[49] The Greater Threat

"Look out!"

Teucer's voice broke through the noise.

The group turned just in time to see something enormous charging towards them from the fourth-floor corridor.

Several times the size of a normal zombie, its body was swollen with muscle and blackened, diseased flesh. Its head was unnaturally large, missing eyes beneath the thick, ridged mass that covered its skull like a Pachycephalosaurus.

"Juggernaut!" Alan screamed the name of the mutant.

"Fuck, there's no end to them!"

It charged straight at them.

Alan grabbed Maki and pulled her towards the landing while Ramesh stumbled aside. The Juggernaut thundered up the last few steps, each footfall making the staircase tremble beneath them.

Teucer didn't run. He planted his feet.

Then he sucked in a deep breath.

"Teucer, no more—"

He exhaled. A violent burst of freezing mist erupted from his mouth.

The frost struck the Juggernaut's legs and spread almost instantly, coating its shins and knees in a thick layer of ice. The mutant's momentum carried it forward even as its legs began to stiffen beneath it.

Its foot slipped.

"GRAAAAH!"

The Juggernaut toppled sideways. Its massive shoulders smashed into the railing, and the metal bent with a deafening screech. Its enormous weight crushed what remained of the railing, and the momentum of its charge sent the creature over the edge.

They heard the heavy mass fall below in cascading crashes, each one echoing through the mall before a final, sickening impact came from somewhere below.

"Kahahhkk...!" A wet, violent cough tore from Teucer's throat. He doubled over, one hand clutching his chest as something dark splattered onto the floor. But it wasn't liquid. Small chunks of blood, already frozen solid, scattered across the tiles.

"Teucer!"

Nadia rushed to his side and grabbed his arm. His skin was freezing cold, turning pale and dry without even a trace of sweat on his face.

"Can you stand?"

Teucer nodded weakly.

Nadia slipped an arm around him and helped pull him upright.

"We're almost there. Just a few more steps."

Teucer leaned against her as they started up the stairs again. His breathing was ragged, each exhale carrying a faint mist of frost.

Nadia glanced at him. His condition wasn't getting better.

She stopped, and placed her hand against his arm.

"Just a moment."

Teucer didn't argue.

He only turned his eyes towards her. They were tired and bloodshot, the redness around them partially obscured by frost clinging to his lashes.

Healing Touch.

Her fingers found the side of his throat, where the cold had gathered most intensely. It was so deep that even the briefest touch sent a sharp chill through her hand, yet she held on. And Teucer's body immediately tensed, "Gahh...!" A pained groan escaped through clenched teeth as his fingers tightened around the railing. His whole body trembled, the muscles in his arms straining as he fought to remain standing.

The agony travelled back through Nadia's hand. A shudder ran through her as the pain seized her body too, fingers curling against Teucer's neck. Breath caught somewhere in her chest, and weakness spread through her legs until her knees nearly buckled. She gritted her teeth and held on to his neck anyway.

Teucer looked at her weakly.

The pain hadn't disappeared, but it was already beginning to recede. Teucer's breathing steadied as some of the frost left his skin, leaving him looking exhausted rather than half-dead. Once the treatment was done, Nadia released his neck and nearly stumbled. Teucer caught himself against the railing before he could fall with her.

"Thanks... but don't use it again," he muttered.

"We're... almost... there."

She met his eyes.

"Keep... going..."

Nadia slipped an arm around Teucer's waist. He leaned into her, one arm hanging across her shoulders as they dragged themselves up the remaining steps.

Maki came down to meet them, catching Teucer's other side before his legs could give out.

"Come on. Just a little more."

Alan was already reaching down from above. He grabbed Nadia's wrist and pulled while Ramesh stepped down several stairs to help steady Teucer's weight.

"Easy," Ramesh said.

Between the four of them, they managed to get Teucer and Nadia up the final few steps.

Ramesh glanced down the stairwell. The infected were still coming.

"Can't say I was hoping to climb this many stairs today," he spoke wearily, looking towards Alan. "Where to next?"

Alan lifted his head towards the fifth floor. Beyond the landing, the darkened entrance of the cinema stretched across one side of the atrium, its ticket booths sitting abandoned beneath faded posters. Beside it was a small dental clinic.

"There," he said. "The clinic, it's inside!"

Maki helped Nadia steady herself as they reached the landing, while Ramesh kept one hand on Teucer's shoulder. The boy's weight had become heavier against them with every step, his breathing still carrying that faint, icy mist.

But finally, it seemed as if the goal was within reach.

They had barely taken a few steps when something shifted in the darkness beyond the cinema entrance.

