*JASON POV*

We couldn't do anything except seeing each other's faces when we heard the captain's honest reaction to the situation. Even though I had a calm front, I could feel the reluctance to continue surging inside me.

Being a soldier in my mid-thirties, I couldn't still enjoy my life as much as regular people would have. Being forever single, without a partner for almost my entire life was a reason. My idea of retiring and enjoying the rest of my life in peace with a loved one was holding me back.

But, remembering the gruesome training I had to go through to join the army and serve the country was holding me back from saying what I was really feeling. Being attacked by two opposite views, I remained silent.

"Captain, let's continue. I have confidence in our squad's efficiency and believe that we can complete the mission." said a friend. I looked at his face, filled with confidence. The captain looked around to see the others' reaction, which made them all slowly nod.

I could only sigh inwardly while going along with them and nod. This gave me a very bad feeling but I now can't deny and leave now that everyone gave a nod to it. The captain's expression changed to pride when he saw our reaction.

Giving us an appreciative nod, he slightly smiled and said, "I am honestly relieved to see you guys agreeing to continue this mission. Now I am confident that we will all live to see another day." Making all of us nod.

"Alright, now that we decided, let's plan. There are quite some zombies outside this hallway that might actually catch us if we make even a small sound. So we need to be extra careful. The door of the store is only 3 feet away from where we are to the left. So only a few of us should go. Only me and the lieutenant will make a quick work of it. The rest stay here."

All of us gave a nod to his plan, and I honestly felt a little relieved that it wasn't me that was going to go out there. The captain gave a last nod to us and the lieutenant before making their way out of the hallway and to the left.

We all stood at the edge of the hallway, peeking out and looking out for the zombie's reaction and movements. The duo could safely reach the door, and they looked inside. But I noticed as their faces suddenly lost color and they turned towards us to wave their hands when we heard a loud thud from the door.

"It's a zombie. The information was wrong. Retreat." Ordered the captain as by then all the surrounding zombies noticed out and the fast ones ran towards us. We could see the large horde of zombies making their way towards us as we turned towards the staircase.

The soldier near to it was first able to go down and as we were about to follow him below we heard his unfortunate scream. Our eyes went wide as my partner caught the situation below and quickly closed the door before shaking his head. I could feel the color drain off my face as I saw him shaking his head. I look over to see the others, including the captain in the same situation as me.

"Let's go. We can't continue this way. We need to find another way out." The captain shouted as he ran out of the hallway. The zombies were now closer than ever to the entrance of the hallway as we quickly took out our guns and started shooting.

As I shot, I suddenly remembered something I saw before entering the building after we cleared out the zombies in the street. It was a ladder a bit far from the door right under a window.

"Captain, there should be a ladder from one of the windows near a window on this floor around the door we entered." This caught his attention as the captain immediately gave out orders while he still continued to shoot.

"Alright, you guys heard him. If Jason is right, this may be our only way out. The hallway below which we used to enter should be around there. 3 of us will go there while the rest enter the food court to search for the specific window. Be Careful and don't let these freaks come anywhere near you." As he pointed at the hallway right above the one we took below and the food court beside it.

All of us nodded as the captain and lieutenant took another one of us and went towards it while shooting continuously. The rest 5 of us regrouped as we quickly formed a circle and slowly pushed through towards the food court.

As we made our way through, I noticed the few shops in the food court and pointed towards them. The rest understood as we slowly separated to go to the different shops in two groups.

AUTHOR NOTE-

Hey guys, it's me, the author back again. First of all Happy new year guys. Wish you a nice year, unlike the one that just passed. And as I said in my note, I came back on Jan 1st. And will receive a chap a day this whole week. But starting from next week, I might have to change things up a bit and only release one chapter every 2 days.

Alright, don't go angry with me cause I have a reason. And it is that I simply can't keep up and I don't want to keep empty promises and break them, eventually. I am still a student and have to study. With two books (The other one is 'The Diamond field' for those who still don't know. A sports novel.) It's tough to maintain the pace.

One more important news: I am going to release a third book, and that would be daily updates. I still don't know when I will be releasing it but it will be soon. It will be a showbiz and business novel. Something I wanted to write for a long time along with these two kinds of books. So keep an eye out for my announcement.