The Lazy Chronicles: Apartment of the Apocalypse-Chapter 63: The Literary Siege

The crash of broken glass and the moaning of the undead sent a ripple of panic through the library. Survivors darted between shelves, grabbing whatever makeshift weapons they could find—broken chair legs, fire pokers, and even a sharp-edged ruler wielded by an elderly woman with surprising gusto.

"Great," Mallory muttered, hoisting her trusty frying pan. "I finally find a group of nerds, and they’re about to get eaten. Classic Mallory luck."

Greg, crouched behind an overturned table, waved frantically. "Mallory, focus! We need to block the main entrance!"

"I’m busy having an existential crisis!" she shot back, but jogged over anyway, her slippers slapping loudly against the floor.

The zombies poured in through a shattered window, their mangled bodies tangling in the curtains. One particularly ambitious corpse, wearing a tattered prom dress, got stuck halfway through, flailing like a fish on land.

"Is that... glitter?" Mallory squinted, incredulous. "Why is there always glitter in these situations?"

Alex joined her, baseball bat in hand. "Maybe she was a theater kid in her past life."

Mallory snorted. "Figures. Even in death, they’re dramatic."

The two worked in tandem, Mallory swinging her frying pan with surprising accuracy while Alex jabbed at the slower zombies with his bat. The metallic clang of the pan echoed through the room, each blow punctuated by Mallory’s increasingly ridiculous commentary.

"Take that, you walking dumpster fire!" Clang.

"Bet you wish you’d flossed when you were alive, huh?" Clang.

"Greg! This one looks like you before coffee!"

"Hey!" Greg shouted from across the room, where he was valiantly trying to push a bookshelf against the broken window. "I resemble that remark!"

Meanwhile, Altair and Vanessa had taken up positions near the front door, where the heaviest onslaught was coming. Altair swung a makeshift hammer with precision, his movements fluid and efficient, while Vanessa hurled encyclopedias like oversized frisbees.

"Knowledge is power!" Vanessa yelled, launching a particularly heavy volume at an approaching zombie.

The book hit its target square in the head, sending it toppling backward into its companions.

Mallory doubled over with laughter. "I can’t believe you just said that!"

Vanessa smirked, grabbing another book. "If I’m going down, I’m going down punning."

Despite the chaos, the group managed to hold their ground. The barricades held, the Page-Turners proved surprisingly resourceful, and even Derek begrudgingly admitted that Mallory’s frying pan technique was "not completely useless."

---

Hours later, the horde finally thinned. The surviving zombies, now little more than twitching piles of goo, littered the library floor.

Mallory wiped her frying pan on a curtain and surveyed the damage. The room was a mess—books strewn everywhere, furniture overturned, and Clara glaring at a broken lamp like it had personally betrayed her.

"Well," Mallory said, clapping her hands together. "That was fun. Who’s up for round two?"

"Don’t," Vanessa warned, still holding an encyclopedia.

"Relax, book warrior," Mallory said, grinning. "I’m kidding. Kind of."

Greg plopped down beside her, looking utterly exhausted. "Remind me why we ever left your magical apartment?"

Mallory tilted her head. "Because someone," she said, pointing dramatically at him, "wanted to find ’adventure’ and ’other survivors.’"

Greg groaned. "Never again."

Clara, who had been patching up a cut on her arm, approached with an exasperated expression. "I hate to admit it," she said, glancing at Mallory, "but your frying pan saved a lot of people tonight."

"Aw, thanks," Mallory said, pretending to polish her nails on her shirt. "I do what I can."

Derek, standing nearby with a sour look on his face, muttered something under his breath.

"What was that, Scarface?" Mallory asked sweetly.

"I said don’t let it go to your head," he snapped.

"Too late," Alex said, grinning.

The group shared a rare moment of laughter, the tension easing for the first time in days. Even Derek seemed to soften, though he still avoided making eye contact with Mallory.

---

Later that night, as the survivors cleaned up and reinforced the barricades, Mallory wandered over to a small, dimly lit alcove. Blinky 2.0 skittered along beside her, its glowing blue eyes darting around like a curious puppy.

"Where were you during the fight?" Mallory asked, nudging the spider-robot with her foot. "Hiding, huh? Some pet you are."

Blinky emitted a series of beeps that sounded suspiciously like indignation.

"Yeah, yeah," she said, rolling her eyes. "You’re lucky you’re cute."

As she rummaged through a pile of books, she came across a worn, leather-bound journal. The name "Clara" was scrawled across the front in faded ink.

Curiosity piqued, Mallory flipped it open. Inside were pages filled with meticulous notes about the apocalypse, the Page-Turners, and—most interestingly—a series of maps detailing nearby locations.

"What’s this?" she muttered, squinting at a hand-drawn sketch of what appeared to be an old mall.

Clara’s voice startled her. "That’s where we think the cure might be."

Mallory looked up to see the red-haired woman standing behind her, arms crossed.

"The cure?" Mallory asked, raising an eyebrow.

Clara nodded. "It’s just a theory, but there’s a pharmaceutical lab hidden inside the mall. We think they were working on something before everything went to hell."

Mallory frowned. "And you haven’t gone there because...?"

"Because it’s suicide," Derek said, appearing out of nowhere like an annoying ghost. "The mall’s overrun with zombies."

"Isn’t everywhere?" Mallory quipped.

Derek ignored her. "We’ve lost too many people already. It’s not worth the risk."

Mallory glanced at Alex, Greg, and Vanessa, who had gathered nearby, clearly eavesdropping.

"Well," she said, closing the journal with a snap. "Looks like we just found our next adventure."

Vanessa groaned. "Why can’t you ever pick something easy, like finding a cozy cabin in the woods?" freeωebnovēl.c૦m

"Where’s the fun in that?" Mallory replied, grinning.

Greg sighed. "I knew you were going to say that."

New novel 𝓬hapters are published on (f)re𝒆web(n)ovel.com