Mutagen

From the west wing of the third floor, a group of people was filled with despair as they ran away from the ferocious chase of the fast zombies behind them.

Among the group, two college girls who wore their school uniforms, a set of dirty-yellow blouse and dark green slacks. The girl in front had a small face, lively looking eyes and wavy chestnut colored shoulder length hair. The girl behind had a strict looking face, serious eyes and her black mid back length hair was tied into a braided ponytail.

Though their eyes could easily make them described as such, those traits were nowhere to be found at this moment. The two grasped each other's hands tightly. Desperation was visible on the face of the girl in front as she pulled the other girl who seemed to have almost given up. The girl behind seemed to be in a bit of stupor while being pulled away, large splotches of blood were visible on her clothes.

They desperately tried their best not to lag behind.

It was because…

Those who lagged behind were the first to be eaten.

When they managed to finally climb up to this floor after a lot of hardships, there were about a dozen of them running away. But now, due to the relentless pursuit of the zombies behind, they were picked and eaten, one by one.

Right at this moment, there was only seven people left running away. They could only bit their lips, close their ears and steel their hearts as they hear the cries of help, fear and pain of those who caught and eaten.

The girls' hearts had already grown cold to this. They held each other's hands without letting go and assuring each other of their existence. They felt that once one of them let go, they would totally fell into despair.

Just this morning, they were happily chatting with their friends in school, complaining about their schedule for today which are all math related subjects except for the first period and all those subjects was handled by a single grumpy instructor.

That was then that they learned that their instructor for the whole day was absent and none of the other instructors present knew why. Their whole class thought that they were fortunate to not undergo such torturous classes for the whole day. With a few of their classmates and friends, they decided to go to the City Mall to play and pass time.

It was all fun and games even though many shops are closed for unknown reasons. They bought and ate fast food, laughed as they chatted while eating.

But who would think that…

It was the last time that they would laugh and eat together.

Things fell into chaos as they heard the gunshots and screams. After they saw what was happening below, they decided to escape out of the mall without even finishing their food.

Together with their friends, all of them ran along the waves of people escaping. However, their escape failed horribly when the exit they were supposed to go through was actually the entrance to hell. Fast running zombies entered in frenzy past through that very door trapping everyone who wanted to go out and escape.

Then, a sequence of horrible, sad, infuriating, and disappointing and unfortunate events happened. In the end, out of all the people in their group, only the two of them are left and managed to reach this hopeless point in their lives.

They could only run along with these people who were in the same circumstances.

It was then that the group was shined with a little bit of hope as they saw a quite larger group of people further away on the direction they were running towards. They heard them shouting and seemed to be directed by some people. Even though the group was far away, they knew, all of those people ran into the same direction like they found salvation.

Why did they know that? The answer was because it was the only thing they hope to find at this moment that they were being chased by death itself.

Now, in the minds of every single person in this small group of survivors, a similar goal sprouted. It was to follow that large group of people into safety.

The only question left now was if their pursuers would allow them to.

And of course, that would not happen in the slightest. Not only that it would not happen but for some reason, the pursuit of the zombies behind them became more and more aggressive.

"Ahhhhh! Help! Help ME!! No! NO!! NO!!! STOP!!! AHHHHH!!!! "

Another man who was in the tail of the group was caught. Several zombies pounced on him and tore his skin with their mouths and tore his stomach with their nails creating a bloody scene of human flesh and guts while the man screamed to his death.

Unfortunately, even with the man's death, the pressure that the group was feeling did not lessen. Not all zombies stopped to take a bit at the man and continued their relentless chase of the remaining people.

They ran and ran with the fastest that they could, none of them even have the slightest intent to look behind them as they feared to do so. Still, they could hear the hungry growls that crave for their flesh draw closer and closer.

They looked forward, towards the people escaping from afar. It was then that they noticed two figures separating from the group going towards their direction.

"Help! Please! Help Us!

The man running in front of the group could not help but call out as they saw the two figures.

The two figures, the two men ran towards them carrying something in their hands. As the two came closer, they finally saw what they were carrying. The person running in front held a shotgun with his right hand and a baseball bat with his left while the other person in the back held a fire extinguisher.

They felt elated as the thought of incoming help entered their minds.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

However, before they could raise their hopes up, another anguished shout echoed into their ears. The fastest one of the zombies managed to catch up and pounced on the back of the man running behind the group.

The remaining people did not try to help of course but the two girls could not help but stop when two more voices of panic sounded from behind them.

"AHHH! What are you doing?! Let go!"

"Ouch! Mommy! Wahh!"

The two girls looked behind them and saw the man who just shouted in fear as he was pounced on. He did not cry in pain as the zombie over his back bit the flesh on his shoulder and instead, with a crazed expression in his face and bloodshot eyes, his right hand clutched tightly on the left foot of the woman who was running in front of him.

"Help me or I won't let go!"

The man's voice started to go hoarse as all his sanity left his mind. He would die if no one helped him, and if so, then he would not let himself die alone!

The woman tried pulling her leg out of the man's hand but it was like a clamp that tightly clenched her foot without letting go.

A step away in front of a woman, a girl about three to four years old sat as she stared crying because of both pain and fear.

The woman carried her daughter as she ran away but when she fell down because of the man behind her grabbing her foot, she lost grip on her daughter and the little girl was thrown away to the floor in front of her.