Doomsday

Logan arrived at IKEA and went in, grabbing the nearest cart. Her foster father, a scientist, had given her money and told her to go shop for whatever she wanted to decorate her room with. She happily obliged and set about looking.

(GG, you'll now be on the first floor)

A black car sat parked a few feet from the store. Within it, a driver who seemed the shadiest of people with his crisp red hair and crooked smile puffed out a small cloud of smoke out the open window. In the passenger's seat, a young boy with hypnotizing eyes and perfectly groomed hair stared deeply at the young girl through his binoculars. He felt satisfied enough to relay the good news to his partner.

"I'm guessing that's her, but I can't be a hundred percent positive."

The boy lowered the binoculars and relaxed himself on the seat. He turned to the grown man with anticipation for the next order.

His crimson eyes focused on the girl until she disappeared from sight. After taking another puff from his cigarette, he tapped his red-fingernail wearing fingers on the soft foam of the steering wheel.

"Send her in," came his only response. He tossed his cigarette out the window once the sounds of moans emerged from afar.

"Yes sir," came Pierre's reply. He reached up to tap his earpiece. "You're up, Rey."

He relaxed his body as the car stopped. As far as Pierre knew, the two would be hard to detect for now.

Silence proved to be a smart move by Eiyza and Pierre. The incoming Insurgents completely ignored the two and instead entered the shop. Not even a second later, deafening screams boomed throughout the parking lot. A devilish grin appeared on Eiyza's face as the screams were followed by the sound of mutilation.

As the two remain hidden from the Insurgents, Reyna's voice appeared in his earpiece.

She saw the message. TPD is reacting as expected. The IKEA is going to be under attack any minute now. I'm awaiting further orders."


"Extraction will be at the back of the store. You know what to do," he responded as the vehicle roared to life.

"Okay, time to get your sister and head back to base."

Eiyza drove around back, ignoring the fact that there were three people in the way to his destination.

A shot blasted the Insurgent in front of Tanner square in the forehead. The attacker crumpled to the ground and another took it's place. The IKEA entrance seemed to be nearly impossible to get through with what seemed to be about a dozen hungry cannibals.

"We need to clear the area if we're going to get inside," Tanner advised before sidestepping from a lunge attempt. The dozen or so attackers were mostly drawn to Tanner, but that dozen were reduced to seven after Tanner unloaded his round. He reloaded before proceeding to repeat his tactic: gain some distance, fire a few rounds. The number crunched down to one, but Tanner realized that he needed to conserve his last three bullets.

"We should cut our losses," Tanner suggested as he began running from the remaining threat. Glancing around at the environment, a crowbar lied next to the entrance door. There were many cars in the parking lot, but there wasn't much else.

Tanner climbed on top of a car while trying to assess an exit strategy.

Alan kept a reasonable distance from the action, as to not draw any unwanted attention to him or his sister.

"Alan, why are those people so angry...?" Kirsten whispered to him. Alan didn't respond right away. He wasn't too sure himself.

"Those people are...sick, Kirsten. They're not themselves."

"Then what are they?"

"I...I don't know. But just don't go near them. And don't try to talk to them." He'd seen his fair share of movies about the living dead from his horror movie nights with Evan. The guy was practically an expert on them.

But seeing them in a movie was one thing. Everything was so much different up close, when there were no dashing protagonists who tried to keep everyone together while trying to survive. This was real life, where there were real life people with real life issues to deal with.

"But if they're sick...why is that man shooting them...?" she asked, fear evident in her voice. "When I'm sick, mom and dad always take me to the doctor's office."

Alan winced. The questions were getting harder to answer without telling her the gory details.

"These people are...a different kind of sick. Doctors can't help them. They go around attacking anyone they see, so we have no choice but to...defend ourselves."

"..." Kirsten remained quiet after that, just watching as Tanner dispatched the Insurgents.

After hearing Tanner's suggestion to abandon their initial plan, Alan sternly shook his head.

"There might be survivors in there. We have to help them." he stated. Like before, it sounded more like an order than a suggestion.

Though it was near imperceptible, Kirsten quietly smiled to herself.

Tanner stepped back and kicked the vicious attacker grabbing for him back. The enemy fell to the ground, giving Tanner the chance to regroup with the siblings.

"Let's go," he said as he entered the store.

Nodding, Alan followed him in.

The pickup exited the shortcut quickly, leaving the two close to their destination. He scanned the building up ahead and found it to be an IKEA. One that had a group of crazies heading towards. Tatum could hear the sound of gunshots and pulled over at the entrance with every intention of investigating the situation.

"Katie," Tatum ordered more than asked. "Can you take out your seeing thing to take a look inside the building?"

Katie did what was asked of her but not without getting the last word.

"They're called binoculars," she said while scanning the area for anyone or anything other than the sick people. Her lenses fixated on a few people who seemed to be trapped in the store. Katie handed over the binoculars to Tatum so that he could get a look for himself. "Dad, look. They're people who're trapped in there."

Looking through the binoculars, Tatum was able to spot a few people trying to escape the clutches of the sick people. One of the survivors looked exactly like Alan. The little girl practically shaking with fear a few feet away from danger is who Tatum assumed to be Kirsten. A girl who looked about Alan's age and a grown man were helping to fend off the attackers, but Tatum knew that they won't last much longer.

"Hey," Tatum shouted as he honked his horn. "Over here! Over here!"

Another Insurgent fell to the ground after Katie fired from her gun. She felt glad to finally see her cousins, but there wasn't any time for meet and greets. After another shot, one more Insurgent crumpled. From a distance, a man who appeared to be trapped by some infected was doing his best fight them off, but Katie knew that he wouldn't put up much of a fight. She took two shots to hopefully provide him with some aid before refocusing on defending the pickup.

(Wait what? )

Tatum turned to look at his nephew and niece, though unaware of Kirsten's condition.

"Hop in the back Alan," he barked, setting the gear in the pickup to drive.

Before Tanner could fire, two shots rang from the truck that caused the two Insurgents that stood in front of him to collapse to the ground. It left an opening, one that he wouldn't hesitate to take. He managed to burst through the tiny gathering and made it to the truck. Turning his head however, he did spot an Insurgent grabbing Katie during her attempt to quickly reload her gun. Her scream made it clear. He didn't want to fail someone twice. He aimed his gun and fired, downing her aggressor.

Relieved to see his uncle and cousin, Alan placed Kirsten in the flatbed of the truck before climbing in himself.

"This might be a little uncomfortable on your leg, so try and keeping still as much as you can, okay?" he asked. Kirsten replied with a quick nod.