Escalators and Half-Price Sales

[Greggory Underwood]

<sub>The narrow beam of light danced from across the walls of the huge shopping center.

Greggory Underwood was on a supply run.

He wasn't exactly confident that he would find much here, despite the mall's size. During the first days of the outbreak, hundreds of survivors had raided empty stores and houses, leaving the majority of the city in shambles. Small brawls and sometimes even firefights broke out over small rations of food or batteries. Gregg remembered that on the fourth day of the infection, two men had gotten into a scuffle that ended with both of them battered and bleeding heavily. Even as they lay dying on the ground, they grappled weakly for the precious food.

Since then, Gregg had generally avoided large stores, and kept to raiding small outlets and gas stations. But now that most of them had retreated underground, he had much less competition.
Gregg's footsteps echoed through the massive complex of abandoned stores and broken escalators. The last time he was here, the electricity still worked, but now the generators must have broken down, because the only source of light was coming from Gregg’s flashlight. And even that was beginning to dim.

Dammit. I need to find batteries.

Gregg continued to wander the massive structure What he really needed was a map. Here he was, trapped in a desolate wasteland of escalators and half-price sales. He realized that he should have secured a map before he had come. The longer he wandered aimlessly, the more chance that he might be attacked. Gregg wasn't sure what he would do if that happened. He figured that he could take out one, or maybe even two. But any more than that...

Gregg tightened his grip on his tire iron, desperately trying to keep the flashlight from shaking in his sweaty palms. He adjusted his old guitar that was strapped to his back. How he longed to take it out and play. It had been nearly impossible for him to keep from strumming it a few times while he was in the safety of his personal shelter. But he constantly reminded himself of the carelessness of such action. Only two days ago, Greggory had seen a young man set off a car alarm while he was trying to hotwire it. Needless to say, Gregg had never seen him again.

It was time for Gregg to bail. What did he think he could possibly find here? He was hopelessly unfamiliar with the territory (which the darkness only worsened), he was armed with only a tire iron, and to top it off, his flashlight was beginning to flicker.

To hell with the batteries, I need to get out of here.

Suddenly, a bout of harsh inhumane coughs in the distance shattered the silence. The hacking stopped for a moment, and then resurfaced, louder than before.

That was when Greggory Underwood began to run.
He had heard stories about bigger, stronger infected. For Gregg, the normal undead people eaters were more than good enough for him, thank you very much. In the past weeks since the infection, he had never heard one of those "corpse things" cough. If this thing was different; if it was faster; if it was stronger...

Just then, a hiss erupted from an escalator far behind him, and a massive rope like thing rocketed past him. He had just enough time to think: Thank God it missed, before it swung to the side, and fastened itself around his neck with lightning speed. In one swift motion, Gregg was slammed to the cold littered floor, and began to be dragged along on his back. The air was forced from his lungs, and he gasped noiselessly, unable to breathe. He struggled with the "rope" for a few seconds before he realized that the thing that was dragging him along was soft, flesh-like, and covered in a thick layer of foul smelling ooze.

Gregg's arms and legs began to flail in the air, desperately searching for something to cling to. Suddenly, his left hand hit something, and he grabbed onto it and held. With a bit of a struggle, he latched his other arm to the object as well. His muscles strained as sweat poured from his forehead to his eyes. He saw the object that he had caught hold of: The beginning of the escalator railing. The sweat stung his eyes, and Gregg reflexively closed them. He was starting to feel light-headed and dizzy from the lack of oxygen. His hands were about to slip from the railing. The massive tentacle-like thing around his neck wrenched upward, and Gregg's head was forced back.
Gregg's weary face pointed towards the ceiling as if he was desperately looking to God to save him with some miracle.
His mind had lost all coherent thought, and a stanza from the hit song that had made him rich for a month began to echo through his mind.

The cards were stacked against us, he thought crazily. We never really had a chance.</sub>

[Zoey Black]

How long ago had it been since Zoey had been to the mall? She remembered. It had been before she met the Men in Black. The men, with their black tailored suits, black Matrix sunglasses, and blank Agent Smith expressions. It was before the men stormed into her house with their massive guns. Before her father had come home, piss-drunk, and attempted to rape her.

