As The World Dies - Siege Part 36

Lydia drew back and kissed Katie softly. "It's all right, Katie. I promise."

"I'm so sorry." As Lydia gently wiped her tears away, Katie gazed at her, pleading with her gaze for forgiveness.

"Katie, it's all right. I'm not trapped in that body. I promise. And my death...I barely recall it. But, darling, listen to me. Listen carefully. There isn't much time now."

Katie blinked, her hands resting on Lydia's shoulders. "What is it? I'm listening."

"You came here for a reason," Lydia started.

"To save these people," Katie answered.

"No. For another reason. You don't know what it is yet, but you will when the time comes." Lydia's expression was filled with sadness.

"Lydia, you're scaring me. I don't understand."

"When the time comes, you will know what to do."

"What do you mean? Why are you telling me this?" Katie's brow furrowed.

Fear welled up inside her.

"Because, you will give the one you love the gift you never gave me," Lydia answered .

Katie woke up with a start. Travis was deeply asleep beside her, his back to her. s.h.i.+vering, she pressed herself up against him, her hand seeking out his. Her heart was thundering in her chest and she was terrified. Her gaze swept over the people in the boutique. Everyone was sleeping despite the excitement of the coming exodus from the mall.

Finally, she forced her eyes to close, her arm snaking around Travis' waist. She clung to him, her heart still beating hard in her chest. He rolled onto his back in his sleep, his face tranquil. Snuggling into his side, she stared at his profile, trying to calm herself. It had been wonderful to dream of Lydia, but her words had shaken Katie.

It may have been a dream, but she felt strongly that Lydia warned her.

She did not want to even think about something terrible happening to Travis.

Beyond her husband, she could see Jenni curled up in a ball on the cot next to them, snoring softly. Her friend's black hair fell around her pale face. Jenni looked like Snow White with her white skin and raven hair.

Her red sweater set off her looks beautifully.

Closing her eyes, her heart still thudding in her ears, she tried to sleep.

* * * * * The gate slid open soundlessly and the explosive detonated with a loud thump. Flames erupted, setting the zombies near the gate on fire. They staggered back, setting more zombies on fire and a small stampede followed as the primitive fear of fire sent the undead scrambling backwards. The secondary explosives, that had been tossed out on a line, also exploded, setting more zombies on fire. The two trucks roared out of the gate and down the street, crunching burning zombies under the tire treads.

The Senator looked out her window at the mall and the burning zombies.

"I hope the doors hold," Raleigh said softly.

"I'm sure they will," the Senator answered.

The trucks roared into the gray dawn.

3. The Floodgates Open Thomas jerked his head up when he heard a distant thud. The zombies at the wall were instantly whipped up into a frenzy. Some of them stumbled toward the sound, while others quieted down and continued to stare at the barricades and moan.

"Did you hear that?" he asked the soldier next to him.

The young private with the shocking red hair tilted his head. "Yeah. What the h.e.l.l was that?"

They both looked toward the direction of the noise. The mall rose up in front of them, imposing and silent with its blacked out doors.

Thomas looked over the huge back parking lot with its many vehicles and National Guard helicopters. "Something is wrong."

* * * * * The first zombies staggered cautiously past the remains of their burning comrades and into the wide drive in front of the mall. Huge white letters over the front doors read "Madison Mall," but none of the zombies looked up. They staggered to the front doors and began to claw at them. Some instinct deep in their reptilian brain told them that food lay beyond the doors.

Struggling to get to the doors, the zombies jostled each other, their masticated limbs sometimes breaking off. Pus.h.i.+ng and shoving, the first wave of the zombie horde struggled to get to the doors.

The doors did not give, but blocked the dead outside securely. Desperate for food, the zombies clawed and pounded on the doors.

In the melee, one zombie stumbled into the bright blue b.u.t.ton sticking out from the side of the door. The white outline of a person in a wheelchair was on the b.u.t.ton. Long ago, in the first days of the mall, all the doors had been secured and the key copies were used by the guards on duty. But someone had forgotten the handicap door. It had stood unlocked all this time.

Now, the b.u.t.ton was pushed.

The handicap door opened silently.

Several zombies immediately lurched through the opening and into the mall corridor beyond.

