"WHERE'S SUSIE?!" Lancer screamed, looking around frantically. "We gotta find her, come on!"

                    "Lancer, if Susie is gone she's gone...we have to keep going!" Martha said as she narrowed her eyes like a hawk, scanning the area. Susie was not behind him, but it was hard to tell since there were hundreds of zombies blocking their view of the circle they were just in. 

                    "We're not leaving a friend in need!" Lancer stated. "I'm going back for her!"

                    "Lancer! Come on, we gotta go!" Kris demanded. He grabbed Lancer's hand and forced him to run with them away from the zombies, who had just started turning around. Lancer looked back but reluctantly ran with them, not needing to be dragged.

                   The group ran past the escalators and continued running to the right of the mall. Every little shop had metal bars covering the entrance, with a steel gate behind the bars. They were trying to see if there was one that wasn't locked. Everything was though. As they continued running, they noticed that further down seemed to be an open area, which had a giant Christmas tree right in the center. They ran forward, stopping at the Christmas tree, and looked around. The middle of the mall was a rotunda, and the tree sat directly at the middle, with one path going forward and another going right. There was blood on the floor, and severed legs and arms littered around at the bottom level. There was also a set of stairs far to the "corner" were the pathway forward was. It lead up to another level of the mall.

                   "THIS WAY!" Kris pointed towards the flight of stairs. They all changed course, heading for the stairs. The zombies were slowly stumbling behind them, slowly, and certainly not surely. Kris ran up the stairs first, his feet racing and his heart thumping from stress so hard it could almost break his rib-cage. As could the rest of them. When they all finally made it to the top floor, they all stopped running.

                     When they came up, they were greeted to a long, tiled pathway lead forward for a few yards. Then a bridge that leads to the right side that looked almost identical. Shops filled both sides, and the bridge was decorated in Christmas lights, and all the walls had wreaths evenly spaced out by a few feet. The pathways, and the bridge, had small glass barriers were it was possible to fall off, with a railing at the top of them where one could hold on to. 

                  "Wait, this is perfect!" Martha said. She ran to the bridge then leaned forward looking out to the rest of the mall. "It's the perfect spot to look for Susie!"

                  Lancer, Kris, Martha, and Ralsei all stepped onto the bridge and looked in different directions. They called out Susie's name, but the groaning of the zombies overlapped any, and all, voices.

                 Kris looked around, to see if any shop was possibly opened. He didn't notice any at first sight on this floor.

                "How is everything closed? This doesn't make any sense!" Kris grumbled as he let out a long sigh out of frustration. Lancer was tapping at his phone and frowning.

                "No signal..." Lancer muttered. He walked around trying to see if he could find one...nope, there was none. 

               "This has been the longest time i've been without WI-FI or a signal!" Lancer whined. They all looked at him.

                "It hasn't even been 20 minutes yet."

                "I know!"

               So Lancer wasn't going to be any help. It didn't matter anyway, the zombies had managed to reach the stairs now, but couldn't seem to climb them, slipping each time they tried. Eventually, they ended up trying to crawl up the stairs, which didn't seem to help either. They all clumped the bottom of the stairs, leaving the group stuck on the 2nd floor. With no weapons or defense. So either way they were dead even if Lancer had something that could help them. Or if anyone had something that could help them.

                "There's got to be another level, or way to get down, right?" Ralsei asked, looking around. There wasn't another level up, sadly. There was another 2nd floor, but it was far north of the mall, where the original two escalators took people. Plus, there wasn't any bridge to get to it, and zombies crowded the pathways on it.

               The pathways that were here only extended out ahead and back for about a few yards. It wasn't close enough to jump to it, and there wasn't anything that would break the fall, either. So unless they found a way to jump down or get down the stairs without dying, they were screwed.

              "We just screwed ourselves over, great!" Kris exclaimed. "We might as well just fall off the edge since we're done for. The zombies will find a way up here and we'll all die!"

             "We have to try to get down! There's gotta be some way! There always is!" Lancer protested, he stomped his foot on the ground and pouted.  

