Dying to Live

by Roxy De Winter

  “What if we get sick from them?” Xin asked him.

  “I know it’s a risk, Xin.” Pete looked at her, using his eyes to urge her to show some compassion. “One of the kids is only ten, his mom is sick.”

  “Alright,” Xin sighed. “You don’t need to guilt me into it. What do we need to do?”

  “I told him that I’d talk to you guys about it while they checked in with their own. If you all agree, then I’ll head back over to their ambulance to help push the last few cars. The old man is done in.”

  “I don’t mind lending a hand,” Andy said.

  “Me either,” Harry offered. Frank nodded his agreement too.

  Lucy climbed into the driver’s seat to watch when the men headed out to help. Together they made easy work of it. The suited man manoeuvred the steering wheel and Pete, Frank, Andy and Harry pushed. Xin and Lucy couldn’t help feeling sorry for them all. The onslaught of rain was not letting up just yet. The wind had picked up and the thunder was getting louder. Andy had to keep stopping to push dripping hair from his eyes whilst the others squinted grimly into the precipitation.

  When the last vehicle was out of the way, the ambulance lurched into motion. Suited-man shook Pete’s hand and got into the estate car that pulled up beside him. Lucy drove the typhoon over to save the boys the short walk back. They rushed eagerly up the ramp looking disgruntled and sodden.

  “I would kill for a dry towel,” Andy groaned.

  “Yeah?” Frank jested. “Well, you probably will do when we get to the mall.”

  Andy laughed and shook his wet hair at him, showering cold water droplets over everyone.

  “That or you’ll die for one,” Harry teased, his face screwed up against the shower.

  “Wow, do you always look on the bright side?” Andy sniggered. He had pulled a tracksuit jacket from a box and was rubbing it over his hair.

  The turn off led them down a short way to a crossroad. There was a sign for Denver West Village, a small strip mall on the left, and another for Colorado Mills, the upscale mall to the right. The car parks for both looked menacing. They followed the small procession taking a right into the bigger mall’s carpark. The shopping centre looked modern and was no doubt a popular place to visit if judged by the number of dead in sight. Nobody mentioned the ones that were probably waiting inside.

  The movement of their arrival excited the lurking zombies, most were herded together and looked pathetic in their dripping rags. The masses swarmed down on the three vehicles as they drove towards the main doors. There couldn’t have been more than twenty of the monsters surrounding the ambulance but it rocked dangerously as the bodies hit it. They quickly came to a standstill.

  “What now?” Harry asked.

  “Why don’t they just plough through them?” Andy suggested keenly.

  “They can’t,” Lucy said. “Their ambulance couldn’t take it. Imagine the guts that would get sucked through the grille? Whereas, our car is made for sand storms in the fucking desert,” Lucy was smiling as she handled their huge truck, pushing it through the writhing creatures and around the others in their procession to take the lead. Andy watched the splatters that hit the windows around them and felt a mixture of awe and repulsion.

  “You’ve come a long way from being too scared to be near them,” Frank teased Lucy, observing her smile.

  “I had to, didn’t I?” She rolled her eyes. “I’m still scared by them, but you all make me feel stronger, like I’m not alone.”

  “We’re a team,” Xin smiled.

  “Hells yeah!” Andy agreed, holding out his fist for Frank to bump his against.

  “Alright then, team,” Lucy said. “What’s the plan?”

  “Well, I’d suggest that some of us provide cover while a couple of others open the mall doors,” Frank recommended.

  “That sounds way too dangerous. There could be hundreds of them inside!” Lucy sounded shocked.

  “Surely it’d be easier to pick them off as their following the noise out into the open, than it would be to make our way inside and fight in a more confined space?” Frank shrugged.

  “It could work. I think we’d need the machine guns to deal with the numbers we could be facing,” Pete said. “The weather might give us some cover for all the noise. We should arm the others too.”

  “Okay, let’s do it while the zombies are distracted,” Frank suggested.

  “I need to turn her around so that I can get the ramp down,” Lucy said.