A wet, guttural sound came from inside.

"No..." Ramesh breathed, his shoulders sagging.

He could not believe that after that many, there were even more.

And more.

Several silhouettes began to emerge from the darkness.

And more. Five of them.

They were bloated things, their enormous bellies stretching grotesquely, protruding so far that they seemed almost ready to split. Thin arms hung from their sides, swaying with each lumbering step, while their exposed stomachs stretched beneath layers of pallid, rotten skin.

Something moved beneath one of those distended bellies.

Ramesh's eyes widened, because he saw it; a face pressed into the flesh. Its features were distorted by the stretched skin, but there was no mistaking what it was. A human face, preserved as an impression across the creature's stomach as though someone had shoved it into wet sand.

Then Teucer saw one that he knew.

His expression changed.

"No..."

'Her' eyes were closed, and her mouth hung slightly open. It looked almost as though she were still trapped inside, buried beneath layers of flesh.

"Leah..."

Teucer's fingers tightened around the metal rod.

His breathing became ragged.

"Leahhh!!!"

Alan took a step back.

"Teucer..."

More shapes moved behind the first five. The darkness of the cinema was filled with them. Dozens. They kept emerging from between the ticket booths, spilling out from the darkened entrance until the fifth-floor corridor seemed to disappear beneath a mass of swollen bellies and crooked limbs.

Maki's face was painted in despair. Everyone seemed to reach the same realisation as the Head-Eaters continued spilling from the cinema, while more began climbing up the stairwell behind them.

They were surrounded. The way ahead was blocked by swollen bodies emerging from the darkness, while the stairs they had fought so desperately to climb were filling with the infected they had left behind.

There was nowhere left to run.

Teucer raised his metal rod.

"We're not running."

His voice was low, but the anger behind it was unmistakable.

"We're not running!!!"

His scream echoed through the mall.

"Kill! Kill all of these fuckers!"

Alan stared at the mass of Head-Eaters ahead of them. His grip tightened, yet he didn't move. There were too many. Even if they could take down one, there would be another behind it, and another after that.

Maki swallowed hard.

"They're not stopping..."

Nadia could only stare. There was no way they could fight all of them.

But those creatures would not wait on them for a decision.

The first Head-Eater lunged.

"Move!"

Alan swung a fist into its stomach, the burnt side of his hand flaring with heat as he tried to channel his ability through it.

The flames barely took. A faint sizzle rose from his knuckles as the heat spread across the creature's swollen flesh, leaving only a darkened patch on its pallid skin. The Head-Eater barely staggered.

Alan's eyes widened.

"What the—"

Its arm swept towards him.

He recoiled and ducked beneath the blow, feeling the rush of air pass over his head.

Ramesh stepped in and brought a metal pan down against its skull.

The impact made a dull crack, but the Head-Eater barely reacted.

"Shit!"

Its arm swung. Ramesh raised his forearm to block, but the force behind the blow sent him staggering backwards. His heel caught against the edge of the landing.

"Mr Ramesh!"

He tried to regain his footing.

"They... punch..."

The realisation barely left his mouth before another Head-Eater slammed into him from the side. Ramesh was thrown into the wall with a heavy crash, the metal pan slipping from his hand as his shoulder struck the concrete. His head snapped against it, and his body crumpled to the floor.

"Shit!"

"Get... away..."

The words came out strained as a bloated hand closed around his torso and lifted him off the ground. His feet kicked uselessly beneath him, his back scraping against the wall as the Head-Eater raised him higher.

Its mouth stretched open.

Ramesh stared up at the rows of rotten teeth descending towards him.

A sharp crack of metal rang out from the other side of the landing.

Teucer had already charged at another Head-Eater. His metal rod was coated in a thick layer of frost, the cold spreading along its length until the entire weapon had hardened beneath a layer of ice.

"LEAH!"

He swung.

The rod smashed into the Head-Eater's shoulder with enough force to twist its bloated body sideways. Frost burst across its pallid flesh, creeping over the shoulder and down its arm.

The mutant staggered, and Teucer surged forward with a furious snarl, gripping the rod with both hands as he brought it down towards the creature's skull.

The Head-Eater turned, and Teucer saw the face on its belly.

Pressed into the swollen flesh of its stomach, distorted by the stretched skin, yet still recognisable.

The frozen rod hung above him, still for a moment, but a moment too long.

A fist slammed into Teucer's chest.

"Guh!"

His feet left the ground, blown backwards and crashed into the cinema's ticket counter. Several abandoned plastic barriers tumbling across the floor. Alan was struck by another Head-Eater almost immediately, the blow sending him backwards before he lost his footing and crashed hard onto the tiles.