* * * * * Poor Robert. He lived his life in obscurity. No one ever noticed him. No one seemed to ever see him. He had nothing to set him apart. He would never be known for anything special.

Even his death that morning would never be noted as the first causality in the mall.

He was dragged down on his way to the bathroom. So blinded by sleep, he had not even noticed the decaying man stumbling toward him.

Poor Robert; he was even robbed of a zombie afterlife. So thoroughly devoured, even his brain was plucked from his head.

* * * * * The zombies filled the first two stores and set about devouring the sleeping people. The first few people died silently, they were killed so quickly.

Then the screams began.

Soon the entire Left Corridor was filled with people running and screaming, trying to escape the dead still pouring through the handicap door.

"They're in!"

"Zombies!"

"Run!"

Chaos descended.

* * * * * Thomas reached the back doors and pulled them open in time to hear distant screams. Turning toward Arnold, he said in a horrified voice, "Get the trucks ready!" then raced inside.

* * * * * Valerie dove off her cot and grabbed her gun and flack jacket. She could barely see, but she struggled to wake up. Located halfway down the Left Corridor, she stumbled into the mall to see zombies down at the far end greedily devouring people. In front of the oncoming zombies, terrified people were running her way. More soldiers appeared out of side stores.

"Stupid puta b.i.t.c.h," Guadalupe hissed as she was wheeled past Valerie in her wheelchair by a teenage boy running at top speed. "She did this!"

Valerie motioned to the other soldiers and they began shoving cots and anything else they could use as a barricade out into the corridor to slow down the zombies.

Thankfully, they were not running zombies. Sadly, the newly fallen dead were keeping them distracted as the zombies greedily stuffed their ruined mouths. Their hunkered forms further slowed the onslaught of zombies pus.h.i.+ng into the mall.

Then, slowly, some of the zombies rose.

Valerie opened fire.

* * * * * Martin wasn't known for thinking ahead. He heard the screams and the gunfire from the other side of the mall and ran to the nearest exit.

Desperate to get out, he pushed on one of the doors and found it unlocked thanks to the Senator. With relief, he opened it and immediately had his throat torn out. The zombie tried to bend down to eat Martin, but the undead throng pushed him over then trampled him. Soon the Right Corridor began to fill with the undead.

* * * * * Arnold was breathing heavily from running around the parking lot and turning on the trucks when the first of the people from the mall ran out into the parking lot. Behind him the helicopters were already rising to try to help defend the mall.

"Get to the trucks," Arnold ordered. He pointed to the nearest ones. "Just get in!"

People ran past him, women, men, and children. All of them were screaming with terror.

Inside gunfire continued.

The soldiers a.s.signed to the escape vehicles leaped into the driver's seats and began to rev up the engines of the big trucks and buses.

Arnold turned to see Guadalupe being shoved down the ramp toward the parking lot by a teenage boy. She looked terrified and was gripping the armrests of her chair tightly. Arnold wondered briefly if it was because of the zombies or the breakneck speed at which the boy was pus.h.i.+ng her.

* * * * * The crush of people running down the Right Corridor slowed them down and more and more fell to the zombies. In the Left Corridor, people were making it out to the back parking lot as the soldiers kept firing into the zombie throng. The dead zombies tripped up their stumbling comrades, but the horde just kept coming.

* * * * * A soldier, defending the fleeing people in the Right Corridor was dragged down three minutes after the initial breach. He pulled the pin on the phosphorous grenade he had clutched in his hand and the explosion resounded through the entire mall. The resulting fire engulfed the surrounding zombies. In their desperation to escape the fire as their primal fear overwhelmed them, the zombies staggered into stores and set cots, blankets and clothes on fire. Soon black smoke began to fill the Right Corridor.

* * * * * In the midst of the chaos, Travis, Katie, and Jenni fought their way out of their store to get out into the Right Corridor. Smoke and fire made the going rough. People were in a panic and shoving and pus.h.i.+ng each other.

Travis held tight to Katie's hand as he pulled her through the throng.

Katie had a tight hold of Jenni's hand. The three of them were swept along in a crowd of people as the zombies stumbled out of the smoke behind them.

Chapter 19 1. Trapped Jenni held tight to Katie's hand as they made their way down the mall corridor. She felt she was being crushed from all sides and she could barely hold onto Katie's hand.

