The Red X Chronicles (Book 1): Emergent Read online

  “Like fighting. Being alive doesn’t help anyone if we all just tear each other to pieces. I’m sticking to the plan. Wait a few days then get back to the quarantine zone.” John said searching through his pockets to get an idea of how many shotgun shells he had left.

  “What about us?” I asked.

  “I’m not your mommy, do whatever you want. You’re welcome to follow me, or stay here. I don’t care.” He was still catching his breath when he got to his feet again. “We’re not getting out the way we came in, that’s for sure. He gestured to the zombies behind the cage. ” I’ll have to find another way out of here.” He got up and walked in the same direction the guard had walked off in.

  “Something not quite right about that cop.” said Will.

  “I’m not so sure, he’s just in a bad situation. I wouldn’t put it past anyone to act weird with what he’s going through.” I replied.

  “No…” Elizabeth chimed in. “He’s right, there’s something… off.”

  “Like what?” I asked.

  “He’ just…” she continued. “Just off… I can’t put my finger on it but something is definitely wrong.”

  “Hmm.” I wasn’t sure what to make of their perception. “Well there’s no sense sitting around here. Let’s go see what ‘a lot’ of people means.”

  Chapter 8

  I got up and followed John, while Elizabeth and Will went off on their own. This side of the mall didn’t have any damage. It was pristine. As we walked we could see more and more people sitting around, till we got to the section where they were reinforcing the barricades. There must have been a hundred people in total, more than the mall could sustain for more than a few days.

  “Who’s in charge here?” John asked the people working.

  “I wouldn’t say anyone’s in charge.” One of the men answered him. He was tall with short brown hair, clean shaven, brown eyes, muscular and overall well kept. He stood extremely straight but had a friendly demeanor, which was odd considering what had happened that night.

  “Well… What’s your name?” John asked.

  “It’s Dennis, Dennis Myers, and you’re… You’re Officer John Maxton?”

  John squinted and drew out his response. “Yeah… Do we know each other?”

  Dennis laughed. “No, I can’t say that we ever met. But you were in the papers a few weeks ago right? The big drug bust?”

  John rolled his eyes while he nodded. “Yeah, that’s me.”

  “Hey glad to meet you.” He took a hold of John’s hand and shook it firmly. “Glad to have a police officer here. People are looking for leadership, and I was the closest thing we had, being in the Army reserve and all.”

  “I doubt I’m the best bet for leading these people…” John closed one eye while he scratched the side of his head.

  “Seriously? I’m sure people would be glad to know a hero cop was the one in charge.” Dennis said.

  “I’m not looking to step on anyone’s toes… I’m just as out of my element as anyone else here. I’d rather you keep charge of things.” John was clearly uneasy at the topic, and it made sense with the plan he had in mind.

  “You’re sure?”

  “Yes. The papers did a good job of making me out to be more than I am. Besides, I’m sure you’d be better at it anyway.”

  “Alright, if you say so…” He waited for John to talk. “I don’t believe I’ve met your friend here.” Dennis said gesturing to me.

  “Mark Williams, nice to meet you.” He grabbed my hand and shook it firmly giving a slight nod.

  “Are you alright?” He was looking at my blood soaked clothes.

  “Yeah I’m fine, just had a rough night.”

  He almost snickered. “Yeah who hasn’t?” There was a tinge of sorrow in his voice.

  “Ok. Hey I could use a map of this place.” John cut in. “Know anyone who might have one? Or where one would be?”

  “There’re maps all over the place, it’s a mall.” He pointed to the board behind John that gave details about the various stores and their locations.

  “No, I don’t mean like that. I’m looking for one that has all of the back rooms on it. You know like a maintenance map.”

  “Hmm, well Steve might know where to find one. He’s a security guard for the mall. Or I guess he was.” Dennis scratched his chin while he talked. “Hmm, where is he?” He looked over the crowd.

