by J. R. Knoll
With a nod, he conceded, "Okay, Kiddo. Just stay close and keep your eyes open."
Back inside, the squad moved slowly as all eyes scanned every shadow, everywhere they could be attacked from. Nerves were on edge, but Zoe did not find herself afraid at all anymore. Walking at Sergeant Morris' side, she was a little giddy inside just to be close to him, just to be included, and her mind strayed from the mission at hand.
"Do you like my shoes?" she asked suddenly, struggling for something to say to him.
He looked down at them and nodded. "Yeah, they look great."
She nodded back, biting her lip as she folded her hands behind her as she continued to grope for something to talk about. Social situations were not something she had ever been able to grasp outside of her family and she found this one to be very, very difficult. "Um… Uh…"
"Did you make it to the other end of the mall?" he asked suddenly.
Zoe shook her head and reported, "I didn't look upstairs on that end. Those people attacked me before I could get over there from the food court."
He glanced over his shoulder to the soldiers behind him and ordered, "Upstairs. Half the squad on one side, half on the other."
On the second level, the troops were divided up and moving at a slow, stalking pace toward the other end of the mall, their weapons ready and their eyes vigilant. While Zoe understood the gravity of what they were doing, other things were on her mind and she could not concentrate on the job they had ahead of them. Open store fronts were just routine and she hardly gave them a second thought until one of the soldiers stopped and trained his weapon into one.
"Sarge," he hissed.
The squad came to a stop and everyone looked that way.
Sergeant Morris advanced a few steps toward the open store front, staring intently into it as he and his men waited for any movement.
Zoe took his side and also looked, but she did not see anything in there. Her mind strayed again and she looked up to him, asking, "So is Tex your real name?"
All attention slowly turned on the girl as she stared patiently up at the Sergeant and awaited an answer.
"It's a nickname," he replied. Looking over his shoulder, he ordered, "Let's check it out. Stay sharp."
"I'll go," Zoe announced as she strode forward. "They won't bother me, anyway." This was less bravery, less looking out for her colleagues and more trying to impress the Sergeant.
"Zoe!" he hissed.
Looking over her shoulder, she assured, "I'll be right back. This store isn't that big."
She strode in and stopped to look around her, not seeing any movement, then she proceeded at a slow walk the rest of the way in. This store sold candles and knick knacks, little things that any girl would like to pause and look at, and she did as a display of little unicorn figurines caught her eye. She picked one up, then she looked to her side as she heard something move, a familiar shuffling sound of feet dragging. Slowly, she put the little unicorn back and turned that way, calling, "Hello? Any zombies in there?"
The shuffling stopped.
She neared the back of the store where there was a door that had a sign on it that read Employees Only and she paused. With that sign there, she was hesitant to go in for fear of getting into trouble.
Something moved right on the other side of the door.
Zoe simply did not know what to do, so she turned around and strode out of the store and right up to Sergeant Morris.
He stared down at her for long seconds and finally prodded, "Well?"
"I heard something," she reported, "but it's behind a door that says employees only. Do you think I can go in and see what's in there?"
He simply stared back for more long seconds, then finally raised his brow and assured, "Yeah."
"Okay," she complied as she spun around on one heel. "Be right back."
Not bothering to look around her this time, she strode right up to the door and turned the handle to open it, coming face to face with a woman who had worked there, a woman who appeared to be in her forties who wore a lacy white button up blouse, a flower print skirt that dropped down to her ankles and a necklace that looked like it was made of many, multi colored clear beads that looked like they were made of glass. Her skin was gray, her eyes were white with little black dots in the middles of them and were sunken in, and her cheeks were hollow and darker gray.
The two zombies just stared at each other for a moment. There was movement behind the zombie woman and it became clear that there was at least one more in there. With no expression, Zoe closed the door, turned and strode back out of the store, keeping her eyes low as she rejoined the soldiers.
Stopping right in front of Sergeant Morris, she looked up at him and reported, "Yeah, I found one."
The whole squad tensed.
"I think there might be another one in there with her," she went on. "They're in the back where the door reads employees only."
"Did they come out?" someone asked from behind the Sergeant.
She shrugged. "I don't know if they want to. The first one is just standing at the door so I closed it again."
Morris nodded and looked past her. "Okay, let's check it out." He patted Zoe's shoulder as he walked by and ordered, "Stay here, Princess."
She turned and watched Sergeant Morris and the five men with him as they stalked into the store, and she just stood and waited.
Gunfire erupted, very briefly. There were only a few shots, then silence.
Zoe watched as the soldiers returned from the store and she did not seem to recognize the stress in their eyes nor was she really interested in what had transpired. Her attention was fully on Sergeant Morris.
As he reached her, he motioned to the soldiers with him and ordered, "Okay, let's move out."
The search resumed and the other soldiers fanned out about six feet apart, but Zoe stayed right at Sergeant Morris' side. She still struggled for something to say to him and glanced at him often.
"Um," she finally stammered, "uh, so is Tex your first name?"
He smiled slightly, still scanning the area as he replied, "No, that's just a nickname."
