Zombie Attack! Rise of the Horde (32 page)

“For now, it's our only option,” I argued. “We're pretty
close now to the base. I say we cut across the mall and head toward the coast.
We can use it as a guide to make sure we stay on course. If we keep walking,
we'll reach Hueneme before sundown.”

“You want to go in there?” Felicity asked. “How do we know
it's not crawling with zombies?”

“We don't. It's just that out here in plain sight we're
sitting ducks for whoever those crazy maniacs are that attacked us.”

“Are you sure you're okay?” Felicity asked, touching my
face. “I'm not sure you're supposed to move after an accident like that. You
might have a concussion.”

“I think it's okay as long as I don't go to sleep right
away,” I said.

She leaned in and kissed me.

“Guys,” Benji said. “I think I see someone coming.”

I looked past Felicity to see a cluster of men in the
distance walking on the highway. These weren't zombies. They were hunters,
coming to get us and have their revenge for their fallen comrade, no doubt.

“Let's move,” I said drawing my sword. Benji practically
sprinted past me and Felicity followed him. There was tenderness in my right
ankle as well. I didn't notice it until I began the walk up the mostly empty
parking lot toward the front entrance.

Please let the doors be open
, I thought. If they were
operated by electricity or locked up and we had to go the long way round we
were goners for sure. Benji reached the front first and waited for me. A pane
of glass had been removed cleanly from the store window letting us freely step
in. I poked my head inside half expecting to get it chomped by a hungry zombie,
but the store was empty of people as far as I could see.

“Stick together,” I said. I turned to Benji. “Whatever
happens, I don't want you running off unless I say so. Got it?”

“I got it, boss man,” Benji said. We climbed in sliding past
a rack of dresses and I glanced back toward the abandoned Lexus. The cluster of
hunters was getting closer. They were definitely coming for us.

We made our way through the department store, walking up a
frozen escalator and out into the main part of the mall, without spotting a
single zombie. As far as I could tell the place hadn't been infested with the
dead. There were none of the telltale signs, no blood, no human remains strewn
about, no smell of rotting death and decay. It seemed totally impossible, but
the mall was clean. The stores were all open, but shrouded in darkness. Above
us a clear panel skylight allowed rays of the sun to illuminate our path. Birds
flapped around over our heads, going back and forth between stores on the
second level. My stomach growled as we marched past the food court toward an
exit on the other side of the mall, passing a Wetzel's Pretzel.

That's just what I needed to see
, I thought.
I'm
freaking starving
. I'd have killed a hundred zombies for a pretzel right
then and there and stacked the bodies into neat piles for our not so friendly
new friends.

“Can't we stop and check to see if there is anything
edible?” Benji was as hungry as I was, maybe more since he'd just come down
from drinking the blood of the Lamb.

“There's no electricity,” I said. “Which means the food’s
all spoiled anyway. Besides, if we did find anything we'd have to prepare it.
We've got hunters on our trail. We don't have time to stop and cook.”

“The smell would lead them right to us,” Felicity added in a
soft voice.

“She's right,” I said. “Our best hope is to head to the
coast like I said and hope we lose them along the way. For now we've got to at
least stay ahead of them.”

“We can't go forever without eating,” Benji pouted.

What's wrong with this kid
, I thought?
We're being
hunted down like wild animals and he is crying about missing his juice box at
snack time?

Benji was usually pretty easy going. I chalked it up to the
trauma of the accident and being grabbed by that big zombie. That would be
enough to freak anyone out. Still, I hoped he would get it together and not
slow us down. Everyone needed to stay focused if we were going to make it out
alive and together.

“We'll find food along the way,” I said.

“What if we don't?”

“We will,” I promised. “Worst case scenario, we eat at the
base. Now stop arguing and hurry up.”

Benji scowled at me. I had become the mean parent. I guess
someone had to play the role but that didn't mean I had to be happy about it.

“Come on,” I said. “I don't want to argue about this all
day.”

