Chapter 3: The Beginning of a Nightmare (3)
"Now what ?" Leon ask
"We coming to pick Jasmine up nearby" William said as he waving us to follow
"Seriously ?" Leon eye open looking at me
Tilus shake his head as if telling Leon he had to go along with it
[Objective: RESCUE JASMINE]
(Distance: 1.5 km)
The Big C mall hunched over them like a decaying beast, its once-vibrant red signage bleached to a sickly pink. The parking lot was a graveyard of abandoned cars, their tires submerged in oily puddles that shimmered rainbow hues under the ashen sky. Leon kicked a dented shopping cart, sending it clattering into a mound of trash bags split open like rotten fruit. "Smells like death's locker room," he muttered, pulling his scarf over his nose.
William crouched behind a collapsed billboard, squinting at the second-floor windows.
"Jasmine's trapped in the electronics section. Security gates are down, but the infected are breaking through."
Tilus's throat tightened. Electronics. Of course she'd hole up there—Jasmine had always been a tech gremlin, happiest with a screwdriver in one hand and a circuit board in the other. Back in college, she'd rigged Leon's coffee maker to play obnoxious anime jingles until he apologized for breaking her drone. Now, that same ingenuity might save her life.
They slipped through the mall's shattered entrance, glass crunching underfoot. The air inside was thick with the sweet-rot stench of spoiled milk and decaying meat. A food court sushi stand oozed black sludge, its neon 50% Off! sign still flickering. Tilus's boot squelched into something gelatinous near a toppled pretzel cart, and he gagged.
"Quiet," Tilus hissed, freezing as a low growl echoed from a nearby cosmetics store. A lone infected shuffled behind a perfume counter, its jaw hanging by sinewy threads. Tilus motioned for Leon to flank it. With a grimace, Leon hefted his crowbar and brought it down on the creature's skull with a wet crunch.
"Over here" Jasmine's voice rang out from above.
They looked up. She stood behind the steel security gate of a smartphone kiosk on the mezzanine, her dark curls frizzing wildly around her face. Below her, a dozen infected clawed at the barricade she'd built—DVD cases stacked like Jenga bricks, tangled laptop chargers, and a toppled shelf pinning the gate shut. One of the creatures had wedged its arm through a gap, fingers scrabbling inches from her ankle.
"Took you long enough," she called, though her bravado cracked when the shelf groaned under another onslaught.
Leon smirked. "Missed you too, Jas."
William scanned the horde. "How long have they been at it?"
"Two hours? Three? Time's a little fuzzy when you're auditioning for Dawn of the Dead." She held up a cracked tablet, its screen glitching. "But I hotwired the mall's PA system. If you blast music from the west wing, they'll swarm it. Control room's by the escalators."
Leon raised an eyebrow. "You're telling me you Tron-ed this place while being hunted?"
"Multitasking is a virtue."
William turned to Tilus. "If you think about it Tilus, you are the most stealthiest among us, remember when you skipped class and walk behind us without knowing ?"
"Oh hell no, you want me to swarm past whatever lurking in the shadow up there ?"
"Please Tilus, We'll keep them busy here, the longer we are here the more danger we are" William said
Tilus's stomach dropped. Alone. In the dark. But Jasmine's barricade shuddered again, and he nodded, slipping into the shadows.
The mall's upper floor was a nightmare funhouse. Mannequins lay scattered like massacre victims, their plastic limbs twisted at unnatural angles. The children's play area was quiet. Dried blood marked the slides like messy paint. The ball pit was empty, its bottom stained red. A teddy bear sat in the corner, its fur dark and wet.Tilus edged past a boutique, his white-knuckle gripped the metal pipe tight, when a guttural snarl echoed from behind a collapsed support beam.
An infected security guard lay partially pinned under rubble, his legs crushed beneath a slab of concrete. His upper body writhed freely, muscles straining against the remains of a navy-blue uniform. A rusted name tag reading "Tim" clung to his chest. His left arm swung wildly, fingers hooked into claws, while his right shoulder was trapped under a jagged chunk of ceiling.
Not fully pinned—still dangerous. Tilus froze, pipe raised. The creature's milky eyes locked onto him, a wet growl bubbling from its throat as it strained toward him, snapping broken teeth.
It's not human anymore, Tilus reminded himself. But Tim's wedding ring glinted in the dim light, the gold stark against blackened skin.
The infected lunged, half-dragging itself forward, its free arm swiping at Tilus's ankles. Tilus staggered back, pipe clanging against a metal railing. The noise spurred the creature into frenzy. It heaved against the rubble, concrete grinding as its trapped shoulder tore free with a sickening pop.
Tilus swung.
The pipe cracked into Tim's temple, splitting skin and bone. The creature collapsed, but its jaws kept snapping, teeth gnashing inches from Tilus's boot. He struck again. And again. Until the skull caved, black ooze pooling around the shattered name tag.