  “Yeah I think I’ve met ‘em, sort of. He’s the one who let us in. I’ll see if I can’t find him. Thanks for your help Dennis.” John turned to walk away.

  “Sure thing. Actually, mind if I come with you?”

  “No… I guess that’s fine.”

  Dennis asked a few people where Steve was as we were making our way from the main entrance of the mall. Many people were distraught over the things that had happened to them. Some people were crying, others were just trying to ignore everything and come to terms with it. It only took a few minutes to track down the mall’s security guard. “Hey Steve!” Dennis was rather loud. “Do you know where we can find a map of this place?”

  John added to Dennis’ question. “A detailed one, that has all of the security, maintenance, and storage rooms on it.”

  Steve was indeed the person who had let us in, and he didn’t have to think too long to get his answer. “Yeah, there’s one in the security office. Here I’ll show you where it is.”

  “Thanks.” John said, and we followed him around the corner and a few stores up. There was a break in between the stores that lead to the room plainly marked as security. He unlocked the door and let us in.

  Steve pointed to the map on the wall once we were inside. “There it is. Is there anything else you guys need?” He asked surprisingly courteously.

  John looked around the room for a second before his eyes came to a chair that had many monitors in front of it. “Yeah, can you show me how to work these cameras?”

  Steve shook his head. “I’m pretty new here, and I’ve never got to touch ‘em. Wade was the guy who worked the cameras, but he ran out of here before things started getting really bad. I think I’m the only one of the security staff that stayed behind.”

  “Why did you stay?” I asked.

  He looked embarrassed by the question. “I’m the only one that didn’t have a car.”

  “Hey Steve.” John got his attention. “You may be the only one left alive. And you’re the only reason we’re not dead either.”

  It was a small gesture of encouragement, but it sat well with the young guard. “Thanks… Is that all?”

  “John was looking at the map. Yeah I think we’re good thanks.” Steve closed the door behind him as he left.

  A few seconds later Dennis started talking. “You sure you don’t want to go check on your friends Mark?”

  John could tell he was trying to get rid of me. “There’s no need for that. Mark’s smart enough to keep his mouth shut if he needs to. What do you want?” John was running his finger over the map trying to look for an exit we could use.

  Dennis’ response was devoid of his usual friendly demeanor. “We’ve got a problem.”

  “No shit. A wall of teeth stands between us and freedom.” John tapped his finger on the map, turned around and sat down at the camera station.

  “It’s not just that. There’s too many people here. I don’t think we’re going anywhere soon, and we don’t have a lot of food here in the mall.”

  “I figured as much.” John was fiddling with the controls.

  “It’s worse than that.” Dennis continued. “Even if there weren’t so many… whatever those are-“

  I cut in. ”We’ve been calling them zombies.”

  “Thank you!” Dennis was almost too happy to hear it. “Everybody’s been dodging the word, but we all know what we’re dealing with here. Anyway, as I was saying, even if there weren’t so many zombies, and we had enough food to last a few weeks, there’s no way out of here.”

  “That’s why I’m looking for one.”
John managed to get one screen to switch to another camera. “How the hell did I do that?” He asked himself quietly.

  “No, even with a secure exit, there’s still too many people. As far as I can tell, we’ve only got three guns between the whole mall; your shotgun and pistol, and my 1911.” He tapped the side of his pants where the weapon was concealed. “Which is running a little dry mind you, you wouldn’t happen to have any ammo?”

  John replied. “Forty-five?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ve only got nine-mil.”

  “Damn…”

  John stopped what he was doing and spun around in his chair. “So what are you getting at anyway?”

  Dennis sighed heavily. “You and I both have the same job here… We’re supposed to save these people, but there’s no way we can get them out of here safely all at the same time. We just don’t have the capacity to do it. We can’t keep them safe here either. Even if we keep everyone inside there’s no way we can stop them from killing each other over the last scraps of food.”

  “So what do you think we should do?” John turned back to the screens.

