The sun shining in Niall's eyes woke him, his ankle aching in protest as he stood up. The baseball bat at his side dragged along the pavement as he staggered to the wooden boards covering the mall windows. His fingers curled around the edge of a board, forehead resting against the wood as he breathed in the familiar scent of rotten flesh from his pile of dead zombies. He had finally returned back to his base.
Niall was home, and he wasn't alone anymore.
One by one, the boys joined his sides, peeking through the slits between the boards as well. "You ready?" Liam asked from Niall's right.
Everyone hummed in agreement, all of the boys readying their weapons. Niall took a deep breath, heart thumping in anticipation.
It was time to clear out the mall for good.
Liam kicked the door down, the boys going in quickly and quietly. They formed a semi-circle in front of the door; Niall was the center, metal baseball hat raised high above his head in a defensive stance.
Silence.
Darkness.
The pile of zombies near the front entrance was still there in all of its rotten glory, emitting a putrid scent of decaying flesh that seemed to follow the boys around no matter where they went. "Why did you think it was a good idea to place the pile here?" Zayn asked, two of his fingers pinching his nose.
"I didn't; it just kind of happened," Niall replied sheepishly, fanning the air around him in a feeble attempt to get the offensive smell away.
"Let's split up," Louis proposed, going to stand by Niall and wrapping an arm around him. "Niall and I will stay here and burn the bodies with my baby here," He paused to kiss the nozzle of his flamethrower. "Outside while you guys start clearing the mall. We'll join you when we're done."
The boys went silent as they thought about Lou's plan. Eventually, they all agreed to it reluctantly; the increasing volume of groans had begun to grow annoying, and the boys were eager to get rid of the scum. A few zombies rounded the corner of a pawn shop, prompting Harry, Liam, and Zayn to start shooting and making their way deeper into the mall. Louis and Niall watched them until they had turned into another section of the mall.
Louis turned to Niall with a sly grin. "Now, it's just the two of us," He teased with a wink. Niall fought back a blush unsuccessfully as his cheeks radiated with heat. It didn't last long because the stench of the zombies seemed to grow worse as minutes passed.
"You mean sixty-two?" Niall pointed to the pile of zombies. Louis laughed before tugging at a female's arm, her decaying limb separating from her body instead of dragging her whole form. A look of defeat crossed Louis' face momentarily as he looked at the rotten arm in his hand.
"Well this is gonna be harder than I thought. . ." Louis grumbled, his eyes scanning the pile of zombies for some kind of solution. Niall watched in horror as Louis, in his usual eccentric manner, high-fived the hand of the detached limb. "I guess the both of us will just have to carry one at a time."
"I call the feet!" Niall quickly replied, reminding himself of simpler times when he was a child. He remembered the title of "younger brother" being so confining, and the short-lived moments of victory when he successfully called dibs on something before Greg did. Now, Niall was the only Horan left. It hurt him to think about Greg and his parents, but it would hurt Niall more to ignore the thought of his late family.
"You okay?" Louis had seemed to pick up the sudden change in Niall, and he was now laying Niall's head against his chest comfortingly. Louis was so warm - as if he was the very flame that came from his flamethrower - Niall could very easily mold to the subtle contours and dips in Louis' body and feel nothing but ease.
"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. . . )