It was far before that. Before her mother had that "accident" and she fell down the stairs. It was back then. Long ago. Back then when her mother was alive. She was her sanctuary. Her Rock of Gibraltar.

Her mother had taken her to the Crossroads Mall. A large place. It was at least three or four floors tall. It was an immense maze of sporting good stores, coffee shops, fashion stores, and of course Baby Gap, Sticks-N-Stuff, and whatever other store under the sun they could cram into so small a space in that structure.

It had been Zoey's birthday. And her mother took her out. Mostly because her father had shown up. Piss-drunk. Maybe there was some kind of pattern there. And she didnt want her to see her father, half naked, with his dick hanging out of the front of his pants, like an anaconda pressed up against a plate glass window, drooling on himself, passed out on the sofa, with a beer, half empty, clutched in his hand.

She recalled, that her mother and her, had fun that day. They arrived at the large structure and Zoey had marveled at its size. She had "Oohed" and "Awwed" at the hundreds of people that wandered about, criss-crossing, in and out of department stores, and restaurants at the foot court. Going in and out of theatres , from one movie to the next, watching their famous Hollywood power couples acting in action, horror, romantic-comedy, and suspense movies, that would, over time, become classics, be sold as highly over-priced DVDs, and then people will, sooner or later forget them.

She could only guess thats what happened to a lot of movies, actors, and novels.

They went to the mall. They walked about. They didnt really buy anything. At the time, her mother didn't have much money, and a lot of the things at the store, were highly overpriced.

They stood outside of the shops, and window shopped. It was the most they could do. But that didn't bother her. She didn't care. Zoey just loved to be with her mother, out of the house.

And now, there she was, in a darkened mall. Zoey wasn't a little girl anymore. She had grown up. She had filled out quite well. She had cut her hair short. She was wearing the usual, combat boots, fatigues, black top, tactical vest, fingerless gloves. She had her P226 out, with the attached light.

She had been there, looking both for survivors, as well as supplies. She had gotten in through a skylight. It had already been broken, so she just jumped down, and wound up on the top floor.

How long had she been there? She hadn't seen a single one of those things. The walking corpses.

A light. She saw a light. A flickering light, but a light. There was someone down there. She heard the hiss, the cough. She knew what it was. A smoker. The light jerked. They were grabbed. She didn't have time to go down to the stairs. She had to jump.

She climbed the railing and leaped down, landing hard onto her side on the lower floor. Rolling and getting to her feet, she ran towards the person. She saw their legs flailing, them grabbing at anything. She'd run and aimed the gun up, at where the tongue was, and she pulled the trigger.

Once, twice, three times. The sounds echoed in the mall. The bullets struck the tongue. And then the tongue snapped, like a rubber band that was overstretched. "Come on, lets go." She immediately went to grab the man's hand.

Ooh, what do we have here. We have ourselves a hottie. Immediately, that was the first thought that ran through her mind when her eyes fell on the man. Well, she could hit on him later. Saving his life was her biggest priority now.

"Come on, lets go." She grabbed his hand, and with little effort, yanked him to his feet. Then she took off, dragging him along behind her, whether he wanted to or not. That Smoker wasn't dead yet. And she had just majorly pissed it off.

[Greggory Underwood]

<sub>Gregg's weak grasp on the escalator's railing slipped just as the sound of gunfire erupted from a few feet away. The rope-like thing's hold around his neck slackened instantly, and Gregg gasped as he felt air rush back into his lungs. He shook his head slowly, unsure of what exactly just happened. The only sound was that of the blood pounding in his ears with such feroucity that Gregg believed for a moment that they may explode.

What the hell...

The darkness around him was pierced by a bright light above him. There was some sort of figure standing over him, but the flashlight in it's hands forced Gregg to keep his eyes averted, unable to tell if this was someone he could trust. Though in the current situation of the city, being able to trust someone usually depended on much more than what they looked like.

