Cole tried to silence the voice in his head, forcing his legs to take another step. He had survived the apocalypse for almost two years by avoiding stupid decisions like this. But his wanderings had brought him back to Oak Valley Mall, the place where he met Laura. She worked at the fancy department store, making him believe in love at first sight.
They married six months before the word collapsed. Stupid zombies tore their union apart. Laura had spent her day at work at the mall, while his job took him twelve hundred miles away. Stupid job robbed him of the love of his life in their last days. He had worked hard to provide a life for them, realizing how pointless it had all been. A tear ran down his cheek.
Vandals or scavengers had smashed all the windows in the mall’s two-story atrium entryway. The summer sun lit up the neglected interior beyond the entryway. Garbage littered the once pristine tiles, some blown from looted shelves, others tossed away after proving useless for survival. Cole took a deep breath before stepping inside. He hoped he wouldn’t regret his decision to explore the building.
Faded cardboard hearts dangled from broken ceiling tiles, twisting in an unseen draft. This first Valentine’s Day decoration caught Cole off guard. He remembered the world turning to shit in early February two years ago. The mall parking lot filled with snow while he enjoyed the warm sunshine in Florida.
He gagged on the sour smell of decay wafting toward him. A stench he hadn’t grown used to living in this fallen world. Cole adjusted his rifle strap, stepping over shattered glass, scanning the dim corridor of what had once been Oak Valley Mall.
His hiking boots echoed off the tile floor. No piped in classic rock music, masking the noise as he passed the empty storefronts. A rat skittered through a pile of debris, malnourishment making it look like a walking skeleton. It disappeared into the darkness of Claire’s Accessories. The sign hanging over the tween girl’s store read: CL IR S CC SSOR ES. He scanned the debris on the floor, looking for the missing letters. Pointless.
The jewelry counter display two stores down caused his throat to tighten. Red velvet hearts decorated the damaged cases. Somebody took most of the jewelry long ago. He remembered the night he stood at this counter, watching Laura try on silver chains while he pretended he hadn’t already bought her a gift.
Cole swept the beam of his flashlight across the floor. He wished he hadn’t seen the disgusting mixture of dirt, dust, and congealed blood covering the ground. Glass crunched under his feet, making a sucking sound with each step he took deeper into the mall. The stench turned his stomach.
His beam caught a faded red, almost pink now, Valentine’s banner twisting from a single tie point on the ceiling. The message written across the banner read: “Show Them Your Heart!” Underneath the loose end, a body laid with its torso ripped open and its insides eaten. He couldn’t help the chuckle escaping his lips because of the absurdity.
A menacing groan echoed from the other side of the building. Cole dropped to a knee, rifle ready, pointing toward the threat. He strained to hear any other sounds. His heart raced. No moans answered at first, but he knew better than to relax. The zombies shuffled in the shadows, always searching for a new victim.
He checked his watch, verifying that two hours remained until sunset. Cole needed to return to his shelter before the sun went down, if he wanted to remain among the living. The night belonged to the monsters. His foolish plan to find Laura’s locket seemed doomed before it even started.
Despite the threat, Cole’s mind drifted back to a better time.
Sweat rolled down Cole’s forehead despite the chill of a February evening in Connecticut. His numb fingers trembled as he worked the delicate clasp of the silver locket. A broad smile bent Laura’s full lips.
“You’re shaking,” Laura said, her warm voice filled with amusement. She sat with her back to him, her dark hair swept to the side, waiting for Cole to secure the necklace.
“They make these clasps for people with tiny fingers.”
He fumbled the necklace again, almost losing the chain. Cole wanted to curse, but he bit his lip instead. Swallow the anger to preserve their romantic evening.
“Maybe I should have gotten you a bowling ball instead?”
Laura’s shoulders shook with laughter. He loved to hear her laugh. The sound filled his heart with joy.
“You’re so romantic. Nothing says ‘I love you’ like a bowling ball.”
“Hey, I put a lot of thought into this. I just didn’t think about how clumsy my hands are.”
As his sausage fingers fumbled for the tenth time, the clasp somehow caught.
“Yes. I got it.”
He pumped his fists in victory, resting his hands on her shoulders. His hands wanted to explore more of her body, but it would have to wait until they finished their dinner.
