Not Unique

I jump down the small stairs connecting the SUV to the tube floors. Their large pipes that once held vibrant pink and blue colors have now been ripped out and little chunks in the ground spill out gray matter. Nasty. Euggh.

The Circle isn't hard to miss. It's named The Circle because it's a tall circular structure that spans the length of seven football fields. It is the gigantic hub where various products ranging from baby wear, house cleaning, and make-up can be found at huge discounts. I only come here if I'm on a budget.

"Only the necessary" Zylith repeats what she just told me 3 minutes ago. I shrug my bag onto my shoulder. On Thanksgiving day, most of the circle is closed so we get to peacefully walk the tall circular concrete walls to enter the closed-off part of the circle. No one should have been able to enter here.

"You said that already" I tsk at her for the fun of it.

"And you need me to repeat things twice" She replies back keeping a smirk from tugging out plays it cool by hitting me with an eye-arch eyebrow like the emoji.

"No~ you like talking twice" I rile her up more because we both know she despies talking more than 500 words per day.

"I know for a fact I only repeat twice and not more" She smirks at me. Zylith does in fact never repeat herself thrice. She says it's this self-imposed rule but she also expects it from others. It's like the fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, fool me three times, I'll slap you.

We stand in front of the metal door and I unclip one of the bobby pins hidden in my bangs, inserting it into the hole, Zylith gives it a little push and it creaks open. We both ignore the sign saying personnel area only and close the door firmly behind us.

"I'll set up the drones to monitor the parameter, it's a miracle no glasses have been broken yet" Her face darkens at the last sentence.

"Is it a problem?" I ask "For the glasses to not have been broken? Why is it a problem?" I clarified even though I'm sure she understood me the first time.

"Because there are no miracles in real life,Bliss and no matter how much of a blessing it seems it's always a big curse waiting to bite you".

I squeeze my bag's strap and gulp nervously suddenly worrying about my choice. Usually, Zee makes the choices like she's been doing for the past 2 months and this is my first time having a full say in our next course of action.

It doesn't take us more than 2 minutes to get to out the back rooms and into the book sector and while Zylith looks for language and engineering textbooks I head to the diary sector.

I've had a diary since I was 9, after my first boyfriend, I had a lot I wanted to write so it was weird not having a book to doodle in in the first months of the apocalyptic. Plus my memory is trash, not as good as Zylith's. 

It doesn't take me a while to find the diary sections and some books on one shelf are covered with pink and yellow clouds, and another shelf is covered with stickers of skeletons, coffins and spider webs on black leather-like covers. Another side of the shelf is themed red roses and lilies of the valleys. I walk to the rose sector and I find one with a smooth cover with a padlock as a décor. I like this one so I grab it and move to look for stickers.

I find glitter, scissors and stickers and quickly do a DIY using my name on the front of the diary. Blue Romanized letters that spell out Bliss cover the quarter of the diary.

I smile satisfied at my work and in my joy, I make one for Zylith, it's almost the exact same replica but with her name on top and some moons and stars around it. I don't really know what Zylith's aesthetics is but I hope she likes it regardless.

Carefully placing the books in my bag, I grab a pack of Hiyaa Catty Pens and sneak them into Zylith's bag. I want to explore more areas as we were almost running out of things, so I need more space in my bag. Rounding my way to a hair salon. Look! Hair is make-up. So even in an apocalypse I have to keep slaying...the zombies by slaying with my hair.

I carefully examine the products. Grabbing some hair moose, hair combs, hair creams and styling cream curves your hair up then you can use a brush to style it to perfection, i also shove some dye and dye-remover along with a pack of blue masks for Zylith to retouch her red hair. Most of the hair salons are useless without electricity. So I made a checklist of things I need now and might need in the future trip.

Sanitary pads, paper and pen, towels, razor, you know the essentials and then Hyaluronic Acid plus regional night cream, face cream, eye cream, face scrub, SPF, serum. You know the essentials and then, three teddy bears, one for Birdie and one for me and Zylith, a lightweight yoga mat, and two sunglasses. A brand new Nike shoes which I couldn't help myself from wearing. You know, the essentials.

I climb more stories on my secret quest that I myself, I'm not quite sure is. I hear a whizz and a bird shadow flies by.

One of Zylith's drones is passing my sector and I decide it's time to head back to meet her. I'm walking around the big metallic and high-tech building, the sunlight filtering through the huge pane windows, and it's so bright I have to clench my eyes shut but that doesn't stop me from spotting the latest edition Gucci Purse in a window pane. It had come out just a few days before the outbreak and it was worth millions of dollars. Even the Circle wouldn't put a discount on it. Now that I think of it, how the heck does millions of dollars worth of bags get into the circle in the first place?

