Day 3: Death by Vanity II

Clark entered the beauty salon. At first he could see that many of the mirrors on the walls were broken, several beauty products were scattered on the floor and, because of the disorder of the place, he could get the idea that the salon was open when the massacre occurred.

It was only a few small drops of blood that directed him to an adjoining room of the salon, as that room was divided by glass windows that could be moved to the right. Each window had posters of models promoting cosmetics, and it was not unusual for him to see Mia Westerfield in some of those posters promoting a number of her own brand of products. There were also several photographs of women with different haircuts and styles.

With much disgust Clark approached a total of eight of those salon chairs. What caught the man's attention was not exactly the chairs themselves, for they were quite nice pink leather chairs. What caught Clark's attention were the bodies of the women sitting on those chairs. He could see how each of them were tortured in different ways. What looked like common salon equipment became tools of human perversion. Clark was startled when he saw how one of those women had a hair straightener plugged into the power, embedded in her mouth. By the time he touched the woman she started to move, clearly having died she came back as a zombie that had her mouth completely burned, in fact there was a particular smell of meat being cooked.

—What the fuck..

Clark saw the other corpses, each of them had their hands tied with belts to the ends of chairs. The women died in different ways, some had burns while others had multiple cuts that were made with overly sharp scissors, which wouldn't have been surprising to him considering where he was.

One thing that certainly captivated him was that the women's hair was impeccable, as the women's hair had been dyed in overly bright colors and, they had undoubtedly particular hairstyles, as if a signature of the killer was to leave them well presented.

When he approached the eighth woman he noticed that she did not have her throat open like the others and that her hair appeared to be half-styled, as the woman still had her natural hair color. However she did show different cuts on her arms and face, plus she had a strange makeup on her face, almost as if she was being humiliated. When he touched her shoulder she began to scream, imploring Clark to stop hurting her.

Clark immediately covered her mouth and slapped her face, followed by him yelling at the woman.

—Shut the fuck up! Shut the fuck up! Shut up or whoever did this to you will hear us, or those fucking zombies will come. Fuck... fuck, I've got to get you out of here....

Clark noticed that the woman was tied up with several belts that were intertwined and, seeing that he wasn't going to be able to waste time removing one by one, with the use of a pair of scissors he began to cut the leather, using his strength to tear the belts to free the woman. She immediately started to cry and tried to run to the exit but when they heard another girl crying and screaming, Clark grabbed the woman he had just freed from behind and took her to the back of that area of the room which was a waiting room that also had large windows that did not allow a good view of the other side.

—Shut up, if you make a noise they will find us and kill us —Clark ordered the woman.  —Shut the fuck up, woman, or we'll both die. Shut the fuck up or I'll give you another reason to fucking cry!

The woman held back her tears as she covered her mouth with both of her hands and began to pray in her head.

Clark opened the window slightly to observe how unbelievably it was another woman who kidnapped the others and tortured them. Seeing that the woman she had kidnapped was not calming down, she picked up a hair dryer and hit her over the head with it, leaving her quite dazed.

—But where did the other bitch go? —She asked herself as she carried the body of her new acquisition and placed her on another chair and proceeded to tie her up with some scarves on the chair.

Clark watched as the woman was busy preparing some kind of liquid over a sink and, when she finished, she poured the thing over one of the corpses. Clark was surprised when he saw smoke coming out of the woman's face, which began to move since being a zombie she got "activated" and her skin began to peel off.

Kennedy was dumbfounded as he drew his gun and, upon seeing the woman take a hair straightener and stick it to the face of the newly kidnapped girl, her screams of pain being the product of torture. Kennedy came out of hiding and pointed his gun at her.

—Stop right there, you crazy bitch! Stop that shit right now before I shoot you!

Kennedy looked quite serious, unafraid to point the gun straight at the woman who, in fright, dropped the hair straightener.

—I don't accept men in my salon! This place is reserved for women only.

—I don't give a fuck! Look what you've done to them! They were people you fucking psycho!

—I've made them beautiful! They were going to die anyway, they should at least leave with a nice hairstyle and a make-up, don't you understand? They're doomed... we're all doomed!

—That's no excuse to go around killing people, you stupid bitch! These women didn't do anything to you!

—I'm doing them a favor by sparing them the suffering of living their whole lives waiting for the moment of their deaths! They should be thanking me!

—Thank you? YOU? How could you say that without blinking? You torture them to death! You are no savior! No one asked you to do this shit show or whatever this fucking nonsense is!

—Please shoot her! —The girl with the burned face looked at Clark and implored him.

—Shut up, stupid girl! —The woman took a pair of scissors and was ready to bury them in the woman's throat, but Clark was quick and, without any mercy, shot her in the shoulder, causing the woman to throw her scissors to the ground.

—Help her untie herself! What are you waiting for? Hurry up!

Clark ordered the first woman he released who immediately approached the other civilian and tried to remove the belts by tearing them with a pair of scissors.

Clark saw that in the sink was the corrosive liquid that the psychopath used to melt the zombie woman's face. Clark showed no mercy as he poured the same liquid on the woman's body and she began to scream as she touched her face and removed pieces of her skin.

The woman started screaming as loud as she could, so this attracted the zombies. Clark shot the seven dead women since it was a way that he could end their second martyrdom, and so bring the zombies attention.

Clark told the civilians to follow him and not to leave his side. By the time they left the room and were far enough away, Clark could see some zombies entering the premises and, the screams of the woman with the melted face intensified, so he thought that she was being devoured.

Kennedy was shooting at the approaching dead and, he gave priority to the women to go up the stairs to the floors first so he could cover their backs. Seeing that they were being pursued, Clark grabbed the burned face woman to carry her while the other survivor ran as fast as she could.

Great was Clark's relief when he saw the zombies in front of him being pulverized by the snipers who were helping him from the roof, facilitating the escort.

Kennedy had both survivors climb onto the roof of the shoe store which connected to a stairway to the roof of Grand Mont Plaza, so they immediately climbed up to the roof of the plaza, being greeted by civilians who were surprised to see the women with disfigured faces.