The last cut of Wagyu rested on the porcelain plate, shining under the dim light of the private booth while the aroma of clarified butter and rosemary still floated in the air, dense and enveloping.
Lief pierced the piece of meat, perfectly seared, and held it in front for an instant, observing it, before bringing the fork close to Jennifer's lips.
She leaned slightly forward, accepting the bite without looking away from him.
The soft texture of the meat melted in her mouth instantly, flooding her palate with an intense and smoky flavor.
"My God, it is incredible," she murmured with genuine pleasure while she wiped the corner of her lips with the cloth napkin.
Lief smiled and left the fork on the table.
"I am glad," he said standing up. "Let's go. I am already getting tired of this place."
Jennifer stood up instantly. She slid her hand through Lief's arm, intertwining them naturally, and leaned gently on his shoulder while they walked toward the exit.
Lief pushed the padded door.
The hallway received them with an unnatural silence... one that fell over them like a heavy blanket as soon as they crossed the threshold.
Where there should have existed the constant murmur of conversations, the clinking of silverware and the movement of the waiters, now reigned absolute nothingness.
The main dining room was deserted, but not closed.
Half-drunk wine glasses shone under the designer lamps and plates with still hot food steamed on the tables, abandoned as if their owners had volatilized in the middle of a bite.
Lief stopped dead and his muscles tensed. Jennifer's hand closed tightly around his bicep.
"What the hell...?" he murmured, with a low and alert voice, scanning the perimeter with a cold gaze.
They left the place toward the main atrium of the mall and the sensation of unreality became suffocating.
The huge complex had transformed into a marble and glass mausoleum. The escalators kept rolling with a mechanical and indifferent hum, and the immense advertisements flickered on the walls, projecting long and colorful shadows on an impeccable floor.
There was no one.
Neither shoppers carrying bags, nor employees behind the counters, nor security guards making their rounds.
It was as if entire humanity had been erased from the map in a blink.
"Something is wrong."
Jennifer's voice was tense, the place was charged with static...
Lief squeezed her hand, approached the edge of the glass railing, scrutinizing the lower atrium.
The first-floor lobby was deserted, the shadows of the immense decorative trees stretched over the floor like black claws under the artificial light.
"What the hell is this?" he murmured with a frown, "Are we in The Walking Dead?"
Crack
The sound of something breaking echoed, followed immediately by a scream.
"Help! Someone help me!"
The desperate shriek shattered the sepulchral silence of the mall. It came from the north end of the building.
Seconds later, the roar of frantic footsteps resonated.
Lief locked his eyes on the source of the noise just at the moment when a group of kids shot out of one of the side hallways, tripping over each other with panic deforming their faces while they ran as if hell itself were stepping on their heels.
At the head of the group was a girl with a school uniform jacket, her face covered in tears and her eyes bulging from absolute terror.
"But what...?" Lief tensed. "Fuck, can't I have even one quiet moment? It seems I attract disasters."
He prepared to jump the railing toward the first floor, but Jennifer stopped him dead with a firm grip on his wrist.
"Lief, wait!" she hissed, forcing him to look.
Just as the kids turned the corner, their pursuers emerged from the shadows of the hallway.
Lief's pupils contracted.
Those were not people... Or at least, they no longer looked like it.
An immense man led the march, with his head covered with a burlap sack and in his right hand he dragged a fire axe.
The metal screeched against the polished granite of the floor, SCREEEECH... SCREEEECH..., sending sparks flying with every step, marking a slow but relentless pace.
Behind him, a woman in a 60s outfit walked with an unnatural elegance, holding an antique straight razor and her face showed an empty smile.
Next to her, a figure dressed completely in black with a white skull mask moved quickly.
A child, who could not have been more than ten years old, advanced taking macabre little jumps and dragged a wooden bat, covered in dark, dry stains that clearly were not paint.
But the most surreal thing closed the group: a milkman in an immaculate white vintage uniform and a preacher in a black cassock, Bible in one hand and an expression of solemn condemnation in the other.
