Zombie Apocalypse Series (Book 3): Ashes in the Mouth Read online

  Sarah held an angry grimace on her face, disgusted by all of them, but especially him. She wanted so badly to knee him in the balls, but she restrained herself.

  Clint leaned in and smelled her neck, going from her collarbone up to her ear. He brushed her hair to the front of her shoulder and ran some between his lips.

  "Clint!" the same concerned bandit said.

  Clint turned to him with a scowl. "Yeah, I fucking know!" He tossed Sarah's hair back and stepped away from her, then he pulled a walkie-talkie out of his coat pocket. He held it up to his mouth and pressed the button on the side. "Hey, let me in, west side," he said.

  The three bandits stood there waiting as Clint continued to eye Sarah up and down with a look that was more contemptuous than anything. Dale rolled around on the ground, ignored by all of them except Sarah, who still watched him with concern.

  A couple minutes later, a bandit approached from inside the mall. He came up to the glass doors and pulled out a key ring. They all stood outside watching him as he fiddled around with the ring, trying to find the right key. When he did, he shoved it into the lock on the inside of the door, turned it, then pulled the door open for them.

  "Bring them in," Clint told the others as he strode inside.

  One of the bandits took Sarah and followed behind as the other one tried to pick up Dale. The bandit was too skinny to have any hope of lifting his mass and he had to get him to help himself up. When he did, he shoved Dale toward the door, holding his rifle to his back. The last bandit who had opened the door for them grabbed the jug of water and the garbage bag that Dale dropped and brought them inside, then he closed the door and locked it again.

  The small entourage made their way through the empty mall, which was somehow fully-powered with all the lights shining brightly and even faint mall music playing in the background. The occasional steel barrel dotted along the mall, each one ablaze, providing warmth in the biting cold.

  Sarah hobbled along without her crutches and couldn't help but put a little weight on her bad ankle. The pain was strong each time, but she managed okay, and it seemed to get a little easier as she went.

  Clint walked in front of her, swinging his arms in a cocky, ridiculous gait. If Sarah didn't know any better, she would have thought he was the boss with how highly he thought of himself.

  They made their way past empty stores that looked surprisingly clean. The bandits no doubt had cleaned it up and taken care of it after they took over the mall, something that Dale hadn't anticipated.

  Dale's head pounded as he held a hand up to his wounded jaw. He rolled his jaw around, but he was met with intense pain, and he didn't know if it was broken or not. He had half a mind to lash out and start beating on all four of the bandits before they could be taken somewhere even more hopeless to escape from, but the gun barrel periodically poking into his back was a constant reminder to stay cool.

  Clint led them up an escalator that was in perfect working order. When they got to the top, they walked along another set of stores toward the food court.

  The food court up ahead cut into the wall of stores in a big bowl shape. Sandbags were stacked up at the front of it, creating a wall that was level with the front of the stores on either side. Behind them were metal posts standing up with barbed wire strung up between them, creating a solid and impassable wall about six feet high. Two blazing steel barrels stood on either end of the makeshift wall, giving off a warm and eerie glow.

  Clint led them between a gap in the middle of the wall of sandbags and barbed wire into the food court. All the tables had been shoved to the edges, and a small group of about fifteen bandits sat around on chairs. One sitting in the middle of them looked up slowly at the approaching group with sagacious eyes.

  Clint stood to the side and waited for the others to file in behind him, like he was proud to present his prize to his boss.

  "Who are they?" the bandit sitting in the middle asked.

  "Found 'em trying to get in on the west end," Clint said excitedly.

  "What happened to him?" the bandit asked, looking at Dale's face.

  Clint's eye twitched. "Uh, he tried to fight us, boss," he said nervously.

  The boss gave an unimpressed smirk. "Did you search them?"

  Clint's eye twitched again. "Uh... no."

  The boss sat in silence, waiting. When nothing happened, he said, "Well?"

