Bite {Niall Centric}

Day 181

"I am now, thanks," Niall pulled back and tried hard to stop his smile and blushing cheeks. Louis looked at him fondly, making Niall feel even more awkward. "We should um, get to work."

Together, they did just that. Louis grabbed hold of the zombies by their armpits carefully while Niall picked them up by the ankle just as delicately as they walked the corpses out into the parking lot about half-way. Louis set ablaze the morbid pile after transferring the fifth zombie so the bodies would burn quicker; Niall just tried to keep his face neutral as his ankle ached terribly. Slowly, the bonfire grew in size until about sixty-two zombies were burning to ashes in the parking lot, the wind carrying the terrible stench and black smoke far away.

Niall got a good look of all the decayed faces; when he was carrying their bodies, he couldn't look away from their faces, their one identity they had left. He saw the individual characteristics that made up every single human being, the differences that set them apart from their fellows.

Those burning corpses had once been people, Niall thought. They were monsters now. They were finally dead now.

"Let's go join the others," Louis proposed, grabbing hold of Niall's hand to lead him inside. Niall used his free hand to grab his gun, taking it off of safety; he was on alert as gunshots rang out for a solid three seconds. Louis stopped his brisk walk, letting go off Niall's hand to grab his flamethrower. They looked at each other for a moment before rushing off to where the sound of gunfire had originated from.

Zombies were littered across the ground, leaking black pools of blood and scattered brains. They followed the trail of bodies until they turned a corner and were met with the sight of Harry, Liam, and Zayn taking a snack break. Harry had noticed them first. With a big smile, Harry shouted, "Hey!"

"Pass the pretzels!" Lou shouted back, quickening his pace. Niall put his gun back in his holster, grabbing his baseball bat to lean on.

Soon, they were all sat in a circle, munching on pretzels and cheese sticks. Niall relaxed against the low brick wall that encompassed the sunken-level area they were seated in, blue eyes taking in the familiar surroundings illuminated by the sunlight shining through the skylights. He rolled his baseball bat around in his hands, realizing that his fading logo had finally faded away. The metal gleamed under the light, distracting Niall from the silence of full mouths but not from low moaning accompanied by clumsy shuffling.

Niall held up a hand to signal for Zayn to lower his gun and simply said, "I got it this time."

He stood up, balancing most of his weight on one leg delicately with the help of his trusty metal bat. The clack-clack-clack of his bat hitting the ground with every other step reverberated within the dome roof they were sitting under.

The zombies were closer now, knees buckled and hands limp as they stumbled their way to Niall. Niall raised the metal bat, feeling the smooth surface slide into the tight grip of his hands as he patiently waited.

Three. . .

Two. . .

One. . .

Niall swung down hard, bashing the middle zombie's head in. He quickly swung the bat up and to the left to smack into the left zombie's jaw; the zombie fell to the floor with a spin. Niall ducked as the remaining zombie swung at him with festering hands. He lost balance as a sudden throb began in his injured ankle, Niall using his low position to kick out with his good leg and trip the zombie. He grabbed his bat and pulled himself up, walking over to the pair of crawling zombies.

"Fore!" Niall yelled playfully before swinging his bat down and severing a zombie's head by hitting it halfway across the plaza like a golf ball. The second zombie was killed with less pizzazz; Niall just bashed its head in.

Niall returned, laying down on a bench this time to take a short, well-deserved rest. He heard Louis talking loudly about something. . .

Niall drifted in and out of consciousness for about ten minutes before he decided to sit up; they should be getting back to work.

He voiced his thought, a debate starting right after about who goes with who now.

With a disgruntled sigh, Louis finally agreed to stay back with Liam to burn the newly accumulated corpses while Zayn, Niall, and Harry cleared out the mall. Niall was just happy he wouldn't have to bear the smell anymore.

~.~.~.

Two hours passed since the boys split up for the second time, and Niall, Zayn, and Harry were just about done checking the second floor of the mall.

Niall turned his head towards the sound of Zayn shooting a few bullets at a zombie that wore the uniform of the store they were currently in: Patty's Pottery Palace.

She must have been Patty, Niall thought.

"Just one more store, and we're done," Harry sighed with a relieved expression on his face.

"For today," Niall reminded, none too happy about the fact himself. They still had lots of work to do. Summer was fast approaching, so one of them needed to get the air conditioning working. And one of them needed to clean up the zombie blood. Also, they needed to replenish their supplies pretty damn soon.

Survival wasn't a choice, Niall realized. But it could at least be a little bit easier to accomplish.

They continued to the last store, and after checking each aisle and staff room, they concluded that the mall was clear. "What about the stairwell leading to the roof?" Niall asked, suddenly remembering back to his earlier days here and when he first saw the boys riding closer in that old pick-up truck.

The boys changed their course from the entrance to the stairwell, wanting a clear conscious about a safe, zombie-free base. To their fortunate yet unfortunate luck, they encountered a small horde of five zombies. The zombies were dead in less than seven seconds.

When they reached the front entrance, Louis and Liam had just sat down to take a break from burning zombies. "This is harder work than I thought it'd be," Liam sighed.

Niall only nodded his head as he sat down on a bench, resting his aching limbs. He fought back the encroaching darkness of sleep, but eventually, his exhaustion got the better of him.

~.~.~.

this chapter is long overdue but it took forever to write. anyway, this was more of a filler chapter because next chapter is going to be *dramatic pause* shooking (get it? instead of "shocking" i put "shooking" cuz you'll be so shook. . . I'll just leave now. . . )