... in which Lonya and Tolya go shopping, meet Valya, behave chivalrously but not gentlemanly
When Lonya and Tolyan ran onto the first floor of the shopping mall, the first thing they saw was a fierce fight between two bloodied girls. Clinging to each other and biting, they rolled across the floor, knocking over light plastic chairs from a small cafeteria.
"Girls, what the hell is going on?" Tolyan tried to appeal to reason, but quickly realizing it was pointless, rushed to separate the two wild females. Lonya followed his friend.
With difficulty pulling apart the kicking and hissing girls, who were growling inhuman voices, the guys exchanged glances.
"This one is completely cold," Tolyan stated, barely restraining the blonde with rolling eyes and a huge wound on her neck, from which even whitish vertebrae were visible.
"The same symptoms," Lonya nodded, pushing aside by inertia the resisting brunette, "hold tighter!"
Tolyan, twisting the girl's arms behind her back, firmly pressed her down to the floor with his knee.
"And now what?"
Lonya, frantically thinking, looked around and, stopping at a glass refrigerator filled with desserts, suddenly leaned against it with his shoulder. The metal structure swayed and crashed sideways onto the head of the blonde writhing on the floor. A crunch of a fractured skull was heard. Blood splattered onto the milky-beige floor tiles along with pieces of brain matter. The girl convulsed and lay still in a spreading pool of blood.
"Now she's definitely cold," Leonid sighed calmly, looking at his stunned friend, then glanced toward the brunette sitting on the floor and asked, "Are you alive?"
"As far as I can tell," the girl replied cautiously, touching her bitten neck.
"I'm Leonid," the student introduced himself, gallantly offering his hand and helping her to her feet.
"Valentina."
"So, we're having an evening of unusual names here?" Tolik asked more out of nervousness than wanting to joke. "Anatoly... if you're interested."
"It's very nice to meet you," Valya replied automatically.
Only now, having gained the opportunity to calmly assess the situation, the guys noticed that the shopping center building was literally flooded with blood.
"What happened here?" Tolyan asked, glancing at the corpse crushed by the refrigerator.
"I don't know..." the girl replied, staring into space, and suddenly burst into tears. "This morning, a cat attacked me..."
"A cat?" Lonya repeated.
"Yes... Then some man in the entranceway... I ran to work... Here. I work here," Valya sobbed. "And then everyone suddenly started killing each other... I hid. There were mountains of corpses here... And then... I killed Kirill myself. I had to... I didn't want to."
The girl broke into sobs.
"Okay. I get it," Leonid muttered, ignoring Valentina's hysteria.
"I'm glad for you. Personally, I still don't understand anything!" Tolyan nervously snapped.
"These are zombies," Lonya replied calmly.
"What? Who?"
"Can't you see? These are zombies. My neighbor, the guy from the parking lot, now this... They were already dead."
"Well, this is fucked up," Tolyan could only say. "What the hell?"
"I don't know how this is possible," Lonya continued, "but it's a fact. And it explains where all the bodies went. They left."
"Yeah," Valya suddenly agreed. "They definitely left. Kirill, whom I... He's gone too."
"I think it's time to call the cops," Tolyan suggested, already taking his phone out of his pocket to dial.
"It's useless," the girl said, shaking her head. "I've tried. There's been no connection since yesterday. The Wi-Fi in the mall works, but the internet isn't accessible through it."
"Fucking hell!" the guy cursed, putting his phone away. "What are we going to do? Huh? Leonid?!"
"We need to arm ourselves somehow. It seems quiet here so far..."
"That makes sense," Tolyan agreed, gradually regaining his usual composure and rationality. "There's a hunting and fishing store over there. A little further is 'Auchan.' On the second floor, there are power tools. Let's try to find something useful."
Leonid nodded, and both friends resolutely moved deeper into the shopping mall.
"Hey, where are you going?!" Valya called after them.
"Come with us if you want to live," Tolyan threw over his shoulder, bursting into laughter. "I've always dreamed of saying that phrase."
The girl caught up with the guys and, limping slightly, walked alongside them, muttering under her breath:
"This is some kind of madness..."
"This is Sparta," Leonid replied with a slight smile. Tolyan laughed again.
The guys quickly walked across the cold tiled floor. Their voices and footsteps, echoing loudly in the empty space of the shopping mall, gradually faded away, and soon it became quiet again on the first floor.