After some time has passed the mysterious stranger stands up and heads down to the open area of the plaza. Nakoma quickly follows him trying to catch up to his speed. He enters a worn down arcade that still looks to be in working order for the most part. Nakoma tries to get his attention put he ignores her as he happily hums a tune of the radio playing overhead throughout the entire mall. The song that played was an upbeat song called "Video killed the radio star" by The Buggles.

"Um excuse me mister I didn't catch your name... do you mind telling me what it is?"

He continues to hum as he slowly puts in a quarter into one of the arcade machines.

"It's Tommy. Sit down, relax a bit. You probably have shit in your pants if you all made it this far hehehe."

He said with a mischievous chuckle. The machine lights up as he rapidly pushes the button with his middle finger and quickly moving the joystick on this barely working machine. Pixilated figures move and shoot all around as he was controlling a spaceship as aliens come from above the screen towards his character.

"Can you take this serious, please. We've ran through hell without seeing another soul and here we find you acting like nothing is wrong. Like everything is normal."

"That's because it is lady. For me at least. No more guards or soldiers. No more unexpected barge ins from the military. I can sleep and do nothing if I wanted too. Granted it does get lonely sometimes, but who hasn't in this day and age, am I right? haha!"

He laughs it off as he continues to play his game. Rebecca finally walks towards Tommy and is more forceful in her questioning. She places her hand in front of the screen blocking his view, but he is unbothered. He only moves his head side to side trying to see where the pixilated alien his heading next.

"Listen here pal, what happen to this city? You obviously must have seen the chaos that ensued this place. What the hell happened here?"

He makes a disgruntled sound as he still tries to shoot the aliens.

"I don't know."

"The fuck you mean you don't know!?"

"I said I don't know! Jesus, I was asleep the entire time in my home right across the stores, see."

He points behind him to see a shuttle bus missing all its wheels and converted as a makeshift home. It was inside a small store and god knows how the hell a shuttle bus made it inside the damn thing. Rebecca and Nakoma look in confusion as they both look back at him in disbelief. Nakoma spoke for the both of them as they were both thinking the same thing.

"You live in this place? Even before those things outside ever showed up?"

"Well duh, haven't you seen the ruined and torn down shops when you were walking through this place? This mall was a trading hub for merchants. Same with me, we all sell and lived in this place. It was all regulated and watched over by the military force of Jackson. Always keeping tabs on the people and what they sell. Taking any contraband that was deemed illegal in their eyes. I am a heavy sleeper and when I sleep, I don't wake up for anything. I make sure to lock my bus up, I guess they didn't think anyone was inside since the whole bus is covered in armor to keep people from peeking inside. I guess when panic ensued here, they evacuated everyone quickly. I didn't see any blood, just stuff toppled over and dirty boot prints of everyone running. I didn't think anything of it, I thought it was some crazy gunman that came in here and everyone ran for their lives."

The two of them were in disbelief hearing this absurd story.

"That's when I went outside and saw those zombies. When I first saw those limp and rotting faces, I was..."

Nakoma looks in pity, "Terrified..."

He turns back around losing the game he was playing. Nakoma's sorrowful look slowly turned into a scared one as he looks both of the girls with a huge wide eye smile.

" I was so... fucking... EXCITED!"

They both look at him as if he was insane. He giggles in excitement as if he was a little kid again on Christmas. Before Rebecca could say anything, she sniffs the air noticing a putrid foul smell coming from the arcade room. She looks down and sees a large bucket fill with some sort of brown slop.

"Oh my god... don't tell me what I think that is..."

"Ah, you've noticed. That's just my waste bucket."

Rebecca almost gags and covers her face.

"Oh my fucking god, that's fucking disgusting!"

"What? I take zombie survival tips very seriously. I have watched and play so many hours of zombie theme movies and games. And one of those rules involves bathrooms! Tell me, if you had to go the restroom and suddenly a couple of zombies barge through the door, where are you going to run?"

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Rebecca was about to speak but had now words other than,

"Nowhere... because the doors will be blocked."

"Because the doors will be blocked by them, exactly. At least with a waste bucket I can easily run away from them. And I'll also have a noxious weapon thrown at them hahahaha!"

He bursts out laughing as he walks towards his little make shift home. Rebeccas men all stare at him with confusion and disgust on how much he is loving all this. Nakoma then grabs Tommy and turns him around to face her.

"So what, you like living in this infested city? What about your friends? Your family? They all could possibly be dead! Don't you care about that?"

"Uhhhh newsflash girl, I don't have anyone. Both parents died when I was young, been on my own since I can remember. Thats why I live and sell shit here. I learned how to make alcohol, so it always sells out."

"I'm... I'm sorry I didn't-"

"Don't sweat it. Not like it matters, like I said, they died a long time ago. C'mere, I want to show you all something. It's how I stay in shape and get my daily exercise hehehe."

