"Yes, Sir," the Sergeant confirmed with a slight nod.
She glanced at the Colonel and meekly said, "I haven't had breakfast or my pill yet."
He growled a sigh and looked to Doctor Caswell. "Doctor, get her something she can eat on the Stryker and get her whatever pill she takes." Turning his attention to the Sergeant, he stood and barked, "I want you rolling in thirty. Dismissed."
Zoe found herself strapped into the back of a Stryker again, but this time with a certain sense of importance. She was in the machine in the lead and would be the first one inside the mall. Still in her shorts and pink tee shirt, she was sure to stand out inside the mall, and her attire was not lost on the other soldiers, who did not seem to trust her at all and their frequent, disapproving looks only reinforced this. She barely noticed. Her attention was fixed on Sergeant Morris, who sat beside her, as he told her what she would need to know.
"Just don't take any unnecessary risks," he ordered. "If it looks like they are going to come after you then you get your butt back to the Stryker and we'll take care of them from there, got it?"
She nodded and assured, "Yes, Sir."
The machine turned hard and stopped, then it backed up for some unknown distance and everyone readied their weapons.
Zoe felt that uneasy crawl in her stomach and looked to the Sergeant for reassurance, which she got with a nod.
The lower hatch opened and she slowly padded out of the machine, finding herself looking at the front doors of a mall she had been to many times. Looking back at the soldiers who watched her leave, she felt herself becoming anxious as the ramp closed and she found herself alone out there. She drew a deep breath and looked down to the radio she held tightly in her hand, and she raised it to her mouth and pushed the button as instructed, calling, "Hello? Sergeant Tex?"
"Go ahead," the radio answered in his voice.
"Hi," she greeted. "It's Zoe. I'm going to go inside now, okay?"
"Roger that," he replied.
She blinked, lowering her brow, then she keyed the radio up again and corrected, "No sir, it's Zoe. I'm going into the mall now."
There were a few long seconds of silence, and when he came onto the radio again there was laughing in the background and he was trying to compose himself as he said, "Okay, Zoe. Stay in contact."
She hooked the radio on her pocket and walked hesitantly to the front doors of the mall.
The doors were still unlocked and she pushed on the handle of one and strode inside. Walking slowly, she looked around her, seeing that many of the shop doors were still open, that the cages that were supposed to secure them after closing were still up. Only a few were down. The place was a mess and she did not know to guess why. Merchandise was strewn about it in places, there was broken glass from windows here and there, but nothing really going on otherwise.
Reaching the main pavilion where the two primary aisles crossed each other, she pulled the radio from her belt and keyed it up, calling, "Tex? It's Zoe."
"Go ahead, Zoe," he replied.
"I'm in the middle," she reported, "and the place is kind of messy, but I don't see anybody."
"Any sign of zombies?" he asked.
She shook her head and scanned the area with a slow sweep of her eyes.
"Zoe?" he summoned.
"Yes?" she replied.
"Do you see any zombies?" he asked again.
She shook her head again, feeling a little afraid being in the open like this.
"Talk to me, Princess," he ordered.
"I'm here," she assured.
"Key up the radio," he said with a little stress in his voice.
"Oh," she mumbled. Pushing the talk button, she assured, "I'm here, Sergeant Tex."
"What do you see, Kiddo?"
"I don't see anybody," she replied into the radio.
"I need you to talk into the radio every time you answer, okay Princess?"
"Okay," she complied. "What should I do now?"
"Just make a sweep of the mall," he ordered. "Give us a picture of what's going on in there and if you see anything out of the ordinary I want you to report in."
"Yes, Sir," she assured. Hooking the radio back on her pocket, she trekked on, carefully looking around her.
About fifteen minutes later, something caught her eye and she paused. Her favorite store was hanging wide open and she hesitantly started into it. She poked around for a while longer and eventually found herself filing through some hanging shirts on a circular rack. Not finding anything she liked, she wandered on, eventually ending up near the shoe section where she looked over some of the running shoes in the women's aisle. Looking down to her bare feet, she looked to a shoe she liked and searched for a box in her size, and in a moment she found one.
She sat on the bench in the middle of the aisle and laced them both, then looked around her for socks.
A few minutes later, as she stood in front of a mirror to admire the pink running shoes she had found, she flinched as the radio sounded off again.
"Come in, Zoe," Sergeant Morris called.
Still looking into the mirror, she took the radio from her pocket and held it to her mouth, answering, "Yes?"
"Have you found anything?" he asked.
"Found some really great shoes!" she reported with a tone of girlish enthusiasm.
"We're looking for zombies, Kiddo," he reminded patiently.
"I haven't found any of those yet," she informed. "I'll keep looking."
Wandering the mall again, she felt a little better with her new shoes on and was even a little more confident as she looked around her and studied what she saw.
Having finished the lower level, she found herself at the bottom of the stairs to the upper level and reached for her radio again, calling, "Sergeant Tex?"
"Go ahead, Princess," he replied.
"I'm done downstairs and I didn't see any zombies so I'm going to go upstairs and see what's up there. I'll call you from the food court, okay?"
"Okay, Kiddo. Stay in contact."
"Yes, Sir," she complied.
Zoe crept upstairs, pausing often to look around her, and finally made it to the top. She had been to this mall many times and as she turned left to go to the food court, she froze as she saw all of the cages down. Considering how many store fronts were still open she found this odd and approached slowly, her eyes darting about as she slowly made progress. A shuffling sound to the left drew her attention and she turned that way and froze.
Someone was standing behind one of the cages, but with the lights out over there she could only make out a tall, shadowy form. Remembering what had been talked about in the meeting, she turned that way and slowly approached, her eyes fixed on the form behind the cage as she neared. A familiar scent caught her nose, something that smelled much like a dead animal on the highway. She did not like that smell, but something inside her drew her to it, almost as if she craved company from it.
About ten feet away she could see that it was a man, or had been. Gray skin was ruptured at his cheek and a flap of it hung away to reveal blackened, dead flesh beneath. The face was even more drawn and hollow than others she had encountered and she found herself staring into blank, whitened eyes both fearfully and with a certain familiarity.
Aside from staring back, the zombie did not respond to her.
Other shadows approached from behind it, their feet shuffling on the floor as a mix of people slowly made their way to the cage, right up to it, and stopped.