Stage 6

by James, Dylan

  I paused for a moment, and replied, “Yeah we’ve seen what happens.”

  Ben said, “Well I understand it might take a while for that to sink in. Please, make yourselves at home. We’ve been here for three days now and not once have the Infected even tried to get up here. I used to work the night shift as a security guard so I normally patrol the area at night, and trade off with somebody as it gets closer to morning. It’s pretty safe up here.”

  I thanked him, and asked, “Where do you guys normally sleep?”

  He said, “Hey Shawn show them the bedroom. I need to go check out the situation downstairs.”

  Shawn bowed, mocking Ben and said, “Yes your highness.”

  I could sense this wasn’t intended to be rude, and Ben smiled as he left the room.

  Shawn looked at all of us and suddenly said in a loud voice, “This is the living room, and is quite extensive as you can see. Now if you’ll just follow me, next we’ll move onto the bedrooms and then perhaps the kitchen later.”

  He dashed across the room, scooted by a stereo and turned on some dramatic, fast paced song. He then came back, and began to walk off in another direction in dance, stepping and dropping to the floor to break-dance every few steps as we slowly followed him, supporting Lucy and my Mom. Kevin laughed, and jogged up to talk with Shawn. I didn’t catch all that they said, but I got the distinct feeling they were discussing various zombie movies they’d seen. Eventually we came to a store that obviously sold beds, as it was completely filled in every corner with all manner of beds. I asked Ian what time it was, and after glancing at his watch in a double take, told me it was almost eleven at night. I helped life Lucy into a comfortable bed, and the others found similar such arrangements. Kevin and Shawn were still talking, and Ben said he’d take the night shift so I didn’t see any harm in getting some needed sleep. After the last couple days I felt like I needed to sleep for a year. I hopped on to a very, very comfortable bed and rejoiced in its soft feeling. As I fell asleep, I wondered just how many more surprises were in store for us...

  Day 10

  I awoke to the sounds of hurried conversation. Feeling instantly alert, I rolled out of bed and looked around to see most of the others still asleep. I walked out of the comforter store to see Steve and Ben talking together in the center of the mall. Both had their weapons drawn, and looked anxious.

  Confused I approached them and asked, “Hey, what’s going on?”

  Ben replied curtly, “You and your group attracted the Infected. They are surrounding the mall, and the floors below and from what Steve tells me once they find prey they don’t give up until they’ve caught it.”

  Stunned I ran over to the stair case, to see a horde of Infected pressed up against the blockade and around it, trying to push their way through. And they were seeing progress as well, slowly but surely.

  I walked slowly back to Steve and Ben, and asked, “Well... What do we do?”

  Ben turned and pointed off in the distance, at a door near a corner. He said, “You see that door over there?”

  I replied, “Yeah. Where does it go?”

  He continued, “That door leads to the roof. On the roof, there is a fire escape leading down to the parking lot. I was just up there a while ago, and I think it’s possible to sneak down the fire escape without being detected. The problem is once we’re down there, where will we go then?”

  I thought for a second and then said, “On the way out of Texas, when that small car we randomly picked up ran out of gas do you remember me telling you how we sent Steve in to look for a new car, and then followed him to it?”

  He replied slowly, “Yeah... You think we can do something similar here?”

  I said, “If somebody could sneak down there, and find a suitable car, then he might even be able to bring the car around to the fire escape. Our rescue will be waiting for us before we even touch the ground.”

  He stroked his beard for a few seconds, and then said, “You know that might actually work. And while he’s down there looking for a car, we could be preparing supplies and the group. Yeah I like this. Let’s do it. Shawn is good at moving quietly, he’s gathered some key stuff from throughout the mall for us.”

  He then stopped and looked off into the corner of some store, and said loudly, “Hey Shawn you up for it?”

  I turned with a start, Shawn must have been there the entire time and I hadn’t even noticed him in the shadows.

  Shawn dipped his head and replied, “Sounds good to me.”

  I spoke up, “Hang on; you’re going to let this little kid go do something like this?”

  Shawn stepped forward to me said, “I may look like just a little kid, but I’m actually fifteen. I look young for my age. And trust me, I’m far better prepared than you for something like this.”

  I bristled, and asked, “Is that so? What makes you think that?”

  He replied simply, “You’re still living in the past. It’s a whole new world out here, a world you aren’t prepared for.”

  Getting angry, I replied, “Hey kid, I just led our group out of Texas what the hell makes you so sure you’re more prepared than me?”

  He looked up at me, stared me straight in the eye, and then slapped me across the face. Shocked, I lunged for him, and he nimbly dodged out of my way and then uppercutted me to the stomach. I collapsed, gasping, and he moved forward and kicked me onto my back.

  He leaned down and said, “This is why I’m more prepared than you. You let such a silly thing like anger, guide your actions. You just reacted with violence to somebody who is about to save all our lives.”