"Teucer!" "Alan!"

Maki and Nadia could only watch in despair as both boys were taken out almost effortlessly.

Ramesh was still suspended against the wall, the Head-Eater's jaws widening above him.

There was no escaping it. They were all going to end up dead, just like Leah.

Nadia stared at the Head-Eaters closing in around them, her heart sinking as the same fate drew closer with every step.

Nadia looked towards Teucer.

He was barely moving beside the cinema counter.

The Head-Eater carrying Leah's face was already approaching him.

Teucer tried to push himself up.

His arms shook beneath him, and the creature reached him.

Its mouth opened.

Teucer's vision blurred.

He could barely make out Leah's face anymore. The flesh surrounding it had stretched and distorted her features beyond recognition, yet he could only mutter her name under his breath stubbornly, repeatedly.

"Leah..."

The name barely left his lips.

"Leah..."

He said it again, quieter this time, as though repeating it could somehow bring back the girl buried beneath that grotesque flesh.

The Head-Eater carrying her stepped closer. Teucer could only watch as it raised its other arm, preparing to finish him. Behind it, the remaining Head-Eaters were closing in on the others. Ramesh was still trapped in another's grasp, its jaws opening wider above his head.

Teucer lowered his head.

"Sorry..."

Before the Head-Eater could bring its hand down, something crashed behind it.

A deafening impact shook the corridor. The Head-Eater's arm remained raised above Teucer.

—Then its bloated stomach suddenly ruptured.

"?!"

A fist had punched straight through its flesh. Blood and rotten tissue exploded from the wound, splattering across Teucer's clothes. He recoiled, but there was nowhere to escape as more of the creature's gore painted his body.

The creature staggered, and the fist withdrew, dragging something through the gaping hole.

A head. Leah's head. Her long-decomposed face emerged from the torn flesh, hanging limply from the bloodied opening.

Teucer's eyes widened, and his stomach immediately lurched.

"Ugh—!"

Vomit splattered violently onto the floor, as his body folded over itself.

Behind the Head-Eater stood a figure wearing a motorbike helmet, striking a punching posture. Black knuckle guards were strapped over the figure's gloves, the metal edges stained with fresh blood.

The fist slowly pulled free, and the Head-Eater collapsed at Teucer's feet.

Another mutant charged, and the newcomer stepped forward to meet it. A punch slammed into its face, with an impact so strong that it snapped the head backwards. It had been incapacitated instantly. One more came rushing in from the side, but it met the same end.

Every attack was delivered with bare fists. Each blow landed with such violence that blood and chunks of rotten flesh burst across the corridor.

Nadia stared in horror, her mouth hanging open.

What was happening?

"Mr Ramesh!"

Maki's cry came from the other side of the corridor.

Nadia turned.

Ramesh was still suspended in the grasp of a Head-Eater, its jaws opening wider above his head.

But something was standing beside it.

A second figure wearing a motorbike helmet.

Where had they come from?

They held a baton in one hand. The weapon swung into the side of the mutant's head in a fierce movement. Blue-white sparks burst from the baton on impact, electricity crackling violently across the Head-Eater's skull. Its entire body convulsed as the current coursed through its rotten flesh.

Crack! The Head-Eater's grip loosened.

Ramesh dropped towards the floor, but the figure caught him by the back of his shirt.

"Electricity...!" Maki gasped, staring at the crackling baton.

A sharp hiss cut through the corridor.

Something whipped towards the figure from the darkness.

A tentacle struck.

The figure swung the baton into it.

Blue-white sparks erupted across the blackened flesh. Electricity surged through the appendage, making the entire limb convulse violently before snapping backwards.

Nadia's eyes followed it.

It was the tentacle mutant from the glass ceiling, with entrails in place of its head and arms. The twisted body clung to the wall beside the cinema entrance, long appendages digging into the concrete as it hauled itself onto the fifth floor once more.

Another tentacle shot forward.

The figure swung again. But this time, the appendage changed direction.

It wrapped around the baton, and the weapon was ripped from their hand. Electricity immediately surged through the tentacle, blue-white arcs crawling across the rotten flesh. The creature recoiled again, but refused to let go until the baton was torn from the figure's hand.

With another violent jerk, the tentacle flung the baton over the railing. The weapon disappeared from sight as it dropped towards the floors below.

Despite its grotesque appearance, there was a frightening intelligence behind those movements.

But what happened next astonished Nadia even more.

The figure extended an arm, and the same baton suddenly appeared in their open hand.

