Chapter 14

“In there!”

Allie shoved me into the side hallway before I even had time to protest. We barely managed to duck inside a woman’s restroom in time to watch countless zombies ambling past. They didn’t even turn their heads, likely drawn towards the noise our earlier gunfight had caused.

“Shit, that’s over 40 of those things before I lost count,” I whispered hollowly. “That group of survivors, they don’t stand a chance.”

Allie grasped my hand and squeezed it tight. “Kai, don’t do this to yourself.”

“Do what?”

“Torture yourself over guilt that’s not yours to assume. They’re dead no matter what. There are only five doses of antivirus.”

I ground my teeth together but eventually nodded. “You’re right. What am I doing? I almost lost you once. I’m not letting that happen ever again.”

Allie lifted my hand to her lips. “That’s my man. Remember to keep me safe, alright?”

I knew what she was doing, but that didn’t make it any less effective. That fierce protective instinct sprang to the forefront of my mind, shoving away any other considerations.

That’s right, my girl was always priority number one.

The world would just have to take care of itself.

All the while I was consumed by my useless inner struggle, Allie had already spread open her map and was studying it carefully.

I didn’t bother pretending I could help. Even with Google maps on, I was more liable than not to get lost right in the middle of our neighborhood. That’s why I always had Allie with me.

Instead, I made myself useful by checking our surroundings for threats. One of the bathroom stalls had been shot to hell, and the inside was liberally splattered with blood. However, a couple sets of bloody footsteps leading out of that same stall told me the rest of the story. Whoever had been shot here, they had become part of those undead things stalking the halls.

“Any idea where we should be heading yet?” I asked, peering around the restroom’s exit.

Allie shook her head. “There are too many variables. If the objective were to survive, we could keep to the side corridors and service tunnels to avoid the biggest concentrations of the creatures.”

“But our goal is to find the cure. That probably means we’re all infected already, right? You think we’ll eventually turn into one of those things?”

Allie shrugged. “Does it matter? The only way to make it through this stage is to find one of those vials.”

“How about tracking down the device itself? Maybe the terrorists who deployed it also carry the cure.”

Allie blew out a breath. “I guess that’s the best we can do for now. Here, this is where the main ventilation shaft is. Fortunately, it’s not that far. We just have to make it to the third floor, then out past a narrow service tunnel. There’s a set of stairs just 100 feet from here.”

I nodded, checking my knives and shotgun one last time before moving toward the exit.

“Wait,” Allie said, pulling me back by the arm.

“For what?”

Allie bit her lips, avoiding my eyes. “You’ll know soon.”

A minute later, a series of frenzied gunshots rang out in the distance. Screams quickly followed, after which the gunshots grew increasingly sporadic.

I slammed my fist against a nearby wall, fuming in my impotent rage.

“They’re being massacred,” I spat out between clenched teeth.

“Then let’s make sure their sacrifice isn’t in vain. Let’s go,” Allie said, pulling me by the hand.

“Wait, is that what you were waiting for? For their deaths to become a distraction?”

“I don’t make the rules, Kai. I just want to make sure we both make it out of this nightmare alive.”

Allie’s voice sounded cool and aloof, but I could tell from the slight tremor in her fingers that she was just putting up a brave front.

I squeezed her hand, willing some warmth into it. “We’ll make it.”

Allie turned her head to me with reddened eyes, but her nod was one of ruthless resolve.

As we made our way along the desolate halls of the once-bustling mall, the brightly lit storefronts stood out in stark contrast to the bloody footprints all over the floor. We finally reached the electric escalator and crouched low as it took us up to the second story. Huddled behind the transparent plastic of its confines, we held each other tightly as we heard the screaming in the distance finally die out. Only an eerie silence was left in its wake.

We exchanged a grim look, one where we exchanged a silent vow that we would not meet the same fate. We took the escalator all the way to the third floor and crouched low as we marched toward another side passage that led to the service tunnel.

“Down!” I whispered, throwing myself to the floor and yanking Allie along with me.

She didn’t resist, allowing herself to drop bonelessly at my side. On the second story just below us, another pack of at least 50 zombies shambled along, headed toward the Macy’s store.

“Looks like any loud disturbances will draw the attention of all packs within a sizeable radius,” I observed, surprised at how steady my voice sounded.

“And they exhibit a pack mentality, grouping together instinctively to seek out human prey. They behave more like pack hunters rather than mindless abominations,” Allie added from my side.

“If that’s true, we better hope we never meet the pack’s alpha,” I muttered under my breath.

We watched the pack of zombies pass below us, then carefully made our way to the side corridor. I was relieved to find no bloodstains in this area.

