Page 47 of My Undead Love Life

The sound drew the other three. They staggered forward, bumping into each other as they tried to change direction. One stepped on a piece of trash and lurched sideways, almost taking another down with it. Another slipped in the smear of blood from the one I killed and crashed to the floor.

Luck moved in first. He drove the flat edge of his shovel into the skull of the one closest to me with a crack, and it stopped moving.

Mad split the other with a downward swing of the axe. Bone cracked beneath the blade, and the zombie dropped so fast its knees hit the tile before the rest of it.

Oxi’s cane sword slid into the last one’s skull and out again with a precise, quiet movement. He barely seemed to use any strength at all. The zombie fell forward, and he stepped back before the body could touch his boots.

Within a minute, it was taken care of. The four corpses lay scattered across the mall floor.

Mad wiped his axe on the sleeve of one corpse and looked around.

“They’re like the ones from the beginning,” I pointed out.

I remembered those first days in pieces. It started with the news clips and people screaming in the streets. Reports said they were sick instead of dead…but those only lasted the first day.

Luck nodded grimly. “Yeah. But the ones in the horde outside? Those are different.”

“They think more,” Oxi agreed. “You can see it in how they move.”

Mad rested the axe on his shoulder. “Some of them are just…gone. Nothing left in their brains.” He tapped his temple. “Whatever evolved doesn’t affect them all.”

“No. Just most.” Oxi winced.

Luck frowned. “I hate the intelligent ones.”

“Same,” Mad and Oxi agreed.

I shivered slightly. “I hate them all.”

The cold inside the mall had worked its way through my clothes. Sweat from the run had dried against my skin, leaving me cold. My fingers ached around my katana, and my arms felt heavy from the crash of adrenaline finally wearing off.

Mad pointed down the corridor toward a half-lit storefront from the sunlight streaming in. A faded sign hung above it.

Mattress Outlet.

Metal security gates were pulled halfway down over the entrance, unlike the rest of the stores, which were fully pulled shut. The slats were dusty but intact, and the space beyond them was dark, crowded with bulky shapes that looked almost inviting after days of concrete, tile, and hard floors.

“That’ll work for tonight,” Mad said. “We can clear the other floors tomorrow and choose a better spot to make camp.”

“Fine by me. I’m fucking exhausted,” Luck yawned.

We ducked under the gate and slipped inside. The store smelled faintly of plastic wrap. Mattresses stood upright along the wall, some still sealed in dusty covers that crinkled when my sleeve brushed against them. Others sat out on display, sagging slightly from time.

A few had been dragged into a messy pile near the back, as if someone else had once had the same idea and either left in a hurry or never left at all. The thought made me look more carefully into the shadows.

Luck checked behind the rows while Oxi pulled the gate back down with a rattling clang. The sound seemed too loud after the quiet of the store, and all of us paused, listening. Nothing happened.

Mad slid the lock into place so even if the zombies got through, we would have another safe guard.

“Clear,” Luck said from the back.

I sank onto the edge of one mattress with a sigh of relief. The surface dipped beneath me, soft in a way that felt almost obscene after days of sleeping on hard concrete and train car benches.

“Softest thing I’ve been on in days,” I sighed.

Oxi let out a low whistle over by the display counter, gesturing toward the opened small cabinet underneath. “Looks like whoever ran this place liked snacks.”

He grabbed them and brought them over, setting the snacks on a nearby mattress. There were crushed protein bars, a case of water bottles, and a half-empty bag of trail mix.