A second shot echoed around the mall entrance seeming to be louder than before, perhaps because the glass cocoon had been broken by the first. Mercy could feel her heart hammering within her chest, each beat caused a spasm of pain to run through her torso as the world continued to sway around her. She struggled to quell her panic as she tried to lengthen her breathing
'Not now...please not now', after losing Ash the blonde woman had been at odds whether everything they were doing was worth it...whether surviving was worth it. Knowing that unless she calmed down, she would lose consciousness frightened her immensely, even if Ash was there it was a dangerous situation to be in...without her there, Mercy was convinced that once her eyes closed they wouldn't open again.
She didn't think any of her companions thought her valuable enough to drag to safety...Dog was a medic, what did they need another one for? Mercy managed to lift her head slightly disliking how the escalator rocked back and forth like a board walk resting on invisible waves. She was leant on her forearms with the rest of her body pressed against the cold marble floor, even as she moved she felt the tiny shards of glass scraping her clothes and skin. Her body suddenly spasmed as her ICD kicked into action, working to bring her heart beat back down to a normal level. She still felt like she needed to sit up...open her airways...focus on something...as she thought it her body meekly responded, ignoring the sharp stabbing of glass as she pulled her legs up underneath her, she unsteadily lifted her upper body, leaning on her hands as she shuffled her position.
Having to move slowly because of how light headed her heart palpitations had made her meant by the time she was sat upright, resting back on her calves, the dilemma in the shop had been settled. With the occasional twitch passing through her body because of her ICD, she sat with her eyes closed and the hand holding her arrow uselessly clutching at her chest as if such an action would stop the pain, her other hand still clasp her bow tightly having pulled it up onto her knees. As she was trying to control her irregular breathing, she heard the others voices behind her, though she couldn't make out what they were saying. She was locked in a disorientating bubble, that made them sound distant and detached her from their words.
'Focus on something...breathe...' In its desperation her mind recalled a calming memory for her to focus on, a woman's voice, one she hadn't heard in a very long time...it seemed to be working. She caught the end of what Kaylah said, though as she opened her eyes she searched for Tony feeling her heart flare up a second time if he wasn't close by.
Whether she caught sight of him or not she asked a general question, turning to look at Kaylah if Tony had moved away from her
"Is...is everyone...okay?" She asked having to pause to draw in a hasty breath between some of her words. Sweat beaded her forehead and trickled down the sides of her face as she struggled to hold it together, hearing a crash across the way from them Mercy turned her head abruptly to look in the direction of the food court. To her dismay and no doubt her companions, a few clumsy infected were making their way through the abandoned tables and chairs.
"Damn it" The blonde hissed between her teeth, still breathing pretty hard but comforted by the small electronical device under her skin she got to her feet, clearly still feeling rather unsteady in herself...though the world rocked a little less than it had before.
"More company" She rushed to spit the words out around taking a deep breath and setting the arrow into her bow...unsure whether she would even be able to hit anything in her current state. As she lifted the bow up though she caught a glimmer of movement out of the corner of her eye and quickly glanced that way, feeling panic rise in her mind again as she realised more of the undead were staggering out of the shops across from them, their heads raised as they sniffed the air.
"...shi-taki mushrooms" Mercy murmured under her breath backing up to the windowless hole behind her. She was really hoping these ones weren't smart...she'd seen the smart ones, they moved as a pack of predators would sometimes using something akin to human intelligence to learn from their mistakes and better their hunting skills. Either way the horde had finally smelt the blood and they were beginning to pick up speed, seeing the window of opportunity closing Mercy felt her pulse starting to speed up yet again, poking her head through the window her eyes caught sight of Dog helping Chris up and Cat on his way out of the shop, she glanced at Kaylah briefly before saying
"Lets plan later and run now" it was brash but their escape routes were slowly but surely being swallowed up by the swarm moving towards them. At the moment only two routes were obvious, skirt around to the right into the food area, where there were tables and chairs to negotiate through as well or run straight for the frozen escalators and get up to the second level...the latter was slightly more risky as it looked as if a few of the undead would reach it around the same time they did.
The Creator gathered all of creation and said, 'I want to hide something from the humans until they are ready for it. It is the realization that they create their own reality.' The eagle said, 'Give it to me, I will take it to the moon.' The Creator said, 'No one day they will go there and find it.' The salmon said, 'I will hide it on the bottom of the ocean.' 'No, they will go there too.' The buffalo said, 'I will bury it on the great plains.' The Creator said, 'They will cut into the skin of the earth and find it.' Then Grandmother Mole, who lives in the breast of Mother Earth, and who has no physical eyes but sees with spiritual eyes, said: 'Put it inside them.' And the Creator said, 'It is done.'
