<div align="center">(http://th01.deviantart.net/fs6/PRE/i/2005/019/c/6/Snow_1_by_kaorukun.jpg)</div><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;"><tt class="bbc_tt">Thursday, 22 November 2012, 17:45<br/>6 hours, 15 minutes to Black Friday</tt></span><br/><br/><tt class="bbc_tt"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">The streets of Galloway Heights were empty as people sat around at home, enjoying the company of their loved ones.  That is, except for the unfortunate few who were made to work over the holiday setting up for the infamous Black Friday.  The preceding years were nightmares, and everyone was on edge as they prepared.  Decorations were being set up, lights strung, displays set.  The mall was closed to all but the employees and the few last minute delivery vans making their runs.<br/><br/>One such delivery van, marked simply <em>On Time Delivery</em>, pulled into the delivery area of the underground parking garage.  The security officer, bundled up tightly due to the cold, checked that the delivery was for a store here in the mall, then ushered them inside.  The two men inside nodded and drove through, pulling into the loading zone.  It was empty, since everyone who would normally oversee the area was at home or in the main part of the mall setting up.  The men had no problem unloading the canisters, simple blue ones that didn't appear ominous in any way.<br/><br/>They had to move quickly to get set up, the timers inside already set.  They moved them through the mall, stopping only to set up the cardboard disguises around each one before continuing.  They were unopposed as they moved the fake displays to the front and outside, where the crowds would be assembling prior to the doors opening.  After getting set up, they stopped to have someone authorize their visit, then headed out.  They were in their van heading out as the clock on their dash read 6:05PM.</span></tt><br/><br/><tt class="bbc_tt"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">Thursday, 22 November 2012, 22:50<br/>1 hour, 10 minutes to Black Friday</span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">Everyone scheduled to work on Black Friday who could be there was already in place within the mall.  Every store was open, everyone excited.  Security guards in blue windbreakers with yellow SECURITY marked on the back stood ready to help contain the crowd, along with quite a few local police and sheriff deputies.  Store managers and owners both sipped coffee and made sure everyone was there, setting up last minute deals, merchandise and other key items.  Employees worked diligently to make sure they were doing what needed to be done.<br/><br/>At exactly 23:00, 1 hour to go, the two canisters disguised as advertisements began to go off.  Their internal timers triggered the release of an airborne virus, seeping slowly through the crowd's feet as they passed.  As the cold set in, it changed chemically and began to rise, up into the lungs of the first victims.  At first, it was a simple cough.  Then they began to get tired.  Some fell asleep.  When they got up... they were turned.  The canisters had been placed at the edge of the crowd's expected limit, so the fringes got hit first.  With nowhere else to go, the crowd was trapped between the doors and the new zombies.<br/><br/>As realization sank in, people began to panic.</span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">Friday, 23 November 2012, 00:00<br/><strong><em>Black Friday</em></strong></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 12pt;">An incident several years prior during Black Friday had resulted in an employee getting trampled to death.  Ever since, fearful of lawsuits, the doors on Black Friday were designed to unlock and open automatically, to let the crowd stream in.  The panic seemed worse this year as people flooded in, screaming and running at full tilt.  Expecting such a reaction, employees braced for the oncoming tidal wave of people.<br/><br/>People of all types flooded the stores, but not by choice.  Many had been pushed out of the way by others as the crowd expanded to fill the available space and keep going.  One woman was shoved so hard she fell through a display case, the glass cutting up her face and arms.  People already infected kept going as they began to turn, helped by loved ones until they turned and then began to bite.  Police, expecting chaos, found themselves facing a crowd that was covered in blood and getting bloodier.<br/><br/>As the police surged in to diffuse the situation, the zombies began to get into the stores.  They were fast, and they were mean.  As one jumped up on a counter, covered in blood, his eyes locked onto the young woman behind the counter.  She screamed as he reached for her, grabbing at her clothes, ripping them open and leaving her breasts to bounce free as his teeth found her throat.  Her screams gave way to gurgling as her throat entered his mouth.  She fell back onto the floor, her bare breasts coated in her own blood as she convulsed.<br/><br/>An officer, seeing someone getting their arm bitten into, fired his pistol into the zombie.  It howled in rage, staggering under the .44 rounds slamming into its body.  It tried to grab the officer, eyes red with rage, when it collapsed.  The officer, stunned, was then caught by an infected woman and had his ear bitten off, collapsing in pain as another officer beat the woman's head in with a nightstick.  The officers were unprepared, and many disappeared into the insanity, overwhelmed.  The few that escaped did so by running with the fleeing crowd, though occasionally shooting back at the oncoming horde.<br/><br/>As chaos spread, survivors began to take refuge in stores by yanking down the security cages and locking them, despite the screams of non-infected to be let in.  A man, desperate to secure safety for himself and his son, begged the frightened employees until he was set upon by the zombies.  They literally ripped him to pieces, him and his son, until they were nothing but pieces on the floor.  Some of the zombies tried to reach for the employees trapped inside, but others took off after the movement of escaping innocents.<br/><br/>The madness had begun.</span></tt>