Laura’s fingers probed the heart-shaped pendant as she turned to face him. A large smile bent her full lips. The look of delight on her beautiful face made his chest ache.
“Thank you, Cole. It’s beautiful. I love it.”
She opened the locket, studying the engraving on the inside.
“’Forever, L & C.’ A simple message. It’s perfect.”
“Like us?”
In response, she wrapped her arms around his neck, drawing him into a deep kiss. A preview of what he hoped awaited him later tonight. Her soft lips pulled away from his.
“Perfect, just like us.”
A crash from deep within the mall shattered the wonderful memory. Their last Valentine’s Day together. The rude interruption drove Cole’s hand to his rifle, muscle memory replacing the ghost of that long-ago touch of his lover.
Time to leave the past in the past. His fingers brushed the spare magazine in his pocket. They traced the place like a thousand times before, where he engraved: Forever, L & C.
The distant crash became a series of thuds, each moving closer. Cole pressed himself against the wall near the empty Kay Jewelers storefront, slowing his breathing. The sounds had purpose – coming in his direction. Something or someone hunted him. He bet on the something in this case.
Cole readied his rifle, peering around the corner. The mall’s food court stretched before him. Derelict booths surrounding tables and chairs bolted to the floor. A defunct fountain sitting between him and the various vendors’ stalls. Valentine’s decorations hung like funeral banners in the musty air. The stomping stopped.
A figure moved with an unnatural grace past the Foot Locker. Its movements too controlled to be one of the mindless ones. The shadow shifted as it cocked its head, listening for prey. An alpha, stalking him. Cole had never seen one before, only heard rumors about their existence. A monster smarter, faster, and deadlier than the regular infected.
He needed to move his ass. Complete his foolish mission to find the locket. It had to be here somewhere, discarded in Laura’s grave. That’s what this mall had become. Cole didn’t know if he wanted to find her body or not. Which would give him closure?
The alpha would catch his scent soon, if it hadn’t already. Once it locked onto him, he’d have nowhere to run. It moved closer, following some primal instinct, drawing it toward living flesh. His flesh.
Cole retreated, calculating each step to avoid the debris. He kicked an empty can, watching it crash into the wall. A helpless feeling. It clanked against the wall, echoing through the empty building. The alpha’s head snapped toward him with terrible speed. The way it cocked its head – he knew that gesture. No, it had to be a trick of the light. A mirage.
The alpha remained hidden in the shadows, moving ever closer. Cole aimed his rifle at the monster’s skull, his finger tightening on the trigger. He took a deep breath, steeling his nerves. Instead of charging, the alpha stood, staring at him. It appeared undecided about attacking him. Odd behavior since the zombies never waited to attack fresh meat.
A group of regular zombies growled behind him. As they shambled closer, he knew he had run out of time. Pinned between two painful deaths.
The alpha played a game he couldn’t understand, and he wouldn’t stick around to find out the rules. It could find another way to amuse itself. Cole backed toward the department store where Laura had worked. Taking one last look for the locket ranked up there with the top ten stupidest things he had ever done. But once he left, he’d never return to this house of death, making this his last opportunity to find it. Stupid. Foolish.
The alpha remained in the shadows, tracking his every move. Its presence made his skin crawl. A lone voice in his brain screamed at him to run for his life. Forget this foolishness. Survive today, worry about everything else tomorrow. But another voice whispered to him to keep his finger off the trigger. He couldn’t explain the juxtaposition of the voices giving him advice. Unless he had lost his mind.
The metal security gate groaned as Cole forced his way into the department store. His flashlight beam illuminated the broken and overturned store displays. Unwanted merchandise laid scattered across the floor.
Cole’s breath caught in his throat as the beam swept across a silver object. Impossible. He ignored the broken glass, dropping to his knees to dig through the debris. His trembling fingers wrapped around the cool metal necklace.
The heart-shaped locket had a small dent in the front, but otherwise looked whole. His heart raced as he popped the locket open. He read the engraving, as clear as the day he gave it to Laura: “Forever, L & C.” A tear rolled down his cheek. Opposite the engraving, he found a photo of Laura on their wedding day, radiant in white. Cole had forgotten that she had put it inside.
