The Fifth Survivor - Episode 3

by Angel Ramon

  Even when burned, the spiders give off a horrible smell when they die. George gets away from the spiders as fast as they can to avoid the rancid smell. George reaches the elevator that would take him to the second floor but without power it’s useless.

  He begins to walk towards the stairs and decides to load in the buckshot shells for his shotgun. A loud noise is heard and he turns around, but he sees nothing. Looking around the lobby is quiet with the dead bodies the only thing he sees

  Continuing to walk towards the stairs, he hears windows break and sees a Lizarda jump towards him. With no time to react, George takes a slash on his right arm from the creature.

  Condition: Caution (Level 2)

  After taking the slash, George shoots the creature with a buckshot shell in the head and kills it instantly. The lizard screams in pain as it falls face first and bleeds out of its head. George begins to favor his right arm and sees that it begins to bleed quite a bit.

  Buckshot Shells: 13

  George walks up the stairs instead of going to the supermarket so he can go to the first aid area. Entering the first aid area, he finds plenty of cloth that he uses in order to cover his wound.

  “Ah, that keep that wound in check. Now to the gun shop for more ammo.”

  After healing his wound, he makes another detour to the gun shop. Looking around the mall, an ominous sensation gets into his body. He begins to understand that this might be the last time he sees this mall.

  “Such a beautiful mall… This might be the only time I see this. I’m sure this place will be condemned when everything is cleaned up. Hybrid sure outdid themselves this time. This mall has all the meaning of a discarded old garbage can that Hybrid just used to throw their sorrows away. Brewster mall will forever be known as the mall from hell…” He says to himself.

  Entering the gun shop, he keeps his shotgun equipped. He sees no more undead or any other creatures. He walks to the counter where the gunpowder converting machine is located. George decides if he’ll mix any ammo.

  You have combined a jar of Gunpowder B with Gunpowder C.

  After mixing some gunpowder, he inserts them into the machine.

  You have inserted a jar of Gunpowder BC.

  +10 Dragonfire Shells. Dragonfire Shells: 13

  You have inserted a jar of Gunpowder A.

  +12 Pistol Ammo. Pistol Ammo: 25

  100 XP Gained!

  Crafting XP: 1050/1100

  After reloading himself with more ammo, he leaves the gun shop and heads down to the supermarket. He feels debris falling down from above.

  “Crap… that better not be what I think it is.”

  George looks around making sure there is nothing nearby...

  Chapter 7

  After looking around repeatedly, he sees nothing around and decides it’s safe to keep going. Walking down the stairs, he enters the supermarket. As he enters the supermarket, he hears Mr. Z break the exit sliding doors and the superhuman begins to give chase to him.

  George runs from Mr. Z and ends up slipping on some fresh blood. He rolls as Mr. Z tires to punch him, the monster’s punch strikes the floor causing a six-inch hole. With the Dragonfire shells loaded, George does not shoot fearing he might be burned by the flames. Attempting to get up again, he slips back onto the floor while Mr. Z grabs him by the throat.

  Dropping his shotgun, he quickly reaches for his knife and tries to use it on the monster. The chokehold is enough to cause his arms to begin to go numb. Nevertheless, he fights with everything he has and is able to thrust the knife into the superhuman’s head. After three repeated thrusts, Mr. Z lets go of George and kneels down holding its head.

  Condition: Caution (Level 2)

  Catching his breath, he stutters while running but is able to keep is footing. Getting a fair distance away from Mr. Z, he shoots a Dragonfire shell into the superhuman, setting it ablaze. The flames overwhelm the monster.

  “I don’t even think that freak of nature can survive that…”

  Not taking any chances, he runs as he regains his feeling in his body. Running through the dairy section, he sees a small opening that wasn’t there when the debris was blocking his path. Going through the small opening, he wonders if Dawn is doing ok.