  Clint immediately shot forward and started patting Dale down, the fear palpable on his face. He pulled out a handful of jerky from one pocket, and a candle, a lighter and a few clips of rifle ammo from the other. He set it all down on the floor as the other bandit who grabbed Dale's gun stepped forward with it.

  Clint turned to Sarah and started patting her down and reaching into her pockets, but came up with nothing. "She's clean," he announced.

  The boss looked over at some bandits behind him and motioned his head toward the pile of supplies. They came up and grabbed them, taking them into a back room. "What's in that bag?" he asked next.

  The bandit carrying the water jug and the garbage bag came forward. He set down the jug and started rifling through the bag. One by one, he pulled out a roll of duct tape, a length of rope, a roll of thin steel wire, a set of kitchen knives, a couple of small planks of wood, a hammer, a box of nails, a bottle of glue, door hinges, a package of heavy-duty metal springs, small metal hooks, and two plastic jugs of corrosive chemicals.

  "Jesus," the boss said in amusement as he watched. "What the hell were you planning on doing with all that?" he asked, looking from Dale to Sarah.

  Both of them stayed quiet, keeping their eyes on the floor.

  "Put that shit back in the bag and get it out of here," he told the bandits nearby. He stood up from his chair and walked over to his two new prisoners, stopping in front of Dale and sizing him up. "How the hell do you stay so tubby?" he asked, poking him in the stomach.

  Dale's eyes stayed on the floor, still working through the pain in his jaw. His cheeks had started to bruise underneath the cuts Clint gave him.

  "What are you doing here?" the boss asked.

  When Dale didn't answer, the bandit slugged him in the face. Dale reeled backward and two bandits behind him caught his weight and shoved him forward. He groaned again at the pain as he stood there and took it.

  The boss made an unimpressed grunt and moved on to Sarah. He took the zipper of her coat and undid the rest of it, pulling it off her shoulders and dropping it on the ground. He took a step back and got a good look at her chest and the rest of her body. "What good deed did I do today to deserve this?" he said with a grin. He brushed his rough hand up her arm and Sarah shook it off and stepped back.

  "Leave her alone!" Dale barked.

  Before anyone could do anything else, Clint lunged forward and attacked him. He was small compared to Dale, and quite a bit shorter, but he reached up and held the back of his head as he popped him repeatedly in the middle of his face with a tight fist. Dale's head rolled back like a bobble head with each punch. His nose broke and blood started pouring out as his eyes began to wander in opposite directions, stars creating a field of white noise in his vision.

  Rage boiled inside Sarah, and she couldn't stand by and watch any longer. She jumped forward and grabbed Clint by the shoulder. She yanked him around to face her and she twisted her body with all her might and drilled him in the side of the face.

  Clint's arms flew up in the air as his body sailed back and struck the floor, sliding across the tile. He was dazed and didn't understand what happened at first. He shook his head and his eyes fell on Sarah standing where he used to be, seeing the anger on her face and her clenched fist. He picked himself up off the ground and ran at her as he screamed in rage.

  The boss stepped in and planted his hand on Clint's chest, giving him a hard shove back. Clint bounced off to the side and tripped over a chair, crashing back on the floor hard. The boss then marched up to Sarah, calm but intense.

  She saw the look in his eyes and a slight mea
sure of fear mixed in with her anger.

  He grabbed her by the throat then kicked out the back of her legs. Her body floated in the air for a split second before he slammed her onto the floor.

  The air was knocked out of her and she opened her mouth, coughing and gasping for oxygen.

  The bandit glared at her, his anger and displeasure almost dripping down on her.

  When she regained some of her wherewithal, Sarah gathered up all the saliva she could muster and spit in his face.

  It hit him in the cheek and some of it got in his left eye, blinding him. He instinctively squeezed his eye shut and used the back of his hand to wipe it away. He blinked repeatedly, trying to get his vision back. When he did, pure rage came over him and he squeezed her throat as hard as he could and raised his other hand in the air, ready to strike her.