Sacqui Shikoba thought over the 'hidden knowledge' of her people as she looked out over the street before her. Stood atop a building that would have become her final resting place were it not for her heroic companion. She lifted a hand to her face gently touching the dried war paint accumulating her skin before reaching up to run her fingers through her hair
'And look at the reality we have created...' she thought. Though she wasn't solemn about what had happened...it was unfortunate, yes but being sad about it didn't get her anywhere. This was their new reality, end of. And she had every intention of finding a way to live with it...and return to her family who she believed would do the same.
The Lakota woman's thoughts about her family caused her mind to drift to her new companion, the soldier who had introduced himself as Blaine. The way he had charged through the infected to assist her had been compellingly admirable...though foolish by Zombieland standards...by intervening he had saved her life and that meant Feather now owed him a life-debt...something she was also sure wasn't a good thing to owe during the apocalypse. Hearing Blaine's light footsteps approach her, she glanced in his direction following his gaze to the shopping mall a few blocks across from them, listening as he spoke. Feather searched his striking icy blue eyes for a moment before turning her head to look at the landscape behind the mall.
"I don't for the moment so...lead the way"Before the apocalypse several blocks wouldn't have been considered much of a journey, now with the infected scattered around the streets it was turning into quite the mission. Using the fire escape to get them off of the roof, Feather and Blaine made their way through the streets below tactfully skirting around any corpses. With Blaine taking point they were able to cover ground a lot quicker, Feather watched his back. Despite their differences Feather found it comforting how easily the pair of them slipped into a harmonious routine. Her companion moved with a regimented fluidity from one spot to the next, checking every possible place he could think as they moved between the desecrated buildings of the city. Even with the immense -or at least she thought it was immense- amount of tactical gear that he had on, he never seemed to tire and still managed to move with a lighter step than her.
By the time they'd reached the mall -thanks to Blaine's careful trail blazing and precise instruction- Feather was beginning to lag, the apocalypse had really taken it out of her, she couldn't recall being this lethargic before hand. Her dark chocolate eyes focused on the soldiers back as he carefully inspected the malls small foyer through the glass. They'd come across one of the side entrances so it wasn't as grand as the main entrance but it was still a practical way in. Feather watched Blaine for a few moments before flicking her gaze around the street they were stood in, inspecting it for danger until her companion summoned her over to him.
Allowing Blaine to move through the glass door first with his sharp eyes and smooth gait, Feather followed behind him stepping gingerly across the marble floor and gently closing the filthy door behind her. The foyer was small and almost like a bottle neck, it was open near the entrance doors but as the pair of them moved further in the walls closed in to create a fairly large corridor. Shops lined both sides of the corridor, some of them were obscured from view by metal barriers whilst others only had remnants of smashed windows and broken signs. Feather gripped Otaktay tightly in her hand, trying not to focus on the gore staining the walls or the floor, she didn't want to think about what the dirty substance that clinging to everything actually was. Tiny shards of glass littered the main floor no doubt crunching under the weight of their boots as they moved accompanied by lumps of earth and empty shopping bags.
"...Do you think there will be anything left?" Feather whispered, uncomfortable with how loud her voice sounded in the quiet area, although waiting for his answer she moved over to one of the store fronts to carefully peek inside. The insides of the stores hadn't fared any better than the corridor, they looked as if they'd been ransacked a fair time ago, racks of clothes had been pulled over and left scattered across the floor, basically anything that hadn't been bolted down had been pushed to the side or knocked over. Looking into what used to be a WHSmith, Feather felt a shiver run down her spine as she realised the fallen bookcases could have quite easily have created perfect hiding places for the infected to linger. Moving back over to Blaine the Lakota woman lifted a hand to her forehead wiping away a few beads of sweat as she did, she was starting to feel a little nauseated...though she guessed it was just from the hideous smell that seemed to cling to the air no matter where you were.
"Book shop's done for, so is the cookie place next to it..." She trailed off resting the hand holding Otaktay against her hip and spreading her fingers across her forehead as she tried to resist the urge to throw up.
"Jewellery, smoothie bar, body soap shop...none of these sound like they'd have many supplies..." Feather was mumbling more to herself than her companion, up until now she'd followed him without question, though now that they were here she felt the need to prove that she was useful to have around.
"Your call though, want to check them out before moving on?" Feather asked still keeping her voice down as she spoke, personally she'd rather check them before moving on in case there were things that needed to be 'double tapped' so they didn't sneak up on them.
(Disclaimer for the first paragraph, not my own words just an interesting bit of knowledge found)