I heard a high pitch whistle hum through the air to my left
side.

“Xander?” Felicity's voice sounded off, like she was
fighting back tears. I turned in surprise to see an arrow sticking out of her
right arm.

“What the hell?” I walked over and looked at it. It was run
all the way through the skin under the bone and out the other side. Bright red
drops of blood dripped from the barbed tip. I heard another whistle zing right
past me before I could comprehend what had happened to her and the second arrow
skidded off the shiny stone floor next to me, clattering across the tiles. I
looked off in the direction the weapon had come from to see one of the hunters
stringing up a third arrow. He smiled at us with black teeth.

“What do we do?” Felicity looked at me with big pleading
eyes.

“Run,” I yelled, drawing my sword and holding it out in
front of me. Benji and Felicity turned and bolted for the sliding doors at the
end of the mall. The third arrow whirred directly toward my head. I brought my
blade up as I ducked and knocked it into a planter between the Orange Julius
and Hot Dog on a Stick.

The bowman crouched down to reload just as his buddies came
tearing in from the darkness of the department store with their guns drawn.

Arrows are one thing
, I thought,
but there is no
way I'm gonna be able to dodge a bullet.

I turned and ran toward the exit as fast as I could. The
sound of gun shots rang out like loud thunder. I didn't stop. I couldn't. My
lungs burned as I pumped my legs up and down as fast as they would take me
until I reached the others.

Benji and Felicity were trying desperately to pry open the
heavy glass doors, but with no luck. I joined in on Benji's side, managing to
get them open about an inch. Felicity let out a shrill cry of pain and let go,
clutching her wounded arm. I looked back toward our enemies. They were
advancing with their weapons drawn. We were trapped! They fired again and the
bullets hit the glass to the left of us. Felicity quivered in fear and slumped
down to the floor.

“Are you hit?” I asked. She didn't answer. “I said, are you
hit?” She shook her head no, unable to speak. She was quivering from head to
toe.

She's probably going into shock
, I thought,
from
the wound the arrow made. Hell, it's still sticking out of her!

They were less than a hundred feet away now. At this range,
their aim was sure to improve.

“We're going to die in here,” Benji cried. “Do something!”

I turned back to the doors and began to pull with everything
I had in me. Benji joined me and the door began to slowly roll back. I could
feel all the muscles in my arms and chest burning.

Don't stop
, I told myself.
They are depending on
you. All of our lives count on it. Pull harder!

I gave out a cry and yanked the doors open a bit more. My
arms felt like stretched rubber left out in the hot sun. The muscles were
giving out. I could feel myself losing my grip. Another shot rang out and hit
the glass mere inches from my head.
I wasn't going to die like this. I
couldn't! Not after everything we had been through. Not without saying goodbye
to Moto.

I stepped between the doors, propping my legs against one
side with my back against the other. The doors came open, but the pain in my
back and legs was almost unbearable.

“Go,” I yelled in a hoarse voice. “Go NOW!”

Felicity crawled through and Benji followed her.

I turned to see them standing on the sidewalk staring at me.

“Come on,” Benji yelled trying to pull me through with both
hands.

I gave the doors one last push and fell through. A chorus of
gunfire erupted from inside the mall as the hunters screamed and wailed at our
escape. Several of the shots made it out through the small crack before the
doors closed and fully shielded us. Miraculously, we weren't hit. My whole body
ached and I panted like a wounded animal as I stood back up on trembling,
unsteady legs. The hunters pounded on the glass but didn't try to pull the
doors open.

“That's odd,” I said. “Why aren't they following us?”

Benji frantically tugged at my arm. I turned around to see the
reason why we'd been left alone. A small crowd of about a hundred zombies had
begun to wander toward us from across the parking lot. The familiar sound of
their unearthly moans and horrible stench reached me at the same time. I fought
back my desire to vomit as a breeze sent a wave of decomposing death over us.

“This is bad,” Felicity said. “We're trapped. What do we
do?”

