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A beat-up white pickup truck slowly came to a halt in front of a set of entrance doors to an old abandon shopping mall. The parking lot was packed with debris and wreckage of ruined and abandoned vehicles. The trucks engine echoed throughout the parking lot while the rain bellowed from out of the sky, illuminated by flashes of lightning, as it beat down against the earth. A man emerged out of the truck wearing a long and dark hooded poncho and holding a large, suppressed bullpup style rifle. As the truck drove off and disappeared around the side of the abandon mall, the man quickly ran alongside the walls and in through the abandon entrance. Only a sliver of sunlight remained as the sun slowly retreated from the sky.
Once inside the mall, the man ran to a corner and knelt to the ground and began to observe his surroundings. Only the sound of the rain outside and thunder could be heard slipping in through the series of holes plaguing the malls ceiling. Occasional streams of water seeping in through various points of the breached ceiling were littered throughout the hallways. To his left, was an open hallway with some stores with their gates down and the insides preserved perfectly while others had their gates open and looked completely trashed and decimated inside. To his right was a longer hallway where a large cafeteria area seemed to be present on one of the sides. The entire visible floor looked to be covered in large pieces of concrete that have fallen in from the ceiling and various debris that must have once belonged on the shelves of the stores throughout the mall. He decided to go right and venture towards the cafeteria. He hugged the walls closely and moved while crouching to stay hidden with his weapon close to his chest. Once he reached the end of the hallway that led into the cafeteria area, he noticed a sign above the entrance to a stairwell that stated there were more floors above that were also restaurants and food vendors.
After stopping for a brief moment, the man began to ascend the steps to the next level. The second floor appeared to be less scattered with debris, but the food vendor areas looked decimated beyond the point of exploring. He continued to climb the steps until he reached the fourth-floor entrance way. Sticking his head around the entrance way he saw that this floor looked clean and most of the food vending areas looked untouched. Quietly making his way to the closest booth he noticed that the half door behind the counter was locked. Within a quick gesture he leapt over the counter and landed back in a crouching position. Without moving and while holding his breath, he looked beyond the counter and listened for any foreign noises. Once everything seemed safe, he ventured to the kitchen where he noticed a large shelf with various canned meats and vegetables. There was too enormous of an amount for him to carry out by himself, so he raised his arm a bit revealing a small digital wrist device with a fairly large screen and typed something into it. One of the cans on the shelf was a can of tuna and he quickly snatched it off the shelf with a smile and stuck it into one of his pockets under his poncho. His stomach growled against his will as he left the kitchen and hopped back over the counter and headed to the next food stall. Halfway there he noticed a small trail of blood leading to his destination. After stopping he reached down and touched one of the drops of blood and noticed it was still warm and wet.
As he wiped the blood off his fingers, he heard the sudden crash of a can on the ground. He looked in the direction of the sound while aiming down his gun but didn’t find any source of the sound. As he turned back around, he instantly heard footsteps running up on him and was greeted with the blade of a sword swinging merely inches from his face. Before the blade could land, he raised his rifle up and blocked the incoming swing. While still crouching he looked up and saw a woman, with short black hair with long bangs, attached to the other end of the sword. She had dark eyeliner on and emerald green eyes that were so intense they illuminated in the darkness. With an expressionless look on her face, she continued to apply pressure and kept forcing the blade harder against his weapon.
The man was slightly grunting under the pressure of her blade against his gun as he said, “And who just might you be?”
The woman said nothing in return and continued to rain down a hailstorm of pressure against his gun as if she was trying to snap it in half with her katana.
The man began to overpower her and pushed her backwards while pushing the gun against her blade. As soon as he gained control, he let go of his gun and did a backwards somersault into a crouched position as he drew his own katana. The woman stood there in a defensive stance with one hand on her side. The man noticed she was injured and bleeding. The blood he found must have belonged to her.
They both remained in their stances silently before the man spoke out suddenly, “Is there a reason why we’re fighting? I’m not trying to harm you in any way so if we could just stop for a second, I could tend to your wound.” He gestured with one of his hands to her side and showed her a small surgical kit he had under his poncho.”