  An alarm went off and echoed throughout the mall. It was very loud and all the bandits placed their hands over their ears.

  The boss stopped and jerked his head up. He let go of Sarah and stood up, pulling a walkie-talkie off his hip. He held down the button and yelled, "Shut it off! Shut it off!" into it.

  A few seconds later, the alarm stopped. Everyone rubbed their ears as the phantom ringing carried on for a few moments longer.

  "What's going on?!" the boss demanded of the walkie-talkie.

  "It says we've got a breach on the south end," a voice came through from the other end. "It's a maintenance door by the theater."

  The boss looked over at two bandits standing near the wall of sandbags at the front of the food court. "You hear that?" he said. "You know the one?"

  The bandits nodded and then took off running with their guns in tow to check the disturbance.

  He looked over at Sarah, who was starting to push herself off the ground and get back to her feet. "Tie them up," he told another couple of bandits standing around.

  They looked around for a moment, trying to find something to tie them up with, then they trotted off to the back room.

  Clint stayed off to the side rubbing his cheek with one hand and the back of his head where it hit the ground after his boss shoved him with the other. He sat down on a chair, suddenly meek, not wanting to arouse his boss's anger again, though he glared at Sarah with a sour look.

  The bandits came back with the roll of duct tape that Dale had taken from the hardware store, and they wrapped Dale's and Sarah's wrists tightly behind their backs.

  A few minutes later, the bandits who ran off to check the disturbance returned. "Someone pried the door open," one of them said. "The jamb's broken."

  Sarah's eyes suddenly widened as a horrific realization dawned on her.

  "Did you see anybody?" the boss asked.

  Both bandits shook their heads.

  "Well go seal it up!" he barked at them.

  As the two of them ran off again, Sarah spoke under her breath. "He's here."

  "What was that?" the boss said, turning to her.

  She looked at him. "He's here," she repeated.

  "Who's here?"

  "He's going to kill all of us," Sarah told him, fear rising in her voice.

  "What the fuck are you talking about?" he demanded.

  Sarah stared off past everyone, her eyes darting from one side of the sandbag wall to the other, searching for any sign of movement. She spun around and looked at all the empty fast food kiosks surrounding them, undoubtedly connected to a back tunnel. She knew he could come from anywhere at any time, and she felt far more fearful now than she had a few minutes ago, knowing what the killer was going to do to her would be worse than anything the bandits could dream up.

  The boss looked around, suddenly nervous. He didn't know what she was looking at, and that put him and the rest of his men on edge. He pulled the walkie-talkie back up to his mouth. "Do you see anything on the screens?" he asked. "Is everything okay over there?" He stood anxiously, mindlessly shaking the walkie-talkie in his hand as he waited for a response.

  The walkie-talkie squeaked and a voice came over from the other end: "All clear," it said.

  The boss started to calm down as he began barking out orders to his men to start patrolling the mall.

  He hadn't noticed anything unusual about the voice that came from the security office, but Sarah did. She recognize that voice, the roughness and the distinct smokiness to it. She heard it once before.

  Her body started shaking.

  The mall's alarm went off again and the bandits covered their ears.

  "Shut it off!" the boss shouted into the walkie-talkie. He waited for a moment, but it kept going. "Shut it off!" he screamed.

  But it didn't stop.

  "Someone go check the security office!" he barked.

  A bandit suddenly slid into view of the food court in front of the sandbags. "Boss!" he yelled. "Zombies are coming on the west side! A lot of them!"

  Before he could process a single thought, another bandit appeared from the other direction.

  "Boss! Zombies coming from the east!"

  The boss's face fell and he staggered back a few steps. He looked around frantically as everyone went into a panic. "Watch them!" he yelled to Clint as he pointed at Dale and Sarah, then he ran off with half a dozen other bandits.

  Sarah and Dale stood quietly, watching all the chaos around them as Clint stayed next to them with his gun trained on them. All three of them were terrified, and they all wanted to run for it and escape.

