27

“Glad to have been of service sir. And you have a good day too miss.” With that the old man went back to sorting out forms behind the counter.

Warily they headed back downstairs and out into the street, the cold and brightness again took them a moment to get used to.

“Strange old guy,” Amber remarked “you know what he meant about the information desk?”

“I think so,” Ghost replied “there used to be one in the mall. The questions are how do we get to it and how is it managing to stay open with all those zombies?”

“You want to go find out?” she raised an eyebrow.

He paused. “Well we could explore out here some more, but if there’s actual skilled people set up around here it’d be easier to know where they are. I don’t want to keep pushing our luck; some of them are bound to be more security conscious than he was and that could be rather painful for us if we’re not careful.”

Amber nodded. “So which way in?”

“Same options as last time really. It’s down the same end of the mall, just another few hundred yards further in. We can either cut through that shop,” he gestured across the street “or we can go back in the main entrance like we did last time.”

“What’s the shop like inside?”

“Bigger than that one, maybe twice the size. It was mainly food and clothes so there’s a lot less cover in most of it. It has connecting doors to the inside of the mall that are maybe twenty feet from the desk, assuming it hasn’t been moved.”

“I think I prefer that,” Amber said “after all that shop wasn’t too bad.”

Ghost nodded his agreement and they walked through the snow to the shop. It had big glass display windows seperated by two sets of doors, securely separated by several shutters. He looked closely at them. The ice covered dirt and moss had been there a long time. It looked like no-one was using this at the moment. Amber pressed her ear against the nearest shutter and yelped, the icy cold taking her by surprise. They looked around cautiously to see if anyone had taken any notice. The wind blew in several gusts, sending small spirals of frozen flakes dancing along the snow. But otherwise it remained quiet.

Ghost looked at the lock. Another automatic lock so it would have been securely fastened. But there were a lot of things that the weather could inflict on a lock; and between rusting and freezing it wouldn’t take much for a fragile mechanism to break in just the right way. He concentrated on the lock sifting through the realities and until he found the one where hitting the lock with the butt of his shotgun, just so, caused it to spill open. Together they went to work breaking off the ice that was keeping the shutter jammed shut. They took their time, preferring to do it quietly.


Next

26

They carefully walked up the stairs warily looking around and behind them as they went. At the top of the stairs the floor divided into two. To the right was what was left of the Department store. To the left was the Post Office.

“Ah, new customers. Do please come in,” a scratchy voice said. They walked around the corner and into the Post Office. Behind the counter was an old bespectacled man, with thin chaotic wisps of grey hair a strange counter-part to his otherwise neat appearance of a white shirt and a dark blue tie.

“Now what can I do for you both? I don’t believe I have any deliveries for you today.” There were a number of candles lit on his side of the counter. The bullet-proof glass was still very much intact.

There was a pause.

“Perhaps a leaflet would help?” the old man suggested pointing at a rack of leaflets. Judging by their covers they explained everything from how to apply for a passport, to the benefits of life insurance.

Ghost tensed slightly; it was one of those moments of confusion which made an excellent time to spring an ambush. Nothing happened. Amber wandered over to the leaflets and looked through them. Still nothing happened.

“It’s possible to post things from here?” Ghost asked. Sometimes you just had to go with a situation and see where it took you.

“Yes sir. This is a Post Office after all,” he replied with a note of pride.

“I had no idea they operated outside of the Conclaves,” Ghost mused.

“Oh you’d be surprised at how much goes on outside the Conclaves sir.”

“Such as…” Amber turned back to face the counter again.

“Ah well I’m not really the man to talk to about that miss. You want the information desk,” he replied helpfully.

They looked around but couldn’t see anything resembling a desk.

“And that would be…?” Ghost wondered where this was leading.

“Well in the shopping mall of course sir,” he replied “now is there anything I can get for you?”

“The shopping mall,” Ghost said softly to himself. He did remember there was an information desk that tried to tell you where all the various shops were situated, but generally only succeeded in confusing people. That couldn’t still be working could it; after all there was the rather significant matter of the horde of zombies that currently occupied the mall.

The old man was still smiling serenely so Ghost tried a different tact. “You sell stamps?”

The old man nodded, “There’s a price list among the leaflets sir.”

