“Got it?” she asked, and he nodded.
“Yep, come here, I’ll give you a boost,” he replied, lacing his fingers together to make a step out of his hands.
She shook her head. “How about I give you a boost?” she asked. “I think you can probably pull me up through that hole better than I can pull you.”
“Fair enough,” he replied, and moved over to the door open button, mashing on it as she took a position beneath the trapdoor. She laced her fingers together and then gave him a nod.
Hawk stepped forward and put a foot in her hand, pushing off of the ground. Grace hauled up as hard as she could, and he reached up into the hole, grabbing the sides and pulling himself up.
She darted over to the door and hit the button again to keep the doors open just as they started to close, and then smashed the first floor button before darting back underneath the hole. Hawk’s arm hung through, waiting, and she crouched as low as she could, leaping into the air. She managed to grasp his wrist, and he pulled her up enough with a grunt so she could grab the side of the hole, pulling herself up just as the doors gave a ding and closed, beginning the descent.
“How are we going to do this?” Hawk asked. “I know it was my idea, but depending on how many get in…”
Grace shrugged. “We can try to stab them, and if that doesn’t work I’ll shoot them until I run out of bullets,” she replied. “Hopefully I don’t have to do that, and Troy and draw enough of them to the escalators.”
“Guess we didn’t think that far,” Hawk muttered. “If they swarm over here, we’re stuck in this elevator shaft.”
She shook her head. “We can either climb, or Troy can push the button for us,” she replied, as the elevator reached the bottom floor. “But one thing at a time.”
The doors gave a ding and slid open. They watched through the glass shaft as three zombies tore towards them, slamming into the elevator, looking around, confused.
Troy began to smack the metal racks with his crowbar, making a ruckus, and one of the ghouls took off, the rest on the bottom floor converging on the escalators. The two in the elevator seemed at a loss, bumping into each other, and then bouncing off the walls of the small elevator.
Grace pursed her lips. She didn’t think she’d be able to reach low enough with her weapon to stab one, so they had to hope they’d just leave. After what felt like forever, the two zombies managed to bonk their way out the door, shoving each other to tear towards the escalator.
“We’ve got to hurry,” Hawk murmured, motioning.
The sheer amount of zombies tangled in the clothing racks was easily thirty, and the flailing bodies continued to dislodge the haphazard barricade.
Grace nodded and hung her legs into the hole, taking a deep breath before dropping down. She immediately ducked out of the way, pressing her back against the button panel, out of sight of the horde. Hawk came next, and did the same, across the way on the other side of the elevator car.
She pointed to him and then motioned to a makeup kiosk on his side of the store. He peered out and nodded, and she jerked her thumb over her shoulder, to signal that she would go the other way.
They made sure the coast was clear, and then darted out of the elevator, each running off in their own direction.
As soon as Grace cleared the elevator shaft, a duo of zombies appeared from behind a magazine display, surprising her. She ducked her shoulder and slammed into one, sending it flying backwards. She swung around immediately, burying her crowbar into the temple of the other one, and stopped long enough to stab the fallen ghoul before sprinting behind a larger shelf of magazines and stationery supplies.
Chest heaving, she took stock of her surroundings, making sure there would be no surprises, and when she was sure her area was clear, she moved over to the other side so she could get a better view of the escalators.
The zombies had managed to traverse about two-thirds of the stairs, and Troy was just toppling a large shelf over the top rack. It bounced off of a few ghouls and flattened a few more, skidding to a stop about three-quarters of the way down.
Grace reached up and wiggled the shelf she stood behind, finding it flimsy and not bolted down. She took a deep breath and then let out a sharp whistle.
As soon as a pack of zombies came running her way, she disappeared behind the shelf, and then gave it a shove, clambering up onto a foothold and holding on. The unit toppled forward, her body weight on top of it as it flattened a few bodies.
She ran forward, light on her feet, keeping the unit pinning the ghouls beneath her. Two that were just out of the way when it fell lunged for her, and she stabbed one, using it as a battering ram to shove the other back. As it fell beneath its friend, she jumped down and stabbed it through the eye before whipping around to deal with the pinned zombies.
One head stuck out from beneath the shelf, so she got rid of it fast, but the others were writhing arms and legs, so she left them for the moment. A few more ghouls were hot on her tail, so she took off to dive behind another bookshelf. These deeper for full novels instead of magazines, running down one aisle, ducked down to stay out of sight.
Troy banged his crowbar again, yelling and whooping, hopefully drawing the bulk of the ghouls back towards him. She wasn’t sure how Hawk was faring, but she had to trust that he was pulling his weight. They needed to be a
