released her.
I thought about the people in the restaurant. “Remember that restaurant that dad used to love? The steak joint, right across from the mall?”
She nodded.
“There are other survivors there. Nice people. If I don’t come back in a couple of hours, try to find a way to get to those people. I know they’ll help you.”
“A couple of hours?” she asked, horrified. “I have to wait that long?”
“Well, yeah… It might take me a while to find Kylie and then get back here to you. Look, this place looks pretty safe and nobody will see you behind these curtains. Please, just promise me you won’t leave.”
She sighed and nodded. “Okay. Not before two hours.”
“Right. I don’t want you to leave any earlier. Okay?”
She frowned. “I don’t have a watch.”
I rubbed my forehead and looked around. “Fine…. I’ll be right back.”
“Okay.”
I rushed over to the cooking d
epartment and found a small handheld kitchen timer. I then hurried back and gave it to her. “There you go. Wind up the timer and when it goes off in an hour, rewind it for another hour. Easy, right?”
“Please come back,” she begged, her lower lip trembling.
I hugged her again. “I’ll do my best.”
“Do you think that Adria is the ‘Chosen One’?”
I released her. “Honestly, I really don’t know.”
“I think she is,” said Allie. “So, you’d better save her.”
16
Bryce and Company
“Did you hear that?” whispered Kristie.
“I didn’t hear anything,” said Tiny, pulling a long screwdriver out of a zombie’s forehead.
“That’s because you were too busy with him,” said Kristie, nodding toward the corpse. “But I definitely heard something.”
“I heard it, too,” said Henry, frowning.
“I think I heard Allie screaming,” said Paige, looking frightened.
“And the other voice may have been Billie’s,” said Nora. She sighed. “What in the hell has gotten into him? I just don’t get it.”
There was another scream.
“Let’s go,” snarled Bryce. “Time for some heads to roll.”
“As long as you let me at Billie first,” Nora, trying to keep up with him. “I owe him.”
“I’m not promising anything,” said Bryce, leading the way toward the center of the mall. “Especially if he’s hurt one of the girls.”
“Understandable,” replied Nora.
As Bryce was about to round the corner, he froze and raised his hand in the air. “Hold up… what in the hell is that?”
They all stopped and stared in astonishment at the large, black hole.
“Are you kidding me?” gasped Paige, moving toward it.
“Whoa, hold it, girl!” snapped Kristie, pulling her back. “Don’t you dare get near that thing.”
“It’s that damn hole you were talking about, isn’t it?” said Tiny.
Henry raised his gun and began moving toward it. “You guys just stay back. I’ll go and check it out.”
“Henry, I don’t think you should go near that thing,” warned Kristie. “You could lose your balance and fall in.”
“Oh, I’ll be fine,” he replied. “Just let me check this out. If something happens, the oldest one should be the one to go.”
“The oldest one should also be the wisest,” she replied. “So don’t get too close, Henry.”
“Would you look at that,” said Henry, stopping near the edge. “In all my years, I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s… unbelievable.”
Tiny walked over and stood beside Henry. “Wow, I feel like I’m looking down into space and the only thing missing are the stars.”
“How did it get here?” asked Nora, also moving to the edge.
“I don’t know. It certainly wasn’t here yesterday,” replied Justice.
“No, it wasn’t,” said Henry. “Damn, this couldn’t have been from an earthquake, either. Look at how perfectly round it is. And the edges, they look smooth.”
“This is really freaky,” said Nora.
“If it wasn’t an earthquake, what do you think?” asked Kristie.
“Hmm… Maybe it really is that portal you were talking about, Justice,” said Tiny.
“Wow, I can’t even see the bottom,” said Justice. He got down on his stomach and peered over the edge. “It looks like an infinite black hole.”
“That’s freaken wicked, man,” said Nora. “If there is a bottom, I hope to never see it.”
“Check this out, Bryce,” said Tiny, looking back at him over his shoulder. “Maybe you can give us a scientific explanation for this thing.”
Bryce sighed and moved toward the hole. When he reached the edge and looked down, he experienced an intense wave of vertigo.
“You okay?” asked Tiny, grabbing his arm.
“Yeah,” he said, stepping away from the hole. “Just don’t care much for heights.”
“Well, this is the mother of all heights, my friend,” said Henry. He pulled out a can of chew from his pocket and stuffed the remaining wad into his mouth. “Check this out,” he said, tossing the empty can into the hole.
They watched as the can dropped and disappeared into the darkness.
“What happened to it?” asked Paige, eager to get closer.
Nora laughed. “Don’t know. It’s probably still dropping.”
“You guys, get away from that thing. We need to find the girls,” said Kristie, looking uneasy
“Hey,” said Justice. “Do you see that?”
Nora’s eyes widened. “Oh shit, what is that?”
“What?” asked Paige pulling away from her mom.