  He got up. Suddenly I heard clapping, and I turned my head to see Kevin cheering and yelling, “Bravo! Encore encore!”

  I slowly made my way to my feet, when Kevin came over and said, “I’ll go with him. We now have twelve people in our group; I don’t think one car is even going to do it. We need two cars. We need a big, big car preferably a bus of some kind which takes supplies, weapons, and most of the people; a supply/passenger van so to speak. The other car needs to be an escape vehicle, something sturdy, fast, and able to scout ahead of the less maneuverable supply van. With two people searching, we’ll find such a thing twice as fast, and when we do we can simply drive it back to the fire escape. We will more than double the time.”

  Ben laughed and said, “You guys are such strategists! I’m glad to have you on board. Alright get to it, we’ll wake the others and get them packing.”

  Kevin stopped him and said, “Wait one more thing. I know I’m bringing my gun down there, how are you guys doing on weapons?”

  Ben grinned and said, “I was hoping you’d ask that. Follow me to my personal stash.”

  We followed him into a store where an almost obscene amount of weapons lay in piles surrounding tables and furniture.

  Ben said bluntly, “Before getting stuck on the top floor, I made it my habit to collect these off of the dead.”

  He gestured at a gathering of pistols, and said, “These are all the same brand. I got them mostly from police officers.”

  He then turned and pulled a few rifles off the ground, and said, “There was a rather large group of people here yesterday, down two floors beneath us. They were hunters I’m assuming, and after they made their last stand, I waited until the Infected stopped feasting and then snuck back to get their guns. They had a lot of ammunition for the guns as well.”

  He picked up my shotgun off the floor and handed it to me grinning sheepishly, “It’s about time you got that back huh?”

  I thanked him, and he continued, “And this,” pointing to a huge gun planted on a mount, with a scope attached, “is my prize possession. I had gone down to the shooting range on the same day the Infected from Texas reached the town. There were a few Infected chasing me, and out of panic I backed into the building. There was one other fellow in there that didn’t seem to realize the danger. He had this sniper rifle. After they got him, I waited until they were preoccupied eating him before shoo
ting them both in the head with my pistol. I took this sniper rifle with me. To tell the truth though, I haven’t ever shot it.”

  Steve looked exceedingly happy at this news, and asked Ben, “May I?”

  He took the weapon into his hands reverently, and then exclaimed, “I could use this on the roof! While Kevin and Shawn are down there looking for cars, if any Infected find them I could simply pick them off with the sniper. AND, since the noise would be coming from the roof of the mall, it wouldn’t attract any Infected to their location, compared to if they shot the Infected themselves, with pistols.”

  Kevin high-fived Shawn and said, his voice dripping in sarcasm, “Never have I felt so safe. I love having a sniper trained on me, while I run around searching for cars with zombies at every turn. A dream come true!”

  I was about to remind him he had volunteered for the mission, when he abruptly turned around and headed to towards the door to the roof. Steve took a case of ammunition for the sniper rifle, and followed them.

  Ben said to me, “Alright while they’re doing that, mind if you inform the other’s of our plans? I’m going to watch the barricades and make sure none of them get through. If you can, get the others to start gathering supplies. Get these weapons also. Take everything that’s valuable. Ask Emily for where everything is; she’s been in charge of keeping everything in one pile, more or less.”

  I nodded, and jogged quickly over to where everybody was sleeping. I gently woke everybody, and then gathered them around in a circle and informed them of our plans.

  I finished with, “And Emily, Ben told me you would know where to find all the valuable stuff you’ve collected?”

  She nodded, and said, “Yeah, just give me a few minutes to get my things together.”

  I said loudly, “Everybody should do the same. Collect yourselves, and get ready to go. We’re going to have to travel down the fire escape, so we need to figure out a way for Lucy in particular to get down. Also, somebody will have to carry Victoria. We need to figure out a way to strap her to one of us, so we don’t have to use an arm to carry her.”

  Ian said, “Don’t worry Jack I’ll think of something. I’ll get everybody prepared and ready, you just worry about the supplies and how we’ll get down there.”

  I nodded, thankful to have him there. I trusted he would get the job done. I waited outside the door until Emily came out, and slung a backpack on the floor.

  She said, “Alright let’s get to it.”

  She started walking towards the center of the floor, and kept talking as she did so. She said, “We have found quite a few useful things in our travels in the mall, and so far we’ve just been throwing them in a closet up here. Cleaning supplies used to be kept here, but we emptied it out when we found it.”

  We came up to a small door, and she opened it to reveal a huge number of bags, food, tools, clothes, medical supplies, gas cans, and camping equipment.

  I whooped in admiration and shouted, “Yeah!”

  She laughed at my reaction, and asked, “So what do you think, are we taking all of it with us?”

  I replied happily, “As much of it as we can!”

  I sorted out the duffel bags into three red ones, and four blue ones. I told her, “Let’s see if we can store all the food in the blue duffel bags. Then we’ll store the health stuff in one red bag, and mark it. We’ll store the tools in another bag, and so forth. This way it’ll be much easier to organize.”