  They had made it across the carpark and were facing a big, four-doored entrance, sheltered beneath an archway. This way led into a store rather than the main court of the mall. Entering through the ‘Super Target’ seemed much more convenient. The gang disembarked into the blustery rain, whilst the zombies were busy clawing at the last car. Their attention had filtered away from anything other than the living humans they could see behind the glass windows. The air thrummed with the undertone of groaning zombies.

  When Frank blasted out the first machine gun round, it cracked loudly. He and Pete gunned down quite a few around the cars and then dashed for the doors, leaving Andy and with the task of clearing any others that were still hovering around the vehicles. Most of them had finally recognised the emergence of people that were not sheltered behind metal and glass. The girls fought together, whilst Harry guarded the typhoon ramp, ready to arm the others.

  “Have a look inside, I’ll keep them back,” Pete yelled to be heard over the battering elements. He took aim and fired a rapid series of shots, bodies flailed like ragdolls as the bullets tore through them.

  “What do you see? How many?” Pete shouted, whilst Frank pressed his face to the glass.

  “It’s a huge store, I can’t say for sure. It doesn’t look like there’s many,” Frank bellowed.

  “Is it locked?” Pete asked. Frank pushed the door, which gave under his weight, providing Pete his answer. “I’m going in, wait here.”

  Frank was unsure as he watched Pete disappear inside, but he stayed in place. Frank watched as Lucy skilfully handled the immense power of the weapon she held. Bodies fell before her, skulls popped and blood pooled at her feet. As he looked on, a figure approached her from behind. Frank fired at it before Lucy could even realise that it was there. Her eyes caught the motion of the crumpling body and she turned to see. She raised her eyebrows and looked up at Frank, who nodded at her with a smirk. Lucy winked back at him before turning back to help the others. Xin was also more than competent with her gun and assisted three of the other survivors in collecting guns.

  Very few walkers remained in the car park but more were heading over from the strip mall. Andy was trying to handle his gun whilst supporting the weight of a young blonde woman. The gun was heavy and much harder for him to use with only one hand. Frank looked quickly through the doors and into the shop, then back to Andy. Harry was too busy offering the suited man a shotgun to notice that he needed help.

  “Fuck it,” Frank’s voice was lost in the gale but he jogged over to relieve Andy of some of the weight. The two of them together got her into the back of the Typhoon. There were already four kids cowering in the back and the youngest boy stepped forward when he saw them.

  “Mom!” He called, glad to see her and eager to help. “C’mon momma, sit down here.” He took her hand and assisted her onto one of the bench seats.

  “I’ve gotta get back. Pete went inside,” Frank explained to Andy before hurrying off.

  The clash of gunfire and thunder were as unrelenting as the rain. Frank couldn’t tell what sound was coming from inside the store and what was outside, it all merged into one chaotic cacophony. Xin appeared beside him whilst he was craning inside to see where Pete had gotten to.

  “Where’s Pete?” She called. Frank was startled and for a second or two his gun was pointed at her.

  “Sorry! I didn’t mean to...” Frank was horrified, “He’s inside.”

  Xin patted his arm and walked past him.

  “You can’t go i
n there!” He looked even more horrified.

  “I’ll be fine, stay with the others,” She reassured him.

  The shop was darker inside than she had expected. The stormy day stole the sunlight that should have filtered in and improved visibility. There was a bad smell in there too. It smelt like something was rotting, but Xin didn’t want to consider whether it was anything more than food. She walked down the nearest isle with her gun drawn.

  “Pete?” She called quietly. “Pete?”

  There was no reply, which caused her to worry. The deeper into the shop she went, the darker it got. She was forced to turn on the torch that she had started to carry on her belt. At the end of the isle, she checked each way before she carried on down the next one. There was a noise in the isle to her left and a figure passed quickly by the end of the one she was creeping along.

  “Pete?” Xin called slightly louder than before. She was getting scared and worrying that she could accidentally shoot him.