             "I would love to believe that, but I just don't see how we're gonna get there. Exits block, we die if we jump. Christmas tree is too far to jump too. So how?" 

             Ralsei thought of some way they could get across or down, being the smart fluffy boy he is. He looked down at the Christmas lights when an idea clicked in his head.

             "Let's just use the Christmas lights like a rope!"

             "You're kidding me."

             "No, I'm not. Look, we just do it quickly so that we can climb down and possibly get close enough so that we can jump! Then someone distracts the zombies away from the stairs so that we can get down! It's simple!"

             "Can they even hold the weight?" Kris asked.

             "I have no idea. It's our only option though, so we might as well try," 

             Kris couldn't really say anything back since it literally was their only option. Ralsei ran to the end of the bridge, near the right side. leaned over the edge of the bridge, his legs holding him in place so he wouldn't fall. He kept leaning until he could finally reach the end of the Christmas lights. Once he grabbed hold of the green wire, he began tugging at it to try to loosen the other end from whatever they were hanging onto. Finally, after a lot of tugging, the other side of the lights detached and fell down so that it just barely touched the floor. 

             The zombies didn't notice it and kept trying to climb the stairs. And surprisingly, they were making progress climbing up. They had managed to get 1/3 of the way up the steps, but still, some slipped just from the sheer amount of zombies crashing into one another to get up.

              "Got it. I'll hold the lights, and someone can go down!"

              "Who's going first though?"

              "I'll go!" Lancer volunteered, everyone looked at him in disbelief.

              "Uh, Lancer," Ralsei started. "We should probably keep you to second to last or last. You know, because we can make sure you're safe and ok!" 

              "I'm old enough to do things without help! I'll be fine!" Lancer assured.

              "You know what, it's fine. I'll go first!" Martha interjected.

              Lancer looked disappointed but didn't do anything to stop their decision. Martha grabbed onto the green wire, then jumped up onto the railing. She sat there, taking in deep breaths, while Ralsei held the end.

               "Be careful, Martha!" Lancer ran up to her giving her a big hug.

               "I will, boo,"

               "You ready, Martha?" Ralsei asked.

               "Ready as I'll ever be!" Martha said. "Just make sure guys get ready to jump down soon!" 

               Martha flipped herself around so that she was now facing away from the group. She jumped down, holding onto the wire. She slid down fast, the lights slicing at her skin as she slid. She landed with a thump onto the ground, but the zombies had heard her and were now turning their attention away from the stairs, and instead to Martha.

               "HEY ZOMBIES!" Martha screamed. She waved her hands in the air and began taunting them. "OVER HERE! OVER HERE!" 

              The zombies began walking toward Martha. She kept at it for a few minutes, walking back slowly as she continued waving her arms and distracting the zombies. After enough zombies had cleared out, the group ran back towards the stairs. They ran down, and once they reached the bottom they signaled Martha to run with them. Martha made a b-line for the group, leaving the zombies stumbling behind as they tried, but couldn't, catch up.

              The group ran further back into the mall to see if Susie was there. Even as they continued, however, she wasn't anywhere to be found. Even still shops were on both sides of them, though. Eventually, it narrowed to the point where the outsides of the shops were now the walls. It was supposed to be lit as well, considering that there the ceiling was filled with lights, but they were all burnt out, as well as the signs. So really, they were running down a small, dark, path that lead on for what seemed like a mile.

              "SUSIE! SUSIE!" Lancer called out. Susie didn't reply. 

              "SUSIE PLEASE!" Lancer begged. His voice echoed down the hallway. "PLEASE! IF YOU CAN HEAR US! PLEASE COME OUT!"

              At this point, they all had almost given up hope of finding her. They thought the worst has happened and she got bitten...that was until they heard a voice. A sheepish voice.

              "Hey, you guys!" something called out. They all stopped and looked around. 

              "Susie?" Lancer said, waiting for an answer.