  She agreed, and said, “Alright but this will go much faster if we got some help.”

  Just then a shot rang out from the roof, and I ran towards the stairs leading up. I stopped by the mattress store and hurriedly said, “Anybody that’s free, go help Emily gather all our stuff into the right bags. She knows what to do.”

  Then I bolted up the stairs and onto the roof to see Steve laying down, taking careful aim over the roof. Another shot fired, and then another. I rushed over to where he was, and peered down at the ground. I could clearly see a figure climbing up the fire escape, and a small truck parked off to the side beneath it.

  I strained to see what Steve was firing at, when suddenly he spoke, “You see that big school bus over there?”

  Instantly I saw the bus he was talking about. There was somebody desperately trying to open the school bus doors. There were three Infected lying dead next to him, with evidently new bullet wounds.

  I replied to Steve, “Yeah, is that Kevin? What’s he doing?”

  Steve replied, his eye still on the sights, “I think he can see keys in the school bus, but the revolving doors are locked.”

  I could see Kevin smashing something into the door, and then looking frustrated he stood back and looked around the bus. He turned to us, and started jumping up and down frantically and pointing at one of the bus windows.

  Steve muttered, “I gotchya...”

  A few seconds later there was another bang from the gun, and the window directly next to Kevin shattered into pieces.

  Obviously surprised by how close the shot was to his head, Kevin jumped up and down and gestured towards us wildly. Steve grinned and said, “Kevin’s finger wishes us the best.”

  I chuckled, and Kevin wrapped his coat around his arm and cleared out the glass that was left around the window. He then pulled himself up and fell in awkwardly through the window. The bus turned on a few seconds later, and suddenly began to drive straight towards the fire escape. It screeched to a halt, and then the roof hatch opened and he struggled to pull himself up through the hatch. He managed though, and grabbed the fire escape ladder from the bus and started to climb up. Just then, Shawn’s head appeared over the escape and he jumped gracefully over the edge.

  He saw me and said, “Worked out fine for me. The truck has about eighty miles of gas left, and seems to be in good shape.”

  I congratulated him and said, “Nice job Shawn. Can you-”

  I was cut off by some more gun shots coming from within the mall. Shawn and I looked at each other for a split second and then dashed down the stairs together towards the sound. We came through the stairs only to see the rest of our group heading towards us. There was a horde of Infected chasing them, and Ben was behind them shooting with one hand and holding a bag of guns in the other. Shawn and I reversed direction, and made room for them to enter the stair case. They came up all holding bags of some kind, except for Karen and Emily who were struggling to carry Lucy between them. Ben came in last, and slammed the door shut behind him.

  He fumbled with some keys, and then gave up and shouted, “Run!”

  There were more frenzied movements now, and we all burst out onto the roof in one motion. Ben slammed the second door to the roof shut, just as the Infected burst through the first door. This door he locked securely, with a set of keys he probably had access too from his security guard job. I picked my shotgun up off the roof where I had left it and aimed at the door. Suddenly there was a muffled group of thumps, as the Infected slammed into the door. It was holding, but we could see the doorframe weakening.

  I shouted, “Get down the fire escape!”

  Kevin’s head appeared over the fire escape just when everybody rushed over to go down, and he had a brief instant to yell, “Are you serious!?”

  He then started the long climb back down, and let others come in above them. Steve had packed up the sniper rifle, and he took Victoria from Ian. Ian had fashioned a baby-carrier from some backpacks and rope, and Steve quickly fashioned it on him and then began down the fire escape. In a vertical, single file line they began to descend down the escape. We all filed in, Ben last as always. I looked up to see him get slowly into the fire escape, when suddenly I heard the door burst open. Ben took out his pistol, and fired several times.

  He shouted to me when he saw I had stopped, “Keep going, I’ll buy us some time before coming down!”

  I dimly heard Shawn shout, “This isn’t a zombie movie Ben, so no heroics!”

  Ben laughed and yelled back, “Trust me I’m too old for heroics.”


  He continued firing while we climbed, and climbed. As we neared the bottom we saw to our horror that a group of Infected were surrounding the bus and truck, and were waiting for us to come down. Kevin reached the bus first, and then stood up to help the others down and lower them through the hatch. Each person would first hand their bags to Kevin, and Kevin would through them through the hatch before actually stepping onto the bus.

  As soon as Ian reached the bus he yelled, “I’ll get the bus ready to go!”

  As I climbed lower and lower, I realized somebody was going to have to jump to the ground and get in the truck. And that somebody might as well be me. Lucy was directly down beneath me, and I could see she was having a tough time. What they had done was bind her legs together in a cast and she had to use tremendous arm strength to slowly lower herself from each rung to the next. She could rest her bound legs on the person beneath her, but it still took its toll. I held my shotgun to my chest, and lowered myself as fast as possible.