We trudged back to the group.

  "Everyone alright?" I asked.

  "I got bit again," Kara said, raising her newly-gushing other arm.

  [ Healing reduced by 50% for 24 hours! This effect stacks. ]

  "Why didn't you say anything?!"

  "You seemed busy!"

  "True. Okay, did anything else happen?"

  "I have 69 XP," Chaz said.

  "Not what I meant, but nice."

  Everyone seemed fine, though there were a few more debuffs going around. We'd defeated the Expiromancer, but I had the feeling he'd gotten what he wanted.

  Val waved at Lex. "Thanks for the help. You alright?"

  "Um, hi," Lex said, adjusting her backpack nervously like she hadn't just lobbed a goblin to his death. "I'm Lex. Will said I could join youse?"

  "We met in the OddBotz store," I said. "She just saved my life. Thanks, by the way."

  Kara smiled warmly. Lex was obviously a little worried about everyone's answer, but I wasn't. Kara could make anyone feel at home.

  "Welcome aboard! Wanna mess up these dead bodies so they can't get up again?"

  Once we'd tended to our wounds, the others put the bodies in Grand Escape and broke their legs. I left them to it, because Khan Zoomer had something to show me.

  I stood over the Expiromancer, who lay in a pool of his own blood at the base of the escalator.

  "So, how does this work?"

  My arm became Khan's maw. "When you defeat an enemy, I can extract its essence. Like this..."

  The maw shot out towards the body, clamped onto the head, and somehow pulled a swirling purple orb out of it.

  [ Essence: Shoplin Expiromancer

  +4 Cunning, +4 Moxie, +4 Marketing Susceptibility, Power: Redemption ]

  [ Power: Redemption

  You can turn dead anthropoids into Expired using Expired Coupons. Expired Coupons can be ordered through the ZETTAMALL? app. ]

  "If you choose to consume the essence, you receive these bonuses," Khan said.

  "How many of these can I have?" I asked.

  "Right now, you have one essence slot. You'll unlock an extra one at every odd-numbered level."

  That sounded good. "So I keep getting stronger?"

  "Yes, though I should point out that all OddBotz get stronger over time. Your companions will automatically discover new powers as they gain levels. Essences are simply more flexible. What I offer is versatility, not power."

  "Cool. Does that mean I can swap essences out later?"

  Khan's mouth winced slightly. "Correct. However, there is a significant financial outlay. At your level, it amounts to five thousand Funbucks."

  "Jesus."

  "Quite. I'd recommend thinking ahead before you consume anything."

  Even more things to spend Funbucks on. Fantastic. I couldn't tell how good this essence was anyway, so I decided to play it safe.

  "I'll pass for now. I don't think raising the dead is going to go down well."

  "Understandable." Khan dropped the orb back onto the shoplin, where it vanished. "There are other options. Just try not to spend too long sitting around with your claw up your bottom."

  I looked at a nearby Expired that hadn't been moved yet. "Is that one worth checking? I don't mind if it isn't. It feels gross."

  "It is not," Khan said. "There's no extracting essences from your fellow customers, not even Expired ones. You'd only get a Human essence, and that's rather putting a crown on a crown, isn't it?"

  The rest of the survivors were returning to base. Kara, Chaz, Val, and Lex slowed down to talk.

  "All done," Chaz said. "We were gonna mess up the bodies in the back rooms too, but people started puking."

  Val still looked queasy. "The doors are locked! They're fine!"

  I followed them to the bottle shop. I was feeling a little queasy myself. "How's the arms, Kara?"

  Kara raised one. Wisps of thin black smoke rose from her bandages.

  "Someone lent me a cola, but they didn't heal all the way."

  I leaned on the bottle shop counter and checked my leg. It wasn't as wispy, but there was a hint of smoke when I prodded it. "We should be alright, if we don't get bit again..."

  "I didn't see any other zombies upstairs," Lex said.

  Kara sat on the counter. "What happened upstairs, anyway?"

  I cleared my throat. Lex had arrived alone. "Is it just you, or..."

  "Just a sec," Lex said.

  She grabbed a can of beer and sat on a box.

  "If we're talking about that, I'm taking this..."