  A machine gun rang out inside the shop making Xin jump. The sound ricocheted all around her and the shelves seemed to vibrate with it. When the noise subsided, footsteps echoed towards her. At the end of the isle, someone appeared in her torchlight. Xin readied her gun before realising that it was Pete.

  “It’s just me. I think that’s all of them,” Pete was running the back of his wrist over his forehead as she lowered her gun.

  “Why didn’t you wait for us?” Xin asked furiously.

  “I thought that with all the chaos was going on outside, it would be a good opportunity to sneak inside and quietly barricade the internal doors to the rest of the mall.” Pete was somewhat baffled by her anger.

  “Did it work?” She asked.

  “Yeah, they’re secured now.”

  “Good,” Xin nodded. “But next time, please just take someone with you.”

  He nodded and then added, unsurely, “I’m sorry.”

  Before she could answer, a noise came suddenly from behind Xin. “Mmmmmmmgraaaah!”

  She turned just in time to see a shape reaching out across the floor and grabbing at her. She screamed and fell backwards into one of the shelving units. A pain seared her leg and she winced as she inched backwards away from the creature. Pete leapt into action, hauling the zombie away from her. He grappled with the bony frame and its grey skin split at his touch, leaking watery fluid over his hands. Pete kicked it in the stomach and knocked the zombie off its feet. The blow sent it sliding off down the aisle. Pete took a few steps towards it and let loose a spray of bullets. Once he was sure it was dead, he turned back to Xin who was using the shelves to regain her feet and support her weight.

  “Are you okay? Did it hurt you?” Pete flustered with concern in his voice, rushing to her side.

  “I don’t think so,” she assured him, letting him take some of her weight.

  Xin shone her torch at the unit she had fallen against. On the second shelf from the bottom was a selection of hand held garden tools. There was a smear of red on the prong of a small fork. She shone the torch at her leg and a tear in her jeans revealed a deep, ugly, red gash that was leaking blood. She could feel it squelching in her shoe when she limped forwards.

  “I must have caught myself on that,” Xin told him, shining her torch back at the fork. “At least, I hope that’s what it was. Let’s get everyone inside.”

  “Then we find the pharmacy and patch that up, okay? We don’t need it to get infected.”

  Xin nodded and let Pete help her back to the doors where the gun noises were growing further apart.

  Frank was relieved to see them both but immediately noticed Xin’s limp.

  “Are you okay?” He asked her as he hurried over to meet them.

  “I’ll be fine,” She smiled.

  “We need to bring everyone inside. It’s secure now,” Pete informed him. Frank nodded and ran off through the rain to tell the others.

  “There are loads of battery powered lights in here,” Pete told Xin. “We can get them going and make a temporary camp.”

  “But...” Xin put too much pressure on her leg and winced. “We can’t stay here, we need to keep moving.”

  “It won’t hurt to see out the night here. We can let the storm pass and get some proper sleep rather than having to sleep sat up. We can eat well and freshen up, get a change of clothes,” Pete tempted her. “And these new people might want to help us if they know what we’re doing.”

  “I saw Andy getting them into the truck; we can’t have children coming with us,” Xin said. “It’s too dangerous for them.”

  “Maybe, but it’s dangerous everywhere now,” He sighed.

  “But this is a place they can make safe,” Xin said. “If we’re staying the night, maybe we can give them a hand getting started.”

  Pete was about to reply but he noticed the others approaching. Instead, he left Xin leaning against the wall so that he could hold the door open for them. Andy had the blonde woman cradled in his arms and Harry was carrying a young boy. The suited man and a woman, who could only be his wife, were urging on three more kids. Behind them were Frank and the older man, who pulled a woman along by the hand. She was wearing a hijab that covered her hair and stumbled as she ran.

  Andy was first through the door. He was out of breath from running with the woman and was relieved to put her down. Pete helped him sit her on the floor and Harry who was next through the door oversaw the others, making sure they all made it inside.

  “We got spotted,” Andy puffed. “They were lurking around the side of the building, they’re coming up behind us.”