The figure reached down and grabbed his hand, pulling him to his feet. Gregg swayed groggily, vagely aware that this person had just saved his life. Everything had happened so fast that his brain was still in the process of registering the simple fact that he was not dead. He had lost both his flashlight, and his weapon. But even worse...

Where's my guitar?

Just then the coughing, wretching sound returned, harsher this time, as if whatever had issued it had just been injured.

The figure's grip on Gregg's hand tightened, and a voice beyond the flashlight said "Come on, let's go."

Gregg was still getting over the shock that the voice belonged to a woman when the figure began to take off, pulling Gregg along with her. He was able to grab the neck of his guitar before being pulled off into the darkness yet again.

But this time hopefully by someone who wasn't going to try to eat him.

As he attempted to keep up with the woman that had saved him, he noticed that she was running abnormally fast. It had been a while since he had run track, but he still considered himself a fast guy. but now, he was almost struggling to keep up.

As they ran, Gregg began to hear sounds of footsteps drawing towards them. The woman's flashlightfell upon a dark figure ahead that was soon joined by another...

And another...

And another...

Gregg glanced nervously at the woman's pistol.

I hope you can use that thing, baby...</sub>

[Zoey Black]

When she ran, Zoey ran. In some ways, she found the experimentation done unto her by Delta Seven, to sound like the mad experiments of an insane scientist bent on taking over the world with his army of supermen (or in her case, superwomen), but at the same time, she found it to be of great benefit for her.

She had been a fairly fast runner before she met those Men in Black, but now she was much faster. Much, much faster. She ran past Baby Gap, Sports-Us, Toys-R-Us, Hollywood Video, Chambermaid (she didnt even know what the hell they sold there), and a cute Japanese store that sold nothing but Japanese animation, movies, and music, as well as Chinese music,movies, and animation(apparently, some hot new Chinese pop star named Mei had been in the process of making a movie in the United States, and the movie was going to be a sequel to a previously made movie, she saw that on posters that were plastered all over the glass windows. The girl was cute.)

Zoey ran past the stores, dragging the man along behind her, whether he wanted it or not. The cute man behind her, whether he wanted it or not. The cute man behind her that she hoped to flirt with later. Well ,that part, she hoped he wanted.

She saw someone. Or some thing cross her path. She came to a skidding halt. Digging her feet into the ground, she found herself spinning around, and raising her foot. It was something out of the Matrix, with Neo and the Smiths.

She fankicked the person that had gotten far too close to her and her new friend. A sickening crunch was heard as the steel toed boot slammed into the person's face, possibly smashing in a few teeth, and the person was actually sent off their feet. Flying into the air with the force of the kick, and slamming into railing and over it, down to the first floor of the mall. She didnt really care to see if they got up or not after that.

She raised the handgun and pulled the trigger. Once, twice, three times.

The head, shoot them in the head! That old movie line played over and over again in her mind, and she did just that. The girl wasn't the marksman of the Delta Seven for nothing. The first , second, and third shots struck home. Just not all in the head.

The first shot got the guy in the head, she could tell because even in the dark, she could see the guy's head jerk backwards. She heard the wet spray of brain and skull matter hit the air,then the body crumpled unceremoniously to the ground.

The second shot, struck the man in the throat, and he let out gagging sound. But it knocked him back enough that she felt the tiniest bit safe.

The third shot, struck the guy in the shoulder. He also was knocked back, but he got a kick to the face for his troubles, and he was sent into the side of a bench that was sitting off to the side and smashing through the thing. The one with the hole in the throat? He got a bullet to the head, for good measure.

Now that the immediate threat was gone, she grabbed the hottie's hand again and began to drag him along once again. She was heading for the large plate glass window that overlooked the front of the store. They had no time to take the stairs, down or up. Those things would be on them if they tried.

The only way out, was to jump. She held the gun up as she ran, pulling the trigger at least three more times. The bullets flying forward, smashing into the glass, causing it to crack then shatter apart as she grabbed his arm, yanked him close and leapt out of the window.

