Chapter 235: Summer Time [2]

I watched the girl sprint away for several long seconds, her loose ponytail streaming behind her as she put distance between us with impressive speed.

"Damn it..."

I didn’t really have a choice in the matter. I pushed myself up from my crouch and started chasing after her, my longer stride allowing me to begin closing the gap despite her head start.

I needed to resolve this misunderstanding immediately, before she managed to alert her community and create a cascade of serious problems. If the Boardwalk Community received a panicked report that Callaghan’s men were lurking suspiciously outside their defensive perimeter, armed and covered in blood they would almost certainly respond with overwhelming force.

Their fighters would immediately grab weapons and pour out into the streets, tense and ready for conflict. And if they ended up stumbling across Martin’s clearing teams who were innocently working to secure the area around the Whitesun Hotel, the Boardwalk guards would likely open fire first and ask questions later.

The resulting firefight would be quite catastrophic—friendly survivors killing each other based on a simple miscommunication, creating exactly the kind of inter-community violence that would doom any hope of cooperation or alliance.

Dozens could die. The fragile relationship I’d been carefully building with Marlon’s community would be destroyed instantly. And it would all be my fault for failing to properly explain my presence to one frightened girl.

I absolutely needed to prevent that nightmare scenario, which meant I had to catch up to her and force a conversation before she reached anyone who could mobilize a response.

"Wait a minute!" I shouted, my voice carrying across the open space as I accelerated into a full sprint. "Just stop and listen—I can explain!"

But obviously she didn’t slow down or even glance back.

Instead, I watched with growing disbelief as she abruptly changed direction and ran directly through the shattered glass entrance of the Piers Shop Mall, disappearing into the darkened interior.

Are you actually kidding me right now?

This was quite possibly the worst location she could have chosen if her goal was to escape pursuit and find safety. The mall was a massive, multi-level labyrinth that almost certainly contained numerous Infected wandering through its corridors and retail spaces. Running blindly into that kind of environment was suicidal.

Infected could be lurking anywhere inside behind every corner, in every darkened store, waiting in bathrooms and maintenance areas. Without knowing the layout or having cleared the space beforehand, she was essentially gambling her life on blind luck.

Despite the insanity of following her into unknown, potentially Infected-filled territory, I found myself racing toward the same entrance she’d used.

What was she actually planning by going inside? Did she know this building well enough to navigate it safely, or was this just blind panic overriding rational decision-making?

Perhaps she was planning to hide somewhere in the mall’s vast interior, hoping I’d give up the pursuit rather than waste time searching hundreds of potential hiding spots. If that was her strategy, it could genuinely become extremely annoying and time-consuming to track her down.

Should I just let her go and abandon this pursuit? Ignore the whole situation and hope it resolved itself somehow?

The thought was tempting, offering an easy escape from an increasingly complicated situation.

But damn it, I couldn’t make myself just walk away and leave things like this.

The moment she felt safe and believed I’d given up, wouldn’t she immediately exit the mall and rush back to her community’s territory—literally just a few hundred feet away—to report that there was an extremely suspicious armed man lurking near their defensive barricade?

The outcome would be identical to if I’d let her run directly there in the first place, except now I’d have wasted time and energy on a pointless chase.

No, I needed to finish this. Catch up to her, force a conversation, and clear up the misunderstanding before it spiraled into violence.

I plunged through the shattered entrance into the Piers Shop Mall’s interior.

The moment I crossed the threshold, I was struck by how eerily empty the vast space felt despite knowing it almost certainly contained dangers.

The main entrance hallway was genuinely grand—clearly designed to impress visitors and create a sense of luxury befitting Atlantic City’s premier shopping destination. The ceiling soared high above, supported by elegant pillars and decorated with ornate architectural details that would have been beautiful before the apocalypse.

Natural light filtered through the grimy skylights far overhead, creating dim, dusty beams that illuminated the destruction below. Shattered display cases, overturned planters, scattered debris, and dried bloodstains painted a picture of whatever chaos had erupted here when the outbreak first began.

A few Infected wandered aimlessly through the broad corridor—maybe five or six visible from my position—their shambling movements slow and purposeless. They hadn’t noticed my entrance yet, or if they had, they were too distant to immediately respond.