  Reaching the door to the manager’s office, he opens it and goes up the stairs. Running up the stairs, he sees the safe still unopened. George decides to try out his new toy. Placing the EMP device on the safe, it turns on and begins to disable the electronics. After twenty seconds, the lock is bypassed and George is able to open the safe. In the safe, there’s a keycard.

  Picked up a Keycard. It’s tagged in the back, “Security Area”.

  “Nice I got one of the two cards. Hopefully, I can find Dawn and the other keycard. Also, I hope that trenchy is still not around.” He says as he takes back the EMP device.

  Walking down the stairs, George begins to feel thirsty. He heads to the water section and grabs a bottle of water. While it’s warm, he drinks it anyway to quench his thirst. With his thirst quenched, he heads back to the entrance where Mr. Z is still on the ground after being burned.

  “Looks like I finally got rid of that persistent bastard. Maybe there is a chance for me to escape with my hide.” He says to himself.

  Leaving the supermarket, he walks to the security area. Reaching the security area, he inserts his keycard into the reader. He hears footsteps behind him. Turning around with his shotgun, he sees who’s behind him.

  “Sorry about that. I didn’t want to scare you.” Dawn says.

  “Very funny. I was just being prepared.”

  “Aiming a shotgun at me?”

  “Can the smart talk Dawn, what have you found?”

  “Besides more monsters, nothing really. I did find this, however.” Dawn shows him a keycard.

  “It’s better than nothing. I got my keycard already, just put yours in and we’ll see what kind of hell awaits us down there.”

  “I like your optimistic attitude. Are you always this pessimistic?”

  “Not pessimistic, just realistic.”

  Dawn walks to the card reader and inserts her keycard. With both keycards in, the reader begins to read and verify the keycards. All of a sudden, Mr. Z is spotted by Dawn beginning to leave the supermarket.

  “Oh no, not him again!” Dawn shouts.

  “Not even being burned is enough to kill him…” George replies.

  George and Dawn join forces as they both shoot the superhuman. George shoots with the Dragonfire shells while Dawn sticks to her Desert Eagle. The combination of them shooting is enough to get the superhuman down quickly.

  “That was quick,” George says.

  “It was, but only because we’re together. We gotta find a way to kill that thing permanently. The last thing we need is a monster like that in the general public.”

  “I agree, but it seems it’s only chasing us.”

  “It is… I managed to find out a little more about that thing before I ran off. It’s code-named Mr. Z and it was designed by Hybrid to be a superhuman to clear out war zones to expand their empire. However, it also has a chip of Artificial Intelligence that gives it the ability to tell who is against Hybrid. You see, Mr. Z is also programmed to kill off Hybrid opponents or those who dare to oppose them. It seems that it has deemed us to be Hybrid’s enemies.”

  “What else do you know, Dawn?”

  “I wish I knew more hun but I came into this world to protect the wildlife, not destroy it, or use it for sick science experiments.”

  “Something seems to be wrong with the keycards.”

  George sees that the reader is spitting out an error message saying that the cards are invalid. He tries to bang on the reader hoping to knock it into shape but with no success.

  “Oh no… these readers are terrible and you can’t get these readers out without breaking the reader itself. It looks like we’ll have to rip this out and hotwire it.”

  “Actually I got an EMP device that should disable it.”


  George places the EMP device and activates it. A few seconds later the EMP activates and the keycard reader shuts down and turns back on. He hears the maglock releasing and he opens the door.

  “Looks like that did the trick. Ready to go down?” George says.

  “I guess we don’t have much of a choice, do we?”

  “Unless you want trenchy back there to get back up and see us. I think not.”

  George and Dawn head down the stairs until they reach a huge underground hallway with multiple paths. George decides that he will take the left path while Dawn will take the right.

  George turns left and heads through the hallway. Going through the hallway, he sees a couple of spiders. One of them spits poison at him when he’s not expecting it.