  “Quickly,” Harry rushed the last man and his wife to get inside. “Get the other doors,” he urged everyone else. Pete, Andy, the suited man and his wife leant against the other three double doors. The moment the couple were through, Harry slammed the last door shut behind them. A few seconds later, faces pressed to the glass.

  “Ugh,” Frank groaned. “Ugly fuckers.”

  The youngest boy laughed at him and walked up to the glass to stick his tongue out at the nearest dead face.

  “Hey, kid,” Frank caught his attention. “See that rack of belts over there?”

  The kid looked around and then nodded. “Yessum.”

  “Could you fetch me a few?” He asked.

  “Sure,” the kid shrugged. He came back moments later carrying an armful of brown leather belts with shiny golden buckles. Frank took one and looped it through the doors handles a few times. He made sure that it was tight enough before buckling it and stepping away from the door to test its strength. When he was sure that it would hold he turned back to the kid.

  “Good job, squirt,” He said, ruffling the boys hair and taking a few more of the belts.

  Frank helped the others secure their doors. Once they were all holding off the undead without assistance, Pete suggested that they move away from them and let the monsters wander off of their own accord.

  Everyone who was capable busied themselves with something or other. The three older kids were putting batteries in camp lights and lighting a circle in an open space at the centre of the store. The young boy sat with his mother, holding her hand and talking to her.

  After a quick assessment of her condition, it was clear that she wasn’t sick. She was suffering from drug withdrawal. The boy explained that usually she got medicine from the doctor that helped her feel better and that she was trying her best to stay clean. Xin had a brief discussion with the other new women and told them the names of a few particular drugs to look for, including methadone. After that, the suited man’s wife had taken the woman with the headscarf to search the small pharmacy section of the store and Lucy had insisted that Xin let her look at her injury. She had set about using cotton balls to dab antiseptic onto Xin’s leg and trying to stop the bleeding.

  Harry had enlisted the suited man and the older Muslim man to help him look for things they could use to reinforce the doors. Andy was lugging camping cots into the lit circle and Pete was preparing a coupl
e of camping stoves. Frank was moving all of the corpses over to one corner and covering them with bed sheets.

  He was dragging the body of a woman in a pink dress when the young boy appeared in front of him. The boy looked at the smeared blood trail, then at the woman and then at Frank.

  “What’s up, kid?” he asked. “You don’t need to see this.”

  “I don’t mind,” the boy said. “Dead Rising was my favourite Xbox game, so I’m not scared of zombies.”

  “I see,” Frank chuckled. “Personally, I think Dead Rising two was better.”

  “No way, man!” The boy protested animatedly.

  “What’s your name, kid?” Frank asked, a trace of humour still in his voice.

  “I’m Aiden Maloney,” He replied confidently.

  “Oh, really?” Frank grunted as he let the woman’s legs drop. “And how old are you, Aiden Maloney?”

  “You can call me Aiden,” the boy said. He picked up one of the sheets from the pile Frank was using and handed it to him. “I’m six.”

  “Thanks, buddy,” Frank said, taking the sheet from him and shaking it out. “Well, I’m Frank Burton. You can call me Frank. That’s you’re mum over there, huh?” He thought that she looked too young to be the mother of a six year old.

  “Yeah,” the boy sighed.

  Frank paused with the sheet hanging from his hands to look at the boy. He was looking at the body of the woman sadly and Frank quickly threw the sheet over her.

  “I’m sure they’ll give her some medicine and she’ll feel better in no time,” Frank reassured him. “Hey, that was the last of them. Shall we go and see what food is still good?”

  “I hope there’s mac and cheese,” Aiden beamed.

  “I’m sure there will be. C’mon,” Frank laughed.

  An hour or so later everyone was sat in the circle, either eating or getting changed out of their wet clothes, and waiting for the food to cook.

  “Courtney, you must take this, yes?” The woman in the hijab was trying to encourage Aiden’s mother to take a brown medicine bottle and a bottle of water. Courtney reached out weakly for medicine. It slipped from her fingers and rolled across the floor. Aiden picked it up and took it back to her.