We all agreed it would be best if our first stop was to pick up clothing for Cameron and Jesse. Maybe then, once we had all the necessary supplies, we could make a side trip to a near by amusement park or arcade where we could block the monsters out and have some fun. Evan wanted to go to Disney World, but considering the fact that it was on the other side of the country, it didn't seem a likely option.
There was a mall about twenty miles north of my house which seemed the best choice for our purposes. It was in the middle of a highway; one of those places you're only in if you're trying to go somewhere nicer and cleaner than it. The zombies had no doubt emptied the local supply of living people and moved on to another area with a denser population. There was a hotel close to the mall for us to spend some time packing up whatever new weapons or clothing we had gotten.
Our car pulled up into the parking lot after about a twenty minute drive. We could've gotten there faster had Evan not decided the speed limit still mattered, even in a post-apocalyptic world. We climbed out and walked into the mall, then put a pipe we found on the ground through the door handles in case any hungry beasts happened to be passing by. Cameron and I made our way over to a vintage shop on our left as Evan and Jesse walked into the men's department store across the hall.
"Oooh," Cameron purred as she pulled a black wool trench coat from one of the racks. It had a red collar and red buttons down the front and it complimented her snow white skin and black hair beautifully. She pulled it on and turned to me and asked "How do I look?" raising one eyebrow. I laughed and gave her a thumbs up. I grabbed a blue dress with little white polkadots from a shelf and shook my head at it.
"I don't know why people ever stopped dressing like this. Oh my gods!" I gasped and in a matter of seconds I had slipped myself into a pair of high-waisted jean bellbottoms. The pants accentuated my long legs, a fact which Cameron obviously noticed because her eyes ran up them slowly, taking in every inch.
“They—uhm…” she stammered. “They look great.” She looked to her left and picked up a multicolored tank top. She held it out to me. “Try this with it.” I stepped back behind the curtain of the dressing room and pulled it on.
“Damn, I look tall,” I mumbled, looking in the mirror.
“Well,” said Cameron, pulling me out of the small room. “That may have something to do with the six feet you’re packing. Now let me see you.” She scanned my new outfit and nodded. “Absolutely gorgeous.” She turned to a small mirror and pulled her hair into a side ponytail, making her bangs fall across her face. “There we go.” We grabbed a few more outfits off of the racks and stuffed them into the huge bags we had slung over our shoulders.
We looked over to the door and saw around ten zombies banging on it. We had been right about the small number of zombies, these were all that were left, and they looked like they were starving. I pulled the fire axe out of my clothing bag. “Oh,” muttered Cameron. I turned to her questioningly. “Well it’s just…would you mind if I used the axe this one time?” I ran my fingers over the handle, and looked down at the blade. I had developed some sort of emotional attachment to my weapon of choice. It took a lot of strength to hand it over to someone else.
The hedge clippers she gave me felt foreign to my hands, so the battle which followed was incredibly uncomfortable. I pushed the door open and slashed at the nearest zombie. I narrowly missed and spun me in a circle. Frustrated, I sent a hard kick into the zombie’s head and knocked it clean off. “Huh,” I breathed. “That’s a new method.”
I looked over to Cameron and saw that she was having about as much difficulty as I was. I ran over to her and quickly switched our weapons. “We are not doing that again,” I growled, slashing through the head of another zombie. A sharp breath came from behind me and I spun around to see Cameron on the ground, bleeding from a gash on her thigh. She looked up at me, her eyes full of panic.
I knocked one of the monsters away from her and grabbed her by her wrist. We were half way to the car when her leg gave out. She fell to the ground and cried out in pain. The zombies were approaching quickly, so I hoisted Cameron over my shoulder and finally made it back to the van.
Evan and Jesse were there waiting for us, and noticed how shaken we looked. “What’s wrong?” Jesse asked as Evan pulled away from the mall. We didn’t have to answer once he saw Cameron’s leg. His eyes widened and he turned to Evan. “No time to make stops. The plans have changed; we need to go straight to your mom.” When Evan questioned the reasoning behind this decision, Jesse pointed at the cut. Jesse looked at Cameron. “How did you get that? Emmy, how did she get that?” I shrugged.
“Th-The zombie,” Cameron whimpered. “It b-bit me.” She squeezed her eyes shut in pain. “God it burns! Cuts don’t burn. Why the hell does this thing burn?” She looked at me franticly, but all I did was shake my head, wide-eyed. Evan glanced toward the back seat as he moved around an abandoned car.
“Emmy,” he said. “There’s a first aid kit under your seat. Do what you can to treat that.” I nodded. “We’re going to make as much progress as we can today. That means no stops, are you all good with that?” We said we were and I pulled out the first aid kit. I took a cotton swab and poured some antiseptic on it, then dabbed at the wound. She bit her lip and clutched above the bite mark.
We drove for hours, taking only one break to use the bathrooms. We finally stopped for the night at some hotel around one in the morning. Cameron and I went into the first room we saw, while Evan and Jesse went around checking the other rooms for any lurking creatures. Cameron and I changed into pajamas and sat down on the bed. I looked over her cut and raised my eyebrows. “That’s pretty deep,” I said lowly. “You’re lucky this guy didn’t take a chunk out of your leg.
Cameron chuckled. “Yep, that’s me; lucky.” She sighed. “What’s going to happen to me? Am I going to be a—one of those?” She looked down at the wound on her thigh mournfully. “I don’t think I should…maybe I should stay here. I don’t want to turn into a zombie and ruin any chance you have of reaching your mom.” I let out a heavy breath as I wrapped her cut in gauze. I took her hand in mine and looked into her clear blue eyes, which were now wetting her cheeks with tears.
“You’re going to be just fine,” I whispered. “You’re coming with us to
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