Zombie Games Book Five (End Zone) (15 page)

“No
, please Billie!” screamed Allie, peaking around the corner.

Knowing he was launching another
fire ball, I spun to the side and ducked right before it hit me.

“Impressive!” hollered Billie.
He smirked. “You just never disappoint, do you?”

When I reached Allie
, I pushed her around the corner and grabbed her arm. “Where’s Kylie and Adria?”

“I don’t know. We split up,” she said
.

I pulled her down the corridor towards Nordstrom’s. “I’m going to find a place for you to hide, and then search for them,” I said, grabbing her hand. “There should be plenty of places in Nordstrom’s.”

“What about Billie?”

“I’ll deal with him, too.” I hoped to at least.

We hurried into the store. I looked over my shoulder and was surprised to find that he hadn’t followed us.

“How did he do that?”

“What?”
I asked as we past the perfume department and headed towards the escalators.

“The fire?
How did he make the fire?”

We began climbing the escalator
. “I don’t know.”

“Is he a demon?”

When we reached the top, my eyes stopped at the Linen Department. “Come on,” I said, pulling her hand.

“Cassie? Would you answer me? What is going on with Billie?”

“Uh,
a demon?” I wanted to shrug it off by laughing but her question actually scared the hell out of me. He obviously wasn’t my friend Billie anymore. He was Travis. The problem was that I had no idea
what
Travis was. “I really don’t know.”

“I’m so scared,
” she said, squeezing my hand.

I led her to an assortment of hanging shower curtains
and stopped. “I know,” I said, turning to her. “But I’m here now and I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Her blue eyes searched mine. “Are we going to be okay?”

“Yes, we are.”

“I don’t want him to kill us.”

“He’s not going to, Allie. I won’t let him.”

“What about that hole? Did you see it?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think Satan is going to come out of it?”

I paused. “Satan?”

She nodded. “That’s what Kylie and I were thinking. Billie wants to sacrifice Adria and then Satan will know she’s dead. Then he’ll come here to try and rule the world.”

“That’s really… dark,” I replied.

She smiled grimly. “I know, but it’s starting to make sense.”

I sighed. “Listen, nobody is sacrificing Adria and you’re going to be safe, too.”

“How can you be so sure?”

I smiled. “Because, I’m your older sister. I know everything.”

She snorted.

I sighed. “Look, I don’t know for sure what is going to happen, but we’ve survived a lot and I’m not going to let that freak kill any of us, okay?”

She nodded.

“Now listen to me- you have to hide and stay hidden. Here,” I handed her my ax. “Hide behind these curtains and wait for me to come back for you.”

“What if you don’t come back?”
she asked, her eyes filling with tears.

I
hugged her. “I will, Allie. I promise. Just don’t leave here unless… there’s a fire or something.”

“And if there’s a fire?”
she asked as I released her.

I thought about the people in the restaurant.
“Remember that restaurant that dad used to love. The steak joint, right across from the mall?”

She nodded.

“There are other survivors there. Nice people. If I don’t come back in a couple of hours, try to find a way to get to those people. I know they’ll help you.”

“A couple of hours?” she asked, horrified.
“I have to wait
that
long?”

“
Well, yeah… It might take me a while to find Kylie and then get back here to you. Look, this place looks pretty safe and nobody will see you behind these curtains. Please, just promise me you won’t leave.”

She sighed and nodded.
“Okay. Not before two hours.”

“Right.
I don’t want you to leave any earlier. Okay?”

She frowned.
“I don’t have a watch.”

I rubbed my forehead
and looked around. “Fine…. I’ll be right back.”

“Okay.”

I rushed over to the cooking department and found a small handheld kitchen timer. I then hurried back and gave it to her. “There you go. Wind up the timer and when it goes off in an hour, rewind it for another hour. Easy, right?”

“Please come back,” she begged, her
lower lip trembling.

I hugged her
again. “I’ll do my best.”

“Do you think that Adria is the ‘Chosen One’?”

I released her. “Honestly, I really don’t know.”

“I think she is,” said Allie. “
So, you’d better save her.”

Bryce and Company

“Did you hear that?” whispered Kristie.

“I didn’t hear anything,” said Tiny, pulling a long screw driver out of a zombie’s forehead.

“That’s because you were too busy
with him,” said Kristie, nodding towards the corpse. “But I definitely heard something.”

“
I heard it, too,” said Henry, frowning.

“
I think I heard Allie screaming,” said Paige, looking frightened.

“And
the other voice may have been Billie’s,” said Nora. She sighed. “What in the hell has gotten into him? I just don’t get it.”

There was another scream.

“Let’s go,” snarled Bryce. “Time for some heads to roll.”

“As long as you let
me
at Billie first,” Nora, trying to keep up with him. “I owe him.”

“
I’m not promising anything,” said Bryce, leading the way towards the center of the mall. “Especially if he’s hurt one of the girls.”

“
Understandable,” replied Nora.

As Bryce was about to round the corner, he froze and raised his hand in the air. “Hold
up… what in the hell is that?”

They
all stopped and stared in astonishment at the large, black hole.

“Are you kidding me?” gasped Paige, moving towards it.

