"Look! The mall is just over there!" The mall was in terrible shape. Pieces of the walls had fallen in, cars were on fire outside, and worst of all infected everywhere.

"We can' take them all on at once!" Erica shook her head and started to head back. "We could barely take on one! Much less hundreds! I can't do this!"

"Listen!" I grabbed her shoulders. "We can't give up now! We made it this far!"

Erica pushed my hands off her shoulders and looked at me. "I can't do it.." her voice sounded small. ike she was trapped and didn't know what to do.

"There is no other way. We need to hope for the best, and keep on moving on. You are strong, I know it! Now lets go in there, and find a way to end this madness!"

Erica didn't respond. She just stood tall, and walked in the direction of the mall.

****

Our tip for success: Don't make any un natural sounds. By that I mean screaming, banging into things, or something like that.

The hunting store was in the back of the mall, so that obviously meant that we needed to get to the back of the store without getting... Well attacked.

"Look there the store is!" The hunting store was one of those huge stores that brought down chains every night at closing, and they opened when the mall was open. By the looks of it the infection happened before the store had a chance to open. Now thats kinda a good thing, since the store won't be looted, but its bad, because we need a way to get in.

"Look there's a window up on top of the chains! Maybe if we were able to climb up, then we could smash that, and get it!"

"Its worth a try. Though we need a way to break the glass." I scanned my surroundings, and saw a directory. "Look theres a directory! We can use that!" We headed over to the directory, and I read the shop titles, looking for somewhere that we could go.

"Look there's a sports store just across the mall! We should be able to make it down and back in time!" Erica pointed at the store which was on the complete other side of the mall. It would be risky, but we had no other choice.

"I guess we have no choice," I sighed and took another look at the little glowing shops on the directory. I personally didn't wanna do this because o have seen what these things can do to people, but it was for the greater good. My little fear shouldn't hold us back. "let's get going then. The quicker the better I guess?"

Erica did a silent nod, before she led the way.

****

The store was called "The Big Leagues" It was a sports store, and just by the name, I could tell that there would be baseball bats in there, and hopefully some other sort of weapon.

The store had already closed, and the chains had dropped. I was about to give up hope and leave, but then Erica pointed out something that made me a bit more hopeful.

The chains landed on a person, and there was a gap small enough for us to crawl under. Well it was great for us, not so much the person; but he's dead so it's not our problem now.

"I don't think I will be able to crawl under there!" Erica did a small shudder. "What if he becomes...." She stopped and looked down at the man trapped under the chains. ".... One of them?"

She's right. We don't know when he died, and if he became one of them, we were screwed for sure. "I guess we'll just have to take a chance. I mean life's full of chances right?"

Erica nodded. "I'll hold up the chain, you climb under. Then you hold it up and I will slip through."

"Got it." Erica walked over to the the the body and stopped and closed her eyes. After a couple of seconds, she lifted the chains up just enough for my to avoid the dead guy, and still get under. "Alright I'll hand it to you know!"

She handed me the chains, and I accidentally dropped it. Luckily I was able to catch it, but I gasped and I almost collapsed to the ground.

"C'mon, you can do this!" I tried my hardest to lift the gates even higher, so Erica had even more room to get through. "You have to go now, I can't hold it for much longer!"

Erica prepared her self, then she squatted down and tried to get under. She was halfway through, before her shoes snagged on the persons jacket, and she fell on top of him. Immediately the person snapped out of whatever trance he was in and he started scream and swing his arms everywhere.

Erica started screaming and trying to get off, but the person wouldn't let her go.

"HELP ME!" Erica was screaming and squirming. I let one hand go to pull Erica, but that was a horrible idea, because the person scratched my legs , and I stumbled back letting go off the chains.

"NOOO!" There was sickening crack, then Erica's screaming stopped. I stumbled back and collapsed to the ground. I tried to get back up, but I couldn't. My eyes were filled with tears, and I was shaking on the ground. I couldn't go anywhere now. I just couldn't. Not after I killed her.

I just sat there and waited.