The fourth floor of the supermarket felt like a fortress, but the sound coming from below was a reminder that no fortress is impenetrable. The heavy leather riding suits felt stiff and hot, but as Richard snapped his visor shut, he felt a surge of cold, artificial courage.
"The design is incredible," Sugar noted, adjusting his own chest plate. "The reinforced collar protects the jugular. Even if they get close, they won't find a vein."
James let out a nervous whistle as he looked at the price tag still dangling from his sleeve. "A crore for the set! I've never worn anything this expensive in my life."
"Stay focused, James," Lucy whispered, her voice tight. "The price doesn't matter if we don't make it to the parking lot."
Sugar handed out the sidearms he'd salvaged. Richard took a sleek black pistol, while Gwen and Lucy gripped their heavy baseball bats. "We move to the third floor," Sugar commanded. "There's a cutlery section there. We need knives—backup for when the lead runs out."
The Game Station
As they descended the silent escalator to the third floor, the neon signs of the Game Station flickered with a ghostly blue light. It was a futuristic hub, walled entirely in thick, polished glass. Rows of consoles and VR rigs stood like silent sentinels.
James, a lifelong video game addict, couldn't help himself. His eyes landed on a massive cabinet featuring a zombie-themed shooting game. "Look," he pointed, a small grin breaking through his fear. "We can use the simulation to study their movement patterns."
"This isn't a field trip, James!" Gwen hissed, but she followed him toward the glass enclosure.
The team stepped inside the transparent room. James reached for the plastic light gun, his fingers tracing the familiar contours. "Just like the arcade back home," he muttered.
CRASH!
The sound was like a thunderclap. A massive, grey-skinned hand smashed through the glass wall behind them, showering the floor in jagged diamonds. A snarling face, its nose missing and its teeth bared in a permanent grin, forced its way through the opening.
"What the hell?!" Sugar roared, drawing his shotgun. "They're in the mall already?"
"Okay, team," Richard shouted, the Tokugawa Katana singing as it left its sheath. "IT'S TIME TO ATTACK!!!"
The First Skirmish
The transition from silence to violence was instantaneous. Richard fired his pistol, the recoil jarring his arm as the lead shattered the skull of the first intruder. James, finding a kitchen knife he'd tucked into his belt, lunged forward, driving the blade into the neck of a creature clawing at the broken glass.
Sugar moved with the cold efficiency of a machine. Each blast of his shotgun turned a head into a red mist, his movements synchronized with the rhythmic clicking of his bullet chain. Beside him, Gwen and Lucy swung their bats with a desperate, primal strength. The hollow thwack of aluminum hitting bone echoed through the neon-lit room.
But in the chaos, the unthinkable happened.
The sudden movement caused the bandage on Lucy's leg to slip. The old wound, aggravated by the sprinting, began to seep. A thin trail of crimson ran down her calf, hitting the floor with a soft, wet sound.
The air in the room changed. The zombies outside stopped their mindless scratching and turned as one, their nostrils flaring. The scent of fresh, living blood was a dinner bell in a silent city.
"Ahhh! My leg!" Lucy cried out, the pain flaring as she stumbled.
"Gwen, stay with her!" Richard yelled, firing over their heads.
As Gwen moved to support her friend, a massive zombie broke away from the main cluster. It didn't growl; it simply sprinted, driven by the iron-rich scent. It lunged over the shattered glass, its fingers locking onto Lucy's shoulder.
Lucy raised her handgun, her finger trembling on the trigger. She fired once, hitting the creature in the chest, but it didn't even flinch. It leaned in, its rotting jaw unhinging.
Click.
The sound of an empty chamber was the loudest noise in the room. Lucy stared into the dead eyes of the monster as it lowered its head toward her outstretched hand.