Felix felt goosebumps all over his arms.
It was a strange feeling that he could not explain.
He felt shivers come like waves throughout his body.
"Felix, come on!"
For a moment, Felix thought time had stopped.
Toots' voice pierced through his stunned state and snapped him back to reality.
"What are you doing, man?! Get yourself together!"
For a long time Felix grew up among the humans. He blends in with them and made a lot of human friends.
He didn't hate zombies for abandoning him in the Human Region. He doesn't fear them either.
If anything, he is neutral about his reaction to zombies. They are neither friends nor enemies.
But today that neutrality inside him is shifting and leaning more to the human side.
The horde came coming at him, and Toots was like an army meant to harm him. Harm Toots. Harm the hobos in the area.
He always justified deep inside him that the zombies had changed, just like he did.
The horde grew nearer, their growls grew louder, and their rotten scent grew stronger.
"Felix, dude! Snap out of it!" Toots shouted.
Felix blinked, looking away from the horde that made his heart skip a beat. Literally skipped a beat.
A day finally came that he felt fear. Fear from his own kin. Will they harm him? Will they eat him too? He couldn't tell.
What he's certain is that they have lapsed. Their evolution has come to an end and now they are back to being mindless, hungry creatures.
"Come on, man! Enough with the daydreams already!"
Toots is pulling on Felix by his shirt, trying to drag him out of the front lines.
But as a human, Toots himself has fears and one of them is to not get eaten by zombies.
He released Felix's shirt and started running for his life. Felix was still stunned for a moment before he ran after his best friend.
The zombies aren't going in slow-motion for him.
In fact, they are running as fast as Felix and Toots are. So desperate to touch them and rip them open.
Felix is aware of their speed. That they have the ability to run like a human would. They will definitely catch up at some point.
Toots would get tired of running, but the zombies will keep on chasing them.
He needed to think fast and act quickly to save both of their skins.
"What is wrong with you, man?!" Toots yelled when he saw Felix in his peripheral.
He is already running out of breath, but Felix's rotten lungs are working better than his.
"Why did you stop and stare? Were you thrilled to see your own?"
"It's not like that."
"Then what?! You could have us killed right now!"
"I've never seen them like that. It's written in the history books and all... but nothing like this. Nothing like reality."
Felix spotted a staircase on their run. It's now or never.
He had a split second to think if they should run up or down.
They could get cornered in the basement if they choose to go down but then again they could still be trapped if they go up.
Either way, it's a big mall. A maze. Being trapped and cornered is the least of their problems.
"Let's go up!"
"Are you for real!? Do you know where that leads?"
"No. But it's easier to jump from the roof than dig yourself out from the basement."
Felix offers. Toots sighs in agreement.
"Fine, let's have it your way!"
Both took a sharp turn for the stairs and ran up. The horde chasing after them split in two groups.
One side kept going forward while the other half ran after them up the stairs.
Some zombies tripped on their run and some had their ankles breaking as they ran up.
The stampede killed these unfortunate fallen zombies.
Partly it gave enough leeway for Felix and Toots to get a head start on their climb. As the fallen zombies tripped, their fellow undead forming a blockage by the second half of the stairs.
They went up to the rooftop without looking back.
The two refused to give the zombies grace to catch up to them.
A horde like that can beat them with a push-of-war with the door.
"Hurry, hurry! Grab anything you can get!" Toots shouted in a panic.
Felix ran to the nearest junk near the door to look for anything useful.
"I found some chains!" Felix claimed victoriously.
He ran back to the door and hastily wrapped the chains around the door handles.
"Get something heavy!" Felix instructed as he tightly bound the door handles. "And something to lock this!"
Toots stood in the middle of the junk, searching for any stick or lock to keep the chains together.
The junk was comprised of rusty metal equipment and rotten wood, empty canned goods, plastic, and glass bottles.
"Hurry up!"
"There's nothing here, it's just garbage!" Toots shouted back.
Both of them feeling under pressure that the only way to communicate with each other is by shouting.
"I know it's garbage. Just look for something. Dang it!"
"I AM looking you impatient piece of rotten flesh!" Toots barked back.
The metal door started to shake and fists banged from the other side.
Felix leaned his back on the door, his hands still holding the chains together.
"Look faster!" Felix demanded now.
He can smell them from the other side. Old blood is like rusty metal. Dried, pale flesh that smelled like rotten eggs.
Toots grabbed a backscratcher, and a broken piece of wood. He slides the piece of wood between the door handle and the backscratcher within the chains.
The door opened slightly from the horde that was trying to push it open.
"Hurry up!"
Felix's strength wouldn't be enough anymore to keep it closed.
The doors are bouncing open and close at the continued attempt.
When Toots secured the door, Felix falls forward and caught his breath.
"It won't hold. We need to go."
"I'm not jumping from the roof."
"We have no choice."
"Where in the world did they come from anyway?!" Toots is slowly going hysterical.
Felix does not entertain him and stood by the edge, peeking down.
"There are some pipes we can use."
"This is crazy, man. I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what is going on!"
"I don't know! But whoever is behind this knows what he's doing. We need to go!"
Felix can feel the pressure choking him.
Fighting in the arena is different from this. In the arena is just a place of amusement and entertainment.
There are guards and medics and refreshments after every fight.
The contestants are still friends after the fight as well. But this... this is not like that.