Amber picked one up and handed it to Ghost. He opened it and wasn’t surprised to see it reflected modern day economics. There were prices given for physical coins and notes, electronic money and a few specific items that were presumably of value to the old man. Ghost closed it and tucked it away in a pocket. He had both “real” money as he thought of it, and several accounts of electronic money under various aliases. And there were one or two of the items that he had too. But right now, he wanted to get out safely.

“That’s very helpful to know. Thank-you. Have a good day,” he nodded to Amber and started to head towards the stairs.



Next

25

Amber paused. They could investigate it now or they could see what the rest of the place looked like first.

At first she’d liked the idea of being outside, but now the cold was getting to her ears. She nodded towards the open shutters and unslung her shotgun. Ghost did the same and looked up at the windows. Nothing. Someone had bricked them up a long time ago. Ghost thought back and remembered what this place had been. It had been the victim of cutbacks. Local post offices had closed because they didn’t make enough profit. Nevermind they were important to the locals. And somehow some genius in the local government had come up with the idea of shutting down the actual Post Office and moving it to the upstairs of a department store.

They carefully moved over to the doors. They were mainly glass, designed to let shoppers see the books and chocolates in the front of the store. Looking through the doors he could see the shelves still had leftover magazines stacked on them. On the carpet, he could see a set of wet footprints leading inside. He examined the doors carefully looking for traps or alarms but after several minutes couldn’t find anything. He gently pushed against the door and it swung open easily. Too easily, someone was maintaining them. He waited a moment and then stepped in. Amber checked around behind them and then stepped in behind him. The daylight lit up quite a bit of the store. They could see the shelving going back and the now still escalator on the right leading up to the next floor and the Post Office.

Unlike the music shop, the shelves at the back of the store went all the way up to the ceiling, though they were empty.

“That’d make good cover,” Amber whispered.

Ghost nodded. The footprints lead past the escalator and to the stairs. He remembered this bureaucratic idea too. Someone had decided to remove down escalator entirely and add in a flight of stairs. They then tried to enforce that the stairs should only be used for going down. It hadn’t worked terribly well then and apparently still wasn’t working now.

“I can hear someone upstairs,” she kept her voice low “strange sounds too, metal, paper, not quite sure what it means.”

Ghost gestured at the empty shelves and together they moved through them, checking there was no-one hiding back there. Once they were satisfied they moved to the stairs. There was light up there, but it wasn’t the steady glow of electric lighting. It was flickering almost like

“Candles?” Amber looked at him questioningly.

He nodded. Stranger and stranger.


Next

24

Although the snow was deeper near the buildings, along the main path that lead from the park to what had been the pedestrianised zone, the snow was roughly a foot deep. In some ways this was good. There were no footprints and the top of it still had a frozen untouched crispness to it. No-one was wandering around at the moment. And it was much easier to walk in deeper snow than on ice ground – even if you feel over it wasn’t too bad. On the other hand, Ghost was very much aware that it was going to slow them down a lot and that could lead to all sorts of problems.

He looked at Amber. The tips of elven ears were already beginning to go red from the cold. Still there was a twinkle in her eyes at finally being outside again.

“Why does it always sound quieter after it snows?” Amber asked interrupting his thoughts.

“The snow helps muffle sounds so they seems softer and quieter,” he replied.

Carefully they walked past the Library. Although he deliberately looked straight ahead Ghost noticed curtains flickering in his peripheral vision. He kept walking. Sometimes you just had to trust that things would turn out ok.

This time things did and they reached the main parade of shops safely.

“We really need to come to some kind of arrangement with them,” Amber said.

Ghost nodded. “Yup, but for now, where do you want to go first?”

Amber looked up at him with a look of surprise. She was used to him planning out the best way forward. Ghost tried his best to look innocent and waited patiently for her answer.

“Left,” she decided.

Ghost nodded. There wasn’t really a wrong answer at this point, especially if they just wanted to scout out the local area. Now he started thinking. This part of was fairly straightforward. Shops on either side and a wide pavement running through them. The shops all had two or three floors and he knew that some of them had floors below street level too. Which meant an awful lot of windows that people could shoot at them from.

Metal shutters had been pulled down over the storefronts. Ghost was confident that he could get past them without too much trouble. For now he was interested in seeing if any of them had been disturbed.

People had left fairly suddenly as the local economy crashed, but most had left with the optimism that it was just a temporary thing and so they’d carefully locked up behind them, expecting to come back. But years passed and still no-one returned.

They carried on trudging through the snow. Ghost held out his hand to pause Amber. One of the shutters had been lifted. Looking at the snow by them, Ghost guessed it had been opened earlier in the day.

