Dan had blocked their path with his body. His left hand was out gesturing them to stop. His other hand held his shotgun's trigger. The gun was hugging his chest, ready to fire, yet unthreateningly pointing downward.

“No one leaves. The defeaters are currently cleaning up some leftovers from the last horde.” Dan stated. Steven raised an eyebrow and stepped forward. Dan stepped forward too. “What Steven? You can't wait yet again?”

“If there are zombies still outside. Shouldn't the red lights have stayed on?” Steven asked as he pointed behind him. “What if the defeaters got overrun now. How will the people inside know and be ready for it?”

“Oh stop it, Steven. It's hardly a horde.” Dan said as defenders gathered around. “We can't use the lights for this. It wastes power. Have a little faith in the defeaters.”

"Ya, a have a little faith!" a random defender shouted.

"You stay out of this." Steven barked.

“Well, Dan. I can't see why Steven's team can't just leave right now?” Bobby said as he came up behind Hank. A newly cleaned gun is in hand. “They're well-armed. One or two zombies won't stop them. So get out of the way.”

“Bobby, you stay out of this. Your just inner defense. You don't know what's out there.” Dan said as he turned back to Steven. “Maybe your team should just wait for the all-clear and leave with the rest of the teams. I'm sure they'll be here any minute now.”

At that moment the faint gunfire outside stopped. Steven didn't even realize it was there until it was gone. A green Christmas light flashes once by the doorframe.

When was that added? Steven thought as Dan noticed the light and finally moved aside. Oh, we can leave now?

"This doesn't change what I said," Dan stated, as they passed him. Dan looked past steven as sounds of a crowd grew behind them. "Oh, look here comes the other teams now." The four wasted no time passing through the doors.

Outside was a walled-off parking lot with four makeshift guard towers lined up along a half-circle wall around the mall's entrance. The walls were made up of flipped-over cars and metal plates that were all welded together. A metal gate from a junkyard was attached to the wall. A small crowd of defenders was climbing down from the towers. They looked tired and shaken. Their guns were still smoking. Dan followed behind Hank and started ordering the crowd to quickly get back inside. Steven leads his team to the metal fence gate.

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“Ok, so where was I Hank," Steven said, with a hand patting his shotgun. "Oh, right we check with the watch to see if there are any hordes around. I don't see a need for that now. So let's just move to step two. Sam, if you please.”

“Already doing it,” Sam said, she approached the metal gate and unlocked it. The gate slowly opened and a zombie's head rolled inside leaving a splash of blood everywhere. “Ok, that's disgusting.”

The head looked like green clay mush with teeth. Some people believed the zombies were never human, to begin with. Though, Steven still had some doubts.

Sam opened the gate halfway, revealing more body parts. A small pile of zombies was covering the ground outside. Sam stepped out and climbed over the bodies. The next one up and over was Frank then finally Steven, and Hank.

The clean-up teams are going to have a fun time dealing with all this. Steven thought, as he stepped off the pile and looked around. A small park is set across the road. Bullet holes lined the pavement around them. Some were fresh, the rest were from past hordes. Damn, that's a lot of used-up ammo. Looks like they took some out from the storage room too. How big was this horde? The team gathered.

“Ok,” Sam said, as she pulled out a folded map. “The other teams checked over the hotel over there and most of the building around here. So we're in for a bit of a walk boys. Well, let's get started.”

“Hey, I know where a gun shop is? It's a bit far, but I'm sure we can make it back before sundown.” Hank stated as he started walking. He was heading towards the hotel. “We should get the lay of the land first. I think that hotel is a good place to get a birds-eye view around here.”

“Wait, Hank,” Steve said, as he caught up to the older man. “We don't have the time for any detours, we have many stops to do today. Where is this gun shop, by the way maybe we can add it? Are you sure it is untouched?”

“Yes, pretty sure. I think it's an hour and a half out. But I still think we should get a lay of the land first.” Hank said, stopping. “I discovered as a loner. Knowing where the hordes are is a must.”

“An hour and a half?” Steven barked. “That's four hours round trip. We can't do them.”

“Why not, Steven,” Sam asked as Steve looked back at her. “We can cut the day short. Give the old guy an easy start.”

“Ya, I want to see him prove that he was a loner,” Frank said, pulling down his hunting rifle.

“Ok fine. But I'm sure there's nothing left in that hotel. So no lollygagging.” Steven said as he started walking. “We're doing a fast in and out, nothing more.”

They walked along the street with the park to their left. The park was full of trees and it was completely overgrown with weeds and bushes. They were thriving while humanity was not. They came to a driveway for the hotel. The driveway went straight to the front doors. It looked like it used to be an expansive hotel back in the day, probably a five-star hotel. It had thirteen floors for one part of the building and seven for the other part.

Steven stepped in through the broken glass doors. The lobby was in ruins, the light off and the furniture tossed about. By the front desk, a display screen cracked and fall apart. Steven was never been in here before or after the end. He scanned the room as Frank followed behind with his rife up and ready.

The lobby was quiet, and bits of the ceiling flaked down like snow. As the rest of the group entered Sam sprinted to the far doors. She waved an all-clear and gestured for the group to approach.