He promptly ignored the little girl trying to gnaw at his boot. She wasn't a threat and he didn't have the time to deal with such a minor annoyance at the moment. Grey's mind raced through the possibilities until he finally came up with something. It was truly idiotic, the idea of a madman even, but as they say, desperate time calls for desperate measures.

And so he grabbed the little girl... And threw her at the Plus sized undead, bowling it over. Rushing towards the downed duo he lifted up his human(?) projectile and brutally smashed her down on the larger zombie directly in the face, as if she was a pillow he was using at a particularly intense pillow fight against that one cousin you low key hated, but couldn't afford to actually hit.

Channeling all of his misplaced anger the amount of force he managed to unleash was impressive, to say the least. As if some part of their rotten brain was aware of what was happening the two zombies screaming in sync in the moments right before impact. The poor girl's already damaged head couldn't handle the abuse, especially considering how soft and fragile kid's skull are compared to adults, and ended up for a lack of a better word exploding over both of them.

The fat zombie didn't get away from it scot-free either as it had been greatly stagged by the blow and lost its footing, knocking over boxes which it then tripped on. He pounced on the opportunity and raised his makeshift flail overhead and swung down repeatedly, beating the other corpse into submission. If his weapon wasn't sans its head it might've knocked into the ceiling, as at one point he had decided to jump and leverage gravity and his weight with his blows, ensuring the Mr. I-Eat-Ass-Literally couldn't get up as his knees gave out on him.

A few minutes later and he was left heaving over the pulped remains of someone's torso while holding onto the grisly remains of a femur, stripped of flesh and torn from its body from the force of his blows. The girl's body flying who knows where. He didn't see nor really care, not after his brief descent into madness.

He stayed there on his knees staring at it uncomprehendingly for a few moments before quickly pulling down his scarf and hurling. The sight of the half-digested pink mess of his ham and cheese only made it worst. He did a few breathing exercises until he had calmed down a little and checked his surroundings for more zombies. Thankfully despite all the noise and his small break down not that much time had actually passed. He quickly turned off all the toy dogs and got rid of the lone zombie that got inside. Yet, when he went back to pick up his trust metal pole his eyes wandered to the fallen undead and he felt a hint of nausea and bile rising back up. A soft chuckle left his lips, but it was devoid of any humor.

"I guess I'm not as tough as I thought I was, huh?" Grey muttered to himself in with self-derision. As always and with a hint of morbid curiosity he checked the body of the man and found another phone and a dark leather wallet. It was quite high quality and he actually managed to give out a laugh when a bunch of condoms fell out when he opened it. "Man, guess you really can't judge a book by its cover," He noticed they were all different colors and began to read them out loud

"Trojan, Durex, Skyn... and Trojan Magnum? Seriously dude? " He flipped through them and read their funny description as if they were comic strips and shuffled them like playing cards. It was a fun little distraction before he shoved them back in the side pocket they fell out of and checked the rest of its content. His smile froze on his face before shattering like glass as he stared morosely. There, right next to the owner's driver license was a picture of him and his family, a little girl not unlike the one whose corpse he had brutalized just minutes prior sitting on his lap. It was a birthday party. The girl was about to blow out the candles and her eyes shined golden in the candle's light. Everyone in the picture had happy smiles on their faces.

They were happy. They had dreams. They had a future and yet now look at them, nothing but cooling bodies, killed by a punk kid in a God-forsaken mall with nobody to mourn them. Would their family ever find out? Are they even still alive?

He used his newly acquired phone to log into his social media accounts to send everyone another message. If they were in this like he was then a sudden phone call was like announcing to every undead nearby of an all you can eat buffet nearby. It's been 6 hours since the mass blackout and yet still no police presence nor any news coverage. His earlier posts had gotten more attention but were currently being treated as a hoax or a meme. It was mildly frustrating but understandable. He took some more pictures of his surrounding including the dismembered girl and the torso-less man.

Maybe it was pointless and nobody would care, but he just wanted to leave something behind. Just in case he was going to die here he wanted his death to be meaningful and remembered, unlike the man.

He got up and reached for his backpack before quickly changing his clothes and wrapping a new scarf to cover his face. He'd need more food soon, especially considering that he had missed breakfast thanks to the blacking out and that he had just puked up his lunch. It was almost 5:30 PM and he had to keep his energy up for such intensive activities. Grey had just put on his backpack and taken his first step out the entrance when he had a sudden idea.

Half an hour, one trip back and forth from the Macy's to the toy shop, and a stupid amount of tape and he was quite proud of his work. There laying in a neat row in front of him was 7 toy RC trucks with a phone attached them with a bunch of spares and other toys stuffed in his bag. One by one they left the safety of the store to scout out the path for him. Where it was impossible to continue without encountering any zombies, he merely used the toy to attract their attention. If the sound of the truck moving or bumping into things wasn't enough then he would call phone. With strategic placement and crowd control, he had even managed to make 4 zombies fall to their afterlife.

Of course, he made sure to not leave himself complacent or fully relaxed as before and made sure to check every possible route. He even had one stationed on the parking lot outside to make sure there wasn't something crazy like a horde amassing outside ready to trap him.

He was basically strolling along at a rapid pace, only taking the occasional pause to check the bodies lying around for any survivors. Though you would think blasting Fallout boy on his phone would either wake people up or get them to notice him, but so far he hasn't even managed to catch a glimpse of a single person. Was he just really lucky to be one of the few people to not instantly die at first contact or did the zombies do them in? Or did they escape already?

