AGE OF INSANITY

Chapter 19: Mall hunt

Irene's P.O.V

Growing up I avoided malls. Something about crowded spaces had always put me on edge. Post apocalyptic malls were deserted and for good reason. Before the collapse of the media people had been advised to stay away from crowded spaces. However, as in most dooms day scenarios, the masses first instinct upon hearing of their impending doom had been to stock up on supplies. The devil who had brought the end of days upon us, must have anticipated this reaction and as such malls and other such outlets became hot spots for infection. Within a day after the country had been declared a military state all malls, supermarkets and general stores were forcefully shut down as an effort to curb the spread of the virus. As such most of the malls were still fully stocked.

Our main concern about going to the mall had been the risk of getting infected. Everyone had agreed that the malls bore the highest risk of infection which was why we had been given all the hazmat suits. They were uncomfortably hot but it would be a fools errand going without them. We had divided up duties between us. I was in charge of getting hygiene products, James was in charge of textiles and Marcel was in charge of getting anything else that would be essential.

The first mall we got to was completely deserted. We broke the lock by driving out truck through the gate. The next two hours was spent clearing the mall of everything useful we could find. We broke into different stores collecting products and filled an eighth of our cargo hold before driving off. We had taken one of the biggest trucks. It could have easily held a passenger plane with room to spare. We drove off to next mall marked on the map Marcus and Charles had given us.  They had also shown us which roads to take in order to avoid dealing with large numbers of the infected.

The next two malls were also deserted. We had worked in silence hauling our spoils into the cargo hold. The fourth Mall's gate was wide open when we got there. There was no one insight, but the green building seemed foreboding. I hesitated to follow the rest who were already making their way into the building. Marcus and Charles had only marked the malls that were still closed. Prior to them being closed off they had been cleared of everyone infected and otherwise. The fact that this mall's gate was open meant someone else had made their way in, sometime after Marcus had surveyed it.

It could not have been the infected. They did not have enough cognitive skills to open the gate forcefully or otherwise. The only explanation was someone healthy had made their way into the mall. That fact made me a lot more uneasy. I slid into the drivers seat and backed out of the mall the big truck proving a lot more difficult to handle than I had anticipated. I was still struggling to line up the back of the truck through the gate when the doors bust open. James and Marcel sprinted towards the truck. Marcel yanked the door open sat on my laps and backed the truck out peeling out the the mall as fast as the truck would allow. I caught a glimpse of a wild eyed man with a machete before we were off. The machete man was joined with his comrades and they all pursued us. After a few tense minutes they disappeared from view as the distance between us widened. Marcel slowed down enough for me to slide out of his seat.

"What happened?" I asked, soothing my crushed thighs, although the answer seemed obvious.

"They moved into the mall. I don't think they know of the nuclear strike and they did not seemed pleased to see us." James answered.

"That's not the problem here. The only reason we are not in pieces is because Irene was already driving out. If not we could have been in serious trouble. How did you know something was wrong?" Marcel asked as he made a sharp turn getting off the main road into a smaller street.

"The gate was open. Marcel said he had only marked mall's that were shut down, because we were not likey to run into trouble."

" That was good thinking on your part next time give us a warning if you think something is wrong. It's better to be paranoid and alive than confident and dead. We need to be extra careful going forward...." Marcel trailed off his attention captured by something he had spotted.

I followed the direction his eyes were staring in and was appropriately pleased. It was a gun store. The only gun store I had ever seen in my life. The store was still intact as were most stores in that street offering us a grain of hope. After a short deliberation James and I went to check it out while Marcel kept the engine running. The smell of a rotting corpse hit us as soon we opened the door. The store had been ransacked with nothing left in sight. That is nothing but the four bodies that were being ravaged by maggots. I gagged, vomiting a little in my mouth. I pushed down the urge to empty my stomach content and barely successeded. The store itself seemed a lot smaller on the inside than it did on the outside, meaning there had to be a storage room at the back. I looked around for a door finding none.

James went out back to look for another entry point. I searched the counter for anything useful and came across a button hidden in the left corner of the desk. I pushed it down and jumped back  startled as the previously seamless wall swung inward revealing the mother load.

I have always hated the idea of guns. I used to think solving problems using violence was for people with underdeveloped brains who could not find reasonable solutions to problems. However my heart sung at the sight of all the ammunition in crates that spread out in front of me. Times had changed and if we were to survive we needed to change and adapt.

"There is no other entrance." Jack announced stopping short as he took in the now opened wall.

He made his way around the desk and whistled as he took in our spoils. Marcel came down to help us load all twelve crates of  ammunition into the truck. We kept three pieces for ourselves despite the fact that none of us even knew how to load a gun. We hoped that simply having them would scare anyone sane away.

Now armed we made our way to the rest of the malls. We spent as little time as we could at each mall working as fast we could. The sun had set as we made our way out of the last mall. Driving in the dark was dangerous, or so we had been warned. We drove without turning on the headlights. Quite the challenge as we had to rely on moonlight. It was quarter past midnight when finally made it back to the show room. Everyone but the newcomers were back.