I stumbled backward and fell onto my back as I avoided the wide, arcing swing of a machete from Jason… The Jason from Friday the 13th. I shot two arrows into his chest from my position on the floor, and of course, he didn’t even flinch. Jason stayed on brand, still stalking toward me slowly, moving through the chaos of the warzone.

  I quickly switched to one of my flame arrows and shot him while still on my back, piercing his hockey mask and right into his eye, just as he was about to swing down again. That finally got a reaction. He burst into flames, flailing around as he staggered toward the edge of the escalator, before finally tumbling down it, still burning. I followed his fiery path, still reeling that I just shot an arrow through one of my childhood’s nightmares.

  I didn’t have time to wonder about that, though. I scrambled to my feet and immediately dodged a flurry of claws from what could only be described as a grotesque fusion of man and fly, Its body glistened with a sheen of viscous black fluid, and the air reeked of ammonia and rot. I shot an arrow at its face, the tip embedding in its compound eye with a sickening crunch. It let out a high-pitched screech and staggered back, but it didn’t go down.

  Before I could line up another shot, one of its massive legs shot out, knocking me off balance and sending me stumbling backward.

  I managed to catch myself just in time to see the creature charging toward me, its claws swiping. I raised my bow instinctively, using it to parry one of the strikes. The force of the blow nearly knocked the wind from my chest, but I gritted my teeth and twisted out of the way.

  In a split second, I cast [Shockwave II], unleashing a violent burst of wind from my hand. The hurricane-force gale erupted in a 30-foot radius, tearing through the air with a deafening roar. The raw power blasted the creature backward, sending it soaring across the shopping center. It shrieked as it flew through the air, crashing into the far wall with a bone-rattling impact, then crumpling to the ground in a heap. The shockwave was so powerful it sent debris, nearby mobs, and even fellow survivors flying, creating chaos in its wake. Finally, I was given enough space to breathe.

  With the creature out of the picture, I sprinted up the escalator, heading toward the second floor. I glanced down to see Siva had replaced Shawn, standing over Jess as she healed another survivor. The man groaned in pain as a severed tentacle dangled from his eye socket. I watched as a shambling zombie creature lunged at them, only to be quickly intercepted by Siva’s sword, its head tumbling away from its body, the corpse collapsing. I could see Siva, tense but focused, as he slowly circled Jess, making sure no other creatures got too close.

  “Bring them to Sephora! We’ve set up a triage there. We have protections!” someone in a white robe shouted as he ran past Jess.

  From my vantage point on the second floor, I took a quick look around at the horror unfolding below. Pockets of fights were scattered across the first floor with various creatures engaging the human survivors. Dead creatures and fallen humans alike littered the floor and doorways of the once-pristine glass storefronts of these shops.

  Survivors lay writhing on the ground, some clutching at wounds while others were too still. I realized then that no amount of healing potions would ever replace lost limbs. The wounded were piling up, and those who hadn’t lost limbs were bleeding out. I could only guess that these were the people who had run out of healing potions. A group of healers, their robes stained in blood, worked desperately to tend to the injured and even the shell-shocked.

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  This… this was too much. I’d never seen so much death in one place, and my breath caught in my throat as my chest tightened at the carnage.

  A guttural scream from behind snapped my attention back. I turned to see a gorilla with a fishbowl on its head charging toward me from inside the Metro department store.

  What the fucking hell… Why does it have a fishbowl on its head… A fishbowl with antennas.

  My instincts kicked in, and I dropped low, bracing myself as it got closer. With a grunt, I shouldered the creature and hurled it over the glass railing. It plummeted to the ground floor with a loud, satisfying thud.

  When I followed the gorilla’s trajectory to the ground floor, I noticed Jess struggling to move. She had an injured person in a fireman’s carry over her shoulders, her face twisted in a pained but determined grimace. After a quick adjustment to better secure the person on her back, she ran toward the golden glow emanating from Sephora, Siva cutting a path through the chaos to clear the way for her.

  Chris: Shawn, where the fuck are you?

  Shawn: Basement. Its filled with ghost-type mobs. I’m with some clerics, fighting Ju-on kids. This is fucked up.

  I was about to reply, telling him to get the fuck out of there, when I spotted something far worse. A huge mass of what looked like rolling balls of hair approached from further down the corridor. The roiling mass covered the entire space between the shopfront and glass railing, moving with terrifying speed, consuming everything in its path, both mobs and humans.

  I cringed as I heard bones crunching amidst screams. As it got closer, I saw it wasn’t just one creature but hundreds of soccer ball-sized, hairy masses, their bodies a jumbled ball of black fur. They had red eyes, and their huge mouths were filled with razor-sharp teeth, snapping eagerly.

  Fuck that.

  I activated my Boots ability, my legs pumping with the burst of speed. I charged straight through the mass, using my momentum to blast them over the railing and against the inner walls of the shopping center. The creatures screeched as they were sent flying, their bodies colliding into walls with sickening thuds.

  I didn’t stop to watch. I couldn’t. Just as I reached the end of the corridor, I saw my other childhood fear, a fucking Xenomorph. I thought of Siva and how he’d never seen any Aliens movie. He should be up here right now.

  I was still running at incredible speed, but I knew colliding with an acid-blooded creature would end badly. So instead, I ran circles around it, all the while pelting it with arrows as it lunged at me, its tail snapping and jaws clicking. It hissed, twisting and writhing in frustration, but I wasn’t slowing down.

  It didn’t take long for the creature to resemble a pincushion, its body riddled with arrows. With one final, venomous hiss, it collapsed onto the floor, twitching before it went still.

  With the speed skill still active, I vaulted up to the next floor and crashed through the shoe store’s glass front, rolling to a stop against the cashier counter. I popped a healing potion and came up with my bow drawn, covering the now open window, expecting a new wave of what-the-fucks to swarm me.

  There were no targets. I expanded my minimap and saw the red and white dots of creatures and survivors in the other wing. I had a moment of peace here.

  I used it to ping the team, asking for a status update.

  Jess: In Sephora. Enchanted ward up. Healers triaging inside.

  Siva: Ground floor. Fighting and bringing survivors to Sephora.

  Shawn: Busy.

  Good. They were all alive.

  I took a breath and thought. Every boss fight we’d had tied back to its location. Even those screwed-up zombies at the checkpoint. I replayed the last few minutes: Jason. A human-fly hybrid. Gorilla with a fishbowl. A Xenomorph. And those rolling, soccer-ball hair things…

  Holy shit.

  We were fighting movie monsters.

  I stepped to the jagged lip of the shattered display and peered across the atrium. The mall stacked above me in bright rings of chaos and shadow.

  Four floors up, the multiplex squatted behind corrugated shutters. The marquee was dead, letters peeled. I remembered the notice they’d taped to the glass a few months back. Foreclosed. It now sat empty and silent.

  Perfect place for a boss.

  Chris: Source is the cinema. Seventh floor.

  I nocked an arrow, drew a breath, and started climbing.