Even though her facial expression changed as if she wanted to say something, she continued to remain silent and gripped her sword with both hands. She instantly leapt towards him and slashed at his body. The man swung his sword in return, clashing against hers as he rose to his feet. Again, her blade began to move as she slid it down the blade of his sword and whipped it out towards one of his sides barely missing him as he stepped backwards. In a fury of swings and slashes, she moved as if she hadn’t already been wounded. With each swing of her sword, she was driving the man backwards as he could barely keep up to block her incoming attacks.
In a horrifying moment of realization, the man noticed a foul humanoid looking creature advancing on them from behind her on all fours in within what felt like a nano second. As it drew in close, it stood on its hind legs and began to swing one of its arms with razor like looking digits on the end. The woman had no clue the creature was behind her as she thrusted her sword forwards towards the man’s chest. He barely side stepped her blade while grabbing her and spinning her close to his chest, so she was out of the way of the creature’s attack. Four razor sharp claws pierced his poncho, armor, and skin spraying his blood onto the ground around them. While she remained in the man’s arms, she was frozen in fear because she was now facing the creature directly over the man’s shoulder. The creature was still standing bipedally while it was sucking the blood from its razor-sharp fingers. It only could be described as an oblong shaped human covered in some kind of reptilian scales. Its face was very humanoid but had a thick leathery scaly looking skin.
The man stood there still holding the woman close and took a few shallow breaths. He then let go of the woman carefully as she collapsed to her knees in shock. The creature finished licking its fingers clean and let out a shrill screech followed by rapid sounding cackles as it dropped down to all fours. While beginning to sidestep the beast to focus its attention away from the direction of the woman, the man noticed his rifle laying on the ground behind the creature towards the food lobby. The creature began to charge him and swiped at his head once close enough. The man dropped to his back before the creature could slash him and he slid under the creature and sliced into its lower abdomen. His back was ignited into a frenzy of pain as he slid across the ground and rolled to his feet. Even though the creature was wounded, it was viciously licking his blood off the ground from his acrobatic slide. While the creature was distracted, the man ran to his weapon and scooped it off the floor and began to open fire on the creature. It instantly began to charge in his direction while his bullets deflected off its scales. It drew close enough to stand on its hind legs and prepared for a razor sharp cleave until its head exploded off its shoulders in a fiery eruption. The creatures body fell backwards into the ground, revealing the woman who was now holding her rifle which had an underslung grenade launcher attached to it. She was still quite a distance away and turned and jumped off the ledge descending to the lower floors of the mall.
The man stood there for a moment in relief. Blood was pooling from the creature’s neck as its body lied motionless on the ground. Judging that the area was clear due to the sheer fact nothing else came out to play during the fight, the man sat at a table in the food lobby area. Within a few moments, multiple sets of footsteps could be heard ascending the stairwell. Out of the stairwell came three people wearing black ponchos and dressed exactly like the man sitting at the table.
They got close to wear the man was sitting when one of them called out, “Joel, are you alright?”
Another one said, “Damn, looks like one of those things got you good in the back man.”
Joel stood up and said with a moan, “Yeah, I’m good.” He looked towards the thing on the floor and said, “We can strip this thing’s scales down before we leave.” He turned towards the kitchen behind him and said, “Also, there is a shit load of canned food back there we can grab.” He stopped for a second before saying, “I ran into a survivor in here. She was fully armed and beautiful. We sparred for a bit, but I noticed she was injured from that thing. It came out on us during our fight, and I took one for the team, so she didn’t have to. She is actually the one who killed it. As soon as it was dead, she ran off.” Joel turned in the direction she leapt off the ledge in and looked back at his crew.
One of the crew members said, “Here, Joel, let me get your back really quick.” The man pulled out a disinfectant spray and sprayed it directly into his wounds. Joel’s back tensed up for a moment but suddenly the searing pain went away. The spray formed a clear like scab over his wounds and prevented any infection from occurring. The man than said, “Make sure you get that checked out when we get back. That shits just temporary, so you’ll want a thorough cleaning.”
Joel said back to the man, “Thanks Eli for always having my back.”
Eli smiled back at Joel and said, “No problem man. Just don’t forget to have my back when I need it.”
