Carrie could tell that Norman had not liked her suggestion of going through an emergency exit, but what other choice did they have? She wasn't about to risk the elevator again, a second time in that contraption really could mean her attempting to be an acrobat with the escape hatch. And she sure as hell wasn't about to go the direction the rest of the people were going. It was a herd of people and those growling non human people. Crazy cannibals that were reminding her of the game that Hunter liked to play with his dad. The newest edition of that game was inside her purse. Her gut told her that the best way to escape was to go the way less traveled. Her parents always did tell her to trust her gut. Thankfully, she did not have to argue with Norman about it. He seemed to quickly reason it out in his mind that the emergency exit would be their best option. Carrie nodded her head to him.<br/><br/>Carrie might work in an office but she tried to exercise and was in decent shape. If she could walk somewhere, she did and taught Hunter to do the same. Her son was involved in sports but they also tried to play outside as much as they can. An active family was a happy one. While she wasn't a fan of running, when one was in an insane place like the mall had become, with people running and screaming and others eating them, survival instincts generally kicked in and you ran. When Norman opened the door and Carrie saw the nice sterile hallway, with no blood or cannibals, she was briefly relieved. She grinned for a moment seeing that beautiful word "EXIT". Exit meant freedom. Exit meant safety. Exit meant-Carrie gasped when she heard a crash behind them. She instinctively turned her head to look when Norman yelled they shouldn't look.<br/><br/>"Right...You're right."<br/><br/>Carrie replied, nodding her head. She quickly went through the door Norman held opened for her.<br/><br/>"Always forward, never back."<br/><br/>She said, repeating a word of advice her grandmother had told her to do when life didn't go your way. Of course, dear Grandma never had to try to escape a mall that was under attack by crazy people eating other people.<br/><br/>"Always forward, never back. Always forward, never back."<br/><br/>Carrie repeated a few times to herself. She needed to say it out loud to remind herself that and saying it out loud was also calming her nerves a little. Not much, but she wasn't going to have a panic attack in the hallway. She was going to need a whole lot of caffeine to feel better after she was safely away from this mall. Her blue eyes shifted up and then down at the option presented to them at the stairwell.<br/><br/>"Yeah, there should be lots of cops."<br/><br/>She replied to Norman. There had to be cops, probably most of the police force of Mahwah would be here, trying to stop whatever the hell you classified this attack as. She heard the thuds and told Norman.<br/><br/>"Let's go down. I want to go where there are cops, cops have guns."<br/><br/>Hopefully lots of guns and riot gear. Maybe tanks....Okay, maybe not tanks. Surely whatever this was was just an isolated attack. Probably a group of stoners high on bath salts or whatever people liked to try to get a high with. Carrie didn't personally know since she had never been into those type of parties or tried it herself. It would seem silly to expect the military to come out with their tanks to put an end to this but surely the cops would be here. Carrie would feel much safer when they were with the cops.<br/><br/>Carrie went down the steps as fast as she could. The urge to run was strong but it was stupid to run down a bunch of stairs. She didn't want to trip and fall. Break something or be ate by one of those things. She was breathing heavily when she and Norman reached the ground floor. For a brief moment she thought she would just be able to get to her car and drive the far away from here. That naive  thought crashed and burned when she saw the traffic jam. There was no way to leave here with a car and that was probably a good ithing. The monsters were trying to break into the cars. It was a scene of utter chaos. She looked at Norman when he asked if they were walking.<br/><br/>"We don't have a choice. Let's go before those things see us."<br/><br/>'Those things' seemed pretty distracted by all the noise of the traffic jam but Carrie didn't want to take any chances.<br/><br/>"I don't hear any gunfire. Do you?"<br/><br/>Carrie whispered to Norman. They were on the ground level, shouldn't the cops be shooting those things for attacking people?