I observe the glass confine, looking more specifically at any cracks in the white background to find an entrance. How do they expect me to steal the bag then? I need to speak with the manager. The bag sits there on a high white pedestal, its slick gold buckle lock, catching some sunlight and making it dazzle.

"And there will be no alarms" I twist my lips at the thought that millions worth of bags are just sitting there... for free. Sighing and slumping my shoulders I decide to be the big man by turning around and walking away.

Big man my foot! I twist around and hurl the heavy bag at the window, it doesn't crack. Oh yeah~ most of the windows in the city were non-breakable but the zombies had managed to break through them though...

I just need to find a zombie and ask him to wait why would a zombie help me? I don't have anything to bribe them with. I halt in my footsteps and turn around. My gaze is set on the open store but I don't care about the scattered clothes or red-dyed clothes in the store. I just need the bag. I hop from one foot to another, my past injury on my foot is long since gone, I thought the leg impairment was what made Zylith refuse me on any outing but it wasn't. I didn't tell her it had healed just a few days ago.

I hop on the other foot and ready myself. I'm getting that bag no matter what. I lean back and get ready leg a long jump athlete. I run and hop on one leg and hop on the other, gathering speed and momentum to haul myself into the glass pane BREAK A LEG. Haha good one voice. Wait, what?!

When my body connects with the glass, A disconnecting pain hits my shoulders and I can't feel below my shoulders and the center of my back. I hear a twisting crunch, it wasn't the glass, and I wish it was my leg...again. I slowly turn my head around, getting one one knee to see a zombie standing up. Its back is facing me and I wonder if it'll turn around.

It'll definitely turn.

Please don't turn around. I promise to not be stereotypical of zombies. I promise to do my homework. I promise to save some Cheerios for Zylith. Oh god, I promise to not hate math. It staggers forward and I let out a sigh of relief too fast. *Phew* I try to remember where Zee might be. In the food sector? No, that place is overridden by zombies, the clothes? Zee doesn't care about clothes! She said she needed more stuff so she's definitely not still in the book sector. She did tell me where she was going to go before we got here but I didn't pay enough attention.

I stand up and quietly place my bag over my shoulder, shuffling back one step at a time with my sight still on the swaying Zombie, it sways back and forth like it's going to fall down. Poor thing hasn't eaten in a while. But wasn't it food then?

*Squeak* The sound of the new Nike shoes squeaks against the white over-polished floors and the zombie turns around to face me with its lifeless eyes. It moans as it looks at me.

Is it even looking? Does it even have eyes? It is so black I can't see the white or tell if it's a hole. Like as if its eyes have been ripped out...

When it takes a sniff of the air and one step in my direction, I am already running at full speed with it behind me. I run around the hallways hoping it would lose interest in me or better yet get tired but it seems I'm the only one getting tired with my heavy bag.

I am remined of Zylith words when I asked what to do if I ever met one and she said "I you ever meet one of them, run. Just run. Don't even think of fighting back." I had thought that was simply what to do until she scared me to the bones.

"Actually no, if you ever encounter one, let's hope I'm there with you" And in my fear I asked. "What would happen if you weren't there with me?" 

She looked at me like she didn't even want to think of that possibility, like saying it out loud would will it to be but also understanding that I needed to know the basics of surviving in this world. 

"Then Bliss, don't run, don't even fight. Just lay down and die with honour"

 I am reminded of the snail and the parasitic worm. How the snail purposefully lets itself get eaten and I wonder if the snail had cried. If the snail had known what it was doing but still did it. 

Was this zombie ever going to tire? I am running down the flight of stairs with the zombie dragging its body after me, its mouth is already clamming up and down in a biting motion. And even with one of its arm's missing, it has good balance. I miss my step and i'm rolling down the stairs, I tumble and tumble, like a rolling stone until I skid to the end of the stairs and splat onto the over-polished floor.

Ugh. I feel like throwing up.

Grabbing my side to stop myself from vomiting my morning Cheerios, I place light pressure on my leg to stand up but almost fall when my ankle shouts in pain. I think I have sprained my ankle but that makes sense since I got down the 5 rounds of stairs in 3 seconds. I look up to see the zombie still struggling to run for me, its pacing and lack of a right arm topped with the spiral curve of the stairs make it harder so it's hitting all curves of the stairs. Even regular humans would have a hard time walking down circular stairs that are up to 30 feet tall.

I grip the hands of the bag and attempt to walk off the pain in my ankle but the more I place pressure on it the more, it twists. I've never experienced a pain as big as this so much so, i kneel back down to take deep breaths. Perspiration drops down my forehead and I clang my teeth together to stop any sobs from escaping. I think I'll need a bio-gel to cool it off.