“Whoa, hold it, girl!” snapped Kristie, pulling her back. “Don’t you dare get near that thing.”

“It’s that damn hole you were talking about, isn’t it?” said Tiny.

Henry raised his gun and began moving towards it. “You guys just stay back. I’ll go and check it out.”

“
Henry, I don’t think you should go near that thing,” warned Kristie. “You could lose your balance and fall in.”

“Oh, I’ll be fine,” he replied
. “Just let me check this out. If something happens, the oldest one should be the one to go.”

“The oldest one should also be the wisest,” she replied. “So don’t get too close, Henry.”

“Would you look at that,” said Henry, stopping near the edge. “In all my years, I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s… unbelievable.”

Tiny
walked over and stood beside Henry. “Wow, I feel like I’m looking
down
into space and the only thing missing are the stars.”

“How did it get here?” asked Nora,
also moving to the edge.

“I don’t know. It certainly wasn’t here yesterday,” replied Justice
.

“No, it wasn’t,” said Henry. “Damn, this couldn’t have been from an earthquake, either. Look at how perfectly round it is. And the edges, they look smooth.”

“This is really freaky,” said Nora.

“If it wasn’t an earthquake, what do you think?” asked Kristie.

“Hmm… Maybe it really is that portal you were talking about, Justice,” said Tiny.

“Wow
, I can’t even see the bottom,” said Justice. He got down on his stomach and peered over the edge. “It looks like an infinite black hole.”

“That’s freaken wicked, man,” said Nora.
“If there is a bottom, I hope to never see it.”

“Check this out, Bryce,” said Tiny, looking back at him over his shoulder. “Maybe you can give us a scientific explanation for this thing.”

Bryce sighed and moved towards the hole. When he reached the edge and looked down, he experienced an intense wave of vertigo.

“You okay?” asked Tiny, grabbing his arm.

“Yeah,” he said, stepping away from the hole. “Just don’t care much for heights.”

“
Well, this is the mother of all heights, my friend,” said Henry. He pulled out a can of chew from his pocket and stuffed the remaining wad into his mouth. “Check this out,” he said, tossing the can into the hole.

They watched as the can
dropped and disappeared into the darkness.

“What happened to
it?” asked Paige, eager to get closer.

Nora laughed.
“Don’t know. It’s probably still dropping.”

“
You guys, get away from that thing. We need to find the girls,” said Kristie, looking uneasy

“Hey,” said Justice. “Do you see that?”

Nora’s eyes widened. “Oh shit, what is that?”

“What?” asked Paige
pulling away from her mom.

“Paige, get back here,” snapped Kristie.
“You don’t need to see.”

Justice stood up quickly. “
Get away from the hole. Something’s coming!”

Tiny’s eyes widened. “
Everybody move!”

Henry raised his rifle and aimed it. “I’ll take care of that damn thing. Looks like some kind of bat.”

“A mutant bat,” said Nora, backing away. “With five inch fangs.”

The large winged creature flew out of the hole and soared towards the ceiling, making an unearthly screeching noise.

Kristie gasped in horror. “What in the hell is that? A vampire bat?”

The creature swooped
back down and flew towards her and Paige, its ragged jaws open wide.

“Tiny!” screamed Kristie, pulling Paige with her as she began to run. “Kill
the damn thing!”

Tiny took off running towards them, his gun raised in the air. “
I’ll get it.”

“
Go into that store!” hollered Henry. “And get underneath something!”

K
ristie made a beeline towards the woman’s clothing store and pulling Paige with her. The got on their knees and crawled under a long glass display table.

“Mom, it followed us in!”

“Oh my God,” she shuddered as the creature landed on the table and stared down at her with its blood-red eyes.

Tiny
skidded to a stop and aimed it at the monster.

“Kill it!” screamed Kristie.

“Shit, my gun is jammed,” he hollered, trying to fix it.

Bryce charged into the store right as the winged beast took off flying again.

“What in the hell was that?” asked Kristie, as the thing flew to the back of the store and then out the doorway.

“It looked almost like a flying rat,” said Bryce.

“A rat the size of a Beagle,” said Justice as he and Henry stepped into the store.

“Where’d it go?” asked Kristie.

“It took off somewhere down the hallway,” said Henry.

Nora screamed.

“Oh my God, you left Nora out there all alone?!” hollered Kristie, crawling out from under the table.

They all rushed out of the store and froze.

“Hey guys,” said Billie, smiling. He stood next to the hole, his arm around Nora, who looked dazed and confused.

“Billie!” hollered Bryce
, looking up towards the ceiling uneasily. “Long time no see.”

“Nora,” called Paige
. “Are you okay?”

She didn’t answer.

“Nora?” called Paige once more.

“So
mething isn’t right,” said Kristie, under her breath. “Nora’s not responding. Not even a smart-assed comment.”

“Something is definitely wrong
,” whispered Paige.

Tiny stepped forward. “Hey, did you happen to see a large winged creature flying around out here?”

“Why, yes as a matter of face I did,” he replied, still grinning.

“
Uh, where did it go?” asked Kristie.

“I think it may have
flown back into the hole,” he replied.

“Where’s Kylie, Allie, and Adria?” asked
Tiny moving towards him.