The other two crew members, who were both female, headed into the kitchen area after hoping the counter and unlocking the half door. Joel noticed on the ground next to the deceased creature, was a can of tuna. He checked his pocket and felt the can of tuna he took still there realizing that must be the can he heard hit the ground earlier before the fight. After quickly advancing to it, he picked it up and put the can into his other pocket.
Joel looked back at Eli and said, “Hey, I think that woman was actually here first and found all this food. So, since we took that thing out together, we should split it with her.”
Eli said in response, “That’s noble and everything man, but if you haven’t noticed, she’s gone. And we don’t know when and if more of those things are gonna show up.”
Joel stood there and thought for a second and said, “You guys pack up everything, I’m going after her. She’s injured and I can’t leave this place with a clean conscious not knowing what happened to her.”
Eli looked at Joel with an annoyed look on his face and sighed, “Alright man. You get thirty minutes but then we must leave. We didn’t come here to do any rescue mission for no broad. So, go get her or whatever and be back here in thirty.”
Joel nodded and said, “Thanks man.”
Eli laughed and said, “Even though you’re the leader you still need a guy like me to keep your ass in line so hurry up.”
Joel turned and ran to the ledge the woman had jumped off from and landed down on the third floor. Next to him was a large spatter of blood on the ground and a trail of blood leading away down the hallway. Joel followed the blood trail for a couple of minutes and saw it ended at another ledge that led down in through the ceiling of an actual store front. Once inside Joel saw that the entrance to the store was gated and the store looked to be in pristine condition. Another spatter of blood on the ground and blood trail led to the back door to the store entering into a service hallway for when there use to be a custodial staff.
While Joel stepped into the service hallway, he heard a loud screech in his ear followed by a robotic sounding voice. “Joel you asshole! It took me almost an hour to override that mute button, but I did it. What the hell is the matter with you?”
Joel was holding his head in pain while he laughed and said almost out loud to himself, “Sorry Oliver, I needed peace and quiet when we got here so I couldn’t have you blabbing in my ear every ten seconds of percentages this, likelihoods that, or that the air pressure has changed signifying were not alone.” Joel shrugged and said, “All your calculations take the fun away from doing what I do.”
The voice in his ear seemed to scream at him, “Joel you dumbass I could have told you that creature was in the room as soon as you got on this floor! I was created to be your cybernetic A.I. I’m only here to help you.”
Joel said playfully, “I know that Oli but unlike my previous A.I. you are like alive or some shit and can be super annoying.”
Oli didn’t respond for a moment and finally said, “If I was programmed with feelings, they’d be hurt right now. And furthermore, you have no business chasing after this woman. She seemed to be well armed and obviously is part of another community, so you are purely wasting time at this point.”
Joel said with no hesitation, “Didn’t you see her eye’s Oli?”
Oli responded, “Given that I see everything you can see, yes I did. What about them? During your fight I calculated she had twenty-twenty vision. And honestly, you were only able to keep up with her because she was injured from the start. She would have outperformed you in every way if she hadn’t been.”
Joel continued following the blood trail as he said, “I know right? It’s been a while since I fought anyone that intense.”
Oli scolded, “She was seriously trying to kill you. What conversation do you expect to have with her if you find her?”
Joel said, “She was only like that because she was injured, hiding from that thing, and probably afraid to die.”
Oli said back, “Exactly, and she’s more likely to kill you now since your wounded as well. Just because you have that hardening gel on your back does not mean your invincible you know. I have you gaged around forty four percent stamina before you start caving in.”
Joel snickered as he said, “There’s no way for you to truly gauge my stamina to know when I’ll be out for the night. Your just basing things off stalkerish data you collect on me throughout the day—.”
Joel stopped talking as he noticed the blood trail was getting larger and there were now pools of blood next to the trail. Joel began to walk faster as the blood trail led into a woman’s bathroom. Joel pushed the door open and found the carcass of a similar creature they fought earlier but smaller. It was lying in the middle of the floor and its head was decapitated lying next to it. The blood trail led to the corner of the bathroom where the woman form earlier was sitting and unconscious. Her side was bloody, but Joel noticed a new wound in her arm on the other side. Blood was continuously pouring from the wound as she slightly let out a moan signifying, she was still alive.
