Bam!
The metal door slammed against the concrete wall, startling Niall from his nap. He quickly grabbed the pistol beside him, shooting three times blindly with one hand as he rubbed his eye with the other. He blinked his eyes open to see a zombie crawling towards him, rotten leg forgotten at the door way. He pulled the trigger again, sighing when it shot a blank.
Niall had ran out of bullets. . . again.
Quickly, he grabbed the metal bat beside him and bashed the zombie's head in. Rotten flesh and blood splattered the walls and his body, but Niall was used to it. He was used to the smell, the feeling, and the numb emotions that followed.
Niall stood up, stuffing the gun into his backpack and grabbed the metal bat, wiping the blood on the zombie's shirt. He checked his watch; he had barely gotten two hours of sleep. Slowly and reluctantly, he left the concrete room and entered the deslolate clothing store.
Niall sifted through the racks, deciding to change out of his dirty, blood soaked clothes and into new, albeit dusty ones. He chose a thin undershirt and a warm flannel, paired with loose-fitting jeans. Before he put them on, he headed to the bathroom to rinse off at the sink. He looked in the smudged mirror at his bloody face. It wasn't his blood, and somehow, that was more unsettling.
He scrubbed his face, shivering at the cold water. It had been a pain in the ass to figure out how to fix the plumbing, but at least he had water. Fixing the water heater was another story, and that's why he was shivering right now. The water felt like ice, but it was better than the tepid blood of a zombie.
After changing, Niall ventured outside the clothing store and peered around. No zombies in this section. He went back inside the store to the concrete room and dragged the dead zombie out. He dropped the body at a pile of other dead zombies he had started to make when he first got here. Here, being a shopping center. Niall was surprised when he had came across the huge mall, but he was thankful.
It wasn't zombie-proof, but he was working on it. So far, he had boarded up most of the windows with the wood from the DIY store and barricaded all the doors. He got the plumbing to work thanks to reading the manuals in the manager's office. He was still working on electricity and ventilation, but he felt confident that he would soon have it made here.
Niall heard a groan, the hairs on the back of his neck spiking up. He turned around, hands gripping tight at the metal bat. He swung full force at the zombie, its head knocked clean off. He sighed, picking up the head and throwing it to the pile.
Sixty down, hundreds more to go. . .
Niall took a granola bar from his backpack, munching on it as he headed to the breaker room. Today was the day he would have light! He felt it deep in his bones, giving him a thrumming feeling as if he were a live wire. Perhaps a spark from him would spark the electricity in the mall.
Niall soon found himself jogging to the breaker room then into a fullblown run. He was excited and confident and ready. Groans. He stilled, hand going to the bat hanging from his side in a make-shift holster made from leather and a lot of duct tape. Raising the bat behind his head and swinging down, he took a step forward to add velocity to his swing.
Clunk!
Make that sixty-one, hundreds more to go. . .
He resumed his run, passing by clothing stores, a Chick-Fil-A, and a few jewelry stores. He clicked in the four-digit code on the lock and walked inside the dark, dank room. He fished out his flashlight from his backpack, stuffing the granola wrapper into a pocket on the inside.
He pulled out a pamphlet and an information booklet, turning them to the necessary pages. "Connect the blue wire to pink-coated outlet," Niall read aloud.
By the time he reached the last page of the manual and with minimal shock to his fingers, Niall had on more plug to connect. He smiled as he pushed the plug into the remaining outlet, cheering and whooping when lights cut on. "Hell yeah!"
Then he was cloaked in darkness again. "Oh, come on! I did everything that fucking manual said to do!" Niall screamed, standing up and kicking the metal box the wires were connected to. The lights cut on again, Niall's foot midair from where he stopped it from kicking his backpack.
He laughed loudly, tears spilling freely down his cheeks. "This is fucking insane!"
Niall left the breaker room, putting the lock back, so zombies couldn't fuck up the electrical again. It was a miracle that the government kept the power grids turned on turned in hopes of helping humanity survive, and it was. It was helping Niall survive in this lawless land.
He grabbed the dead zombie's hand and dragged him to the pile, leaving a trail of black blood through the mall. He headed to the bathroom, washing his hands from the rotten flesh. Niall's stomach churned at the sight of brown water going down the drain.
~.~.~.
Niall raided the shelves of the snack kiosk, grabbing several chip bags for lunch. Pulling one open, he stuffed the potato chips into his mouth as he walked to the front entrance. Sunlight streamed in from the gaps between the boarded up windows, shadows dancing on the floor from movement outside.
He heard low moaning. Several zombies were shuffling outside. Niall peeked through the gaps, stumbling back and gasping in surprise when he came eye to eye with a human boy. His chip bag fell from his gasp, his heart thumping loud in his chest. "Hello? I saw you already, I know you're in there! Please let me in!"
"H-How do I know I can tr-trust you?" Niall called back.
"I am unarmed."
Niall bit his lip as he contemplating on moving the heavy metal cabinet from in front of the door. "How do I know you aren't bitten? There are zombies surrounding you without attacking, isn't that a bit alarming?"
"They are my family. I have mufflers on their mouths. They can't bite anyone," The boy explained hurriedly. "They are good zombies. Please let us in!"
"I'm sorry, but I can't do that," Niall sighed. "The only good zombies are dead zombies."
"I can leave them out here!"
"Just leave. . . please."
"Why won't you help me?" Something seemed off about the boy, and when Niall peeked through the gap again, he figured out why. The boy had been bitten and was turning into a zombie. His body shook uncontrollably as the toxins set in, his flesh turning a sickly green before decaying. "Aaaaaaagh!"
Niall grabbed his pistol, grabbing a cartridge from the side pocket of his backpack. He reloaded the gun, took aim, and shot.
Pow!
Pow!
Pow!
Pow!
The family of zombies were dead. Niall was alone once again. He wondered if that family of zombies knew about the whereabouts of any orthodontist. It would have helped him tremendously if they did.
-------------
This is a self-indulgent fanfic about Niall with braces having to deal with the zombie apocalypse and trying to find an orthodontist. Also, I am Niall-centric trash so. . .