He nodded at it and looked questioningly at her.


Next

23

“This is wonderful!” Amber exclaimed.

It occurred to Ghost that having her very own Dressing Room was a dream come true for Amber, not to mention all the dresses and costumes that were scattered around the place. It normally made very little sense to wear fancy dresses; for a start shotguns and whips didn’t accessorize terribly well. But in the safety of the theatre she could wear whatever she wanted. There had been one or two disasters with make-up; it had been in scarce supply for most of Amber’s life and so she wasn’t to sure about the finer points. Some of Harlequins were gradually explaining it to her. In a way she was a reminder of innocence as she wandered around the theatre dressed to the nines and cheerfully cracking her whip, and that was something they all needed in this world.

Silver had been right about the snow. It came in howling winds rapidly piling up several feet high outside the theatre. Thick curtains kept the cold out and somehow the Harlequins had managed to get a supply of electricity that kept the whole place lovely and warm. Silver stayed in her Park. Ghost let her know she was welcome to shelter with them, but for her own reasons she preferred to stay where she was, though she often visited.

After a week of snow and being indoors, Amber was beginning to feel a bit cooped up.

“Please, it’ll be fun,” she looked at Ghost with her best puppy eyes.

“You might be abusing the term ‘fun’ I think,” he replied. He knew at this point it was useless. They were going to go. Still he felt he should at least give the pretense of thinking about it.

She pouted. “You know if we’re going to stay here more it makes sense to explore the surroundings and with all the snow and ice now’s the perfect time as no-one else will be looking around.”

It was, he had to admit, a good argument. “Alright, but in daylight, ok?”

The happy look on her face was answer enough.

“We’re going to need some warmer clothing though,” he reflected.

They spent some time looking through the costumes for warmer clothing, balancing keeping warm with freedom of movement, until finally they were happy with their choices.

The next morning came and went before Ghost woke up. If he was going to go out in the cold and the snow he was going to do it after a good night’s sleep and that preferably meant getting up in the afternoon.

As they walked out of the tunnel connecting back to the Park they were surprised at how bright it was outside. There was a thick layer of snow everywhere, but the clouds had gone for now, causing the sunlight to reflect brightly off everything. They shielded their eyes as they gradually got accustomed to it. Taking their time they trudged through the snow and out of the Park.



Next

22

There was a rustle as Silver emerged from the nearby tress carrying fresh tea. Ghost recognized she was being polite. Silver only ever made a sound in nature when she chose to.

“Kayta was most impressed,” Silver began as she handed them the cups “you’ve made a lot of progress apparently.”

Amber actually blushed slightly at the praise, much to Ghost surprise. “Well she is, um, awesome”. The blush actually appeared to be travelling up to the tips of her elven ears.

“And I’ve got somewhere for you to practice that’s rather bigger than our spare room,” Ghost smiled. He shivered slightly. “Is it me or is it getting colder?”

Silver nodded. “I’ve been hearing jumbled reports of cold weather. People are actually talking about heavy snow.” She looked around at the trees, many of which were still covered in their autumn finery.

Ghost looked worried. In his poem the Waste Land, T S Eliot wrote that April was the cruelest month. It had turned out he was wrong. When you lived in actual Waste Lands, the winter months were far crueler. Snow and ice were silent killers and even if you survived, trying to keep warm when wrapped up in fraying clothes while the chilling wind howled around you was not at all pleasant. Travel quickly became a nightmare too. He was remarkably glad of the theatre. It would be much warmer and sheltered than their place at the graveyard.

“How soon ‘till it gets here?” he asked.

“Hard to say. Could be a few days,” she replied.

Thoughts raced through his head. If they were going to stay here they’d need provisions and that meant going back to the graveyard.

“The theatre comes with a supply of food,” Silver said as if reading his thoughts. “You won’t be able to host banquets, but there’s no need to worry about restocking the cupboards either.”

There was another look of delight on Amber’s face.

“Thank-you,” Ghost replied sincerely. He considered his options. They could simply stay put and ride out the weather. That was a tempting option. They could go back to the school and investigate that further, but if they got caught in heavy snow, things could go badly wrong. There didn’t seem to be any apparent rush, so maybe it was better to wait until after the snow. It occurred to him he should probably discuss this with Amber. It was an old habit though. He liked to gather his thoughts first to the point where he had a clear idea of where to go, but not quite to the point where he’d absolutely made up his mind. Flexibility was definitely a survival trait these days. He looked over at Amber and realised that between the promise of unlimited food, good shelter and a place to practice with her new whip, there was no real need to convince her. “C’mon on then,” he nodded to Amber.