A low growl behind him made him freeze. The alpha had followed him in, blocking his lone escape route. More shuffling sounds echoed from behind the monster, radiating like surround sound at the movie theater. Regular zombies and an alpha, preparing to tear him to pieces. His grip tightened on the locket, carving a heart-shaped indent into his palm.
Trapped. Cole’s foolishness led to his downfall. His only escape blocked by the alpha and its pack. He could go deeper into the store, but he knew someone had chained all the outside doors shut. Another group long gone, unless they had returned as the walking dead.
He had come all this way, ignoring the risks, for a piece of silver and a distant memory. If Laura had lived, she would call him an idiot. She’d been right in her assessment.
The alpha stepped into a shaft of fading sunlight, filtering through a hole in the roof. Cole raised his rifle, preparing to take a shot. He took a deep breath, settling his nerves. His finger wrapped around the trigger as his eye focused through the scope. Through the decay and ruin, he recognized the face staring back at him.
“Laura?”
Her name escaped his mouth before he could stop it. His voice sounded alien to him, after not speaking for so long. He had nobody to talk to for the last six months. The thing that had been his wife tilted its head, like a dog trying to understand a human. Something flickered in her dead eyes, but only for a moment.
A furious screech exploded behind him, drawing his attention away from the alpha. Cole turned, finding a regular zombie lunging at him. Its jaw snapping, swiping with its fingers curved into claws. He raised his rifle, preparing to shoot. The charging zombie knocked the barrel away. He’d die right here, next to the perfume counter where he’d first met Laura.
Cole closed his eyes, waiting for the death blow. But the attack never came.
He opened his eyes when he heard the crash. A blur of motion drove the zombie through a glass display case. Laura – the thing that had been Laura – tore into the infected, ripping it to pieces. Her movements calculated like a prized fighter. None of the wild, uncontrolled moves of regular zombies. Glass and black goo sprayed across the floor.
More infected poured through the broken security gate, sensing the living flesh. Laura danced between him and the incoming zombie horde. Each blow laying waste to the rotting zombie corpses.
Cole stood frozen, watching as she decimated the group. Seven zombies reduced to twitching piles of meat in less than a minute. She stood among the carnage, chest heaving – a left over human gesture from muscle memory.
Laura stared at him, gore dripping from her hands. Her dead black eyes fixed on the locket in his hand. Her locket. A tremor ran through her body as she shifted in place. She appeared to fight against her own nature. The desire to kill and destroy that the zombies possessed.
They stared at each other across a gulf wider than death. Her dead eyes locked onto his. It sent a shiver down his spine.
The screech from another zombie appearing in the doorway breaking the spell. Laura’s head snapped toward the monster with a predatory focus. She charged after it, leaving Cole alone with the locket and the desecrated bodies of her kills.
As he watched the two monsters battle, a message played through his head. “You need to run. Now.” The words spoken in Laura’s voice, from when she had lived.
But Cole’s feet refused to cooperate, frozen in place. In that moment of violence, he’d seen the impossible – Laura had protected him. Somewhere in the rotting corpse of the woman he loved, a part of Laura remained alive.
As Laura finished destroying the lone zombie, Cole stood his ground. He licked his lips, tasting copper from his broken lip.
“Laura?”
She showed no recognition of her name. But she didn’t run off either. Her head cocked to one side, while her eyes fixed on him with predatory intensity. Black goo and hunks of tissue dripped from her fingers, puddling on the floor.
He lifted the locket to eye level, letting the chain dangle between his fingers. The waning light caught the metal, throwing tiny reflections across her ravaged face. Laura’s damaged body tensed, a tremor shook her limbs like electricity ran through them.
“Do you remember this?” His voice cracked as he pushed the tears down. “You wore it every day after I gave it to you. Even after…”
After what felt like hours, she took a jerky step toward him. Then she took another, closing in. Her twitching movements looked wrong, fighting against themselves. Multiple forces warring within her. Cole held the locket in his outstretched hand, shaking.
“It’s yours. It always was. My sign of love to you.”
Laura’s clawed hand shot out, tearing the locket from his hand. The movement a blur. Cole stumbled backward, shocked at the sudden gesture. She ignored his reaction, focusing on the silver heart in her wrinkled palm. Her gnarled fingers tracing the heart shape with a horrible gentleness.