"What is your real name?" she asked with an innocent tone.
"William Morris," was his brief reply.
"Why do they call you Tex then?"
"Because I'm from New York," he answered in a thick, southern drawl.
Her brow lowered and she looked forward again, then back up at him. "Um, what?"
"Kidding," he assured. "I'm from Texas." His smile faded as he added, "I'm hoping I'll get to go back there one of these days."
Zoe nodded and looked ahead again. Something reached her senses, that familiar, carrion scent and she stopped and breathed in deeply. It stank, should have, and she found herself wanting to seek it out.
Morris and the other men stopped as well and he turned to her, asking, "What is it, Kiddo?"
"Do you smell that?" she asked with a little grimace.
He tested the air himself, then shook his head. Looking to the men, he asked, "Does anyone smell anything unusual?"
Nobody responded.
He looked down to Zoe again. "What is it you smell?"
She took another long sniff, then replied, "It's like when you're in the car on the highway and you pass an animal that's been run over. It…" Her eyes widened and she mumbled, "Uh, oh."
Walking to the rail, she looked over the side and scanned the lower level. Something from ahead of them down there caught her ear and she looked that way, toward one of the major department stores, and her eyes widened.
The soldiers went there as well and all looked.
The doors to the department store stood open, and forms began to move slowly through them, hundreds of them! They were dressed as if they had come from all walks of life, a cross section of the undead populous that had converged on the mall, and they appeared to be of all different ages from children to the very old. They all moved with those jerky, unsteady steps, and they all moved in the same direction.
/> When Sergeant Morris noticed some of his people taking aim, he shouted, "Hold your fire!" They all looked to him and he went on, "We don't have the ammo to just spray and pray. We need to set up defensive positions. Helms, get on the horn and call back to the base. Tell them we have heavy contact inside the mall.
One of the men across the balcony who held an M-16 took careful aim and fired one shot that drove home right through a zombie's head. They all watched the zombie fall and the others just walk around him.
Tex looked down to Zoe and asked, "Do you think they'll come up after us?"
She shrugged and admitted, "I don't know."
The zombies began to stop beneath the soldiers and look up at them. Moans sounded from some of them, gurgles and coughs from others. One of them yelled something primal up at them.
Another soldier took aim and fired, and another zombie fell.
The corporal, who was on the other side of the food court, shouted across, "They have us a little outnumbered, Sarge."
Staring down at the mass of zombies below, Sergeant Morris just nodded, then he called back, "As long as they stay down there I think we're in good shape."
Several of the zombies looked to the stairs, then they started that way.
"You were saying?" one of the soldiers with him grumbled.
"Pair up and cover the stairs," he shouted. "As soon as they bottleneck on the stairs we can start picking them off, and don't waste ammo!"
Soldiers ran toward the stair cases and took their positions up, some kneeling, some lying prone and others content to stand. Tex checked to be sure that everyone was in position, then he looked to Zoe and ordered, "Get to someplace safe. This is about to get really loud."
"I want to stay with you," she whined.
He just stared back at her, then he shook his head and ordered, "Stay behind me then."
As the soldiers had fanned out, so did the zombies. This affect was unexpected, but the zombies seemed to be following their living intended victims and looked for the easiest way to get to them. More had joined them, more that kept looking upstairs to see what they wanted.
Morris shouted to his men, "Hold your fire until they're about halfway up, then fire selectively. Headshots are the only way to kill them, so make every round count."
The tension piled up as Zoe watched the zombies approach the stairs. The first to arrive at the closest stairs began a slow ascent, moaning a little louder as they climbed, and the majority of them seemed to be heading her way!
Tex took up a position beside those men, leaning over the rail and aiming his weapon down at the undead mob that slowly closed on them.
"Short, controlled bursts," he ordered in a low voice. "Princess, you might want to cover your ears. This is going to get a little loud."
She complied and covered her ears with her hands, watching with wide eyes as the zombies slowly ascended the stairs.
When they reached the platform that was about halfway up, Sergeant Morris said in a calm voice, "Let 'em have it."
Weapons fired with loud cracks and projectiles connected and exploded through heads and torsos. Zombies began to fall immediately. In a few moments, all of the teams were firing, zombies kept dropping, but they kept coming.
Zoe looked to the department store, seeing even more coming through those doors, then she looked to the entrance, her eyes widening as she saw more coming in through there.
One of the soldiers on Morris' firing team let an empty magazine fall from his rifle, and he looked back at the Sergeant as he reached to his belt for another, shouting, "We are in some deep shit here, Sarge!"
"Then shovel faster!" Tex yelled back.
"I'm down to three mags!" someone else shouted over the shooting.
Zoe's mouth tightened to a thin slit and she glanced around. She knew that the soldiers would run out of bullets long before they ran out of zombies. Looking to Morris' belt, she saw the radio there and reached for it, taking it from him and backing away. He was too distracted to notice and just kept firing, so she backed into a shop and keyed it up, calling, "Hello? Is anyone there?"
Long seconds of silence answered.
"Hello?" she called again.
"This is Colonel Halstead," a familiar voice finally answered. "What's the situation in there?"
