Life After Death (#1)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Max didn't stop to check if the two men had followed them through the doors; instead, he grabbed tightly onto Lizzie's sleeve and kept her close as he sprinted further into the shopping centre. He had no idea how to get out of this place, and further still, how they would find the car again.

He knew that they had to get out of the open and find somewhere to hide until he could think of a plan. He clocked a small shoe shop on their left hand side and ducked towards it, pushing hard against the door. It was locked and all the windows were blacked out. Slightly further down the shop, a grey, metal shutter had been pulled down. He bent over and tore it up towards the ceiling as quickly as he could, bundling Lizzie through the open doorway before bringing it back down, slowly and quietly this time.

He didn't want to draw any attention to where they were hiding, but it felt like his heartbeat was echoing around the entire building. Max turned his head slowly to Lizzie, whilst keeping one hand firmly on the bottom of the shutter in case their pursuers attempted to pull it open. He put one finger gently against his own lips, eyes wide and serious to ensure that Lizzie got the message. She shot a look back at him as if to say 'yeah, no shit!'

Max strained his ear towards the shutters, he could definitely hear mumbling in the distance. It looked as if the men had followed after all. Why were they even chasing them? What had they done? Max knew it was a crazy fucked up world now, but it had only just occurred to him that the undead were not the only ones they had to keep an eye out for. In this new way of life, there were no rules.

The mumbling was growing louder, Max could hear the slow shuffling of feet. The noises were coming from all over; it sounded as if this gang was a lot bigger than he had thought. Clearly too many to fight on his own. There were footsteps approaching. Max was thrown into a state of panic as a crash swirled around his eardrums as a rack of shoes clattered to the ground behind him.

It was almost too dark to see, but he could just about make out two approaching figures; and then, the unmistakable sound of teeth clicking together.

He and Lizzie both immediately jumped to their feet and fumbled in dazed panic to find their weapons. Lizzie drew a small but sharp knife, as Max unsheathed his machete from his belt. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Lizzie adopting an attacking stance, but he quickly threw an arm in front of her, pushing her backwards.

"Lift up the shutters a bit to give me some light and just keep watch. I've got this, kid," he ordered abruptly.

Lizzie opened her mouth to argue, but the look on Max's face made it clear that it was not open to debate. She nodded and did as she was told, ducking down to wrench open the shutters just enough to let some natural daylight into the old fashioned shoe store.

Max recoiled instantly as the light shone across the store. The shop wasn't quite as small as it looked from the outside, stretching back far beyond Max could see. What struck an intense fear through to his very core was the twenty-strong horde of clickers, all snapping their necks towards the two new walking meals who had just entered their store.

They all began to shuffle towards Max and Lizzie, with more emerging from the darkness towards the back of the store. They were stuck between the living chasing them outside, and the dead chasing them from within. Max pounced into action, plunging his blade through the gut of the first clicker, pulling the undead body down to the ground before finishing it off with one clean stomp to the head.

Before he could catch his breath, a second was upon him, clawing at his face and clicking its teeth just inches from him. He thrust out his hands to hold it back, using up all his strength to keep the strong, hungry body at bay. His arms felt like they were about to give way; and just as Max thought he was going to fall to the ground, the clicker's body fell weightlessly towards the floor.