"Oh I'm gonna regret thiiiiiiiis!" She cried out when she yanked him out with her. Falling through the air. Was doom certain? Nah. She thanked whatever God hottie over there worshiped, because Deus ex Machina kicked in at that moment. Or more like, deus ex trampoline. The canopy that hung over the front of the store, it worked as a trampoline. Landing on it, they gave a bounce, very soft, then they landed and tore through it, landing hard on her side, she gave a faint groan.

"Ah, shit." She popped her neck. "Well, I hope that doesn't ruin our first date, honey." She called back to him as she stood up and took his hand. "Come on, we gotta get to the underground, now."

[Greggory Underwood]

<sub>Gregg was completely unprepared for what happened next. After seeing the woman take out the three

(zombies)

"corpse things" with such deadly efficiency, he was beginning to wonder if she was some kind of super-human. She obviously possessed unmatched accuracy and speed. Considering that there were dead people trying to eat him, and some kind of tentacle monster lurking around, the idea of people with super-powers really wasn't that far fetched...

Now that the three things were dead, Gregg figured that they were finally safe. He glanced around, noticing that his eyes had adjusted to the darkness. The three bodies were sprawled across the floor, blood oozing heavily from the holes in their heads. Greg could see that one of them was still twitching. The woman walked over to it, and fired a fourth bullet into its head, splattering chunks of grey matter all over the floor. He began to shoulder his trusty guitar, doing his best to avoid the gag reflex.

"Jesus..." Gregg muttered, his voice muffled by his hand covering his mouth. "Where did you-"

He was cut off as the woman grabbed his hand, pulling him forward again.

Well, this lady's quite persuasive.

Gregg noticed a faint light up ahead. As the pair turned the corner, the faint light grew brighter, to the point that Gregg was forced to avert his eyes. The light from outside streamed through the huge glass window. Gregg was pretty sure he had never been so happy to see daylight in his life. That was when Gregg realized that the woman wasn't stopping.

"Whoa... Wait... What are you doing?"

The woman raised her gun, and fired three shots into the glass window, shattering it instantly. She was still running full force towards the open gap where the window was only seconds before. They were three stories above the ground. If they jumped from that height onto the hard concrete below...

"No... No... NO! STOP! STOP!"

Glass crunched underfoot as Gregg tried desperately to wrench himself out of the woman's grasp. It was too late.

"Oh I'm gonna regret this!" The woman cried as she leapt from the edge of the building, dragging Gregg along with her. There was a moment of weightlessness and freedom that was somehow able to pervade Gregg's fear. And then they began to fall.

As Gregg plummeted to the ground, and his inevitable demise, he closed his eyes, wishing that he had gotten a chance to see his savior's face before he died. Conscious thought abandoned his mind as the air rushed past him, and his stomach did a barrel roll.

Suddenly, Gregg’s body made contact with the ground… only it wasn’t the ground. The surface stretched out like a trampoline sending them back up in the air a few feet, and ripping the second time they landed on it. Gregg collapsed to the ground with a muffled thud. He looked up, realizing that the canopy a few feet above him had just saved their lives. Slowly, cautious of any broken bones, Gregg rolled over to his back, and then pulled himself off of the sidewalk.

Once again, Greggory Underwood was amazed to be alive. He ran his hand through his hair, shaking his head. Hundreds of questions raced through his mind. What was that tentacle thing back there? Who was this girl? Where had she learned to move like that? To shoot like that? Before he could voice any of them, the woman spoke.

"Ah, shit." The woman said, taking his hand again. "Well, I hope that doesn't ruin our first date, honey."

For the first time, Greggory could see the woman’s face. She looked a bit younger than him, with dark brown eyes, and a pale complexion. Her hair was cut short, black with red highlights.

"Come on, we gotta get to the Underground, now." She said.

"The Underground?” Gregg asked, dumbfounded. He had never heard of the Underground, and quite frankly, he didn’t really give a damn about it at this particular moment. He shook his head, trying to change the subject, and get some answers. “What’s the Underground? More importantly, who are you? What was that coughing thing? How the hell did you do that stuff back there?”</sub>

[Zoey Black]

She had sat up. Well. Surprisingly. No broken bones, not too many cuts, just a scratch or two. No bruises. Oh the wonders of Deus ex Machina. She loved it. Zoey dusted herself off, then pulled herself to her feet as she peeked over at him.

