He stalked to the front of the store, Aaron scurrying after him. The metal clanked and jangled as ghouls wrestled with it, their nasty fingers curled in through the holes. Troy stared at them for a moment and then set the baseball bat against a shelf of rock-climbing gear.
He pulled his crowbar again, and lined it up with one of the holes, waiting for the right moment to jam it through into a face. He hit his target, and one of the corpses fell. He glanced over at his reluctant partner.
“That tire iron isn’t going to do it,” Troy said, motioning behind him. “Find something sharp and get stabbing.”
Aaron clenched his jaw for a moment. “Isn’t the decoy team supposed to be drawing them away?”
“They might be too far away, now,” Troy snapped, rolling his eyes. “We might as well do our part. No use sitting in here cowering when we can be thinning the herd.”
His partner chewed his lip, eyes wide, but looked around for something to use.
Troy stabbed another one and then inclined his head towards the back. “Check behind the register, maybe they have a box cutter or something.”
Aaron nodded and scurried off, not as quickly as he could have, and Troy rolled his eyes again, assuming that the man was stalling for time. Really, of all the ways they could be fighting zombies, safely from behind a metal barrier was one of the best ways to get to do it.
After stabbing two more ghouls, he was just about to bark at his partner to hurry up when a loud noise echoed out through the mall. It almost sounded like… an electric guitar?
Troy laughed at the sound of some crunchy distorted power chords began to fill the air, and the zombies immediately dispersed, taking off towards the direction the decoy team had gone.
He shook his head, smiling. “Rock’n’roll.”
CHAPTER SIX
As Eddie broke away from the group at the top of the escalator, his heart hammered even faster in his chest. There were zombies everywhere, and they were going to be on top of them fast. He hoped Leo was keeping pace with him okay, because he didn’t have time to glance back over his shoulder.
He tried to stay in the center to avoid getting boxed in, as most of the stores were closed up tight. He shoved through the ghouls he could, toppling those close to the railing over to the floor below.
At the huffing behind him, he was comforted that Leo was keeping pace. They reached a bit of a lull, and he slammed his metal weapon down on the railing, echoing a loud clang.
“This way, fuckers!” he bellowed, looking back towards the department store. There was a plethora of ghouls all over the place down there, and though Grace and Hawk were holding their own, they needed the door clear if they had any hope of getting them shut.
He kept hooting and hollering, turning towards the direction they needed to go, and soon enough, Leo joined in, although without as much vigor. Eddie knew the man was scared—hell, they were all scared—but he was going to have to pull his weight if they were going to get out of this.
They tore across the gap of hallway, and out into a more open area of the second floor. The outer shops were all fancy boutique stores, high-end jewelry shops and the like. And the whole area was full of zombies.
“Oh, fuck,” Eddie breathed.
Quick on our feet, he thought, trying not to panic. Need to think quick!
They had to make noise, but they also had to not die, so he looked around frantically for somewhere they could do that.
“They’re coming!” Leo cried, looking behind them, and Eddie grabbed his wrist.
“There!” he yelled. “The music store!” He pointed and began to run, tugging the middle-aged man behind him. Leo almost stumbled, but thankfully caught his footing, because the yelling caused every single ghoul in the area to turn towards them.
He ran with everything he had, pumping his legs until they screamed, and he was moving so fast that he realized too late that zombies were coming out of the music shop towards them.
Just run, just go, he thought, and lowered his shoulder, knocking between two of the ghouls and tearing into the shop proper. He could hear the thundering footsteps behind them and had to make a quick decision. They couldn’t change course now, or they’d be overrun.
“Into the back!” he yelled, though he was still dragging Leo behind him like a running rag doll.
He skirted the counter and burst into the backroom, Leo stumbling in behind him, and slammed the door, locking it with the deadbolt. Soon a wall of zombies smacked into it, some getting caught on the cashier’s desk, others flying over it into the door and falling to the floor. But soon, they converged on it, and the whole window was just a pile of rotting flesh and gnashing teeth.
Leo cried out, and Eddie whipped around, crowbar held high. The older man grappled with a zombie with blood-matted dreadlocks down to its waist. They toppled over into a drum set, cymbals clashing loudly as Leo shrieked in fear, trying to hold the ghoul’s mouth away from his own face.
Eddie waffled, trying to line up his shot but afraid to accidentally hit Leo.
“Get it already!” Leo grunted, and gave a great push, shoving the zombie up as far as he could.
Eddie reacted, stabbing it in the temple, dropping it on top of his partner.
Leo immediately shoved the corpse off of him, backing up along the floor like a crab, and pressing himself against the far wall. “Are there any more?” he gasped.
Eddie shook his head, looking around the open store room. It looked more like a jam room, a place where music lessons took place. Off to the side was a desk, with