  Lex's story went like this:

  Normally she'd be bartending right now, but after a patron vomited on her last night, she'd switched shifts so she could relax. For her, relaxing meant coming to the mall and hitting the rooftop gym.

  She'd only just parked when the Zettamall happened, and some poor bastard with a shoplin in his car plowed into hers within seconds. For the first few minutes, all she could hear were screams and crashing.

  It didn't get much better. The car park was a real shitshow: people running, shoplins in every corner, and nowhere to hide. Lex just ran.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  She tried leaving the way she came in, but the exits had somehow been sealed by concrete slabs. She swore she'd even seen a car crushed under one, like a soda can. Since everyone who tried driving there was almost immediately blocked in by another guy who'd had the same idea, chaos reigned.

  Lex got lucky: some older guy with a tool van pulled up and shouted for nearby survivors to get in. There was a girl in the back already, and two guys squeezed in after her.

  The old man took off in search of a mall entrance. Lex listened to him call out updates, felt the van jump and shake as he ran down shoplins in the way, saw system messages pop up as she got kill credit.

  Then he swore, swerved down an aisle, and punched the accelerator. She didn't understand what was going on at first, until she saw it in the back window.

  It was huge and furry. It had a toothy maw. It was getting closer.

  Everyone freaked out. The old man said everything was fine, he'd get them to safety, but if they could grab some heavy tools and start throwing it'd be appreciated. Lex braced herself, pushed the doors open...

  And the girl was shoved out.

  Lex was too slow to grab her. The girl tumbled, hit the ground head-first with a crack, and bounced. If she was lucky, it took her out before the creature reached her.

  One of the other survivors had done it, some green-haired guy. Lex turned to yell at him, but she never found out what the hell his problem was. Another shoplin went under the wheels, the van bounced, and she lost her balance.

  The road tore skin and broke bones, but Lex survived. She even managed to force herself to her feet and limp away before the creature finished feeding. Luckily they were close to a Level Two entrance, and soon she was safely having a panic attack in a store's staff room.

  Once she came to grips with her situation, she was able to open some boxes. She found a healing can that fixed the limp, and the item that got her to us:

  [ Rare! Final/Girl Getaway Wind Jacket! This lightweight, packable jacket has been designed to ensure you will survive when others won't. As long as you're standing still, you'll fade into the background. This product is made from 100% recycled customers.

  Final/Girl: Prepping For The End! ]

  When Lex was standing still, she faded out of sight. It wasn't complete invisibility, but she was hard to see if you weren't nearby and actively looking for her. She mostly used it to hide and take out shoplins that wandered into her store until she got into the OddBotz shop.

  "...And then I ran into you."

  I didn't know what to say. "I'm sorry."

  "That poor girl," Kara muttered. "Is... is there any chance she—"

  "No, she's gone," Lex said. "I got this when it happened."

  She summoned a crate. It was black, but covered in geometric shapes, cute skulls, and cartoony fish bones in neon green. A framed photo of a girl I assumed to be the deceased was stuck to one side.

  [ A Death Daddy Well That Just Happened Crate! Contains a memento of the deceased, plus an item from Daddy. If the deceased was carrying anything, you have a chance to receive a copy.

  Death Daddy: The Fate Of Destruction Is The Joy Of Daddy! ]

  I blinked at it. "Uh..."

  Lex shrugged and took the crate back. "There was an achievement for losing an ally."

  Kara sighed. "Ugh. I guess we can't help everyone..."

  Chaz tried changing the subject. "So, what bot did you get?"

  Lex took off her backpack.

  Up close it looked like a cybernetic alien head, with rounded corners, a wide zipper mouth, mechanical eyes, and mesh pockets that slowly breathed in and out. The straps were long, flat limbs that uncurled and extended like tentacles once Lex set it down.

  "This is Snakpak."

  Snakpak waved. "G'day."

  [ < SNAKPAK >

  Rare Water Wear-Bot — Mister Sportsball

  Powers: [Bak Sak], [Smak Rak]

  This battler survived the vast Food Deserts by shoving every morsel she found into her subspace maw. Keep her fed, and she'll let you borrow it! ]

  "The inside is bigger than the outside," Lex said proudly.