Joel knelt next to her removing the surgical kit from under his poncho while Oli said, “Alright so what you need to do is—.”
Joel interrupted and said, “I know what to do just shut up and pulse the room and see if you can get her vitals. Also keep a look out for any more creatures while I do this.” Joel carefully began to remove one of the razor claws that broke off in her arm from the creature she must have just killed. While he worked on her wound, Joel could hear banging off in the distance and he asked, “Oli what is that?”
Oli responded, “I don’t have any data yet. It seems to be originating from outside my pulse radius.”
Joel responded sternly, “Well keep a look out on it. It sounds fucking spooky as hell.” Joel continued to operate on her wound while Oli pulsed the area for any creatures lurking about. Before not, Joel had finished and was using the hardening gel on her wound after he stitched it shut.
Oli chimed in and said, “Her vitals are stabilizing Joel but she’s lost a lot of blood so she might still die.”
After applying the hardening gel to her side Joel said, “Man that was crazy, I couldn’t let someone with eyes like that die.”
Oli responded, “Joel stop obsessing over her physical features. I wasn’t’ programmed to know when you’re being perverted but I can tell when you’re crossing boundaries.”
Joel rebutted, “Since when?”
Oli assured him, “Since right now.”
Joel said, “Oli I have a favor to ask. I’m going to take you off and put you on her. So, could you like use those little nano bots of yours and help her out with whatever you could do for her.”
Oli responded, “Joel that is the most unresponsible decision you could make on my behalf. I am privileged software granted too only those who—,”
Joel interrupted and said, “Yeah, I know all that but she’s not in good condition. I know you can help accelerate blood cell production and little things.”
Oli said, “It will take about eight minutes to recall all my nano bots. Also, we won’t be able to communicate while I’m on her.”
“Joel smiled and said, “Thanks Oli, I don’t know if you know when I’m making facial expressions but I’m smiling right now because of you.”
Oli responded, “I don’t have any data on why you would be smiling so it must mean you’re being creepy right now.”
After about eight minutes, Joel removed his wrist device. When fully removed the screen was black with a small light in the corner of its screen. Joel carefully fitted the device onto her wrist and when it was clasped shut, the screen lit back up as a small needle pierced her skin on her wrist and injected thousands of microscopic nano bots into her blood stream. Once everything was set, Joel could see a message pop up on the wrist devices screen that said, “You owe me a new processor or ram when we get home.”
Joel swooped the girl into his arms and left the bathroom. He quickly but quietly moved down the service hallway carefully looking into every doorway they crossed. While he was running down the hallway, the woman started to move in his arms and began to wake up.
Suddenly she said weakly, “What, in the hell is going on?” As her blurry vision began to slowly straighten out, she noticed the wrist device firmly clasped to her wrist. She began to freak out slightly as she tried to shout, “I won’t be your slave! Put me down this instant I’d rather die right here and now then be subjected too—.”
Joel interrupted her while he kept moving and said, “How about you tell me your name. Mine is Joel.”
The woman didn’t say anything at first but eventually said sternly, “Put me down right now.”
Joel replied, “Can’t do that miss, we aren’t safe here and until I can determine you’ll be okay we are going to keep moving.”
Without warning, the woman began to hear the computerized voice inside her head say, “There’s no use arguing with him miss. He’s very stubborn.”
The woman said quietly, “Oh my god I’m losing my mind. I think I just heard a voice that wasn’t mine inside my head.” She began to cry softly as she asked, “Am I dead and are you taking me to hell?”
Joel began to laugh out loud, and he said, “No you aren’t dead. And that Is Oliver’s voice you are hearing inside your head. He’s an artificial intelligent matrix that resides in that wrist device. That device has nanobots that it injected inside you to help regulate your vitals and boost your nervous system. If it wasn’t for him, you’d probably actually be dead right now.” He smiled as he continued to carry her while running.”
The woman still continued to cry and said, “I am dead aren’t I. That man earlier must have killed me and now I’m going to hell for failing everybody back at home.”
