[b][center]Outskirts of Tokonosu City - Harrington Shopping Center[/center][/b]

The shopping center, formerly a nice, relaxing place with a pond, garden, and benches, with a variety of different types of stores surrounding it, was now a simple shell of what it once was. The large pond overfilled with inky brown and crimson blood, torn bodies filling the murky liquid with their rotting flesh. Zombies of all shapes and sizes slowly dawdled around, some in 'mall cop' outfits, and others crawled on their amputated knees. Regardless, it was obvious to tell that this former-hotspot for both teens and adults like...was now an apocalyptic wasteland.

"I'm cool!" 

The calm, laidback tone did well to hide his fear, and his mind suddenly blanked as the earlier events played throughout his head like a mixtape. [I]'Aiden was simply at home, watching Law and Order and drinking sprite when all of this...shit happened. The door to his home was knocked upon, and his mother went to answer it. A piercing scream echoed throughout the building. Then? The groaning began. His mother, and his father came stumbling into the living room, rotting green and brown flesh dripping from the multiple cavities now sludging amongst their mutilated bodies. Aiden was frozen in shock. His mother - former mother lunged forward, and instincts kicked in. He had leaped away, grabbing the nearest item closest to him; a vase, and bashing it over her bleeding head. The glass pierced her brain, and she fell, now permanently dead.

By then, he was in a survival-mindset. His quickly adapting brain took all of this chaos in, and instantly it all made sense. Some sort of virus, or infection...and they were now undead corpses...no longer the parents he once known and loved. As soon as this all registered, his father's corpse lunged as well, tackling the boy down with the force of a truck. He was winded amongst the groans and snarling, and blood dripped down from the undead's jowls, coating his pure white t-shirt. Fear choked at his throat, and Aiden brought his fist back, before sending it forward...once, twice, three times. The fourth punch forced the corpse off of his body, and, with a sense of finality, Aiden brought his foot upwards and back down on top of the zombie's cranium.'[/I]

That had been quite a few hours ago. Now, with nothing but his light-weight red backpack - now a mottled black from dried blood, his crimson hoodie, a sharpened machete he took from under his father's bed, the man's police-issued Glock 17, and his customary leather jacket...well, he had traveled from Tokonosu City and scavenged far and wide, ending up at the Shopping Center. Only for this situation...

Aiden slowly reached for his Glock, which was holstered on his hip, while watching the gangster looter shake with his stolen revolver in-hand. "I'm cool, man..." His hands gripped the gun's cold grip, and Aiden made a show of gasping and looking around. They were in a small Gamestop store that was North-ish of the main shopping center, and it smelt and looked like shit in there. The games were ruined, except for some My Little Pony DS crap and some Mario Kart DS games, and everything was ruined...except...

"Zombie behind you!" 

"Where?!"

The gangster twirled around, his sagging pants making the movement virtually fatal, and Aiden smoothly unholstered his gun and pulled back the safetly. "Right here." Instantly after the crappy one-liner, the boy pressed the trigger twice, two high-caliber rounds tearing from the weapon and piercing straight through the back of the gangster's head. His gag reflex acted up, and Aiden turned away, mentally forcing himself not to puke.

He had killed too much to gag about one shitty human life.

With a sigh, the young boy dashed forward, quickly scavenging through the unknown gangster's pockets and grabbing the man's revolver, which he stuck inside his bag, and his wallet - which had only a few bucks in it. "This world is fucked..."