I n f i n i t u m

Chapter Thirteen

Apparently, Teejay wasn't feeling up to a day of exploration, and instead had Jess, who wasn't exactly happy about being forcibly volunteered, take his place.

Now here we sat, in the back of a beat up, baby blue, Beatle that Jebadiah had managed to hot wire halfway through our trip into town. He refused to have Jess sit up front with him and now the pissed-off woman was sulking beside me. I eyed the particularly large combat knife tucked away in her belt and wondered if she was crazy enough to use it on us.

We continued to sit in silence, listening to Jebadiah's whistling to a song I didn't know until we finally pulled into the parking lot of the enormous dome-shaped building from before. The entire expanse of the lot had sandbags placed in scattered half-circle set ups, military humvees, buggies, and other vehicles left abandoned haphazardly. I stared at a huge one in particular as we rolled passed, immediately recognizing that it was a tank by the long tube that jutted out from the top.

Jebadiah parked the Beatle right by an opening into the building, "Looks like this convoy is abandoned. They're long gone, now."

His statement prompted a trail of thoughts to overlay my attention. What ever happened to the U.S. military? Those guys probably had more than enough firepower to rip the Horrors a new asshole, and yet, the Hero Corps took over.

We all readied our weapons and bags before approaching the busted glass entrance. It took us down an open cavern before breaking away into the main floor where we now stood, momentarily surprised by what we'd discovered. Countless store fronts displayed darkened rooms, where a good amount of merchandise remained, ranging from clothing stores, to tech and hunting gear. The ceiling seemed to go on for forever, impossibly long, hinting at higher levels that were just waiting to be explored.

"You guys found a fucking mall?!"

Jess' whisper-yell echoed off in the distance, eliciting a hard look from Jebadiah and myself. The three of us waited, half expecting zeds to come running, screeching their heads off. When the mall remained still and oddly peaceful, we finally began a steady stroll down the corridor, weaving between the debris that littered the once polished marble floor. We passed a sports-wear shop of some sort and I immediately strolled in, attention drawn by the hundreds of track pants and sweats that were left untampered with. I passed an overlaying sign dangling from the ceiling, the white words with the related logo patchy, but readable. 'Adidas'.

"I think we just walked into Fang's closet," Jess mumbled, distracted by something she saw on a shelf displaying shoes, "if he were to have one."

I grabbed a large duffle bag and immediately started clearing the racks of sweats and track pants that looked to fit my group members and myself. Once I was satisfied with the slim-fit bottoms, I grabbed another duffle bag and shoved tons of hoodies, sweaters, and tops into it. I heaved the two, fully-loaded bags to the front of the store and dropped them off where Jebadiah waited with his own bag of items. He raised an eyebrow at my baggage, but didn't question otherwise.

I joined Jess at the shoe section and noticed that she was filling up her bag with shoes for the entire crew.

"All our shoes are either beat up or damn well nearing it," she said.

"Need any help?"

She waved me off, "No, I can carry shit on my own, thank you very much."

"Ok, break your back then," I sing-songed. Jess sent me off with a fake smile accompanied with a middle finger.

In a weird way, it was sort of fun going around the abandoned mall and raiding the shops, taking anything we wanted or needed. What we were doing would have gotten us arrested way back. Now, it was just a way of life. You had to do what you had to do.