“I guess the terrorists focused their attacks on the first two floors,” I remarked as I walked into the corridor, machete in hand.

“They probably split up into two teams. One execution squad to eliminate civilians and one operational squad to deploy the virus.”

“Why would suicidal terrorists carry a cure?” I muttered.

“Why would terrorists attack a mall all the way out in Minnesota rather than a more tactically relevant target like Washington or New York? Nothing here makes sense.”

“At least he hasn’t lied to us thus far. That’s something.”

Allie suddenly paused in mid-step. “Wait, you said he gave you that hidden challenge in the yogurt shop, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah, why?”

“You remember his words at the beginning? He suggested we should check out the-”

“Frozen yogurt and the hot dogs,” we finished at the same time.

“Now that I think about it, he mentioned that I was the third to trigger the hidden challenge. That means two others got their challenges before me.” I shook my head slowly. “I pity those poor bastards.”

“What do you mean?”

“Charon asked me to kill 10 terrorists with edged weapons within 10 minutes.”

“What?”

“That was his condition for clearing the challenge.”

“That’s just suicide!” Allie’s skin took on a waxy complexion as her hand tightened over my arm. “Is that how you got the mana orbs to buy the potion? How could you take on such a foolish risk?”

“I had no choice. It was either that or watch you bleed to death. You know that’s no choice at all.”

“Still..”

I held up my hand to forestall her. “Like you always say, what’s done is done. My point is, challenges are more akin to suicide missions rather than bonus rewards.”

“Maybe that’s exactly what we’re supposed to do,” Allie said slowly, and from her emotionless tone, I could tell she was thinking fast and hard.

I waited in silence because I knew she hated to be interrupted when she was in such a state. From time to time, her brilliance ran away with her and she’d get this catatonic look on her face that meant all of her impressive cognitive functions were completely consumed by an all-important discovery.

It was only when we had finally arrived to the tiny metal door that would lead us to the service tunnel that Allie finally snapped back to her senses. I turned to look at her expectantly, and as always, she did not disappoint.

“We’ve been playing this whole thing wrong,” Allie whispered, her eyes going wide.

“What do you mean?” I muttered, annoyed by her wording. “This is hardly a game, you know?”

She quickly shook her head. “Think about it. To Charon, that’s all this has been. One insane game where he throws us into the maze and watches us scurry about like blind mice until we fall into one of his traps and die.”

My scowl grew even deeper because I couldn’t find fault in her words. That’s exactly how I felt right now.

“That means that if we keep playing by these same parameters, we’ll eventually run out of luck. At this pace, we will die for certain.”

“Gotta work on your pep talk skills there, Allie.”

“No no, listen to me. Why did Charon give us two hours at the beginning of the games?”

“To acclimate ourselves to our new environment?” I said dubiously.

“Charon strike you like the kind of host who’d give a shit about that?” Allie spat out.

“Then what?”

“The trial began the moment he set us loose. That’s why so many people died just within that tiny span of time. The veterans, the true winners of the past trials, they were already reaping lives and harvesting the rewards.”

“You mean like those two sick bastards we killed?” I said grimly.

“No, monsters like Dave are just mindless beasts broken by their past trauma and driven beyond the limits of their sanity by fear. I’m talking about winners.”

“There’s no winners here, Allie - just survivors.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. There are no survivors. If you keep thinking like that, your luck’s bound to run out and you will just be crushed under that sadistic bastard’s heel.”

“Then what?”

“Champions,” Allie whispered, her eyes going wide. “That’s what he said, right? That he was looking for worthy champions.”

“A champion in what? Killing others? Stealing their possessions? Doing anything it takes to survive?”

“Yes, yes, and yes,” Allie replied. “Don’t shake your head at me, Kaizer Lee. This is important, damn it! Think about the Ark. What does it mean?”

“I thought we agreed it wasn’t a place to gather survivors and offer shelter.”

“But what if it is? What if even after entering the Ark, the situation will be so dire that only the most resilient minds and the most formidable warriors would be able to survive, and beyond that, thrive in that new order of things?”

“You mean they’re culling the weak because they would die anyway?” I whispered. “Is that why they didn’t want me at first?”

Allie nodded reluctantly. “They viewed your disease as a weakness, but judged your other abilities worthy of participating in the trials.”

“Then what about Steve and Susan? How could they possibly survive this nightmare?”

“Who knows? Maybe Steve is a mathematician who’s won the Fields Medal and Susan is a world-renowned astrophysicist.” Allie rolled her eyes at my scowl. “Who cares what metrics they use to measure your qualifications to participate in the trial? That’s not what’s important here. What really matters is that we’ve found some daylight.”

