A Day at the Mall

This is positively ancient, dating back to February 07, 2003.  By way of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, I was able to find some my Gabe's and my short stories from back in the day.  Without any editing or updating, I give you:

A Day at the Mall

I'm standing in a mall in Akron Ohio, 3 dozen zombies devouring the last of the mid-week, afternoon shoppers before me.
...And that's just what I can see from having just walked in the door.

My entrance hasn't stirred them from their feast, and they probably won't take notice of me for at least another few minutes, until the scent of flesh that's filling what's left of their nostrils is nearly gone and they catch my scent.

I begin maneuvering around a coffee shop, and out into the main hall of this giant shopping mecca for middle America. For the time first one of these places will actually serve me a purpose, the over-powering smell of coffee in the air will help to mask my scent for a few additional moments before I have a horde of walking dead attempting to lock their teeth on me.

After eventually reaching the corner of the coffee house chain store I peer out and get a glimpse down the main corridor of the mall - there's at least another five dozen undead consuming what remains of the local shopping populace. I'm gonna need more ammunition.

Not knowing the full scope of the situation, I'd only grabbed a handful of shotgun shell boxes as I rushed out of the door - none of which were anywhere near full. I know Frank had sounded frantic on the phone, but I'd never imagined the zombie infestation he was alerting me to was of this magnitude.

Zombies normally hunt in small packs of three to eight, I have no idea what this many are doing in a single place, but big something is going on.

I started slowly moving back around the corner of the coffee house, back the way I'd come, when everything in the mall went silent.

Zombies have a hard time breathing through their noses, if they're lucky enough to keep it for any length of time, and so they typically breath through their mouths. When eating, this makes for an incredibly grotesque sound of open mouth chewing mixed with their loud breathing and audible ripping of flesh and breaking of bone. The sound of the seventy plus zombies doing this at once filled the sizable mall, and every one of them had just fallen silent.

Looking up, I could see their eyes and empty sockets all fixed squarely on me.