“I’ll leave you two to it,” Silver said. “I need to make some preparations of my own. You know where to find me.” Gathering up the cups she quickly vanished back into the trees.


Next

21

The week passed peacefully. Amber was rather secretive about her progress, but seemed to be permanently delighted whenever Ghost saw her, so that was good. He used the time to get familiar with the feel of the theatre. It was strange how different places had their own distinctive feeling. If you could take away the bricks and mortar, there was still something left. Genus loci, they used to call it, the spirit of the place. Gradually he got to know his way around. The Harlequins kept themselves to themselves and he was happy to leave it like that for the time being.

On reflection he’d decided not to run just yet, though mentally he now had one eye on the door. Wherever he went, sooner or later he’d get embroiled in larger matters. It was just the way of the world at the moment. At least he trusted the Guardians he knew. And maybe if he could just survive long enough, the world would change again to a place where he could be left in peace. Maybe. In the meantime he needed resources to help him survive.

As he sat watching the sun set in the park, Amber came bounding up to him clutching something proudly.

“Look what I got!” she held out a whip for his inspection.

This was nothing like the practice version they’d made. This was a weapon made by someone who knew what they were doing. These days too many people went for fancy designs; jewels, dragons, gold leaf and the such-like. Sure they looked pretty, but they tended to cause all sorts of problems just when you really didn’t want them too. Pieces snapped off, or got caught, or just plain slipped out of your grasp. By contrast this whip didn’t stand out. It wasn’t pure black, more a mottled black and dark brown, almost like a snake. No sharp edges to cause problems and the wrapping on the handle looked like it was easy to grip. Ghost suspected it was perfectly balanced too.

“Cool,” he replied.

“Want to see what I can do with it?” her eyes gleamed.

Ghost knew it wasn’t a question. Well at least there was a fair amount of room around them. He nodded.

Although he didn’t really know much about whips, even he could tell that Amber had improved a lot. No doubt the weapon she had was helping, but still her movements were much more fluid and tightly controlled. The whip seemed to be going pretty much where she wanted it to, rather than her previous style of it getting there eventually after having exhausted all other possible avenues.


Next

20

There was something about the smell of freshly dug earth that Ghost found comforting. He’d never been able to figure out why exactly. One of the mysteries of the human mind. There was no lighting in the tunnel, but daylight illuminated the beginning of it. They followed it for a few hundred feet and it turned sharply. Now he could see the end of the tunnel lit up by artificial light, presumably from the theatre itself. The tunnel itself was still dark for another hundred yards, but he’d gotten the feel of the floor by now and continued walking confidently with Silver.

They emerged in what looked like one of the changing rooms for actors. Although Ghost had been to the theatre before, he’d never been backstage. Silver gestured around with her arm like an estate agent showing off a new property. It wasn’t the tidiest of rooms. Old jars of make-up lay around and there was dust on the mirrors, not to mention a certain amount of fresh earth that had been tracked into the carpet.

Silver lead him out to the corridor and towards the stage. It was a strange feeling being back here. One of those places you weren’t supposed to be for most people, and yet conversely for the people who worked there, a perfectly natural (albeit usually somewhat stressful) place to be.

Ghost took in the surroundings. Faded notes were still pinned to the walls. “You mentioned custodians?” he prompted.

“Ah, yes. The Harlequins.” She led him up a flight of stairs to the back of the stage. There were wires hanging down seemingly randomly, various props left from productions of the past loosely piled up together. She nodded to the stage itself. A troupe of men and women were silently practicing acrobatics. Not “dodging incoming weaponry” or “swinging out of zombie infested buildings” acrobatics. What they were doing was very much an art form. They wore brightly coloured clothes and their faces were hidden behind ornate masks. They as one, no matter what position they were in, they turned and tumbled once towards him, each ending in a graceful bow, before returning to what they had been doing.

Silver lead him down the side of the stage and through the auditorium. Some of the Harlequins were merrily using the seats as part of their practice, nimbly leaping and balancing on them.

