Mutagen

As they saw the method Mark used to communicate with them, the two employees inside the store scrambled to take out their phones forgetting that it is still their work time and they are not allowed to carry their own.

Seeing their predicament, Mark knocked the glass and pointed on the stack of papers and motioned his left hand like he is holding a pen and writing over his phone. The two immediately understood and immediately ran to the counter picking up a pen and a sheet of letter sized paper and the man wrote on it in a hurry.

After writing what seemed to be an essay with several sentences long, the short man plastered his rushed and almost illegible writing.

Summarizing what the employee wrote, they were forced to close the entrance due that fat guy and his guard holding them at gunpoint. The fat man also instigated the others to support him leaving the employees with no leeway to resist.

"Those ungrateful bastards!"

This sentence was the last line the man wrote on the paper.

After reading the "essay" written by the man, Mark immediately typed on his phone and replied with another question.

"Is there any other way to go inside there?"

"What about the other entrance?" The man replied.

Mark turned his head towards the direction of the TechZone entrance at the west wing and shook his head. Though that entrance is quite far away, it isn't hard to see the number of zombies that are now around that area. Furthermore, those zombies are already making their way towards their direction. The gunshot should have attracted them.

It seemed that the woman had an idea as she just snatched the pen on the man's hand and wrote on another paper. Behind her, the man is reading what she was writing and his eyes lit up.

"Use the service corridors! I don't think you would be able to use the back doors on other stores but you should be able to enter the corridors using the fire exits in the cinema."

As he saw the woman's idea, he nodded. He also knew about the corridors found at the back of large malls that connects the shops and are used to transport supplies without going through the front doors of the store. It is the only choice they have right now though it will be quite a detour.

They have a goal now and it was literally roundabout one.

Mark looked at the closed entrance of the TechZone with a look that as if he was looking at the people inside. Then he typed quite a number of words in his phone and showed it to the two which made the two confused because rather than a suggestion, it seemed more like a command for them to follow.

Seeing the confused and hesitant look of the two, he typed another sentence and showed his phone once more.

"I doesn't really matter to me but just do what I said if you guys want to live."

This sentence made the two quite afraid. Even if they don't understand why, they chose to do what Mark said to them.

Mark nodded to them one last time as he prepared to depart. When he turned around, he saw Ange as she just threw the fire extinguisher with a baseball pitch using all her might at a zombie that just climbed up the escalator nearby. The fire extinguisher hit the zombie square in its face as it stagger and fell backwards. The fire extinguisher bounced off due to the impact and made a loud clanging sound as it hit the ground floor while the zombie fell on the other zombies behind it creating a domino effect of fallen zombies on the escalator.

After throwing the fire extinguisher, Ange immediately ran back towards the group and asked.

"Finished?"

"Yeah let's go."

Mark looked at the people behind him and nodded at them. Everyone felt nervous knowing that they had to go another round of zombie encounters but it's not like they do have any other choice.

With Mark in the lead, their group started running. He pushed his senses to his limits as he tried to perceive any upcoming danger. Looking around, everyone could notice how the situation is worsening, if they didn't move any faster, they would be surrounded in no time as the number of zombies in this floor is constantly increasing.

But in Mark's view, their increase is just reasonable, just earlier, he released several shots of his shotgun killing several zombies in the process while the unreasonable people inside the TechZone wasted another. There are also other noises like the shouting and hard knocking of steel shutter the people outside the TechZone had done earlier and the high-pitched screams after the gunshot. Just all these commotion is bound to attract the zombies from the floors below.

Leaving the central are of the mall, they turned right at the corner towards the south wing of the wall. Their target is the furthest end of the south wing where the cinemas are located.

"Why did you throw the fire extinguisher away?"

While running, Mark can't help but ask Ange.

"It's already empty so I did."

Ange snappily replied.

Hearing her answer, he shook his head. It might be empty but the canister could still be used to smash someone's head! Mark looked at her and handed her his baseball bat.

She looked at Mark confused as she absentmindedly accepted the baseball bat.

"Lead the way for a bit, I'll just deal with the nuisance at the back. Remember! Aim for the head."

Ange looked behind their group surprised and then nodded with a serious expression. They might not have noticed it due to their tension and also the growl of zombies coming from every direction but behind them, there is about half a dozen zombies running after like madmen with distorted faces!

In front of them, it is lucky enough that the number of zombies on the way is relatively fewer and there are no fast moving zombies in sight but if they let the ones chasing from behind get close onto them, things would become nasty.

"Just continue running! Don't look behind!"

Mark shouted as he aimed his gun behind the group.

BANG!

He shot the closest zombie that is already about to lunge at him without hesitation blowing up its head. Ammunition is precious and he wanted to save ammo as much as possible. But with the number of fast moving zombies in close proximity, he can't skimp on bullets. Not right now.