On a dark misty night in a world ravaged by the undead. One man exhausts himself by constantly running from the death that follows him. Traveling west from a small town in New England, he has trekked over three states worth of desolate land. Stepping over the endless corpse’s and filth, and fighting tirelessly for survival. Time is no longer relevant to what he can accomplish, but how much longer can he go on living in constant fear. After watching his own family be eaten alive and transformed, the quest to find other non infected has gone stale. What was left and what was worth living for anymore. All drive to find hope had relinquished, until he reached the town of Akron. Where everything would change and go to Hell.

A small run down church sits across the street from a large shopping mall, creating a sort of gate to what would now be seen as a survival compound. The large blue cross above the chained door creates an entrance with neon orange spray painted letters spelling out “We Are The Saviors”. A decision based only on hunger and companionship causes the man to break his way in with what small tools he has. The inside of the the church is large and cavernous but as large as it is, the cold dead silence makes the place feel claustrophobic. Cautiously he sneaks his way through what looks like the aftermath of an attack. Blood and body parts are riddled everywhere amongst the busted wooden pews. As he draws closer to the front of the church where the pulpit stands untouched. The faint sound of breathing echo’s from above. This cause’s the man to look up where he see’s an infected crucified up on an upside down cross, dried blood stains running down it’s arms, legs, and body. As if though a makeshift ritual had gone wrong and these were the remains. Stepping past the horrific scene a large tunnel had been built out of shipping containers and tents that appear to lead into the barricaded mall. The eerie silence of the tunnel echoes the footsteps of one as the survivor walks nervously into the darkness. The place is packed with small camping tents and old burning barrels covered in grates for cooking. But still silent.

After an hour of searching through most tents and finding some useful tools and scraps of food, the man continues on a little more confidently. Continuing toward the mall a white light draws closer and closer until another larger hand painted sign appears above. “Chapel Hill Mall - Where You Will Be Saved If You Are Chosen” it reads as the normally mechanical rotating glass doors below stay still. The man pushes his way through one set of doors to enter the shopping center when suddenly the silence is immediately broken. The sound of constant rustling feet and heavy breathing shocks the mans ears for it can only mean one thing. This place is a hot zone and he needs to get out now. Turning around immediately to get back out the rotating doors he realizes they have been rigged for one way entry and can only be pushed by one side due to a latch on the other side. At this moment the heart sinking feeling of panic and defeat sets in but it must be fought. Learning from his past mistakes the man keeps quite despite the overwhelming feeling of wanting to scream in anger and smash the glass.

“There must be another way out of this damn place”

The man thinks to himself as he ducks down low and starts working his way around the planters near the entrance. Some slow stumbling silhouettes feverishly move in the distance looking for food, causing him to plan out his route of movement carefully. If he stays near the walls and ducks into open stores when he gets close to and infected he may be able to make it to an emergency exit of some kind. Doing just that he manages to make it along the first wing toward the center circle of the mall with only a few minor encounters. As he gets closer to the center the sound of the infected crescendoes from a distant buzzing to an overwhelming barrage of noise that continues to get more and more unpleasant. He dips quickly into a sports store where he can further plan his next attack. At this moment looking through the glass around a sale advertisement for cover, he can see that the entire circle is full of undead just bouncing off each other like the floor at a concert. Waiting. For a fool like him to come in and feed them all, then join there cause. As he stands there in pure awe and bewilderment about his next move, everything goes wrong in seconds.

Two stalking body’s quickly drop down on him from behind causing him to lose his cool and yell loudly as he’s chomped at. Luckily without getting bitten or scratched through his makeshift armor the man throws the two infected off of him and to the ground where he then decapitates them with his rusted machete. Unfortunately though for him, one off color scream is enough to alert an entire horde of dead that there is fresh flesh just around the corner. Within seconds of chopping off the heads of his attackers the others are already piling through the doors of the shop stumbling over each other in excitement. He quickly runs to the back of the store with no other choice and finds a half eaten dead security guard lying near the dressing rooms with a shotgun sprawled over him. Quickly grabbing the gun he ducks into one of the secluded rooms and waits. At this very moment everything that has happened on his 4 month journey flashes over him and weighs him down more than he has ever felt.

Alone with no one but the dead, and no way out.