  Condition: Poison

  Despite being poisoned, he’s able to shoot the spiders with a Dragonfire shell. One of them begins to char up while the other is able to escape from the flames and attempts to tackle him. George is able to get out of the way by sidestepping to his right. He’s too close to shoot a Dragonfire shell. So he runs from the spider fighting through dizziness due to the poison. When he’s able to get a fair distance from the spider, he shoots a Dragonfire shot at the spider.

  Dragonfire Shells: 11

  With both spiders turned to charcoal, George waits for the flames to burn out before moving forward. Continuing to walk forward, he bumps into some holding cells used to hold thieves before the police arrive.

  Looking inside the cells, he doesn’t see anything useful in any of them with the exception of the last cell.

  Picked up a Green Herb.

  You have combined a Green Herb with a Red Herb to create a Super Herb.

  While he has a super herb, he can’t use it because he’s still poisoned and needs a blue herb to heal. The poison begins to affect him further and he feels weaker as he continues to walk. His legs become numb and his stomach begins to hurt. With the energy he has, he walks through a metal door into another hallway.

  In the next hallway, he sees a few zombies walking in front of him. His blurred vision causes him to miss the undead and shoot into the walls instead.

  Pistol Ammo: 20

  Missing most of his shots, he tries to go around the zombies but falls to the ground. When he falls to the ground, he drops his pistol and grabs his shotgun.

  “Well it’s either I live or not. Here goes nothing.”

  He shoots a Dragonfire shell into the zombies and to his surprise, it hits the undead head-on. The undead begins to burn like his mother’s BBQ and fall to the ground.

  Dragonfire Shells: 10

  “I better find something to heal me or I won’t have to worry about the zombies eating me.”

  Getting up from the floor, George looks around for any blue herbs knowing his time is running out.

  Condition: Poison/Danger

  His vision begins to get worse as he looks for any medical office or station. Walking to his left he finds the main office which is locked. Turning to his right he sees a sign that read “Medical Room”. He pushes the door forward desperately and looks for any blue herbs. Opening cabinets like a mad man, he finally finds one.

  Picked up a Blue Herb.

  You have used a Blue Herb and a Super Herb.

  Condition: Fine

  He takes the blue herb with water that he gets from a sink in the room and is immediately begins to vomit the toxins out violently. After about ten minutes of vomiting, he finally is able to stop. He tries to get up but falls back to the chair after a few seconds.

  “That poison… took a lot out of me. I’ll have to rest here for a bit. I just… hope that… Dawn is ok.”

  As much as he doesn’t want to stop moving, George is unable to get up until his dizzy spell goes away. He sees the door opening and George uses his instinct to grab his gun.

  When the door opens, he’s prepared for a zombie or creature to pop out. Instead, he sees Dawn walk inside.

  “Wait… don’t shoot!” She screams.

  “Whew… I thought you were another one of those monsters. How are you making out?”

  “I found a door that will lead us out of here. It seems to be an emergency exit...” Dawn is cut off by George

  “Excellent work… Argghh.”

  “Are you ok?”

  “No, one of those spiders poisoned me and I have to wait for this dizzy spell to wear off. It shouldn’t be too long now. Once I get better we can get the hell out of here.”

  “Not quite…”

  “What’s wrong Dawn?”

  “I was going to say that the door is locked electronically.”

  “You can’t be serious. An emergency door that’s locked?”

  “Remember that this place lost electricity. I only managed to get the main lobby lit up. The circuit for the door must be somewhere else. We need to find the breaker and activate it. That is my best guess.”

  “I saw the security office with my blurred vision. There might be something to activate the door in there. Just give me a chance to get better.”

  “I never imagined that I would get caught up in working for an organization that is as sinister as Hybrid is. I just wanted to help people with cancer. My mum died of breast cancer.” Dawn says as she begins to tear up.

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “I figured that Hybrid would make good on its promise to cure people and I could make my mum proud. Instead, I’m part of the destruction of the human race.”