A pistol suddenly appeared in the other hand.

Nadia could not believe her eyes.

The tentacle mutant lunged... but—

—Bang! The shot tore through the centre of the grotesque mass where a head should have been. Rotten flesh and dark fluid burst across the wall as the creature's body convulsed. The appendages lost their grip on the concrete, and the entire mass collapsed in a loud shriek.

Another shape moved.

It was the Sprinter again. It came from the side, almost completely hidden behind the remaining Head-Eaters, already within striking distance.

The figure turned before it could reach them.

Bang! Without missing, the bullet struck the Sprinter directly in the forehead.

Its body dropped without another movement.

The gun remained raised.

Across the corridor, the remaining Head-Eaters had begun to advance.

Not towards the four survivors, but towards the two helmeted figures, almost as if some instinct for survival had driven them towards the greater threat. The swollen creatures surged forward from the cinema entrance, their enormous bellies swaying as they rushed across the corridor.

The second figure stepped forward. Black knuckle guards flashed beneath the helmet. A fist crashed into the first Head-Eater's stomach, and the impact ruptured the bloated flesh as if a burst of compressed air had exploded from the point of impact.

Blood and rotten tissue exploded across the tiles.

Another came from the side. A second punch smashed into its face, snapping the head backwards with such force that the body spun away and crashed into the railing.

Another Head-Eater broke away from the mass and charged towards the helmeted figure with the pistol.

The gun fired a bullet, tearing through its forehead before it could take another step. More poured from the cinema, an attempt to overwhelm them with numbers.

The pistol vanished. A revolver appeared in the figure's hand next.

Bang! Bang! Two more Head-Eaters dropped.

The revolver disappeared. A pump-action shotgun appeared in its place.

The figure fired into the advancing mass, the blast tearing through swollen flesh and throwing several bodies backwards.

The shotgun vanished before another round could be loaded.

A submachine gun appeared next.

Gunfire erupted, bullets tearing through rotten flesh as bodies collapsed across the bloodied tiles.

The corridor became a slaughterhouse.

Within seconds, the remains of the Head-Eaters were scattered from the cinema entrance to the stairwell. Broken bodies lay twisted among severed limbs and chunks of rotten flesh, while dark blood pooled beneath the corpses and ran between the cracks in the floor.

The stench of blood and decay filled the air.

The two figures stood amid the carnage, surrounded by the remains of everything that had nearly killed them.

The five survivors could only stare in quiet disbelief. Their weapons, their movements, the sheer ease with which they had slaughtered the mutants... It was unlike anything the group had ever seen.

The figure with the pistol approached Ramesh. The man flinched and jerked backwards, his clothes drenched in blood that wasn't his own. Even after accepting his death mere moments ago, Ramesh couldn't help but fix his frightened gaze on the gun.

The barrel pointed past him. Ramesh followed the aim.

The Head-Eater he had escaped from was still lying beside him, its enormous body twitching weakly from the electrical shock.

Bang! The bullet tore through its skull, and the twitching finally stopped.

For a brief moment, nothing moved. But the sound from below reminded everyone that there were more. The noise of their footsteps grew louder, countless feet pounding against the stairs as they began climbing towards the fifth floor.

The figure turned towards the stairwell.

Nadia followed the movement, expecting another weapon to appear.

Something did. But this time, it was...

Her eyes widened at the realisation of what they were about to do.

"No way..."

The figure's head turned towards Nadia... then raised a hand.

A thumbs up.

Something was thrown down the stairwell.

It disappeared into the darkness below... then—

—BOOM!

An explosion shook the entire mall. Concrete cracked as the stairwell groaned beneath the blast, followed by a deafening collapse. Sections of the railing and surrounding walls gave way. Dust and debris erupted upwards, swallowing the lower flights as the entire stairwell began to cave in on itself.

"Move."

The figure grabbed Ramesh and pulled him towards the cinema entrance.

Alan and Nadia followed, still struggling to process what had just happened.

Behind them, another section of the stairwell collapsed with a thunderous crash, sending a cloud of dust rolling across the fifth floor.

Maki and Teucer were already waiting near the cinema entrance, standing beside the other figure.

The five survivors regrouped there, staring back at the ruined stairwell.

There was no longer a way down.

Slowly, the mall returned to silence.

Only the rumble of settling debris came from below, concrete grinding against concrete as the last remnants of the stairwell collapsed into the darkness.

The two who had saved them stood at the cinema entrance, watching the ruined stairwell.

The one wearing the black knuckle guards raised a fist towards the other.

They turned to look at the raised fist.

And without a word, a fist was raised in return.