The rules book. Such as it is.
Something terrible has reached the mall. You and your friends leg it through the shops grabbing whatever's to hand, barricade yourselves in the store cupboard, and hold out until dawn. That's it. That's the game.
No reflexes required. The game moves in rounds, like a board game: each player takes two actions, then the threat has its go at the door. Nothing happens until you've had your turn, so you can argue tactics, make tea, or panic at your own pace.
Everyone plays on their own phone, tablet or laptop. Same sofa or different continents, it works either way.
One of you signs up and hosts. You pick the threat (rabid rabbits, errant robots, worse), the difficulty, and whether you're holding out until dawn or fighting the horde down to nothing. The game hands you a six-letter code.
Everyone else just follows your link, types the code and a nickname, and they're in. Guests don't need an account. Whatever expansion packs the host owns, the whole cupboard gets to play with.
When the host says go, everyone makes a mad dash through the shops. You don't choose what you grab. Each player ends up with a hand of items, dealt like cards: eight on easy, six on medium, four on hard. Could be a shotgun. Could be some milk. The store cupboard gets stocked with communal odds and ends too. Then the door slams, and the night begins.
Each round, every player gets two actions. Spend them on any of these:
When everyone's done, the threat plays a card. The barricade soaks up the damage, and anything left over hits one of you. The attacks get heavier as the night wears on, so a quiet first round is not a promise of anything.
Some pairs make a named thing: a carrot plus a bag of nails is a Carrotten, obviously. Anything else combines into an improvised horror with both items' strengths. Experiment. The mall rewards imagination.
In survive until dawn, you win by holding the door for six, eight or ten rounds, depending on difficulty. In defeat the threat, you win by fighting their deck down to empty. Either way, if everyone in the cupboard hits zero health, the mall wins. Downed friends can't act, but the survivors play on. No pressure.
Sound is off until you tap the speaker toggle in game, so nobody gets ambushed by a soundtrack at work. If the host has voice chat set up you'll see a Join voice button, and then you can shout at each other properly.
Got a code from a friend? Head back to the entrance and punch it in.