  “Don’t be too hard on yourself Dawn. At least you ran away when you found out what was really going on. I gotta say Hybrid outdid themselves using cancer as a smokescreen. Anybody with a good heart could have been fooled and I’m sure we’ll see more those who were duped. The important thing is that we’ll gonna take them down as soon as we get out of here.”

  “I guess you’re right. It sounds like you’re getting better.”

  “I’m getting there. I’m not a hundred percent but sitting here isn’t gonna make the situation any better.”

  George gets up and takes his shotgun that he loads with the buckshot shells. Walking slowly with Dawn, his vision is vastly improved. Dawn spots his pistol that he dropped and hands it to him. The two of them see the door to the main office and enter.

  Upon entering they see a glass window that divides the office from the security manager’s office. Walking slowly, George and Dawn do not see anything important. When they reach the middle of the room, the window breaks, and a Lizarda enters the room trying to kill them. When the lizard gets onto the floor, it runs as it uses its claw to try and behead Dawn.

  “Watch out!” George screams as he tackles Dawn to the floor.

  Getting up fast, he shoots the Lizarda twice with his shotgun. He misses one shot as it wall jumps and slashes him.

  Buckshot Shells: 11

  Condition: Caution (Level 1)

  After being slashed, George tries to shoot the creature again. It sidesteps causing him to miss once again. The Lizarda jumps up and tries to latch-up. Dawn with a baseball bat she found swings wildly and strikes the Lizarda in the head. With the creature on the floor, he kills with her Desert Eagle.

  “Thanks for saving me. If that claw were to hit me, I would have been headless.”

  “Don’t sweat it. I guess that makes us even, right?”

  He gets no response from Dawn as he continues to investigate the security room. Dawn looks in the front of the room while George sticks to the back of the room. Opening a locker he finds a couple of items inside.

  Picked up a jar of Gunpowder B

  Picked up a jar of Gunpowder C

  He also finds a memo that he reads.

  Emergency Exit Door

  “The emergency exit door should be powered on at all times during operating hours at the Brewster Mall. This is to ensure there is an alternative way out should the front door not be an option.

  Under the rare and unprecedented event that power is cut off to the mall. The power will need t
o be turned back on by entering the maintenance are of the mall as the door is locked with a maglock during off hours. There is a keycard in the safe located in the security manager’s office.

  The code for the safe is 454… (The last digit is missing)

  Use the keycard to open the maintenance area and head to the electrical grid room. From there you should be able to get the power turned on for the door. This is only for a certain portion of the mall, for the lights in the main hall you will have to go to the parking garage.

  Ideally, you should not need the card as the maintenance staff has to access to the area. Nine times out of ten, the maintenance staff will take care of the issue if it’s a power problem. Please report if anyone breaches the security area and tries to use the emergency exit. Also please report if the lock breaks or if the maglock is not operating correctly.

  Thanks for choosing to work with us at Brewster Mall. We trust that you will help make the mall a safe place for the shoppers to enjoy and conduct business.”

  Sincerely,

  Brewster Mall Management

  Dawn comes up empty for the most part looking for anything. George heads into the manager’s office as he looks for the safe. He sees the safe is behind the manager’s desk. This is a regular safe, unlike the digital safes that he’s seen before. Using the combination he got from the memo, he figures out the last number is a two.

  With the safe open, he sees the keycard inside.

  Picked up a Keycard. This opens the Maintenance Room.

  “Find anything?” Dawn asks.

  “Yes dear. I think we got a chance to get out of this lion’s dens. After this, I might think twice before going to another mall ever again.” George says while Dawn laughs.

  The two head out of the security office where they see more undead that enter the room to their shock. Between the two of them, they manage to easily kill the undead quite easily. Going through the rest of the hallway, they spot more spiders that they are able to kill off easily.

  Buckshot Shells: 7

  Working together, they are able to avoid getting any damage and keep moving. Before they’re able to go up the stairs, more zombies come down the stairs. One of them grabs Dawn and tries to bite her. George shoots the zombie in the head before it can deal a bite. George is grabbed by another undead trying to bite him.