“Get behind me,” I said, holding up my blade. “We're going
to cut a path to freedom.”

“That's insane,” Benji cried.

“We'll never make it,” Felicity added.

“We've got no other choice,” I replied, letting out a war
cry and charging at the ones closest to us. With a flash of my blade I took off
a fat zombie’s head, kicking his rotting body over. It felt like stepping in
putty. I didn't slow down. Without missing a beat I brought the sword back
across my body to the right with all the force I could manage and took off
another zombie's head with a clean sweep. The rest of the zombie horde didn't
seem to notice my bloodthirsty rampage. They just stepped over their fallen
friends and kept coming at us like the mindless killing machines they were.

Swinging in a wild circle I sliced my way through another,
then punched a thin zombie out of my way, before freeing my blade from the last
victims chest. Dark coagulated blood oozed from the tip of my sword like an
oily film of dead pulp. I shook it off and drove the weapon back through the
neck of a screeching woman who lunged for me, nearly knocking me over. There
were more of them than I had realized. They were reaching me too fast and I was
taking too long to kill them. Benji and Felicity were right. This wasn't going
to work. There was no way I was going to be able to fight them all off.

“Xander look out,” Felicity cried out as a thickly built
male zombie snapped at me teeth first like a rabid dog. I leaned back just out
of his bite radius and felt the horrible chill of his cold breath on my face.
He looked like he had been a body builder before being turned and I was
dismayed to discover that he still had the strength of one as he gripped me by
the throat and began to squeeze the life out of me, raising me completely off
the ground with my feet kicking at the air. I beat my left fist helplessly into
his chest to no avail as I began to see stars popping in my field of vision.
Felicity was screaming at the top of her lungs. I prayed the rest of the horde
hadn't already moved past me and gotten to them. My right arm flailed wildly
with my sword still in it but I wasn't able to make a dent in the monster even
by hacking chunks of flesh from his back. He pulled me forward toward his open
mouth, preparing to tear off the front of my face. In a last ditch effort I
jerked my right arm upward, lodging the sword into his head. I felt his grip
loosen but he didn't relent. He was still making every effort to eat me alive.
With all the strength I had left in my already sore muscles I forced the end of
the sword handle down until the blade slowly sliced up and through his brain,
removing half of his head and exposing rotten gray brain matter and more oily
black blood in the process. He let me go and fell over with an unsatisfying
grunt. I fell to one knee, gingerly touching my neck and gulping in air as fast
as I could. I was dizzy but I forced myself back to my feet to continue to
fight.

“Come on!” I screamed. “Is that all you've got?” Adrenaline
pumped through me as I stood back up. I was ready to die fighting but I was
going to take down every last one of these creatures before I did.

“Xander look,” Felicity said as she pointed to the middle of
the horde.

A flash of light drew my vision off to the right and I
turned to see the strangest thing I'd ever witnessed in my whole life. The
zombies turned back on a man who was walking among them calmly swinging two
objects in a blur around his body that seemed to be made entirely out of
reflected light. The horde seemed so captivated by him, they had forgotten all
about us.

His face was painted like an Indian warrior and he had
several crows feathers tucked into his hair. His face was a mask of calm
resolve. He wore a thin layer of chainmail over his upper torso and head and
protective metal armor from the waist down to his metallic boots. Light
reflected off his mirror polished armor as well as whatever he was using for
weapons, giving him the impression that he was glowing almost from head to toe.

I thought of the pictures Moto had once shown me of Shaolin
warrior monks.

How is he doing that
? I wondered to myself.
It's
like he's somehow able to communicate with them.

The zombies would turn to attack him, then stumble back
looking confused and disoriented. Whoever he was, he calmly moved through them
like he was taking a stroll through the park on a lazy Sunday afternoon. He
might as well have been walking on water as far as I was concerned. He was
headed right for us but I didn't feel any fear. Instead, an indescribable calm
began to settle over me at the sight of him, like for the first time in forever
everything was going to be all right.