Breath ragged, Tilus stared at the pipe, now dented and slick. Somewhere behind him, a ceiling tile clattered. He vomited silently, bile mingling with the stench of decay, and fled toward the control room.
The control room was a closet-sized space behind the escalators, its door hanging askew. Inside, corroded wires spilled from the walls like intestines. Tilus wiped sweat from his eyes and traced the PA system's wiring, hands trembling. Red to red, blue to… blue? He flipped a switch, and the mall's speakers crackled to life.
"Testing," he whispered into a dusty microphone.
His voice boomed through the building: "TESTING."
The infected at Jasmine's gate froze. Then, as Tilus queued a playlist from Jasmine's tablet—a deafening bass track thumping through the west wing—they lurched away en masse, drawn to the noise.
"Now, William!" Tilus shouted over the din.
William and Leon pried open Jasmine's barricade. She leapt down, clutching a spear she'd made from a broom handle and box cutter blades. "Took you four minutes to hit play," she said, swatting Leon's arm as he mock-bowed.
[Objective COMPLETE: RESCUED JASMINE]
Rewards: 100 Coins [ +100]
Leon squinted at the holographic screen. "Can I cash these in for a margarita?"
"Later," William said, already moving toward the exit.
Jasmine fell into step beside Tilus. "You okay?"
He nodded, though his hands still shook. "Just… hate this place."
"Yeah," she said softly. "Me too."
The (NVC aka Nguyen Van Cu) Bridge was a snarled knot of metal and desperation. Cars piled atop one another in a grotesque game of vehicular Jenga, their windows shattered and doors hanging open like broken jaws. The air reeked of gasoline and burnt rubber, a nauseating cocktail that made Tilus's eyes water. At the center of the chaos, Ben's delivery truck was besieged by a roiling mass of infected. They clawed at the cab, their gnarled fingers scraping the windshield as Ben braced himself against the passenger seat, his face pressed to the glass in silent terror.
Leon whistled low. "He's got front-row seats to the apocalypse."
William crouched behind an overturned sedan, his crowbar tapping a restless rhythm against his thigh. "We need a distraction big enough to pull them off him."
Jasmine pointed to a fuel truck angled sideways near the bridge's entrance, its underbelly split open like a gutted animal. Gasoline pooled beneath it, shimmering in the gray light. "That's our ticket."
Tilus's stomach dropped. "If we ignite that, the whole bridge could blow."
"You got a better idea?" William snapped, already moving toward the truck.
As much as Tilus want to protest at William idea, he know William was the smartest among them, he graduated as a doctor although he haven't did his internship yet
Leon pried open the fuel truck's ruptured tank with his crowbar, sending a fresh wave of gasoline cascading onto the asphalt. "Hope Ben's got good cardio."
Tilus's hands shook as he helped Jasmine unravel a trail of shredded fabric, soaking it in fuel. The infected guttural snarls crescendoed behind them, a nightmarish chorus. One creature, its torso peeled open to reveal rib bones glistening with decay, lurched toward them. William silenced it with a brutal swing, black ooze spraying across his boots.
"Done!" Jasmine hissed, scrambling back.
William flicked open his lighter, the flame trembling in his bloodied hand. "Cover your ears."
Whoosh.
Fire raced across the bridge, a hungry serpent devouring the gasoline trail. For a heartbeat, the infected froze, their milky eyes reflecting the blaze. Then the fuel truck erupted.
The explosion punched Tilus in the chest, hurling him backward. His ears rang as debris rained down—twisted metal, chunks of asphalt, and charred limbs. The bridge shuddered, its supports groaning like dying giants. Through the smoke, he saw Ben kick open the truck door and sprint toward them, his arms shielding his face from the heat.
"RUN!" William roared.
They fled as the bridge disintegrated behind them. A flaming infected grabbed Ben's ankle, its jaw unhinged in a soundless scream. Tilus didn't think—he slammed his knife into its skull, the blade sticking fast. Ben yanked him forward, and they stumbled onto solid ground just as the bridge's midsection collapsed into the river below, taking the inferno with it.
Ben gasped for air once he was safe. "You guys are insane."
William grinned broadly. "And you're welcome."
A final pop-up confirmed their success:
[Objective COMPLETE: RESCUED BEN]
Rewards: 100 Coins
[MISSION COMPLETE: ALL FRIENDS RESCUED]
[Total Coins Earned: 400]
They paused, panting and drenched in sweat and smoke, as another screen flickered before their eyes:
[SUB-STAGE: SURVIVE AND RESCUE YOUR FRIENDS – COMPLETE]
[Main Stage 0: Survive The Corrosion Disaster]
[Time Remaining: 6 days 12 hours 45 minutes and 15 seconds]