Chapter 324: The golden fruit 35.

It pinned the creature to the wall.

They continued upward.

The second floor was darker.

The escalators were blocked by piles of furniture, broken glass and bodies. Somewhere above them an emergency generator clicked once every few seconds, though it obviously had not worked for years. The stores were smaller here. Electronics, furniture, household goods. Most of the merchandise had been stripped long ago. What remained had been destroyed by looters or ruined by time.

There were signs that people had lived here.

Bai Li noticed the first one beside a shuttered appliance store. A sleeping bag had been placed behind a counter. A plastic bottle stood beside it. There were candle stubs, empty food packets and a child’s drawing pinned to the wall.

Yan Cijin crouched beside the drawing.

A family of four had been drawn with bright crayons. Above them was a yellow sun.

"Someone stayed here," Yan Cijin said.

"A while ago."

"There is no dust on the bottle."

Bai Li’s gaze moved to the back of the store.

"Then someone may still be here."

They did not find a person.

They found blood instead.

A dark trail ran beneath a closed door and disappeared into the storage area.

Yan Cijin opened it slowly.

Inside were several bodies.

They had been dead for days, maybe longer. Some had obvious bite marks. Others had been cut by something much larger.

Bai Li stepped into the room.

"Not zombies."

Yan Cijin examined a damaged metal shelf.

"Monster?"

"Likely."

Something moved beneath one of the bodies.

Yan Cijin’s weapon came up instantly.

A small boy crawled out from under a pile of cardboard.

He looked barely ten.

His face was dirty, and his eyes were wide with fear.

He froze when he saw them.

Bai Li lowered her weapon.

"Are you alone?"

The boy nodded.

"Anyone else?"

Another shake of the head.

Yan Cijin crouched so she was closer to his height.

"Can you walk?"

The boy nodded again.

A growl came from deeper in the store.

The boy nearly screamed.

Bai Li turned toward the sound.

"Go behind Yan Cijin."

The boy obeyed immediately.

The creature emerged from the storage corridor.

It had once been human-sized, but its body had become swollen and uneven. Four arms protruded from its torso, and its skin was covered in gray plates. Its mouth was too small for its head, but its eyes were large and bright.

Yan Cijin looked at it.

"That one is ugly."

Bai Li answered, "You are supposed to be polite."

The monster screamed.

The sound rattled the metal shelves.

Yan Cijin stepped forward.

Bai Li moved at the same time.

The creature attacked both of them, swinging two arms at Yan Cijin while the other pair clawed toward Bai Li. Yan Cijin blocked one strike, slid beneath another, and slashed across its thigh. Bai Li seized the third arm before it could connect and twisted.

The joint snapped.

The monster roared.

Yan Cijin struck its chest.

Bai Li struck its head.

The body collapsed.

The boy stared.

Bai Li turned to him.

"You can follow us until we leave this floor."

The boy swallowed.

"You are going higher?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Yan Cijin looked at Bai Li.

Bai Li looked at her.

Neither wanted to explain the fruit.

Yan Cijin simply said, "We have something to do."

The boy nodded.

They led him through the next corridor.

His name was Lin Wei.

He had been separated from his parents two nights earlier when a group of zombies entered the building. He had hidden in the store and survived by eating old crackers and drinking water from a bathroom pipe. His parents had gone searching for another group of survivors and never returned.

Bai Li asked few questions. Yan Cijin asked more.

The boy eventually relaxed enough to speak in complete sentences.

He told them there were people higher up. Some were living in the mall. Some were hunting zombies. Some were trying to reach the roof.

"How many?" Bai Li asked.

Lin Wei hesitated.

"A lot."

Yan Cijin glanced at Bai Li.

"That sounds useful."

"It is."

They reached the end of the second floor.

A stairwell door stood ahead.

Before opening it, Bai Li stopped.

She looked at the boy.

"There is a safe room behind the coffee shop on this floor. Its door is reinforced. Stay there until we return."

Lin Wei stared at her.

"You will come back?"

"Yes."

Yan Cijin looked amused.

"You sound very confident."

Bai Li gave her a side glance.

"I usually am."

The boy smiled faintly.

Bai Li opened the stairwell.

The air inside was colder.

The scent of the golden fruit was stronger.

Yan Cijin’s expression changed.

"The closer we get, the stronger everything becomes."

"Yes."

"Then the next floors should be different."

Bai Li nodded.

"They will be."

They climbed.

The third floor began with a corpse hanging from the ceiling.

Not a zombie.

A human.

The body had been stripped of weapons and supplies. Someone had tied it there as a warning.

Yan Cijin looked at the knot.

"Human work."

Bai Li examined the surrounding floor.

There were boot prints.

Fresh ones.

"We are not alone."

Yan Cijin smiled without humor.

"That was inevitable."

They moved quietly.

The third floor was where the mall began to feel occupied. There were barricades, trip wires, burned-out candles, empty ammunition boxes and hand-painted arrows marking routes through the building. Someone had mapped the floor carefully.

Bai Li followed the markings for several meters before stopping at a wall.

"They have divided the floor."

"Into territories?"

"Looks like it."

A gunshot cracked somewhere ahead.

The sound was sharp enough to echo through the whole floor.

Lin Wei would have been frightened.

Bai Li merely looked toward the sound.

Yan Cijin said, "That was not a zombie weapon."

"No."

Another shot.

Then shouting.

Then silence.

Bai Li started walking.

Yan Cijin followed.

They passed a broken clothing store and found the first human camp.

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TO BE CONTINUED.