*Splat* My ears prick up at the sound and I turn around to see the zombie has jumped out from over 200 stairs and is now covered in its own blood. Is it alive? I mean it was dead because the person was dead but I also mean, if it's dead dead. Okay, you get what I mean.

I suck in my breath because I don't know if to inch forward and ask him if he's alright or if I should go back but that's very rude of you to not help a suicidal flesh-eating maniac. I hear a crack and the zombie's body jolts back up. Oh thank goodness, it's alive, he lives doctor. No need for an ambulance.

I stand back up and attempt to run off my ankle this time, it works, I barely feel the pain and I'm in the book sector when I hear a non-human scream, it is coming from outside.

"Zylith? Zee?" I shout her name frantically and she's coming out of the diary sector with a worried frown.

"We need to go," We both say at the same time and none of us question the other. We are headed out the back door and push the personnel door open to the blue clouds and tall concrete walls, we run to the right, where our car is parked but a zombie is walking towards us in rage, it looks really angry and screams into the air when it sees us, the scream echoes into the daylight.

Zylith says as she grabs me by my arm and we take the other turn just to see yet another zombie missing both arms but still very abled. It's dashing towards us but then suddenly falls onto its back and quickly tries to recover by using the momentum to turn itself over but with no arms, it's quite hard, so it sits with its back against us but its head continually turns around.

The zombie is helpless stuck in a sitting position and it seems to understand its current situation so it lets out a frenzied yelp. It sounds like forks on a plate, over and over, the sound echoes like a call in the silent mall.

"Shit, we need to get out of here" Zylith turns around and walks in the other direction but I don't want to go towards a mobile zombie.

Go right

What- why should I go right?

Because I saved you at the bridge remember?

You were the one that almost made me crash the SUV!

You had a panic attack and that was the only way

"Trust me"

"Let's pass there" I point to the right, opposite of the walking zombie. I whip my head to the other side of the long circular building to see a frustrated zombie that now uses its button to try to reach us. Its neck is turned so back that it has its sight on us.

"Bliss" Zylith turns to the left. "It's safer here" Safer, my freaking ass. How would she know that?!

"There are two zombies already coming from the right" She doesn't finish the last word when she turns her head up at the sky and I look up too to see the earlier zombie jamming itself into the shield glass, it doesn't crack at first but on the second hit, it creaks slightly, it's eyes is set on us. What admiring my beauty? Back of the line mister manager.

Zylith is already dragging me to the left but I halt in the steps. I want to go right. She doesn't get to decide for me. How would she know if there are zombies on one side or the other? Right? How?

"Fine, you go over the trees and I'll deal with the zombies"

"But how would you? They don't die, you said so yourself" My eyes stray to the gun tucked into her waistband. Zylith's always had the gun but never used it. "Even if, you shot at them, they'll just come back" Like the donut cop, like the manager zombie.

"Bliss" Zylith's exasperated yet desperate grunt wakes me up. I hesitate for a second but Zylith already positions herself against the wall, her back squared into the concrete and her two hands folded into each other which she tucks into her lower stomach.

"Climb on my shoulder and get over" I drop my bag onto the floor to remove weight.

I place my leg over the hand and the next one over the shoulder, left is the disabled zombie, it has flopped onto its front and is crawling like a worm towards Zylith, on my right is the walking zombie and up top is the manager zombie who's slamming himself into the glass that is slowly but surely breaking. I feel the glass throb with how much weight it puts into it. The walking zombie is still a long way off.

Zylith sits up well and slowly eases me closer to the edge of the concrete walls and I know she requires tremendous strength to lift someone her weight. The moment my sweaty fingers are fixed and grip the hard raw concrete walls, I dig one foot into the concrete and jump up into the air and I have successfully propped myself into the wall.

Now Zylith. No.

I look back at the tall greenery behind me, green grass and trees wave at me and I don't think I can jump down. I turn over to look at Zylith when the glass breaks.

The manager zombie is struggling to come out from under some guy dressed in a black trench coat, his black pants hug his legs and he walks out from on top of the zombie, the manager zombie surprisingly doesn't move but frees over.

All the thudding and snarls from zombies have subsided and the only snarling left is from the sitting zombie, the man in black walks up to the frantic zombie that is now thrashing with all his might. Trying to get to him or away from him, I don't know.

The black man inspects the zombie and when it tries to reach out for him a fast but strong kick connects with its head because the zombie's head is off his head and headed my way, I yelp and stumble back and fall into the trees.

I'm going to die. I won't survive this fall. You won't die.

How do you know that? Because you're the main character. You're special to me.

I feel hands catch me...