  “Honestly? I have no clue. We can’t leave with everyone, and we can’t stay here…” Dennis leaned against a small table. “Look, I’ve got a family out there.”

  “So, what? You want to go rescue them?” John said off guard.

  “No, not out there.” Dennis waved his hand. “I meant in the mall. My wife and daughter are here, we were out eating dinner when all this happened, and this was the closest safest place we could get to. I need a way to save them. I can’t have them here if things go south.”

  John exhaled deeply. “I’m not sure we could protect them out there.”

  “Maybe, maybe not, but it’s better than staying here and having everything go to hell around us.” Dennis slumped his shoulders.

  “So what’s your plan?” John asked.

  “I don’t have one, but I know you do.”

  John froze. “What makes you say that?”

  “You’re too glued to those screens. You’re not just looking for a way out of the mall, you’re looking to get out of this mess.”

  John spun back around and looked him in the eyes with his annoyance, furrowing his brow. “Alright! You got me, but we can’t tell anyone that doesn’t need to know. As you pointed out, if everyone gets word of this they’ll all want to try and leave with us, and we can’t protect them all.”

  “So what do we do?” Dennis asked.

  “There’s a military quarantine just a few blocks away from here. If we can get past that, then I think we’re in the clear.” John paused. “Things didn’t go too well when we first tried to make it out. There are just too many people trying to get through. We have to wait for things to calm down a bit, maybe a few days. Then we make our move, a small group gets to the quarantine zone, passes through, and then we tell them about everyone here in the mall.”

  “It sounds like a plan. So it’s just you two, me and my family?” Dennis asked.

  “Not quite… Mark?” John got my attention. “Elizabeth and Will already know the plan, but we need to stop them from telling anyone else. Go get them and bring them back here.”

  “I’m on it.” I opened the door to leave the security room.

  “Oh, and Mark.” I turned back to look at John. “Get a change of clothes while you’re at it. There’s no sense causing a panic because you’re covered in blood.”

  Chapter 9

  I walked through the mall calling out for them, well, I guess I was more interested in finding Elizabeth than Will. She held my thoughts captive at work for more hours than I would like to admit. It was something about her kindness that drew me to her, the way that she genuinely treated people with care, rather than just faking it for the sake of the job. I think that’s what made finding out she had a boyfriend suck so bad. It didn’t help that she was beautiful either. Although, I don’t think she saw herself that way.

  “Elizabeth?” I called out walking past the empty stores.

  “Mark over here!” she finally called back. I started to jog, but my legs were too tired from all of the running earlier, so I walked the rest of the way. When I approached I found her sitting in a chair in front of a desk in some jewelry store. “Did you need something?” she asked resting her head on her hands, with her elbows on the counter. She was hiding it, but I could tell she was shaken.

  “Yeah. Good choice by the way.” I said taking a chair next to her.

  “What do you mean?” She leaned back in the chair.

  “The jewelry stores always have the comfiest chairs.” I snickered. “It helps increase sales.”

  She smiled briefly. “What did you need?”

  “John wants to talk with us, is Will around?”

  She pointed to the cell phone store across from where we were. I looked over and could see him rummaging through the shelves. “What’s he doing?”

  “He started off looking for a charger, but I think he’s stealing a new phone now…” She sighed.

  “Well, I don’t think anyone’s going to miss it.” I said back to her.

  “We shouldn’t keep John waiting.” She put her hands on the armrest of her chair to get up.

  “It’s not like it’s time sensitive, he just wants to go over things before we talk to anyone else. Take a moment to rest…” I watched her slump back down in her chair. “Are you ok? You don’t have any family out there do you?”

  She rubbed her eyes. “No, I’m not from around here. I just moved here for college.”

  “Hey we’re in the same boat then. At least no one we care about is in danger.” I said just a little too cheery.

  She scowled. “I still have friends you know.”