“You mean in between the murderous, all-powerful entity hellbent on torturing us to death and the world-ending cataclysm headed our way?”

“Zip it, wiseass. Listen, we have to play to win, no matter what. Simple survival is just a suspended death sentence. Instead of waiting for the guillotine to fall upon our necks, we have to grab these trials by the blade.”

“No matter how badly we bleed, huh?”

Allie nodded to me, her eyes unflinching. “That’s right. We need every edge we can get. You told me you acquired that power of yours from a skill orb, right? In fact, that’s the only way you made it out of that deathtrap and back to save me in time.”

I nodded reluctantly.

“That’s what this is all about, don’t you see? We need to find more mana orbs, get orb levels, learn new skills, and just keep getting stronger and stronger until nothing that bastard throws at us can even make us flinch. We must become unbreakable.”

“Baby, that’s real people you’re talking about. Are we suddenly going to turn into murderers just to snatch up a couple of orbs?”

“Think about all the mana orbs that have gone to waste each time a terrorist gunned down one of the trial’s participants.”

“That’s a line I’m not sure I can cross, Allie.”

Allie looked up and gazed into my eyes, and I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach because I knew what was coming next.

“Not even for me?”

Damn, it just wasn’t fair for her to do this to me. I would have never put her in such a spot.

Was that why Charon had said I just didn’t have what it takes to be a champion? Maybe he was right.

Still, this was Allie. My Allie, the light of my life, my one and only love. I hated that she had pulled such a dirty card on me but in the end, that didn’t change anything at all.

“I’d burn the whole goddamn world for you, and you fucking know it,” I whispered bitterly, avoiding her gaze.

I felt her head pressed up against my chest.

“I know, baby. I’m sorry,” Allie said, and I knew what she meant. She was sorry for the pain she was causing me, but wouldn’t hesitate to do it all over again if necessary. "Just think about it, alright?"

“Fine. Now, let’s get going,” I muttered, opening the metal door as quietly as I could and peering in before stepping inside. “It’s clear.”

We followed the dimly lit corridor while jumping at every shadow, the echoes of our footsteps ringing far too loudly for comfort in spite of our best efforts.

“There’s no blood,” I said, stopping for a moment.

“That’s good, right?” Allie said.

“Didn’t you say we’re almost at the main ventilation shaft?”

“Yeah, just 150 feet ahead.”

“Then where did the SWAT team go? Where are all the dead terrorists? Why is it so fucking quiet in here?”

Allie clutched her rifle even more closely to her chest as her eyes roamed about the shadows. “You’re right. I don’t like this. What’s even worse is that there are no other exits. The closest one is the door we entered through 150 feet back.”

“You said we should grab these trials by the blade, right?”

Allie’s smile was a ghost-pale flicker. “Damn right.”

“Then let’s do this,” I said, moving toward the metal door looming far ahead in the gloom.

We approached the door cautiously, barely daring to make a noise as we looked for any signs of blood or struggle. There were none. Had we come to the wrong place?

Gritting my teeth, I took a deep breath and placed my hand upon the handle. I slowly gave it a twist, then tried to push it forward. It didn’t even budge.

“It’s stuck,” I whispered to Allie, who stood behind me with her rifle pointing toward the door. “What now?”

Allie shrugged at me, leaving the decision up to me.

This was the best clue we had for finding a cure. It was either busting past this door and facing whatever lay on the other side, or trudging back to the zombie-infested halls of the mall. By now, I had no doubt even more corpses would have joined the army of the undead.

“Get ready,” I mouthed, and Allie nodded, readying her rifle.

I twisted the doorknob once again, but right as I was getting ready to ram my shoulder into the door, I heard a voice from the other side.

“.. door..”

I jolted back in shock, immediately releasing my grip on the door.

“.. open.. the door..”

I whirled around to Allie. “It’s a survivor!”

The voice was very weak and I could barely make out a couple of words. Still, that meant this was no zombie and for now, that was enough for me.

I placed my hand back on the doorknob even as Allie laid her ear against the door.

Just as I began pushing the door open with my shoulder, Allie raised her hand toward me, her expression one of panic.

“Don’t!” she cried out.

It was only now that I had managed to pry a two-inch gap in the door that I could finally hear the voice from the other side clearly.

“Don’t.. Open.. the door!”

Just as I began to hastily pull the door back, the choice was taken from my hands altogether.

Irresistible strength snatched the door from my grasp as it was violently thrown wide open, baring the nightmarish scene beyond to my horrified eyes.

But by then, it was simply too late to turn back.

Far too late.