“If you want to stand even a slim chance of surviving this, you’re going to have to get those doors closed,” No Name said.
Grace glared daggers at him. No shit, she thought, but held her tongue. She took the map and studied it. Crude as it was, it was fairly detailed, with all of the entrances marked clearly.
“There’s a service entrance on the first floor that seems to stay pretty quiet, so you can get in safely,” the mercenary said, pointing to one of the marked entrances. “You should be able to fight your way up to the second floor easily from there, with that escalator. Once the doors are shut, and you thin out some of the horde, you’re to make a call to No Name here so we can take out the rest of those things.”
Grace pursed her lips in thought. “What’s this big store here?” she asked, pointing to one just beside the department store doors.
“It’s a sporting goods store,” the mercenary explained.
She nodded. “Probably our best bet is to get up there, close the doors, and then hide out in there for a few minutes to take the heat off of our initial run, and get a lay of the land,” she suggested.
“Are you going to be coming in after us?” Troy asked, crossing his arms.
“Once the main mall is clear, your job will be to bang on the doors to draw those things in the department store towards the access panels above,” the mercenary said. “We’ll kill them all from above.”
Grace continued staring at the map and then looked up as No Name held a walkie talkie in front of her face.
“Call me when you’re ready,” he said gruffly.
She snatched it out of his hand and shoved it into her back pocket. “Not if we’re in trouble?” she asked dryly. “Guess there’s nobody coming in to help us if we get cornered, huh?”
He shook his head, not meeting her gaze. Another van pulled up, and the sliding door opened, four civilians reluctantly getting out.
“Oh, fuck no,” Hawk muttered at the sight of Aaron, a middle-aged man that had nearly gotten them killed the day before. “No way we’re taking him in with us.”
Aaron scowled at him as they approached. “I don’t wanna go in there any more than you do,” he snapped.
“You should stay out here then, since you can’t follow directions and you only care about your own ass,” Hawk shot back.
No Name held up his hands. “The eight of you are going in. You need all the hands you can get.” He reached into his holster and grabbed his handgun, holding it out to Grace. “She’s in charge. Listen to her if you want to live through this.”
“No pressure,” she muttered, and shoved the gun in the back of her pants. The weight of it was like a ton of bricks. Eight, eight of them to get through this. She took a deep breath. “I think our best bet is to split into groups. One group to cause a diversion, one to secure the sporting goods store, and one to get those doors closed.”
The mercenary returned with a plastic bin full of melee weapons, crowbars and tire irons and the like.
“How come she gets a gun?” one of the new civilians whined.
Grace took a deep breath. “Because I’m getting us through this, if you listen to me,” she said firmly. “This isn’t my first rodeo here, and if you complain too much, these guys will shoot you, so stay focused.”
Her speech had the intended effect, and the group stood there, staring at her expectantly, clutching their weapons.
“You and you, what are your names?” she asked, pointing at two of the newcomers.
“I’m Aly, and this is Joseph,” a middle-aged woman said. They both looked like they hadn’t seen a lot of action in their lives, but at least seemed in good enough shape to run and swing a crowbar. Joseph’s forehead shone with a thick sheen of sweat, fear written all over his face. But who wasn’t afraid these days?
“Okay, you and Hawk are with me,” Grace continued. “We’re going to secure the doors. Then we’ll need two groups of two, one to cause a distraction to clear the area, and another to clear the sporting goods store so we have a safe place to regroup.”
“I’ll take the distraction team,” Eddie said, raising his hand.
Troy glanced at Grace, and she shot him a knowing look, hoping he understood that she wanted a person she trusted on each team.
“Yeah, I’ll do the sporting goods store,” he said with a sigh, and smacked Aaron on the shoulder. “You ready for a proper mission, following orders?”
The older man glowered at him, but nodded, gripping his crowbar tightly.
“Guess you’re with me,” Eddie said brightly, turning to the final man, a wiry guy that looked like he’d sat in front of a computer his whole life. “What’s your name?”
“Leo,” he said, taking a deep breath. “You?”
“Eddie,” came the reply, and they shook hands.
Grace nodded and pointed to a section of the map. “We’ll have to get a lay of the land once we’re in there, and think on our feet,” she said. “But I’m thinking probably over here would be a good place to make a ruckus. It’s far enough that it shouldn’t draw too many from the department store, but enough to thin it out a bit where we’re working.”
Eddie nodded. “You got it.”
“We’ll go up the escalator as a group, and then split up at the top to do our jobs,” she continued, looking around the group. “That make sense?” There were nods all around, and then she turned to No Name. “I guess that means we’re ready. Are we free to go, or does somebody need to intimidate us first?”
He pressed his lips into a thin line and shook his head, not saying a
