[Tom4784]

DEAD CENTRE

Part 2
Kickin' It To The Streets!

The Survivors raised their weapons and slowly crept towards the front door of the Hotel. Princess carefully reached out to open the door as the others waited with baited breath, nervous and scared about what was on the other side. CLICK.
'Oh.....It's locked.' Said a surprised Princess. 'There must be a key around here have a look around guys unless you want to live here'.
Shaun leapt over the desk and opened the drawers.
'Nope no keys he- oh dear!' He shut the draw quickly before letting out a little giggle.
'What is it?' Said LemonJam. Shaun smiled before answering.
'To say his name is Red, he certainly loves his blue.'
'Aha I found it!' said Mark. ' It was underneath the doormat'

A few seconds later the group burst out the front door with their weapons raised only to find an empty street. They lowered their weapons slightly and carefully moved up the street.
'It's too quiet' Enid commented. 'It's making me nervous'
Right on cue, a zombie leapt from behind a car and beelined straight towards the group. Princess was a step ahead however and with one swift bullet to the head, she dispatched the zombie. Another zombie emerged from an alley and headed straight for Patrick but Shaun quickly took it out.
'We're even now' He said to the shaken Patrick.

They moved beyond the street and across a small park with little trouble, which most of the group was thankful for except Enid, It really was too quiet. It had only been a short while since they came to the Hotel and these streets were a lot more zombie infested then. What could have made them disappear? Did they simply leave to feed elsewhere or was there another reason? Enid couldn't think of many plausible theories so she just focused on making it to the Shopping Centre alive.

They drew near a car and an electric traffic sign that read 'Busy Road' when they heard a sudden 'Hey' behind them. They jumped at the sound and initially raised their weapons and spun around to find themselves faced with a nervous but happy Stephanie and Jack.
'Oh my God I can't believe you're alive!' said a jubilant Stephanie.
They exchanged pleasantries before Mark asked them what they were doing.
'We were originally heading towards the Hotel but then we saw the helicopters leave and so we were just looking for somewhere safe and then we came across you' Explained Jack.'How about you?'
'We're heading to the Shopping Centre, We've heard there's an evacuation site there so there could be some transport out of here or at least it'll be a safe place to stay a while'
'Cool, can we come? We got snacks!' Said Stephanie.
'Sold!' Said LemonJam as he looked through Stephanie's bag of food. They turned around the corner and found themselves faced with a street covered in burning wreckage and bodies.
'I've never seen anything so tragic' Said Shaun
'I know' replied LemonJam 'She didn't bring any Jaffa Cakes with her! (chry/)'.

Unable to stomach the sight Princess turn around and looked back at the car and sign....Something caught her eye.
She called to the group as they walked backwards towards the electric sign.
'The message changed' She told them.

The sign now read 'BEWARE OF THE TANK. UTTER FACT'.
'Tank? There's a tank around here? Maybe we can use it?' inquired Mark. Jack looked unconvinced.
'I don't know, Why would we need to beware of it? The Modforce is the only people who would have something like that and they wouldn't attack us and zombies aren't clever enough to use one...I think we should keep this in mind though.' Said Jack
'Who sent this message though and how? It's bothering me' Enid stated. Nobody had an answer to give but they couldn't worry about that now. They needed to get to the Centre. The returned to the wrecked street and at the end of it they could see the Shopping Centre. Princess couldn't help but smile. 'Nearly there' she thought.

Halfway down the street, the ground begun to rumble slightly.
'What the hell? An Earthquake?'
The shaking got worse and suddenly they heard a loud roar from behind them. They turned to see a car flying towards them, they threw themselves out the way and got up to see a strange creature running towards them. It was a hulking monster which was musclebound and decayed. Stephanie screamed at the sight of it and ran towards the Centre. The group followed on behind her although Shaun and Princess fired some shots at the monster but for all the damage it did they might as well have hit it with pillows.

It moved surprisingly fast for it's size and soon it was within range of Enid. It swung for her but she ducked and slid underneath a car safely to the other side she got up and rejoined the others. The monster ran towards the car and punched it at the survivors but they managed to avoid it by leaping out the way. Annoyed at how evasive they were, the creature ran up to a lamppost and ripped it from the ground. It swung the pole widely but all the survivors managed to leap over it except for Patrick. The lamppost swept him off his feet. He called to the others but they continued to run towards the building. The creature dropped the pole is it neared him, it clasped it's hands together and raised them high, It was going to smash Patrick to death. He screamed as the thing went to strike him but at the last moment he felt a hand pull him out the way.
'Get up and run' shouted Princess, his savior. He got to his feet as the monster raised it's hands from the small crater in the ground it created.

The rest of the survivors were safely within the Centre, they watched with terrified eyes as they tried to cheer on Patrick and Princess to outrun the hulking beast. Jack however was typing in a code on a nearby keypad. The thick, steel shutters slowly began to descend over the entrance.
'What are you doing!' screamed Shaun
'If I don't start them now then they won't be in place to stop that thing getting in here!' He retorted.
Shaun glared at him before screaming madly at the pair to run faster. Princess saw the shutters and grabbed Patrick's hand, She bolted towards the building and kept a firm eye on the shutters. They were halfway down now, Princess and Patrick only had a few seconds left before they would be trapped outside. They were within feet of the Centre but the gap was drawing smaller and smaller. Were they going to make it in time?