“Harlequins?” Ghost asked. “Think of them as modern day ninja, but focused on information rather than violence. With the right invitations they can perform almost anywhere. They’re masters of disguise and as they’re careful not to let anyone see anything recognizable, or even be sure how many of them there are, with the right clothes it’s easy for them to slip unnoticed into the audience. Perfect if you want to get information in or out of a place. It’s pretty easy for them to include codes into their performances too. They’re the epitome of hiding in plain sight.” She smiled proudly.

Ghost paused to let this sink in. Another very generous gift.

“Of course you probably don’t have any real use for them at the moment,” she paused to watch his reaction, but might as well have tried to decipher the feelings of a cloud “but in the long term…”

Ghost kept his face calm and nodded, but inside he was considering running far, far, away. He was getting well out of his depth here. He knew Silver had long term plans – she had to, being a Guardian. But that meant she was playing in a game with some very serious people. The image of giants crushing ants underfoot entered his mind again.

“And of course lots of space for Amber to practice in,” she finished with a grin.

Ghost smiled. “And more excuses for us to visit and drink your tea.”

“Well that wouldn’t hurt either,” she nudged his shoulder with the side of her face. “C’mon I’ll show you the rest of this place.”

Next

19

Ghost groaned. Ever since Amber had seen that blasted film she had been fascinated with whips. Granted they had the potential to be useful in a world where bullets were in short supply and buildings were often falling apart. The problem was they were a lot harder to use than they looked. And much harder than it looked on film. They’d finally compromised on a sort of safe version that she practiced with in what had once been a spare room and currently looked like ghouls had taken up residence. His main concern was simply that she didn’t take out her own eye by accident.

“Kayta,” Silver said with a triumphant smile.

The look of dismay on Ghost’s face was promptly explained for one of disbelief. Kayta was pretty much an Urban Legend. As such he didn’t know how much was true and how much was the result of people “improving” the stories with each telling. Still, even allowing for that her skills with a whip were impressive. If she would spend even an hour with Amber there might be hope.

“A week.” Silver grinned. It was rare to see Ghost’s mind spin and she savoured the moment.

“A week?!” Getting Kayta here at all would have required some major favours to be called in. An hour’s lesson with her was like gold dust. Probably even more valuable he reflected, as unlike some weapon masters she didn’t normally teach. But a week? Suddenly he was very glad the cd was in Silver’s possession and not his responsibility any more.

“I have something for you too,” Silver continued to smile.

“More?” Ghost took a large drink of his tea.

“You know the old theatre between the Library and here?”

Ghost nodded. He’d been there a few times when he was younger.

“It’s yours.”

For the second time Ghost’s mind span. “Mine?”

“I know you, always having multiple places to run to when you need them. There’s a tunnel from here to there so you can move back and forward undetected. There’s also plenty of space there for Amber to practice, assuming you tell her about it of course. Everyone thinks it’s empty and what with the Librarians, wandering zombies and me, no-one’s interested in taking it. It does however come with custodians so you don’t need to worry about defending it.”

Ghost managed to salvage enough of his wits not to look in the direction of the cd and gently took a deep breath. Things were changing. He knew from experience that it was dangerous being around when giants fought. Often they didn’t notice the ants scampering around underfoot, and crushed them without a second thought.

“Thank-you,” he said with a smile of his own.

Silver put her arm around his and led him towards the tunnel.

Next

18

There was the sharp sound of gunfire behind them from the Library. But nothing struck them. Silver appeared in front of them and looked relieved.

“Nothing to worry about,” she smiled “just the Librarians cleaning up the mess of zombies you just made. Come and have some tea, it’ll calm your nerves.”

Tea sounded like a good idea to Ghost. He really hated the after-effects on adrenaline and how long it took for the effect to wear off leaving him to feel his normal calm self again. Amber was slightly flushed from the running and the aldrenaline made it impossible for her to sit still.

The tea helped though. Ghost wasn’t entirely sure what was in it, but he trusted Silver.and it made him feel much better. It would probably calm Amber down too, he mused, if she would actually get around to drinking it instead of pacing all over the place.

“So, did you get it?” Silver asked gently.

Amber patted her left pocket. There was a look of quiet panic in her eyes as she found it was empty. As she started to frantically search her pockets, Ghost stood up in one fluid motion and without so much as spilling his tea and calmly reached towards her. “Calm down” he said softly. The air around her coat blurred slightly as he reached into one of the pockets and snapped back into focus as he pulled out the cd. He smiled.

Amber breathed a sigh of relief and went back to pacing.