He didn't know the answer to any of them even after he walked over his 5th pile of corpses.

Having learned his lesson from earlier he systematically lured and took down the zombies like clockwork one at a time. The young zombie slayer walked towards the bathroom and cleaned himself up, making doubly sure to thoroughly wash his hands with the scented soap, couldn't very well make himself a meal covered in some man's guts after all. That was just unsanitary and gross. A hesitant sniff made a smile grow on his face. It smelled of cream and summer berries. He decided to take the entire bottle, he was sure the staff wouldn't mind, and if they did. Well, they were already dead so fuck them.

A glance towards the mirror made him sigh and shove his head under the sink's running water, lathering the handsoap liberally within blood matted raven locks.

It was incredibly cold, an abrupt shock to his system, but exactly what he needed to stay awake. He hummed along to whatever mindless tune was playing in the Men's room, however, his ears picked up an almost silence creaking next door. He had left most of his surveillance trucks to keep a perimeter. For a moment the black haired boy considered pulling one of them back in order to check the bathroom, but he shook his head at the idea.

Those things wouldn't last forever and he needed to learn to fight in all sorts of places. Playing it too safe wasn't necessarily good for his development. With such thoughts, he crept towards the entrance and made sure to keep a safe distance from the hand dryer or the automatic paper towel dispenser. A peek around the corner revealed nobody at the sink. He carefully crouched down and glanced beneath the stalls to reveal no feet. How odd. There was nobody here?

Was he too sensitive and tense? Being too relaxed had proven to be a mistake but jumping at shadows was a great way to pile up fatigue and stress, something that could prove equally fatal. There were three stalls in front of him.

Grey took a few steps back until he was a good distance away from the door in case something jumped out at him before grabbing a few coins from his pocket. Picking a particularly shiny quarter which was apparently circulated in 2014, he tossed it at the one in the middle full force and watched as it flew past the top of the closed door and ricochet inside. The harsh clanks of metal against porcelain echoed loudly through the seemingly empty stalls when a loud shriek startled him.

Unlike the undead's which were filled with an animalistic rage, this one was full of surprise and fear. The voice was definitely a girl's.

Another survivor? How very interesting Grey thought to himself as he might've found someone who could answer some of the questions on his mind about what the heck happened while he was blacked out. Would she be useful? Maybe he would bring her along to escape his hell hole, he could always use an extra hand.

"Hey, calm down. I'm human, the name's Grey Allen, sorry I scared you." He uttered softly to avoid further spooking whoever was in the stall, suppressing his minor irritation at having to talk to a door and waiting for a reply. First impressions are important after all. Even if the girl was clearly impolite. He even apologized!

"Go away!" She shouted with a hoarse voice while choking back sobs. He stood there for a moment blinking in surprise. He hasn't been shouted at in years, and nobody had the balls to piss him off in twice as long. Well, ain't somebody just plain rude. He even apologized!

"Look, I don't want to hurt you or anything, just want to talk for a bit. Also, can you open the door?" It was getting dark and he hasn't eaten a proper meal in forever. He wouldn't want to deal with a rude moody little girl who locked herself in the bathroom, and he really did not want to deal with this bullshit during the fucking zombie apocalypse of all times.

Seriously, kids today have absolutely no manners. It also seemed that his attempts at gently coaxing her to grow up and stop hiding in the toilet like a big girl weren't appreciated judging by her reply.

"Are you fucking stupid? There are zombies out there! Fuck off and leave me alone."

Bitch.

What little of his patience evaporated like an ice cube under the summer's sun. a vein pulsed angrily along his temples and he felt his right eye twitch ever so slightly. He took in a deep breath and held it in, counting to 7 before slowly releasing it. The boy walked up close to the door and spoke loudly so that every word rang through the room. His voice was gentle despite the volume.

"Look, kid, you're scared, angry even, I understand. One day you're going to the mall with friends having fun and eating ice cream, the next day zombies attack and they eat your friends' brains. It happens. The world finds a way to bend you over and fuck you sideways without lube. Shit happens. I'm sorry your parents aren't here to comfort, I'm sorry that your friends aren't here to help, and I'm sorry that I... Don't give a fuck."

As he was speaking he could tell she was following along every word because she had gone completely silent, sobs and all. Grey's voice, once a deep and rich baritone, suddenly lost all pretense of husky masculinity for a more skrill and boyish one laced with white-hot anger. He had to find his friends and get out of here, and nothing was going to get in his way. He wasn't going to spare anything that got in his way come hell or high water. Not a horde of zombies, and definitely not a stupid girl's feelings.

The said girl gave a gasp of surprise at the sudden shift in his tone and what he said, but before she could begin her indignant tangent he continued where he left off.

"Maybe your parents would put up with your tantrum, but guess what honey? They aren't here right now and I don't put up with disrespect, and I most certainly don't put up with whiney brats and their bullshit breakdown. Now, how about you be a good girl and get the fuck out of there before I drag you out by your hair? And trust me when I say that a shitty Food Court bathroom stall might save you wrong the braindead fucks outside," He swung his rod and broke the nearby mirror to emphasize his point. "but nothing will stop me from beating your ass for wasting my time with this if you don't get out by the time I count to 5."

Grey didn't even need to finish counting 2 when the stall door suddenly burst open, the girl having scrambled to unlock the hatch and did not even have time to get her feet off the toilet seat.