A sound between a growl and a whimper escaped her. Her whole body shook like a detoxing drunk. Her head jerked from side to side. She clutched the locket to her chest, its chain wrapped around her fingers.
“Laura?” Cole whispered her name again. A sense of wonder and fear tainting his voice.
Her head snapped away from the locket, meeting his eyes. Laura’s eyes black with hunger, unreadable. An unrecognizable emotion struggling to surface through the darkness. Did she still feel anything?
With grinding teeth, she took another step closer to him. Her hand kept the locket pressed to her chest. Out of instinct, Cole’s hand reached for his pistol grip. He had only one bullet left in his Glock. He had saved it for himself, for the end, but now…
Laura stopped, her rotting fingers moved to her throat, fighting to work the locket’s broken clasp. It reminded him of a lifetime ago, when he had struggled with it on that Valentine’s Day evening.
A loud crash from deeper in the store, opposite the exit, shattered the moment. Her body went rigid as her head snapped toward the racket. The locket slipped from Laura’s rotting fingers, clattering to the floor.
All traces of recognition had vanished when she faced Cole. Her lips quivered in a snarl, revealing blackened teeth covered with black goo and bits of flesh. Whatever fragment of humanity had surfaced moments before, gave way to the hunger. He could see it in her eyes.
Cole stumbled backward, knocking over a display of watches. His heart pounded in his chest.
“Laura, it’s me. Don’t—”
Clawed hands reached for his throat as she lunged toward him. With the instinct of a bullfighter, Cole dodged her attack. His back crashed into the jewelry counter, knocking the wind out of him. Laura’s momentum carried her past him, giving him a chance to catch his breath.
His hand found the pistol as she whirled to face him again. He’d use his last bullet to free her from this hell. His last gift to her. But his finger trembled on the trigger as Laura stalked toward him. Her movements transformed into those of a predator.
“Please.”
His one word plea came out as soft as a whisper. He had no clue what outcome he begged for. Her death, or his.
With bared teeth, she launched herself at him again. He raised the gun, aiming for her head. Time slowed. Their whole life together passed before his eyes, in that moment. Their first meeting in this store, their wedding, the last kiss before he left on his business trip, never to see her alive again. His finger pulling on the trigger.
The Laura he knew had died. Hadn’t she?
Cole released the pressure from the trigger. Every survival instinct within him screamed at him to shoot. But his love for Laura overrode them all, as he lowered the barrel toward the ground. He couldn’t shoot her, even if he had killed hundreds of zombies. She had protected him, remembering their life together. For a moment, at least.
“I’m sorry. I can’t do it.”
Laura growled, her body coiled, preparing to pounce. But Cole had made his choice not to shoot her. He backed away, pointing the pistol at the floor. If she continued her attack, he’d shoot to facilitate his escape. But Cole wouldn’t execute her.
His boot nudged the locket. Without taking his eyes off Laura, he crouched, retrieving the locket and his rifle. Her dead black eyes tracked his movements, her muscles twitching beneath gray skin, preparing to attack.
“Keep it. It’s still yours. Like I’m still yours. Always. I know a part of you is still in there, Laura. I love you.”
He placed the heart-shaped locket on the jewelry counter. His act, not one of mercy or cruelty. But an acceptance that in this broken world, a bullet couldn’t fix everything. Some bonds survived death.
Laura stood frozen, trembling, caught between her hunger and whatever humanity still lingered in her rotting body. Cole backed away, toward the exit. Toward freedom. Each step felt like a betrayal, but he forced himself to keep moving. Her hand moved to her throat – the same gesture she’d made a thousand times when wearing the locket.
At the broken security gate, he paused for one last look. Laura stood at the counter, her twisted fingers attempting to clasp the locket. He remembered when they were young and the world still made sense. The Valentine’s Day he first gave her the locket. Her hands struggling to secure the silver heart around her damaged neck. Part of him wanted to return, to help her. But he rejected the foolish idea.
A soft metallic sound echoed through the empty store as the locket tapped against bone. Her heart had stopped, this false beating a perverse substitute.
Cole turned away, wiping his eyes as he fled. Live or die, shoot or run. He’d found a third option in a world of absolutes. Let love live, even after life ended.