              "To your left!" came the voice. They all looked to the left, and to their surprise, they saw a pair of eye looked out at them from a shop. The gate was slightly opened to the right so that their eyes could be seen. Light emitted through the crack and out into the dark hallway, it was almost a shock the group didn't notice it since it was so bright compared to everything there.

              "Susie!" Lancer shouted as he ran to the gate. The eyes disappeared, and the sound of metal screeching could be heard, the gate was slowly moving towards the right.

              "I'm not Susie. But--"

              "Lancer!" came a different voice. A purple arm reached out from the gap, just barely fitting through, and reached out to Lancer. Lancer hugged the arm.

               "Thank god you're ok!"

             "Wait, then if you're Susie. Then who's the other person?"

              "Susie, you need to get away from the door so I can open it!"

             "Oh right,"

             The purple arm went back into the shop, as the gate continued to open.

            "How'd you even get in there?" Kris asked. He walked up to the gate and looked at it, it looked almost impossible to open.

            "We'll talk about that later, we need you guys to get in!"

            "What? Why? What's the emergency?" Martha asked.

           "You know that super fast zombie we saw?" Susie said from the other side. "Well, there's more than one. And they could still be roaming around here, waiting for us to open this door,"

           "There's more of them?!" Martha screamed.

           "Jesus, no need to burst my eardrums!" Susie complained. "And yeah, there's more of them." 

           They all looked around cautiously now, almost expecting one of them to pop up and chase them. 

         "Wait, how'd you get past that huge hoard of walker zombies?"

         "I could ask you the same thing," Kris snapped. The gate continued to screech, at this point someone could probably squeeze through if they wanted to.

         "This girl saved me, she said she's been in here for a while. She's been here trying to scavenge for food and water and other stuff,"

        "We managed to get onto the 2nd floor of the mall, but we got stuck so Martha had to climb down a Christmas light rope to distract the zombies. Then we ran down the stairs and ran into this hallway,"

         "A Christmas light rope?" said the unknown person from the other side.

         "It's complicated."

         "Alright, I think I got it so you can get in here. Might take a few secs to squeeze through the gap, but you could probably do it,"

         Lancer turned sideways and began to slowly crawl through the space. For such a small skeleton, he easily fit through the gap and entered the shop with no hassle.

         "I'm so glad you're alright Susie!" Lancer cheered.

         "So am I!"

         "Alright, next person fit thro--"

         A loud horrible screech hit the group like a baseball, they all recognized that sound...Kris, Martha, and Ralsei looked down the hallway, and standing there under a flickering light was a zombie. 

         "...Oh no," Kris muttered.

         "QUICK GET IN!" the voice ordered.

         Kris squeezed his body through the gap. It took a few seconds but he managed to squeeze through. The zombie was no longer standing still and was now jogging at them, moving almost like a chimpanzee. Next came Martha, who easily fit through the gap with also no hassle since she was so thin. The zombie was now running and had its arm outstretched ready to bite into Ralsei. Ralsei stared at the zombie for a second, petrified, before turning sideways as he tried to squeeze through.

          "I'M STUCK!" Ralsei screamed. The zombie was almost there, it's red eye focusing in on its target. Someone grabbed onto Ralsei's arm, pulling him into the shop. The zombie ran faster, and faster, just a few more yards...just a few more feet.

          "YES!" the other person cheered. Ralsei fell flat onto the floor of the shop, he turned himself around so that he was now facing the gate. 

         "Let me do it!" Susie shouted. She pushed and shoved her way past everyone, before grabbing the gate and pushing it closed. Just from her pure strength, the gate was almost closed, until.

         "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" The zombie shoved its arm in the crack that was there, its arm flailed around, trying to grab onto something. Susie continued to push and push, while everyone else screamed in horror. With her brute strength, she put enough force to slam the gate closed, and as she did that the arm severed from the rest of the zombie, rolling on the floor of the shop before coming to a stop.

         They were safe, for now.

  A/N: Yes, I know this chapter isn't exactly the greatest. I was kinda stressed to finish it yesterday, but couldn't. So...yeah! ;-;