Chapter 5: Adriana Lima Or Bust

Anne and Andrew visit the Victoria Secrets store. it's not what you think...

 Hot metal cut through flesh and bone.  

 

Bullets ripped through bodies that should have fallen to the floor on impact.

 

But they kept coming.

 

Multiple gun fragments ripped out of and ricocheted through walking corpses on the ground floor of the lavishly decorated mall. Bodies twitched with each blow and stumbled with pie-sized exit wounds exploding outward from within.

 

But they kept walking. 

 

"Keep moving!" Anne screamed over the blaze of gunfire as she and her brother slowly moved across the dead infested ground level toward the escalator. 

 

Andrews shots were frantic and wild. He fired on anything that moved in his field of vision. Flower arrangements, benches, water fountains, large windows... everything seem to catch his ammo, except the walking bodies that grew closer and closer.  He seemed to take more time reloading than shooing.

 

Anne's shots, on the other hand were fewer and more precise. She waited for her targets to get within her optimal firing range, which was around 4 yards. 

 

"I'm running out of ammo!" her brother said. 

 

"Then stop shooing like it's a video game! Pick your shots!" she replied, dropping another two corpses with head-shots.

 

They quickly made it to the front of the escalator and stood back-to-back. Anne focused on the oncoming threats, while Andrew surveyed their escape route. His eyes grew in shock as he watched the line of undead trying to walk down the stationary escalator, only to fall over themselves, completely blocking the stairs.

 

"What's the word, boy?!" she cried out, not taking her eyes off of the oncoming hordes. 

 

They were being overwhelmed quickly.

 

"Traffic jam!" Andrew replied. 

 

Anne looked back and saw their escape route was compromised.

 

"Improvise!" she yelled.

 

Anne took off running with her brother in close pursuit. 

 

In between the up and down escalators was a 2 foot stretch of space connecting them. The siblings both jumped up on this space and began running upward toward the second floor, quickly racing past the zombies, stumbling down both escalators on opposite sides. 

 

As Anne reached the second floor, she leapt up and over the mound of bodies piled at the 2nd floor entrance of the escalators and landed on her feet dropping the three nearest ghouls with gunshots in the process. At that time, Andrew had just made it to the top, only to be met by a zombie who had made it to its feet and saw him coming. He sent a swift kick to its face, which sent the thing falling back the the floor. 

 

Jumping onto the second floor, he scanned the area for his sister, who was already on the move toward the giant Adriana Lima posters lining the Victoria's Secret windows.

 

"Come on!" she called out, not even looking back to see where he was. 

 

Anne made her way into Victoria's Secret and scanned the aisles and lines of lingerie for any type of movement. A corpse, which as standing next to a mannequin suddenly reanimated and reached out for her. Without thinking, she aligned her aim with his left eye and fired. The back of his head exploded open and all over the mannequin. 

 

Andrew made it into the store just as Anne disappeared into the lingerie masses. He quickly holstered his gun in his pocket and began to lock and secure the front entrance. The large glass front door swung shut effortlessly and he fastened the top, bottom and side locks. He managed to back up just as four corpses made it to the store. They began to slap and claw at the giant glass, leaving red, brown and black smudges. 

 

Andrew quickly grabbed his gun again and returned his sights to the inside of the store. He heard a couple of shots coming from around the corner.

 

"Anne!" he called out, slowly making his way through the sexy clothing until he caught Anne's 'Afro Puffs' bobbing over the sea clothes racks. She was at the other end of the store, locking the other entrance, identical to the one Andrew had just done.

 

"We're secure." she said, returning to his side. They made their way to the cash register in the back of the store and out of sight of both entrances.

 

The siblings collapsed on the floor, leaning against the base of the cashier's island nook. They could hear corpses banging on both entranceway doors like stereo. The glass doors weren't gonna hold them off for long.

 

They looked at each other and smiled.

 

"Sweet Jesus." Andrew said. "How the hell did we just do that?" he held out his fist and his sister pounded his with her own.

 

"Survival's a m**********r." she replied, checking her revolver. The side-action cylinder loader popped open to reveal 5 empty bullet casings. She tossed it aside. "That's it for that thing."

 

"Here" Andrew said reaching into the large army duffle bag to slowly pull out the pristine Mossberg 500 Bullup Shotgun. The sawed off, two-handle shotgun looked impressive. Andrew grabbed it by the retangle handle resting ontop of the barrel and passed it to his sister.

 

"I remember these..." she said, grabbing the front-handle. "Good Lord..." 

 

"Yeah, I know!" Andrew handed her the two tubular ammo magazines. "Each of these have 8 shots. You load it here..."

 

"...I know how, boy." she cut him off. "Cedric use to role with one of these." She looked down at the two 9 Milimeters at his side. "How are you doing?"

 

He shruggled his shoulders. "A clip for each one."

 

"Drop one of them and salvage the clip from it. No need to have them both."

 

"What do you mean?" he answered, maybe a little too loud. "I'm on some John Woo dual-action s**t!"

 

"Jesus Christmas, boy." she answered, grabbing one of the guns. "That's bullshit." she released the clip from the 2nd Taurus and tossed the actual gun aside. "You're doing nothing but wasting ammo. Unless you're ambidextrous or something, it's not helping."

 

"Ambid what?"

 

She rolled her eyes. "Both handed!"

 

"Gotcha." He took the extra clip and put it in his pocket. 

 

They both sat there for the next 5 minutes in silence. The tapping and clawing on both store entrances were growing louder. They knew the siblings were still in there. Sooner or later, the weight of all those corpses pushing against glass doors would be too much. Eventually, the glass would shatter and the undead would pile in like a wall of rotting flesh. 

 

And that's what Anne was counting on.

 

Finally, Anne peaked up at the back of the store and gazed upon the door with the 'Employees Only' sign taped on it. She then stared at the entrances. Both large windows were filled with corpses banging on them. But it still wasn't enough. 

 

She sat back down and grabbed her Mossberg.

 

"Are you ready to do this?" she asked her brother.

 

Andrew nodded frantically, but still had a look of shock on his face. 

 

She grabbed him by the back of the neck. "Dude, it's gonna be Ok. Those stupid things ain't got s**t on us."

 

"I know."

 

"You just have to be careful with your shots. Save your ammo and only go for headshots."

 

"Okay."

 

"The only way they can get you is if they touch you. So wait until you got the headshot before you shoot."

 

"Got it."

 

With a nod of confidence, they both split up and headed for the glass entranceways.