The Perfect Apocalypse

Chapter 14

I stare at the building looming ominously in front of me. After a day of clearing out stores I really just want to go home.

We are at a small mall. I walk towards the doors trying to shake the horrible feeling I have had all day.

Jenny stops me before I go any further.

"Are you okay? You seem really off" Jenny asks.

"Yeah I'm just nervous. I have no idea why. " I state.

She nods and says "We'll be okay. You might be feeling weird because of getting bitten. Things are going well today. We haven't even seen one of those weird infected. It must be a positive sign." Jenny says in her usual chipper way.

She really does have a way to cheer people up.

I small smile forms on my face. "Thank you Jenny. You really always have a way of making people feel better"

She grins at me. We turn around just as the group busts through the glass doors.

We draw our guns and rush in after them. The mall is completely empty. Even if the mall did close down before the apocalypse I would still expect there to  at least be a few zombies.

Employees or even security must have still been here. We go and stand by Katherine who looks confused. She must be thinking the same thing I am.

"I guess this is our lucky day." She mummers uncertainty. She looks over at my shoulder absent-mindedly.

My shoulder is covered in the gear I'm wearing but Jessie and Katherine did look at it before we left. It has healed surprisingly fast. Jessie had a few theories as to why but we don't have anything definitive yet.

Katherine walks over to go and talk to the rest of the team. She is the leader of this operation after all so she needs to lay out a game plan.

Just as she's about to speak a man trips over a wire. There are a few clicking sounds and before anyone can react there is a loud boom.

The people nearest to the explosion go flying down,because me and Jenny are closer to the door the explosion doesn't really affect us. She still dives over me to protect me from the shrapnel.

I quickly look Jenny over to make sure she's okay. I quickly lift her shirt to see if anything hit her back,she seems fine.

"Thank you so much." I say pulling her into a hug.

She hugs me back. "That's okay. I owe you one."

I pull out of the hug and rush over to Katherine. She is laying on the floor,awake but disoriented.

"Hey...hey. Katherine? Are you with me?" I ask while gently shaking her.

She focuses her attention on me and nods. I look her over. She is covered is cuts and bruises. She has a few pieces of metal sticking out of her but it doesn't seem like anything is life threatening.

All of us luckily know basic medical aid so a few of the others are tending to the severely injured. There are a lot of dead bodies laying around as well. The man who tripped over the wire is now nothing but a charred mess.

A man quickly radios to the rest of the hotel and tells them what happened. He gets most of the details relayed but then the top part of his head dissappears in a bloody mist.

Pops ring out all around me. I drag Katherine to cover while she is still laying down and not processing what's happening.

A group of people have cornered us from inside the mall just past the explosion and from outside. They knew we were coming here.

I drop a few men and eventually Katherine joins in. We are no match for the people that rush us both in a group though.

"Take them both." I hear a familiar voice demand.

Katherine and I get hit and tied up. Bags then roughly get pulled over our heads.

Katherine and I try to hold on to each other but we just get beaten again. One punch lands on my head and I lose consciousness for a few minutes.

When I wake up I'm in a trunk of a car. There is someone next to me. A person much bigger than Katherine.

I can't believe she's working with them. The more I think about it the more everything makes sense.

She didn't protect me from the shrapnel because she cared about me. She did it to protect their immune asset. That day when she found out I was immune and had a strange look on her face was because she just learned something that could help the Pillagers. She even stalled me so that the explosion would hurt my team but not me.

I can't believe I was so blind. I hope Katherine is okay.She's the only person I feel like I can trust right now. How well do I really know Jessie,John and even Ethan.

I thought Jenny was one of my best friends after all.