Joel said a bit annoyed, “Listen you, this isn’t hell, and you aren’t dead. I’ve actually saved you twice since I met you and you saved me once, so you actually owe me one.”
The woman said, “I’m not doing you any sexual favors if that’s what you’re getting at.”
Joel responded, “My god, how about you just tell me what your name is and we’re even.”
The woman quietly said, “Samara. That’s my name.”
Joel laughed and asked, “Are you sure? You’re not just making a name up, are you? Because I told you my real name.”
Samara said sourly, “Yeah that’s my name jackass. Is there something wrong with it?”
Joel laughed silently as he said, “No there’s nothing wrong with it at all I was just making sure Sam was your real name.”
Samara said viciously, “My name is not Sam, so if you’re going to say it, say it right thank you.”
Joel said, “Well nice to meet you Sam. Do me a favor and stay quiet and still so you can stay alive. And I don’t know where you came from, but half of that food is yours. Since we worked together, we will split it.”
Samara sat in his arms quietly and didn’t say anything while they moved out of the hallway and into a warehouse shipping and receiving area. Joel quietly asked, “Sam, ask Oli to pulse the room and let us know if there’s anything else besides us in here.”
Samara raged back, “I’m not Sam! And he said there are at least sixteen lifeforms in this room all at a higher altitude than us.”
Joel looked up towards the ceiling but couldn’t make anything out as it was too dark to see that high. Samara said suddenly, “I feel like I’m going to puke with this robot in my body. He’s super annoying and won’t stop telling me things about you.”
Joel laughed nervously and said, “Yeah, I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks so.”
At that moment, a giant green and yellow ball of mucus looking ooze dropped in from the ceiling right in front of them on the floor. As it sloshed into the floor it started to dissolve the floor tiles and sank deeper into the floor below them until it disappeared. Joel started to move faster toward one of the loading bay doors. Once he reached the doors, he unlocked one with one hand and opened it. The bay door was about halfway open when Joel stepped outside and noticed, standing right on the other side of the door was ten or more mutinous looking creatures. They all looked similar to the ones they had already fought except the eyes on their heads seemed to be missing and were replaced by having an extra-large human looking mouth with razor sharp teeth. As if their whole head was just a giant mouth like mechanism.
Joel stood frozen for a moment and slowly stepped backward inside and slowly closed the bay door and locked it. Very quietly Joel said, “It didn’t seem like they heard us so we’re not going that way.” As he turned around, more mucasy blobs were falling from the ceiling and melting various parts of the floor away. Carefully stepping over them, Joel wobbled across the floor to the closest exit back into the main part of the mall. He could tell they were back on the ground floor and coming down the hallway that was originally on his left when he arrived. He ran down to the cafeteria area where he saw Eli and the others carrying a load from the kitchen to the truck.
When Joel was close enough Eli said quietly, “Turns out this place is starting to crawl with those things. So, this is our last trip.”
Joel quickly responded, “I agree. There’s things outside that I’ve never seen before and there was more than I could count so we have to go back the way we drove in here.” When Joel looked down, he noticed Samara had already fallen asleep. He told Eli, “I found her! She was on her last breath but she’s still kickin.”
Eli noticed that she had the wrist device on and asked, “Dude, you put Oliver on her? That’s totally gonna get you in trouble back at home.”
Joel said, “I didn’t have much of a choice. She’d probably be dead right now if I hadn’t.”
Eli replied, “Well it’s honestly not my place to say anything so let’s get the hell out of here.”
Everybody moved quickly and silently out the entrance Joel originally came in from to the pickup truck that was parked right out in front. The truck bed had already been loaded with most of the canned food from the fourth floor. As two of the crew members loaded the rest of the supplied into the back of the truck, they themselves climbed in the back and laid low with everything in the bed with them. Joel got into the passenger side still holding Samara while Eli got in the driver seat and started the engine and began to drive off. While they all drove away, an enormous red light began to illuminate in the clouds above the mall. As if a completely red sun began to rise, the sky began to light up immensely as a giant beam of red light pierced through the clouds and disintegrated the entire mall complex, parking lot and all, into nothing but a large, deep crater.761Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvmqmU3xOuf