“Paige, get back here,” snapped Kristie. “You don’t need to see.”
Justice stood up quickly. “Get away from the hole. Something’s coming!”
Tiny’s eyes widened. “Everybody move!”
Henry raised his rifle and aimed it. “I’ll take care of that damn thing. Looks like some kind of bat.”
“A mutant bat,” said Nora, backing away. “With five-inch fangs.”
The large winged creature flew out of the hole and soared toward the ceiling, making an unearthly screeching noise.
Kristie gasped in horror. “What in the hell is that? A vampire bat?”
The creature swooped back down and flew toward her and Paige, its ragged jaws open wide.
“Tiny!” screamed Kristie, pulling Paige with her as she began to run. “Kill the damn thing!”
Tiny took off running toward them, his gun raised in the air. “I’ll get it.”
“Go into that store!” hollered Henry. “And get underneath something!”
Kristie made a beeline toward the woman’s clothing store, pulling Paige with her. They got on their knees and crawled under a long glass display table.
“Mom, it followed us in!”
“Oh, my God,” she shuddered as the creature landed on the table and stared down at her with its blood-red eyes.
Tiny skidded to a stop and aimed it at the monster.
“Kill it!” screamed Kristie.
“Shit, my gun is jammed,” he hollered, trying to fix it.
Bryce charged into the store right as the winged beast took off flying again.
“What in the hell was that?” asked Kristie, as the thing flew to the back of the store and then out the doorway.
“It looked almost like a flying rat,” said Bryce.
“A rat the size of a Beagle,” said Justice as he and Henry stepped into the store.
“Where’d it go?” asked Kristie.
“It took off somewhere down the hallway,” said Henry.
Nora screamed.
“Oh, my God, you left Nora out there all alone?!” hollered Kristie, crawling out from under the table.
They all rushed out of the store and froze.
“Hey, guys,” said Billie, smiling. He stood next to the hole, his arm around Nora, who looked dazed and confused.
“Billie!” hollered Bryce, looking up toward the ceiling uneasily. “Long time no see.”
“Nora,” called Paige. “Are you okay?”
She didn’t answer.
“Nora?” called Paige once more.
“Something isn’t right,” said Kristie under her breath. “Nora’s not responding. Not even a smart-assed comment.”
“Something is definitely wrong,” whispered Paige.
Tiny stepped forward. “Hey, did you happen to see a large winged creature flying around out here?”
“Why, yes as a matter of fact I did,” he replied, still grinning.
“Uh, where did it go?” asked Kristie.
“I think it may have flown back into the hole,” he replied.
“Where’s Kylie, Allie, and Adria?” asked Tiny, moving toward him.
“Not really sure, actually. Somewhere in this building. They can’t get too
far without me being alerted.”
“What’s going on with you?” asked Henry. He lowered his gun and walked over to them. “You doing okay, son?”
“I’ve never been better,” replied Billie.
“Nora,” said Henry. “What about you, you doing okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said in a monotone voice.
Billie released her. “She’s a feisty one, I’ll give her that. Good thing I calmed her down or she might have knocked us both into the hole.”
“Nora,” said Paige. “Didn’t you have something you wanted to say to Billie?”
She turned to him. “Yes. I’m so happy to see you again.”
Paige arched her eyebrow. “That’s it?”
Nora smiled. “I’ve missed you.”
“I can tell,” he replied. “And I’ve missed you.”
Bryce sighed. “Okay, it’s great that you’ve been reunited, but where are the girls?”
He scowled. “Like I said, I’m really not sure.”
“You haven’t seen Cassie either?”
He shrugged.
“Look, Billie” snapped Bryce. “We heard you arguing with her. I also heard Allie screaming. You’d better come clean and let us know what the hell is going on here before I lose my temper and kick your ass.”
“What is going on is that I need you people to find the girls and bring them to me. If you don’t obey my orders, you will all get to watch Nora’s flesh burn to a crispy black while she screams out her undying devotion to me.”
“I’m leaning more toward kicking your ass and then holding you down for Nora,” replied Bryce, setting down his gun.
Billie sighed. “Somehow I knew you people weren’t going to play nice. Very well.” He raised his hands in the air and a ball of fire appeared. “Bring me the child and I will allow all of you to live. If you refuse, then death will be merciful after I’m done making each one of you suffer a most unimaginable pain.”
Henry quickly raised his gun. “Nora, move away from him.”
She didn’t respond.
“Tiny, grab her,” said Henry.
Billie looked at him, his eyes glowing a yellowish-orange. “Stay where you are and lower your gun, old man.”
“Can’t do that,” he replied.
Billie smiled coldly. “I think you can. You do remember the children at the church? Their frightened cries when they realized that their precious refuge was on fire?”
Henry scowled. “Oh, I remember, and that’s why you’d better stop all of this before someone gets hurt, mainly you.”
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