I spotted the girl’s fleeing form ahead, already deeper into the mall’s interior. She was running past the scattered Infected with reckless speed, weaving between them before they could properly react to her presence.

"Stop running!" I shouted after her, my voice echoing off the high ceiling and ornate walls. "I’m not trying to hurt you!"

She didn’t even acknowledge my words, just kept sprinting deeper into the building.

The Infected she’d passed were beginning to turn now, their attention drawn by the noise and movement. Their heads swiveled in my direction as I followed the same path, and several began shambling toward me with increasing purpose.

I didn’t have time for a prolonged fight. I needed to maintain pursuit while the girl was still visible.

I activated Dullahan’s enhancement, feeling the familiar surge of power as the Symbiote augmented my physical capabilities further. My speed increased, allowing me to sprint past the reaching Infected before they could properly engage. One managed to grab at my jacket, but I twisted away from the grip without slowing, leaving the creature grasping empty air.

The girl had already disappeared around a corner ahead, moving deeper into the mall’s layout with apparent familiarity.

I rounded the same corner and found myself entering what appeared to be the main central hall of the first floor—an absolutely massive open area that served as the building’s architectural centerpiece.

The space was overwhelming in its scope and complexity.

A grand staircase dominated the center of the hall, its wide steps leading up to the second floor in an elegant sweep that would have been impressive in better times. Shops lined every available wall space on this level—dozens of darkened storefronts with shattered windows and torn security gates, each one a potential hiding spot or Infected nest.

More Infected were scattered throughout the hall—significantly more than in the entrance corridor. I counted at least fifteen visible from my current position, with probably many more lurking in the shops or corridors branching off from this central hub.

The sheer number of potential places to search and threats to monitor was genuinely overwhelming. If the girl managed to lose me in this maze, I’d never find her before she either escaped or got herself killed.

My attention was drawn upward as I caught movement on the stairs.

The girl was rushing up the grand staircase toward the second floor, taking the steps two at a time with remarkable agility and speed. She moved with the confidence of someone who’d navigated this route before, who knew exactly where she was going.

She was really fast.

I sprinted toward the staircase, dodging between the Infected that were beginning to converge on my position. Their moans and shambling pursuit created a growing commotion that echoed through the vast space, but I couldn’t afford to stop and eliminate them properly.

I hit the stairs and began ascending rapidly, my enhanced strength allowing me to match the girl’s pace despite her head start.

She reached the second-floor landing and immediately veered right, disappearing through another doorway without even glancing back to check if I was still following.

I finally caught up to the landing moments later, breathing only slightly harder from the exertion, and moved through the same door she’d used.

Once inside, I found myself in yet another long hallway on the second floor—this one lined with more shops on both the left and right sides, creating a canyon of retail spaces that extended into shadow.

But the girl was nowhere to be seen.

I stopped abruptly, scanning the corridor in both directions with growing frustration and a sinking feeling of realization.

There were at least a dozen Infected shambling through this hallway—some close enough that they’d already noticed my presence and were beginning to turn toward me with renewed focus.

The girl had completely vanished. No running footsteps, no visible movement, no indication of which direction she’d gone or which of the many shops she might have ducked into.

I’d been baited. Led into a confined space with multiple threats and no clear escape route.

She’d known this building’s layout well enough to set a trap, using her apparent panic and flight as cover to lure me into an increasingly dangerous position. Now she’d either found a hiding spot to wait me out, or she’d taken some alternate route back toward the exit that I didn’t know about.

Either way, I was now stuck in a second-floor corridor with a dozen Infected between me and the staircase, no clear target to pursue, and a growing likelihood that this entire chase had been a complete waste of time and energy.

The Infected nearest to me—maybe twenty feet away—let out a gurgling moan and began shambling forward, its dead eyes fixed on my position.

Others were converging from both directions along the corridor, slowly closing the distance and limiting my options.

I gripped the handle of my hand axe.

I’d wanted to avoid a prolonged fight, but it seemed that option had been taken off the table. If I wanted to get out of this hallway alive and continue searching for the girl—or give up and retreat—I’d need to go through these Infected first.

At least a dozen bodies between me and that girl.

Now I kinda felt responsible since she ran away in such a dangerous place. I should get her out of here safely at least since it’s my fault she got here.

Fine.

I took a deep breath, adjusted my stance, and prepared to cut my way through.