"It's bad!" she shouted. "The guys are running out of bullets!"
"We're right outside in the Strykers," he informed, "But we have problems of our own. We'll get ammo to you if we can, but the outlook is doubtful. Tell Sergeant Morris to hold out as long as he can."
"Okay," she replied. She huffed a breath, feeling frustrated that the other soldiers could not come in and help. Striding back to Morris with long steps, she looked down to the steps to see that the bodies had really piled up on that first landing of the staircase, and others were climbing over them or moving them out of the way to continue to try and get at the men. Her mind was not well suited to figuring out such solutions, but she tried her best anyway. Something had to be done.
Looking to the other side, her eyes widened as she saw the elevator. Down on the lower level, no zombies were around it, and inspiration struck the girl. She patted the Sergeant's shoulder and shouted over the gunfire, "I'll be right back, okay?" Not waiting for a response, she turned and ran around the rail that overlooked the first level, toward the elevator, and once there she pushed the button.
And waited.
She beat on the door with her palm and shouted, "Come on!"
A few seconds later it opened and she darted in.
On the ground floor, she ran out a few steps, looking around her to see zombies everywhere. Gunfire erupted outside and she looked to the main doors. That's where the Colonel had to be!
Zoe ran outside to see three Strykers backed up to the mall. Each of them had a machine gun turret firing into the sea of zombies that mobbed them from every direction while other soldiers fired from ports in the machines and out the driver and passenger windows up front. There were far too many zombies for them to allow anyone to leave the vehicles safely. Without considering the danger, Zoe began to push through the hoard of zombies that surrounded the machines, and she shouted, "Excuse me! Pardon me!" as she made her way to the first Stryker.
Nearly there, she was pushing past a large zombie man when the back of his head blew apart and she shrieked as brains and blackened blood spewed out, and she watched him fall. Looking back to the Stryker, she finally realized that she was right in their line of fire, and only about twenty feet away from it. For the first time, she was afraid they would shoot her by mistake. As she made her way closer, she began to wave her arms and shout, "Hey! It's me! Don't shoot me!"
She finally arrived at the first one, somehow getting there without getting shot, and she climbed up on it on the driver's side and knocked on the window. Another zombie tried to climb up as well nudging her aside, and she barked, "Move!" as she pushed him off. She knocked on the window again and when she saw the driver looking at her, she waved to him and shouted, "Is Colonel Halstead in there?"
The driver was a little surprised to see her at first, but quickly regained his bearing and shouted back, "He's in Ranger One, on the other side."
Zoe huffed a breath and looked away, then she informed, "The guys inside need more bullets. Do you have any more in there?"
"Hang on," he said as he turned to go to the back.
A moment later he returned and lowered the window just enough to slide an ammo can out, yelling over the gunfire, "Here's two of them. Can you carry them okay?"
"I think so," she yelled back, dropping the first can to the ground. "I might have to come back for some more, is that okay?"
"Yeah, it's okay!" he barked. "Get these to Sergeant Morris! We have plenty more."
"Okay," she complied.
Holding an ammo can by the handle in each hand, she made her way back inside, back to the elevator, and once upstairs, she ran to Morris and set the cans down, opening the first one and pulling out a magazine. Tapping
him on the shoulder, she asked loudly over the gunfire, "Do you want more?"
He was concentrating on what he was doing, but finally looked over his shoulder at her, to the full magazine she held, then finally to the cans on the floor. Looking back at her, he barked, "Where did you get those?"
"Colonel Halstead is outside," she answered. "I went out to one of the trucks and asked for some and the guy I talked to said we could have more if we need it."
He took the magazine from her and ordered, "Take the other can to one of the other firing teams, then go for more."
With a quick nod, she replied with a smart, "Yes, Sir!" and went about her task.
The fight lasted a long time and Zoe shuttled ammunition to the soldiers two cans at a time for a couple of hours. Though she felt herself tiring, she was also elated to be included in something so important. She felt as much a part of the team as she ever had in her life and her fear of the zombies that were attacking those in the mall and the Strykers was all but gone. It was clear that they were not interested in her, not interested in stopping her, but it was also clear that the soldiers would occasionally mistake her for one of the bad zombies and shoot at her. She was hit once, but it did not hurt and simply passed through her leg, and she found herself too busy to pay the wound any attention.
At some point, all knew that there were simply too many of the zombies and a rescue effort would eventually have to be made. Everyone was starting to run out of ammunition and the reserves in the Strykers were dwindling.
Almost three hours into the fight, Sergeant Morris backed off of his firing line and took Zoe's arm, leading her into a store behind them where he could talk clearly to her.
"We need to find a secure way out of here," he shouted to her.
She nodded and looked around her, then to the other end where the food court was. Pointing that way, she said, "There is another elevator by the food court and another in that big store over there. The zombies don't seem to know about the elevators."
"They may just all come up this way once we abandon our positions," he concluded. "I'm also sure that those elevators won't hold thirteen of us."
She looked about again, then to him and asked, "Do you think there are any zombies on the Macy's side?"
