Sarah let out a muffled sob and fell to her knees. Mike tried to help her stand, but Sarah wouldn’t budge—she sat frozen in front of the broken radiator, rubbing her shivering arms. Thin t-shirts were no defense against the biting November air. The wind pierced the walls and tortured any soul trapped inside.

Across the room, Jake watched Sarah cry with bleary eyes and held his jacket close. What little sense of chivalry he had left told him to offer the garment to Sarah, but every other instinct screamed at him to stay still; he needed it more than her. Chivalry meant nothing in this world.

He sighed and allowed his eyes to close for just a moment. They needed to keep moving, needed to be prepared. They needed to be ready. Needed to survive…

“Yo, dude.”

Jake awoke with a start, hand leaping towards his holster—but calmed when he realized Mike was merely shaking him awake. “Hey,” he said, dragging a hand across his face. “How long was I out this time?”

“I dunno. Five minutes?”

Jake cursed under his breath. “Great. Gonna get myself killed.”

“Don’t say that!” Mike slapped Jake’s shoulder. “None of us are gonna die.”

“Are you crazy?” Sarah choked out, huddling close to the radiator. “Of course he’s gonna die. We’re all gonna die, you idiot. They’re gonna eat us alive, just like they ate Bryan!”

“Would you stop yelling about Bryan?” Jake said. He stood up. “He’s gone. Get over it.”

Sarah clenched her teeth. “I’m not going to ‘get over it.’ Screw you.”

“Guys, stop it!” Mike said. “Arguing ain’t gonna do nothing. We gotta keep moving, or we’re not even gonna get a chance at making it out of here alive.”

Sarah and Jake glared for a moment more—then both looked away. Mike helped Sarah to her feet before leading the two of them out of the room and into the store beyond.

The three of them had been holed up in this department store for what felt like weeks now. In all honesty, aside from the cold, it wasn’t the worst place to be stuck; food and water were plentiful, most of the plumbing still worked, and they even had a radiator—albeit one that only worked about twenty percent of the time. Were their circumstances the least bit different, Jake could imagine eking out a sustainable little life for himself in those walls.

But the circumstances weren’t different. And whenever Jake passed through the front of the store, he received a cruel reminder of the life they lived.

Through the sliding plexiglass doors, they stood. Beasts, monsters, zombies—so many names for that same moaning mass of flesh. They clawed at the doors, pounded their weak fists on the windows. Their beady eyes cleaved through Jake’s chest and into his soul. He kept a hand on his gun.

“Ugh,” Sarah said, flinching away from the screaming crowd. “How did it get this bad?”

Mike shrugged. “I dunno.”

“Do you know anything?” Jake snapped.

“I know you’re a dick,” Mike shot back, shoving Jake into a shelf of soup cans.

Jake massaged his shoulder and readied a comeback—but bit it down. “Sorry,” he said. “Just… tired.”

Mike kept his scowl up for a few seconds before rolling his eyes and nodding. “It’s no problem. Like I said, fighting ain’t gonna help.”

“Are you two done arguing?” Sarah said. She ran over to a circuit breaker on the wall, and clamped her hand on the lever. “Because I wanna get this thing over with.”

Mike and Jake nodded and went their separate ways. Mike grabbed a gun he kept stashed behind a cash register, while Jake walked to the sliding glass doors. The monsters outside screamed.

Jake glanced up at a clock on the wall. This had to be perfect, or they were all dead. “Are you guys ready?”

Mike took a deep breath, then nodded.

Sarah’s legs shook. “Guys? I’m scared.”

“Me too,” Mike said.

“Yeah,” Jake muttered. He blinked away the stinging in his eyes. “On three. One—”

Sarah stood up straight. Mike gripped the cash register.

“Two—”

The plexiglass doors squeaked under the pressure of a hundred bulbous bodies.

“Three!”

Sarah pulled the lever, and every light in the building sparked to life. The automatic doors slid open and the monsters spilled inside, roaring and clawing at anything they could grab.

Jake grabbed his price gun and muttered a prayer.

Black Friday had begun.