He handed to over to Silver. She opened it and carefully removed the cd. Then she paused.

“It’s very important it’s not been scratched at any point” she said softly.

Ghost nodded. The cd blurred for a moment and then looked normal again. Silver turned it over and examined the back of it with a smile. Carefully she put it back in its case.

“So do you two have any more plans for today?” she asked brightly.

“Well I think Amber’s planning on wearing her own little path into your ground,” Ghost teased “but otherwise, no.”

A few seconds later he saw Amber‘s distracted look replaced with a more pointed look in his direction as she realized what he’d said.

“Well in that case I have something a little more productive for you to do, if you want?” she smiled mischievously at Amber.

Amber tilted her head to one side questioning, a sending her hair tumbling down over her shoulder. Silver nodded up towards the where the children’s playground had once been and tried to look innocent. With a shrug, Amber headed off towards it knowing she was perfectly safe there. Ghost went to follow, but Silver shook her head.

“Just her. For you I have to apologize, kinda.”

Ghost knew that look. “What have you done?” he asked quietly dreading the answer.

“Well I hear she’s been rather interested in whips as of late…”

Next

17

“So much for plans,” Ghost reflected.

He handed his shotgun to Amber and started rummaging through his rucksack. She started to reload. The rucksack shifted slightly out of focus as Ghost looked for a reality where he’d decided that that no-one with any sense ever went anywhere without a forty foot length of rope. He found it and pulled the rope out. Fortunately he’d already tied off one end into a lasso – after all it was pretty likely if he needed rope that he’d need to tie it to something.

“Time for running away,” he declared.

Still howling, the zombies started to slowly surge towards them en masse.

Ghost turned towards the back of the shop and started running towards it. Amber handed him his shotgun as they ran. Looking closely at the rusting beams that made up the windows, he levelled it at a particularly worn area and fired twice, gouging a section out of it.

“Take out the window,” he said and looped the end of the rope over the remaining metal section.

Trying not to think about the baying horde behind her, Amber fired her two shots into the glass. Spiderwebs formed through it but it didn't break. They both reloaded. It was a difficult balance to strike. Adrenaline made fine motor control actions like loading a shotgun remarkably difficult. Go too fast and it was impossible. On the other hand they didn't have a great deal of time either.

The zombies reached the end of their aisle. Amber fired again at the window, whilst Ghost discharged his shots into the knees of the closest zombies. They fell forward, but continued clawing and crawling towards them. Fortunately the zombies behind them promptly tripped over them and for a moment there was a large pile of bodies and limbs chaotically thrashing around. Amber swore. The glass still hadn't given way. Ghost handed her the rope.

“You worry too much,” he smiled and tipped up a CD rack placing it at an angle over them, the top leaning against the stubborn window as they crouched down. They heard the crunching sounds of the zombies continued forwards over the two on the floor. Amber could smell the stench as the ones at the front began to attack the rack. However the rest continued to surge forwards pressing them into the rack. There was an ominous sound as the window finally shattered under their combined weight. As the rack collapsed on top of them, Ghost wrapped his free arm around her waist and leapt out of the window.

They arced briefly through the air and stopped momentarily a few feet above the ground. The sudden stop jerked the rope out of Amber's hands and they fell to the pavement.

“Move!” Still holding onto her, Ghost half-helped, half-dragged her to her feet and started running. Behind them the rack fell out of the remains of the window smashing to pieces on the ground, followed by an avalanche of zombies. The first ones were almost instantly killed by the fall, but gradually their corpses started to form a cushion for the ones that followed.

“And now the running Silver mentioned.” He checked she was on her feet and then they were running. They tore down what had once been the High Street, slowing as much as they dared as they passed the Library and then dashed into what they hoped was the safety of the Park.


Next

16

Ghost held his hands one on top of the other. The area above them blurred in a roughly sword-like shape and he cut through the zombie with it. For a moment, it doubled over. Ghost used it as an impromptu step from which to leap over the rack to Amber. They both noticed that the zombies were inexorably beginning to gather around the still twitching body.

“There can't be a good sign,” Amber muttered.
“It is however, clearing out the rest of the shop quite well,” Ghost mused. “may as well take advantage of it while it lasts.”

They headed over to the Alternative section, which was indeed much smaller and contained only a lone akinny zombie in a disturbingly short skirt staring fixedly at something in its hands.

“Okay the ‘A’s are over here so we want to be…” her voice trailed off “you've got to be kidding me.”