  Val lit up. "Like a TARDIS?"

  Lex nodded. "I raided a few stores on my way here and she's still not full. Can you show 'em?"

  Snakpak wrapped her limbs around a carton of beer, lifted it, unhinged her zipper-maw, and crammed it in like a cartoon character eating a giant sandwich. Seeing it in action was incredibly offputting.

  "Woah, that's cool," Chaz said. "You could prep for anything with that..."

  I returned to the story. "Were the shops you looted empty?"

  "The ones I passed, yeah," Lex said. When we started to frown she hastily added, "but I didn't check them all. There were lights on in Huge W."

  That made sense. Huge W was a big department store directly above Gateway; gathering in there was basically the same play we pulled.

  "Good choice," Chaz said. "It's big and it's got supplies."

  "But they sell snacks, not food," Kara said. "We should connect with them tomorrow."

  "Why not now?" Chaz said. "With the zombies down we've practically cleared it already."

  "It's 10PM," Kara said. "We've been fighting for hours. Aren't you tired?"

  Something occurred to me. I pulled up my HUD.

  "Actually... here we go. The guidebook said new enemies will appear tomorrow. That means it'll probably get harder, right?"

  Chaz smacked his hand into his fist. "Then we should strike while we can!"

  Val raised a hand. "I'm in, but can we bring some of the peeps who don't have OddBotz? I wanna gear up my party before more bots go out."

  "Good idea," Kara said. "Okay, I'm voting upstairs. You wanna join us, Lex?"

  Lex smiled. "If you'll have me. I won't be able to sleep anyway."

  I gestured towards the store. "Then let's invite everyone we can."

  It didn't go well.

  The main problem was that most of the survivors who were willing to venture into the darkness and bust zombie kneecaps already had OddBotz. Some of the others were kids, elderly, or their guardians, so we expected to leave people behind anyway, but the rest...

  "I, uh, I need to go to the bathroom, sorry..."

  "Excuse me?! Don't you know who I am?! Why would I take that risk?"

  "I-I'm sorry. I'm scared. I'm sorry."

  "I have a medical exemption!"

  "Only if those snotty teens give us their weapons. I don't trust 'em."

  "Sorry, mate, my leg's killing me. The shoplins got me good. I can keep watch if it helps?"

  "Just bring me whatever loot you find and I'll pick out my share."

  "Do I look like the help? This is your job."

  "You don't understand!"

  In the end, the only volunteers who gathered in the bottle shop with us were Val's crew and...

  "Finally, it's the Acting Manager's time to shine," Troy said.

  I rolled my eyes. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather stay and keep doing work sitcom bits?"

  "Cosmo and the other bot owners that aren't in your little clique are guarding the store, in case the shoplins come back," Troy said. "They've got it handled. I'm better off securing my bot."

  Kara patted my back. "We should get everyone OddBotz anyway, right? The more the messier."

  I caved. "Alright, I can do that."

  We stepped out into the plaza. It was empty and bloodstained, just how we left it. Only the sound of the escalators moving broke the quiet. The lights were still on, but the night sky made it dimmer than usual.

  Troy turned right to study the elevator. "Does this thing still work?"

  "Don't think anyone shut it down," I said. "It could be dangerous though."

  Troy pressed the button anyway. "Could be worth a shot. You guys said you had a shield power, right?"

  Lex nodded. "Snakpak can protect us from ranged attacks, at least for a bit..."

  I extended my metal arm in front of Troy. "At least get away from the door. There could be shoplins."

  The elevator opened. Troy screamed.

  I turned to the doors as the others jumped back. "What's—Jesus Christ!"

  There was a corpse inside.

  His side was riddled with arrows. Half the floor was sticky with blood. This guy was dead dead.

  Kara spoke first. "Going down."

  "Kara, no."

  [ STATUS

  TIME: Day 1, 10:30 PM

  CUSTOMERS: 716/1167

  ODDBOTZ: 129/716 ]

  I have a Patreon if that's what you're into! This is today's last chapter, but I'll be posting one a day (plus advance chapters on the Patreon) for a while.