It all started in a graveyard. Many graveyards to be precise, from all over the world. One day all was normal, then the dumpster fires begin. Rioting in the streets, buildings burning down. Murder, crime, and looting were at an all-time high, and everyone was talking about it. But no one did anything to fix the wreckage our world has become. Not until the dead started to rise and at that point, it was too late.

At first, people said it was a hoax. It's just a new bunch of crazed rioters with a zombie-based theme. But as the sightings of these zombies grew and the death toils started pilling up. People started to take notice and the world fell into even further chaos. Nowhere was safe. Not anywhere near the buried dead anyway, but no one knew that at the time.

Before the internet fell, the world went dark. News from all over came flooding into America.

London and Japan were reporting strange zombies sightings. Zombies were able to climb walls and jump across rivers. While rumors stated that China was sacrificing criminals to calm the zombie hordes. Biologists discovered a new invasive flower. There was so much, hardly anyone could keep up with it.

No one knows how the internet finally fell, maybe a horde of zombies got into Google or something. But when it finally did, everyone suffered for it. The nations were made blind and deaf, while their armies became alone and shattered.

With no ability to communicate besides radio, communities gathered together. Sharing resources and living space as the zombie hordes grew by the day. One such large community came to be in the Lloyd center mall in Portland Oregon. Stevenson Weller was one of those poor souls.

It sounded like the two men were talking right outside. Awakened Steven sits up in his sleeping bag and listens.

“Man, It is sucks being on mortician duty. Just the other day I had to bury old lady Smith. She died of a heart attack can you imagine.” A male voice said, coming from outside Steven's tent. He recognized the next voice. It was Bobby Grain.

“Yes, dealing with the dead sounds like a hard job. But dealing with the living dead is worse.” Bobby said, as Steven reached over to his camping bag and grabbed his loose pair of glasses. Both sides of the glasses had tape holding them together. “I hope you buried her far enough away?”

“I sure did. Down by the park.” The other man said. He pause as he thought about something. “I don't know about you. But I never saw a newly dead person rise before? You know like in the old movies and tv shows.”

“Yes, that's one of the things they got wrong,” Bobby said, as Steven crawled over to his tent door and unzipped it. He popped his head out. Bobby noticed him. “Oh, Steve did we wake you?”

“Yes a bit,” said Steve, as he stepped out. Bobby had golden-brown hair, while the other man had dark brown. Both men were in their late thirties. So a few years older than Steven. “Hey, when is breakfast starting?”

“Like five minutes ago?” said Bobby, as he pointed out of the clothing store that was their camping state. “The sausage was really low when I got there. It's most likely gone by now.”

“Crap. I helped get those sausages. Those greedy pigs.” said Steve, as he zipped up his tent and ran. Bobby laugh and returned to his conversion.

Steven passed men cleaning their teeth and dashed out of the clothing store. He hurried to the railings of the floor it was covered in Christmas lights. Leaning out over the railing, Steve looked down. Below on the ground floor where a dozen portable tables were set up. A crowd of people was gathering to grab some food. People were everywhere. All along the ground floor and the two other floors. Makeshift barricades were set up everywhere.

“Mary Turner!” Yelled Steven, as many of the crowd looked up at him. “You better have saved me some sausages! Or I'll end you! ”

Laughter filled the mall, as Steven raced down the broken escalators of the third floor. On the second floor, He passed a small group of women washing clothes. They chuckled as he raced through them and towards the next escalators. He bumped into Dan on the escalator. Dan was a clean-shaven man in his forties with short black hair. A shotgun hung over his left shoulder.

“Hey, was that you shouting Steven?” Dan asked as he glanced behind Steve. “Sorry, but you're going to have to back up. I'm not moving.”

“Dan come on. You could just turn to the side to let me through.” Steven said as Dan step forward forcing Steven back. “Hey, You probably had breakfast already. Hey!”

Steven steps back onto the second floor and Dan steps up after him. With a faint chuckle from Dan, Steven started hopping down the escalator. Once at the bottom, Steven was now facing the biggest obstacle of the morning. The mall's ice skating rink. People had voted to keep it powered and frozen. It was the biggest drain on the gas generators. But people loved it, and some people had started using it as an outdoor cooler.

Steven didn't chance it and ran around the long way. Once at the meal area, he skipped the line and run right to the end of it. Mary Turner was standing at the food table. She was servicing pancakes, beans, water, and sausages to the line of people. She huffed as Steven approached.

“Look at you. You almost killed yourself getting down here.” Mary said as she handed an older lady a plate of food. “Anyway, why are you so worked up about? The gathers just found a new box of meat and sausages then an hour ago.”

“Hey, Steven back of the line. I was in here first.” said the men walking up.

“Ok, I'll go. I'm going back of the line now.” Steve said, he walked away.