SoylentBlue
*narrows eyes*
"Didn't I TELL you the mall was a bad place to go? Stupid damn kid."
Damien breathed out a ragged sigh, his jacket sweeping to one side as he slowly allowed his knees to bend, sinking down with his back to the door. From the other side of the thick, iron-reinforced thing came the soft thump- probably heavy slams, in reality, of the 'rioters' beating against it. The old man breathed slow, light breaths as he stared dazedly into the dim-lit gloom around him, unpreturbed by his assailant's efforts to burst through the doorway. A sturdy, deadbolted door like what had been installed between the undercover parking zone and its small elevator/stairway room could keep any human at bay almost indefinitely. Just as well, because Damien wasn't really planning to go anywhere fast...
"I don't really get it..." He murmured to himself, shifting to ready himself to stand up. Old familiar aches coursed down his lower back. What he didn't really get was the past half-hour's events. He and his assistant, Sam, had just rode from their auto-workshop, escaping a large wave of those pale-skinned, half-alive things... and Sam had suggested the mall because apparently it would be safe and they would be able to get in easily.
The latter of the two points had proved wrong, as they;d been forced to swerve away from one of the main entrances which was teeming with those bastards, and in desperation had smashed through the boom-gate by the undercover-parking area and practically crashed their pickup truck. In the mad dash immediately following, Sam had been unlucky enough to be descended upon by the greater mass of the few dozen 'rioters' lurking in the parking zone... Damien had just been spattered with his assistant's blood as he desperately ran for the reinforced door.
And now he was here.
"Just trying to save my skin..." Damien muttered roughly, standing up with a grimace as he put a hand on his back. He walked towards the elevators, found one was on the floor and stepped in. No one inside. As he pressed the button for the ground-floor, he narrowed his eyes, remembering how Sam had tried to dart from the pickup truck without trying to help him out. "Then again, Sam, so were you. So were you..."