3 Years Later

A hoard was on the edge of my heels.

The sound of their footsteps caused the floor to pulsate to an earthquake level that caused the terrain to be hard to walk on. Vibrations shaking from my feet and upwards to the point that it numbed the bone there.

My heart screamed but I looked forward. my stomach threatening to turn inside out with each step.

The groans so unbearably close that I can feel the whisper of a breath hang on the back of my neck the entire time. It felt as if someone was just a foots-width away from me. Constantly breathing down my neck and their arms ready to wrap themselves around my body and whisk me away. Far from anyone else and to oblivion.

And the worse part?

I have no clue where I was going. It's been months since I've even stepped inside this mall. Years since I've been this deep inside of it! For all I know I'm running right into the next collapsed area and at the mercy of dead behind me. Trapped inside a labyrinth of broken down hallways and cut off areas in which one wrong turn will lead the Minotaur straight to me.

Should I attempt to leave? Attempt to climb down and hope to make it into day light? Should I travel deeper into the depths of this mall in hopes I'd loose the hoard in between all the twists and turns?

I don't know.

As I scaled down a set of escalators I found my heart drumming hastily. So fast and steady that I would've mistaken it for a clock ticking down. Ticking down to some unforeseen event that I couldn't figure out whether it would lead to my own demise or to my survival.

Then a screech left my lips.

My feet caught on uneven ground that I began to tumble down the steps. I wasn't sure if it was the cracked floor or just some object left astray on the escalator but it was enough to send my body flying. Higher and higher away from the ground and protection. I was able to see what was after me as I spun about in the air. I was able to see the multiple rows of yellowed sharpened teeth. The torn out hairs and bitten off skin. The sickening grey of dead flesh and green of turned flesh. Those empty, milky white eyes blinking in unison. Watching my descent as I traveled fast into the floor once more. I saw the way they crawled on top of one another. A squirming organism making it's way to catch me. Stray bodies were kicked off and fell somewhere below. The sickening thud of flesh slamming into the floor drowned out by groans.

Reality becoming all too real as my back hit the cold metal steps. Feeling the corners bite into my spine before I was sent flying again. Gravity having it's way with my body as I lost my bearings. The fall causing bruises to line my body no doubt causing me to imagine the purple and blue hues that will begin to form.

I wasn't sure if the crack I just heard came from my helmet or somewhere else.

I couldn't even register when I landed on landing. When the stairs molded back to leveled ground. No, I was too focus on the bright pain that lined my entire right side and the distinct cacophony of groans that grew in volume with every second that went by.

Flipping over to my stomach, I scrambled about to get back on my feet. Pain raining hell on my joints that for the first few strides I crumpled back into a ball. My hands constantly clawing and pulling my body against the floor trying to ignore the ache so I could get out of this situation alive.

I wasn't sure if it would've been better to just lay there and let the wave of undead overtake me. To pull me under the water and away from this horrid world. But the voice came again. This time not in my helmet but somewhere deep in me.

"You Must Keep Going." It whispered, almost as if I was some child who scr.a.p.ed their knee.

Screams and sobs welled in my throat in response. Why should I keep going? The pain was unbearable and I'd be caught in the middle of the hoard before I could even get on my own two feet. Yet the voice kept urging me. Kept begging me to get up.

"You Have To Get up," It pleaded as I propelled myself onto my feet, "You Can't End Like This. Not This Pitiful. Not This Sad. It Is Not Your Time."

An almost inhumane yell ripped out of me. Determination anew as I pushed my body harder than I thought it ever could. Dragging such a husk of a body away and back on it's feet. My heart beating ever so faster that my lungs threatened to give out at any moment.

But that voice wouldn't let it.

Even as I felt blood trickle down my face causing my left eye to close I kept moving. Scaling down one more escalator and past the shops of old. Down once familiar corridors in hopes that I get back to my destination.

Where I was running to was the middle of the mall. This area was a large floor that, under other circ.u.mstances, was used for events and had stages. The two floors above allowed balconies so that people could stop and look down at what might be happening with escalators on to travel between floors.

'just two more escalators.' I thought to myself, biting hard on my lip as the adrenaline began to subside and the full brunt of my fall came crashing into me. I didn't even bothering trying to properly climb the first steps and opted to crawl on all fours up them. Hoping to pull and propel myself upwards.

My panting becoming all the more apparent as I scrambled. A smile beginning to form as I saw how close I was to that first floor. Laughs even left my lips as I did when a hand gripped my ankle. My head slammed into the corner of the step causing tears to leave my eyes. My heart stopped as I felt my body begin to be pulled down.

This is it.

BANG