"Fuck... What is this? A psychopath convention or a lunatic asylum breakout?" Lief murmured, observing the scene with incredulity, "Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to gather this cast."
Downstairs the chaos unfolded with an imminent brutality.
The boy who closed the group slipped and fell face down hitting his knees hard, but the panic prevented him from getting up and left him frozen there, looking back with bulging eyes.
The man with the sack on his head reached him in barely two quick strides and cast his giant shadow over him, raising the axe above his head without a hint of doubt and ready to split him in two.
!
Lief sharpened his sight, ready to act.
But then, something absurd happened.
The axe stopped at the highest point of its arc.
The man stood motionless, like a machine whose power had been suddenly cut, completely ignored the boy who was trembling waiting for death and slowly turned his neck to the front, fixing his only visible eye on the girl who kept running.
He lowered the axe, not to strike, but to drag it again. He walked past the fallen boy, and resumed the march without dedicating him a single look more.
The rest of the troupe did the same... everyone passed by the defenseless victim. Their gazes were fixed on the back of the girl who was leading the escape.
"..."
The boy on the ground, stunned by being still alive, got to his feet with difficulty and ran toward an open clothing store to hide, disappearing from sight.
"It seems they have a target..." Jennifer whispered close to Lief's ear.
Lief relaxed, lowering his shoulders.
"Exactly," he agreed, following the departing group with his gaze, "Clear target, unified action, it does not seem like simple madness..."
He ran a hand over his chin, thoughtful.
"Perfect synchronization. They ignore distractions. They do not act like drugged lunatics... they act like hounds following a blood trail. Or like programmed drones."
He knew that pattern.
Whether it was witchcraft, voodoo, a demonic contract or some kind of military hypnosis, the result was the same: lethal puppets with a single directive.
"This is getting interesting," a crooked smile appeared on his lips.
Although he hated unnecessary problems, but when the problem was so peculiar... he could not help but feel attracted. It was like a puzzle screaming to be solved with blows.
"Come on, Jenn," he said, "Let's see what happens."
He took her hand, intertwining their fingers firmly. Without making noise, both slipped toward the shadows of the upper hallway, moving parallel to the pursuit happening below.
The group of teenagers skidded across the floor upon reaching the center of the atrium, braking right under the immense tree that dominated the lobby.
"It is here! It has to be here!" shouted the girl in the lead. She was gasping for air and her voice cracked between panic and a hysteria on the verge of collapse, "Dig! Damn it, dig at once!"
Her companions, a boy and a girl, ripped the backpacks off their backs.
With quick hands they took out shovels and without wasting a second, drove the metal into the compact earth of the planter.
"Dig?" Lief frowned from the railing, observing the scene with genuine bewilderment, "Seriously? That is their plan?"
The most disturbing thing was not the kids, but what happened right behind them.
The squad of pursuers, which until a moment ago seemed like a rabid pack, stopped dead upon reaching the perimeter of the tree.
They did not attack.
They simply dispersed slowly, forming a perfect circle around the tree and the teenagers.
They stayed there, standing, motionless like gargoyles... everyone watched in silence.
Silence fell again over the mall, broken only by the rhythmic sound of the shovels breaking the earth and the agonizing gasps of the kids.
The atmosphere was dense, charged with a static electricity that made it difficult to breathe.
"Well, you have to give them credit for the effort," said Lief in a low voice, "Nothing unites a group of friends more than a little illegal gardening while a sect of psychopaths watches you."
Jennifer let out a long sigh and gave him a sharp blow with her elbow in the ribs.
"Shut up," she whispered, "This is not a joke."
"Everything is a joke, Jenn. Only that some have a lousy ending."
Right at that instant, the sound changed.
Clonk
The metal of one of the shovels hit something hard.
"I got it!" shouted the boy with relief, "It is here!"
They pushed aside the dirt with their hands, and in a matter of seconds, the object was exposed.
It was not a chest, nor a safe.
It was a human skeleton.
The bones were blackened, almost fused with the earth by the rot, and the roots of the great tree had tangled in it, as if the plant had fed on it for years.
________
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