Ghost followed her line of sight to the zombie. “There?” he asked.

“Where else?” she replied.

The zombie showed no signs of moving away.

“You cover me, and I'll reach over and try and find it.” Amber said handing him the two shotguns. Ghost levelled them at the zombie, being careful to keep an eye on the rest of the shop. Carefully Amber reached over the dividing rack, shuffling herself forward on stomach until she could reach.

“It's not here either,” Amber said as she finished searching through the CDs for the second time. As she slowly she started to pull herself back she saw what was in its hands. “Oh great, it's got it.”

By this time almost only a few zombies hadn't joined the crowd. For a moment, Ghost found himself wondering what you called a group of zombies? A hoarde, maybe. Strange the things the mind focuses on.

“I don't think this is going to go well,” he said softly.

“Plans?” she asked hopefully.

“On three, grab the CD and keep your head down. One, two,” the zombie turned to stare at him. Amber grabbed the CD and ducked. The zombie’s reverie disintegrated into anger as synapses blazed a broken symphony through its mind and it became to howl its outrage. “Three,” both shotguns fired point-blank into its face. Its arms continued to reach out for a moment. Amber rolled to her left wriggling herself off the rack. It fell forward crashing into the cds sending them spilling everywhere.

Amber got to her feet and Ghost calmly handed her back her shotgun as she slipped the CD into one of the inner pockets of her jacket.

“So far so…” she was interrupted by another howl which was swiftly taken up by the entire hoard of zombies. Outside the shop she could hear it spreading through the Mall like wildfire.



Next

15

The music shop was more or less intact. Fortunately the wall of the shop that formed the end of the Mall had kept to the stained glass motif and even with the dirt and muck that had built up over the years, sunlight still managed to light up the store quite well. Zombies wandered seemingly aimlessly between the rows of CDs. This time though, it was easier to slip past them, moving through the empty rows and occasionally backtracking when they randomly changed direction.

“Does it come under ‘E’ or ‘S’ ?” Amber asked softly. “Probably ‘S’,” Ghost replied. After checking that there was a clear area around him for the moment he glanced through some of the CDs and nodded. “They’re organised by surname. This is the ‘H’ section.” As an afterthought he added “I hope she’s under popular music. I really don't want to have to search through all the categories looking for her.”

Amber nodded. “This is ‘F’ so I think we need to be over there.”

They both started to weave their way over to the right section. Amber reached it first. Ghost raised his shotgun to give her cover and carefully judged the timing and movements of the nearby zombies.

“Ok, now,” he said.

She quickly started searching through the CDs. “Great, it's not where it should be,” she muttered and silently cursed whoever hadn’t taken the time to put it back in exactly the right place. She moved to the beginning of the section and started flipping through the CDs.

As she neared the end, she heard Ghost curse. As she turned, she saw both a tall, lanky zombie approaching her and Ghost vaulting over one rack. He leapt up onto the rack that separated them and jumped off it bringing the butt of his shotgun down on its head with a sickening crunch. It fell backwards to the carpetted floor twitching and convulsing, black, sticky ichor spreading in a pool around it. He pointed his shotgun at it but didn't fire.

Amber looked carefully around, but so far their actions continued to go unnoticed. Quickly she rifled through the remaining CDs.
“It’s not here,” she said and headed back to the beginning of the section and started checking again.

“Oh great,” Ghost replied. “Summers Day. What do you think, jazz, blues, alternative?”

“All of the above?” She'd reached the end of the section again. “Which one’s nearest?”

Ghost tried to remember the layout but it has been a long time since he’d been here last. “I think Alternative was just over there. At least it's a much smaller section.”

A redheaded zombie that was probably female wandered over to them, and despite having two shotguns directed at its head, was apparently fascinated with the pool of black ichor. Slowly they backed away from it, as another zombie, this one dressed in a heavily stained business suit started to walk down the other end of the aisle blocking them in. Amber looked questioningly at Ghost and waited patiently for him to sort through different realities.

He handed her his shotgun and then cupped his hands together for her to step into, boosting her up and over the rack in a graceful leap. Then he froze in place. The zombie walked calmly up to him, staring through him into the distance. It tried to keep walking, gently bumping into him repeatedly, its fetid breath in his face. Ten seconds passed by, twenty, thirty; Amber looked around anxiously. Forty seconds.

“Ghost,” there was a warning note in her voice “more are coming towards you.”


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