Ooh. Now that she could see him, she was right about her hottie mental note before. This guy is one delicious slab of beef. She canted her head, gave him a faint look over then when he peeked at her, she made sure that she was looking elsewhere. She peeked over at him and gave a faint smile. "Come on." She helped him up to his feet. Unfortunately, they didn't have time to deal with questions. She could almost hear those things, screaming and hollering inside the mall. They had heard the gunshots, they had probably found their dead comrades and probably didn't care for them.

That was one thing that separated the walking-corpses from humans, the corpses didnt care about each other. One saw his friend die, and the other didn't really care. They just wanted to eat. To kill.

"You know, those are all good and wonderful questions, but I'll answer them when we're somewhere less likely to get our heads ripped off and shoved up our asses." She smiled. She didnt say this in a rude, or cruel way, she meant it as a joke. She took hold of his hand. "Now come on, gorgeous. I know of a place where monsters don't go." She began to run , again, and dragged him along, again.

It was odd how this pattern of her running and dragging him along had started. But in a world of death and blood, she didn't want to lose such a fine specimen of maleness. Plus, she didn't like losing survivors.

She had run with him for about five minutes. She stopped at an old building. It used to be an antiques store. She remembered going there when she was younger. It was called "The Green Lion Antiques Store" and the girl that ran it was a pretty Japanese girl, she forgot her name.

But, the place had the most gorgeous antiques. Her mother used to take her there to get away from the house. This is where her mother got the Royal Model 10 that now sits in Zoey's Delta Seven offices. This place, for some reason, never had any monsters in it.

She walked inside, and shut the door. She also shoved a heavy bookshelf in front of the door, with some effort, which proved how heavy it was. Once that was done, she'd lean against it. "Ok, you asked some questions, I will answer them, but you will have to answer a few questions for me."

She sat down on the ground, leaning back against the heavy bookshelf, "First, the Underground is a large bunker, built underground during the Cold War, and recently, a few years ago, it had been refurbished and cleaned and updated. It was meant as a bunker in case of a nuclear war, back then during the Cold War there was a high risk of it."

She'd pop her neck slightly, rubbed her shoulder, "Second, the name is Zoey Black, nice to meet you. You can call me Zoey, or Wonder Woman, whichever you think suits me better." She smiled, jokingly, of course."That thing back there, is what I affectionately dubbed, The Smoker. You know they're coming from that cough, like someone with lung cancer from smoking three packs of cigarettes, every day, for 80% of their lives."

Zoey sighed, "The Smoker was created during the Incident. All I know is that some bad guys named Lost Heaven, gave the President an ultimatum...stop some war that was going on...or they would unleash a virus. The President, in all of his wisdom, stupid bastard, said no. And thus, here we are." She obviously was rather embittered by the idiotic choices made by their governing party.

"And how did I do those things, how do I explain...Well, when the incident began, it was small, at first. No one noticed that the virus had begun to spread, among rats and the homeless. I mean when a homeless man begins to scream and go on a rampage and kill other homeless people, we just figure hey, he's crazy, he's homeless. This government group, whom I affectionately call the Men in Black, or the Agent Smiths, showed up...."

She stood up, "They chose several people with a particular genetic make up. Those who could withstand.....the testing. I guess you can say I'm a superhero, I just cant fly. I have enhanced strength, I just can't stop a speeding train. I have enhanced speed, I just can't outrun a speeding bullet. I hope that doesn't turn you off, honey." She smiled at him.

"And if I flirt, I'm sorry. Its not every day, a girl runs into someone as cute as you. Normally I just run into Smokey McCoughs a lot back there." She motioned over her shoulder, referring to the tentacle monster that almost killed him.

"Now, my turn. What were you doing in there? Looking for food and supplies? How did you survive out here? Are you single and how do you feel about hot chicks with super powers?" Well, she had said she would flirt.