Tommy mischievously chuckles to himself as he leads the whole group to a different section of the mall. The quiet and eerie sounds of the empty mall mixed with the cheery jingles of tunes playing overhead still put the whole group uneasy. After a short walk they arrived at another entrance of the mall. This entrance was heavily barricade with so much junk and materials, but the barricade wasn't blocking the doors. This barricade made a C shape around the entrance of the doors. Almost as if this place was like a little arena. The white tiles were all stained with a red coloring all over the floor. No matter how good the tiles were cleaned, the red stain was still there. The whole group looked in confusion as to what they were seeing.

As they look at the entrance, the windows were covered in steel panels. Three large container like boxes were infused to the steel panel walls that connected to the outside. Banging and loud unusual noises can be heard coming from all three of the large steel container units. Nakoma and Rebecca watch in suspense as Tommy leaped over the large high barricaded wall. He picked up a fireman's axe that was lodged inside the barricade wall and headed straight to the container doors. He reached for the farthest on the right and turned a dial. He went to the second and did the same. He finally went to the far left container and pressed a large button on the side. The door loudly banged and hissed slowly as the door lifted up with its loud metal gears grinding.

" Watch and learn why I'm so happy the zombie apocalypse finally happened!"

As Tommy yelled with glee in his voice. The door finally opened and loud gurgling and snarling's can be heard inside. Suddenly two zombies come twitching out and spewing up blackish goo and blood as they scan everywhere. Their dead cold bloody red eyes locked onto Tommy as they both screech in the air. The group aimed their guns instinctively but did not fire. The zombies scream sounded like a high screeching cat mix with a screaming elk. Nakoma was disturbed hearing that eldritch noise coming from a person, or what used to be a person. And the only one smiling from ear to ear was Tommy. The two zombies sprinted awkwardly towards Tommy as he ducks under their swings.

He then proceeds to kick the knee of one of the zombies forcing it to kneel. As soon as the zombie was on both its knees, he quickly swung the axe from above striking it directly in its head. It quickly went limp and gone completely quiet. The other zombie quickly turned around charging at Tommy. He quickly yanked the axe out and swung the axe's pick deep into the chest of the zombie. It spat out blackish red goo from the amount of force he put into the axe, stunning it in the process. He then forced the zombie onto the ground and stomped on its head. Its face shattered into the tile as it's body twitch and convulsed. As he was stomping, the other door was halfway opening and another undead came out crawling under the door before it can be fully opened.

It rushed at Tommy, but he blocked its bite with the handle of the axe. The zombie continued to chew on the axe as if it was flesh. He then guided the zombie and pinned it against a pillar. He proceeded to use the zombies grip and forced its head against the pillar. Over and over and over and over again he kept bashing the undead's skull into the pillar hard. Blood was beginning to splatter more and more on the pillar. The movements of the zombie became more sluggish and now disoriented. It then released its bite from the grip standing in a concussive state. Tommy then swung the axe back and slashed its head against the pillar. The axe cut clean through the face and into the pillar. The zombie dropped hard twitching. The lower mouth was all that remained from its head as its tongue twitched on its own reaching high in the air as if it was a worm moving on its own. The third door finally opened as another undead stumbles out twitching.

It finally sees him and sprints after him. Tommy also sprints at the zombie only to slide on his knees and swing the axe on its leg. It cut right through with ease as it faceplanted onto the floor. It quickly tried to get up but failed only to finally crawl as it slowly turned around making its way to Tommy. Tommy gets up from his knees and yells into the air echoing the entire mall.

"WHOOOOOO!!!! FUCK YEAH!!! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAIN?!?!?!"

He opens his arms wide open shouting into the crowd with adrenaline coursing through his veins. The whole floor was a bloody mess. The bodies of the zombies lay motionless and leaking so much blood. The missing leg zombie was slowly crawling towards Tommy, though very slowly since all the blood around it was giving it no grip to move across the floor. Tommy finishes his victory yell and walk towards the undead as it growls and snarls, chomping its teeth in the air at him. Tommy's smile widens more as he sinisterly walks towards the injured zombie. He then proceeds to swing down his axe on the body of the zombie. It continues to snarl and reach for him not reacting to the deep wounds on its back. Tommy repeatedly swings the axe down onto the body over and over and over again. All while smiling through the entire process. Rebecca's men felt queasy, and some looked away in disgust.

Rebecca herself even had to look away for a moment. Nakoma just stared and was fixated the way he kept chopping and hacking away at the zombie. The loud aggressive snarls and screeches were now silent. and the only sounds were the clinking of the tiles and mush sounds of the corpse. After several minutes the corpse was unrecognizable into a pile of bloody black mush of intestines and body parts. Tommy rests the axe over his shoulder catching his breath.

"Oh man what a workout. You all signed up to be here. This is the reality now. Oh c'mon, haven't you all watch a single zombie movie? You all should be used to this by now. It's like a video game if you think about it hahaha!"

Everyone was silent and refused to speak. They were not at all use to this. Seeing men and women die on the battlefront sure, but this, this is straight from hell. Nakoma tried not to shed a tear as she looked away in disgust as well. It didn't help that the last undead was no more than a small thirteen year old child that was now a pile of black bloody mush.