Chapter 10

About an hour later, Hayley had cleared out all the luxury stores on the few floors. She didn't leave a single thing behind.

Women's clothes, men's clothes, kids' clothes, sportswear, shoes, socks, bags, watches, makeup…even the big jewelry and diamond stores downstairs.

The newest phones and laptops flew into her inventory.

The luxury skincare she could never afford before was gone in a flash.

The designer bags she had only ever looked at, the limited-edition pieces that had to be ordered, were all gone.

The sparkling diamonds, giant gemstones, jade, and gold from the display cases were all hers.

Her inventory quickly hit over 350,000 cubic feet.

Luxury items were expensive, sure—a single bag could cost thousands—but stock was always low. Many stores only had display pieces. Customers ordering multiple items meant they had to get them from elsewhere. For ultra-luxury goods priced over 100 thousand, this mall didn't even have them. Otherwise, her inventory would have exploded in size.

Luxury stuff was truly expensive.

Hayley made her way to the food court.

She had already cleared this area yesterday. Spending money felt a little wasteful at the time, but at least it saved her time today.

Time was her most important resource right now.

The zombie virus had just broken out. People were confused and panicked. She had to finish scavenging within the two-hour limit and get out before traffic went bad.

If she hadn't spent money yesterday, she could only have skimmed these cheap, scattered shops now. Still, she grabbed a few things as she passed—ovens, ice cream machines, coffee makers—so she could cook at home later.

Moving at full speed, she arrived at the massive supermarket she had hit yesterday.

She had spent over 200 thousand on just a small fraction of it.

The supplies in here were insane.

Hayley vaulted over the barrier and dove into the supermarket. She moved faster than ever, sweeping everything off the shelves.

One shelf at a time, into her inventory.

A shelf of chocolate, a shelf of cookies, a shelf of chips, a shelf of cured meat.

She ran straight into both raw and cooked sections, grabbing frozen hams and chilled roasted chickens from the freezers.

Everything she had skipped yesterday, she took now with reckless joy. In less than half an hour, the entire huge warehouse supermarket was emptied.

She moved around in skates, gliding and collecting at top speed. By the time she finished, she still had 20 minutes left.

Hayley noticed the internal staff elevator. Big supermarkets had their own warehouses.

She hopped into the staff elevator. When the doors slowly opened, she saw row after row of boxed supplies.

Hundreds of boxes of premium pasta, imported snacks, alcohol, condiments, daily essentials, feminine hygiene products…

This was the supermarket's warehouse.

Hayley realized that the million-dollar haul she had taken yesterday was just a drop in the bucket. There was still so much.

She skated between boxes, leaving empty rows in her wake.

When the two-hour countdown ended, Hayley, drenched in sweat, popped open a cold soda and took a long sip. The warehouse in front of her was completely empty.

This round, she collected over 520,000 cubic feet of stuff.

To picture it, that would be roughly a cube measuring 80 feet on each side.

Or, to think bigger, about the size of a ten-story building. And that was only a tiny fraction of the mall's total stock.

Just like that, the city's biggest mall was completely stripped by Hayley. Everything was now in her inventory.

She smiled with satisfaction.

Swapping her skates for running shoes, she tossed the empty soda can into the now-empty warehouse. She took the staff elevator back into the supermarket, then went down the staff stairs.

Done. Time to go home.

She didn't ride the elevator all the way down—she just used it to get to her floor, then pressed the button to B2, the parking garage, so it would descend as she made her way down by stairs.

Elevators made noise both ways, so if there were zombies in the garage, they would be attracted. This way, she controlled the risk.

Hayley moved fast and light down the staff stairs. By the time she reached B2, the elevator she had arranged earlier arrived.

Ding!

At that moment, a woman tried to rush into the staff elevator.

She turned, screaming, "Help, help!"

Two other people in blood-stained staff uniforms followed her.

"Don't come near me, no! There's someone in there! Go and eat them instead!"

The woman moved quickly toward the elevator, wanting to grab the person inside to feed the zombies, but when the elevator doors opened… It was empty.

She froze, and a pursuing zombie tackled her from behind.

"Stop! Don't bite me! Look, it's me, your manager! No, don't!"

The woman screamed. Then, she noticed the staff stairwell doors opening. A young girl in simple athletic clothes stepped out.

She froze, thinking the girl looked familiar. A second later, she recalled that it was the girl she had insulted for being poor yesterday.

"Save me! Please, save me!" She waved frantically at Hayley. "I'll give you our store's gold card! No. I'll give you clothes—ten pieces. A hundred pieces! Save me! Ahhh!"

Hayley, holding her baseball bat in one hand, did one thing.

She nodded once, silently thanked the woman for her "help," and kept walking, letting the screaming grow louder behind her.

Hayley was grateful to the lady for being useful before she died.

Vroom!

She hit the gas and sped out of the garage.

It was just past eight; the city was waking up. Because the virus hit in the early morning, these two hours left everyone in shock and fear.

The first victims were breakfast shops, sanitation workers, buses, and 24-hour businesses. Any crowded place with open populations turned chaotic at the first infection.

By now, 911 and ambulance lines were overloaded—nobody could call for help.

City services were paralyzed.

Next came office workers, including those in the mall where Hayley had been scavenging.

Those who relied on public transport were lucky because most of the buses and cars were stuck on the roads.

The unlucky ones were the people who had already boarded.