Smoke was rising to the ceiling and was blessedly not overwhelming yet.

"Jenni! Jenni!" a voice called out.

Jenni whipped around to see Amy's terrified face staring desperately after her. She was struggling to maneuver through the crowd, her three children in her arms. No one around her was even trying to help and Jenni kept losing sight of her.

"Keep moving!" Jenni called out to her.

The corridor widened as they pa.s.sed the corridor that cut the mall in half and led to the food court. Jenni was shoved so hard into the wall by a man trying to escape, she lost her grip on Katie's hand and almost fell. She managed to keep on her feet and looked up to see Katie's horrified expression as she was swept forward by the crowd.

"Jenni!"

Jenni looked back to see the zombies were gaining on the last of the crowd. Gritting her teeth, she struggled to move on.

* * * * * The first of the crowd in the Right Corridor hit the back doors only to find them locked. The blacked out countenance was unforgiving as they banged on the doors and tried desperately to open them. Behind them, people shoved forward, trying hard to get out. A few people were literally smashed to death against the doors by the push of a hundred people behind them. Others were trampled.

Precious minutes were lost as the crowd surged, cried out, and fought at the locked doors. Finally, people retreated leaving the dead victims of the chaos lying before the doors.

* * * * * Travis heard the shouts of "The doors are locked!" and immediately turned back. Skirting the crowd and keeping close to the wall, he managed to get to the food court corridor. Dragging Katie behind him, he ran toward the other side of the mall. Other people began to follow his example and soon they were running down the hall toward the food court.

"Jenni! Jenni! Travis, I lost Jenni!" Katie pulled on his hand, trying to turn back.

"We can't go back! Keep moving, Katie. She'll catch up!" Travis kept pulling Katie after him, determined to save his wife and their unborn child. Lydia said choices were to be made and, dammit, his choice was for his family to live.

* * * * * Katie ran behind her husband, his hand holding hers so tightly, she was sure he was breaking a few bones. As she ran, she kept looking around for Jenni, but could not find her. Her stomach clenched tightly as she whipped her head about, looking around desperately.

Fear hit, harsh and strangling, and she fought to keep her senses.

The gunfire, fire, smoke, and screams only made her blood pump harder.

* * * * * Jenni reached the corridor to the food court and struggled to press her way through the crowd. She was at the back of the throng of people and the smoke was beginning to affect her vision.

Looking back she could see the zombies still dragging people down. But they weren't taking their time to completely consume their victims anymore. They were taking a few bites, then lunging toward their fleeing prey.

Out of the black smoke, two tiny figures emerged near her. Amy's daughter banged into her hip and Jenni swept her up into her arms. Then Amy's son gripped Jenni's hand.

"Where's your Mom?"

The little boy pointed.

The smoke parted as Jenni looked back. Amy struggling with a zombie that had grabbed hold of her from behind. Her elbow was up under its chin and she was trying to push it back away from her throat. Her eightyear- old daughter, Margie, was still holding onto her mother's s.h.i.+rt.

"Margie, run!" Amy screamed at her daughter, but the little girl kept held on.

"Oh, my G.o.d," Jenni gasped, unsure of what to do. The kids holding on to her were sobbing for their mother.

As the other zombies neared, Amy made a choice. She turned, grabbed her daughter, and threw her toward the Jenni.

"Run, Margie run! Go with Jenni!" Amy screamed, then the zombies dragged her down.

Jenni screamed in horror, then surged forward, reaching for Margie. She managed to grab the girl's hair and yank her back away from the zombies.

The little girl was shrieking. Clutching Amy's children to her, Jenni pressed forward into the crowd. She fought harder, pus.h.i.+ng her way through the crowd with renewed vigor.

* * * * * Kevin and Valerie fell back as the zombies continued to swarm the Left Corridor. They were fighting with six other soldiers, but overwhelming numbers of zombies were filling the mall. Kevin ordered them to fall back to a candy kiosk just as the first running zombies appeared. Literally racing past the barricaded soldiers, they dove into the last of the fleeing people from the Left Corridor and began tearing them apart right in front of the doors to the parking lot.

Thomas began firing at them and Kevin motioned for the soldiers to run into the corridor that lead to the food court.

"We'll exit through the Right Corridor!"

More sprinting zombies appeared.

The soldiers turned and ran.