  They heard shouts and screams throughout the mall behind the loud din of the alarm that was still ringing. Then the sound of glass shattering came from the west. Then the east. Then somewhere to the north. The first volleys of gunfire echoed outside the food court.

  Then the alarm finally stopped. And a moment later, the power went out.

  "Check the generator!" a distant bandit yelled. "You! Make sure someone didn't fuck with the solar panels!" another cried. After that, the tenor of the situation descended into chaos as screams and more gunfire took over the mall.

  Sarah could hear someone whimpering, and she turned her head and saw Clint's face in the glow of the firelight from the barrels.

  Tears streamed down his face and his body was shaking. His mouth hung open and he muttered self-preserving pleas under his breath. She looked down and saw that the front of his pants was soaked.

  Just like Clint, Sarah knew it was only a matter of time before they were dead.

  12

  FIRE SALE

  The sounds of anguish and death drew closer and closer. Gunshots and footsteps came near as Clint continued to guard Sarah and Dale in the otherwise empty food court. All the other bandits had run off to try to quell the zombie invasion, but it didn't sound like they were having any success.

  Clint stood behind them with his assault rifle still pointing at their backs, and Sarah and Dale didn't dare to move. Their hands were taped behind their backs and they wouldn't have much of a chance to survive if Clint didn't make the smart decision and let them go.

  "We should get out of here," Dale said to him, turning his head back to look at him.

  "Just shut up!" Clint yelled. "Stay right there! Don't you move!"

  Dale sighed, more in frustration than fear. "We're all going to die if we don't move right now! There must be somewhere we can go."

  "I said shut it, fat ass!"

  Sarah closed her eyes and listened to the chaos all around her. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and it was almost the loudest noise of all in her head, but then she noticed something else. Something was rattling behind her.

  She turned her head back and looked at Clint and saw his arms shaking horribly, causing the AK-47 to vibrate.

  "I know you're scared," she said to him, as calmly as she could, "but I know you don't want to die. I know you'll do the right thing."

  Clint paused, staring at her with wide eyes, like a lost puppy who was scared and hurt. He judged the two of them and looked at the duck tape wrapped around their wrists. For a moment he almost had a change of heart, but
then his steadfast nature returned to him. His brow furrowed and an angry resolve came over him again. "I told you to shut up, bitch!"

  He took a step forward to smack her, but then a group of eight bandits appeared on the other side of the sandbag wall in front of them. They were running so fast that they almost slid clear across the makeshift wall, but they planted their feet, spun around and fired a volley of bullets in the direction from where they came. When they decided that their defense had accomplished nothing, they filed through the gap in the middle of the sandbag wall and into the food court like a swarm of angry ants pouring out of an anthill.

  On their heels, a large horde of zombies came into view. Their eyes were bright in the orange light flickering atop the barrels, and their mouths were stretched open, desperate for a meal. They headed for the gap in the wall, but didn't have the grace that the bandits did, and they created a bottleneck as they piled on top of each other, some of them getting tangled up in the barbed wire, and others pushing from behind and breaking open a section of the wall and spilling over top of each other.

  The bandits retreated toward the back of the food court, and they wasted no time even acknowledging the presence of the three people already there. Clint's head spun around as they ran for a door between a McDonald's and a Japanese place. They opened it and he watched as they disappeared through it, shocked that they just left him behind. Sarah and Dale stayed rooted to the spot as the zombies started to get back up to their feet. They wanted to flee, but they still felt like Clint would shoot them if they moved.

  "It's time to go!" Dale pleaded to him.

  Clint looked back at them and finally took in the full fury of the undead bearing down on them. There were about twenty of the rotting flesh-eaters, and they were maddeningly famished. That image burned into his head and was all the motivation he needed to take off running. He didn't even take another glance at Sarah or Dale before he was off, already at the door.

  "Let's go!" Dale yelled as he nudged Sarah. He knew she wouldn't be able to run very fast on her bad ankle, but with his hands still tied behind his back, he didn't have the ability to carry her.