  “Oh, yeah… I’m sorry.” I broke eye contact to look back at Will. He was still shopping for a new case. “I didn’t mean to…”

  “Don’t worry about. I know you were trying to cheer me up.”

  “It’s still inconsiderate.” We fell silent. “How is Will holding up?”

  A grimace slipped across her face for only a fraction of a second. “He’s fine.”

  “Sweet!” We heard him yell from the store across from us.

  “Maybe too fine.” She added in a whisper that I wasn’t supposed to hear.

  “Hey babe! Check it out!” He was holding up the phone with pride so she could see it while he walked over. “What are you doing here?” He was clearly upset by the fact that I had been talking to Elizabeth.

  “John wanted to talk to us before we talked with anyone else. I just came to get you.”

  “Uhuh, right.” He was glaring at me.

  “He’s waiting for us Will, let’s go.” Elizabeth stood up and grabbed his arm to drag him away.

  He looked her in the eyes. “Yeah ok. Where is he?”

  “He’s in the security office, but let me get a different shirt before we get there.” I said leading the way. We stopped at some small clothing store in the mall, and I grabbed something plain in my size. I replaced my shirt, throwing the old one into the trash and began to walk out of the store. I stopped, not quite feeling right about taking it.

  “What?” Elizabeth asked.

  I rolled my eyes feeling like a goodie two shoes as I took out my wallet and placed the cash on the counter next to the register. Will looked at me like I was some kind of idiot. “Dork.” He said to Elizabeth’s dismay. She punched him in the arm. “What? It’s not like anyone is going to know.”

  “That’s not the point.” She added following after me.

  It was only a short walk to the security room. When we got inside John was by himself, he appeared to have some ability to control the cameras at this point, as he was switching through them. “Took your sweet time didn’t you?”

  “Sorry.” I replied. Elizabeth wasn’t thrilled with the fact that I made John wait when we could have left sooner, and her face showed it. I looked at the ceiling to avoid the awkward situation. “Where’d Dennis go?”r />
  “He went to get his wife and kid.” John didn’t bother to look at us while he talked, he was too absorbed in trying to find a clean exit through the cameras. “Sit down they’ll be here in a minute.” There was a small table that ran the length of the room, it must have been used for meetings with the security staff. We took a seat, Will and Elizabeth sat opposite of me.

  “Any luck finding a way out of here?” I asked John.

  “Yeah, I’m just doing this for fun now.” His words dripped with sarcasm.

  We waited for a few minutes. Will was still fiddling with his new phone, and Elizabeth was sitting there trying her best not to stare at anyone. I have to say it was a longer wait than I had expected, but sure enough, Dennis opened the door with his family in tow. “Sorry about the wait, Jill was using the restroom.” He gestured to his daughter, she was eight years old, with brown hair like her father’s, and obviously not at all comfortable with what was going on, not that I could say any of us were. “And this is my wife Helena.”

  She was a short blonde haired woman with kind eyes, and a timid voice. “Hello, nice to meet you.”

  We shook hands, but Will didn’t seem to care. “So what are we doing here?” He asked impatiently.

  John turned around to face us. “Alright here’s what’s going on. What we say in this room doesn’t leave this room, you got that?” I nodded, but already knew everything they were going to say. When nobody answered him John continued. “Ok? Good. So here’s what’s going on. We’re going to make a break for the quarantine zone.”

  Helena spoke out. “Wait why just us?”

  “It’s not because we don’t want to bring everybody else and their dog along, it’s just that we can’t. From what we can tell we’ve only got three guns between the lot of us, and we don’t even have a lot of ammo to boot.” John leaned forward to rest on his hands. “We may be able to get there by ourselves, but we can’t take everyone. Plus, we had a situation when we tried to get through the quarantine the first time. There were too many people for the soldiers to check quickly, and the… zombies, were right on top of us. It didn’t work out so well for those who stayed behind. We can’t have that situation happen again.” He leaned back and closed his eyes.