The Mall Goes On

Chapter 9
“Popcorn, Red Licorice & Goodbye”
     The morning and then the lunch rushes were without any distinguishing characteristics.
     Nothing turned into any distasteful animals or exploded or anything out of the way like that.
     That did little to settle TD’s mind.
     Once you had seen the things he had seen, you don’t feel a great deal of relief because a Rueben sandwich didn’t become a crocodile and eat the person that was supposed to eat it.
     It just lets you sit on the razor’s edge a little longer.
     He had his assistant Duane take over the bar about 2 in the afternoon and after a quick check up of the restaurant side of the business, he chose to take a walk.
     The Mall wasn’t empty, but it wasn’t doing the kind of business that would signal a recovery either.
     At this point he wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
     At least it gave him some time to think.
     At this point he wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
     He looked up and found himself in front of The Popcorn Shoppe.
     Topzepopoulous was bitching in Greek to no one in particular. TD had heard it before, but it was somehow comforting.
     “Are you going to be here at the end of the month?” Mikle asked him, long before he was aware that the Popcorn merchant even knew he was in the area.
     “Huh?” TD stammered.
     “The bank is planning to move out of the mall, and so is the movie theatre,” Topzepopoulous said, “And I wondered if you were still going to be here.”
     “I’m here for the long run,” TD smiled, and hoped that would be mirrored in his old buddy’s face. It wasn’t
     “I can’t keep enough product,” He said sadly, “I’m okay on the weekends, but during the week there just aren’t enough people to make stocking up worth the time and the waste.”
     Jackson understood. His stock was more constant, if it didn’t move today it wouldn’t go stale. Popcorn and red licorice were not like that.
     “This should have been the perfect place, “ his friend went on, “They did the market research, the location is right. We had the right mix of shops…”
     “Except, no one needs 12 different shoe stores,” TD offered.
     “What about Star Jones?” The Greek smiled back.
     “Maybe 10, but even she wouldn’t need 12 shoe stores in one mall.”
     “Us neither!”
     The two men smiled. It was good. They had needed some lightness. The economic discussions always turned dire.
     “Well, I gotta get back,” TD said.
     “Here,” Mikle said, offering a handful of fresh red licorice, “For that beautiful daughter of yours. I know it is her favorite.”
     TD took it and said, “How much?”
     “I’ll come by for a free drink later.”
     “First one is on the house, the second one is on me.”
     “The third one will be an Alka-Seltzer.”
     They smiled at each other, and then went back on their way.
     It was the last time TD would see his friend alive.

Chapter 10
“Larry, Mo & Curly”

     TD continued his walk around the Mall.
     If he smoked, this would have been the time to do it. But he didn’t so he kept his hands in his pockets and walked.
     He was coming up to the Mall graveyard. That’s what they called the shell of the old “B.J. Tuppence” department store.      Tuppences had, around the turn of the last century been a catalog store that sold about everything. Then in the 80’s it had dropped almost everything but clothes from its brick and mortar stores, and that was when they saw the chain begin to implode.
     The move into this mall was seen as a hopeful sign that they were back and going to pull out of the nosedive that bad choices had put them in.
     No such luck. For two months now the empty storefront was the biggest blemish on the face of the merchants who believed in the possibility of this place.
     He got ready to make his ritual bow to Larry, Mo and Curly. They were mannequins who were left in the window when the chain slunk off into the night. You would think they could have used them somewhere, but maybe they were just forgotten.
     Larry was one of those fashion guys with solid plaster hair and an unjustifiably jaunting air. Mo was a lady who had looked almost fetching when she still had a wig and clothes. Curly was the joke, as he had no hair left (and a chip off his nose that, it seemed, appeared from no where).
     As TD turned the corner to look at Tuppences he saw something he never expected. Larry, Mo & Curly were fully dressed! They were dressed as Clowns.
     He wondered if Mall Management had gotten into the store and tried to liven things up.
     Then the laughter began.
     The clowns were laughing. Not in a happy, “see, we’re not really closed and ain’t that grand” way, but in a “you don’t want to come into this Funhouse at the Carnival” kind of way.
     He caught movement out of the corner of his eye.
     There were the naked children again.
     Actually, not children as he had first perceived them, but naked thin, pale and very small people.
     They didn’t have the kind of “baby fat” physique, but ganglier more emaciated small adult forms.
     They were leading children out of the mall.
     The laughing got louder, and then the glass erupted.
     The clowns were moving, and coming at him.
     They were alive, and they were not friendly.
     Before he could get his hands out of his pockets they had knocked him to the floor.
     The red circles of their mouths were full of sharp pointy teeth.
     TD struggled to get his hands free, and when he did he flipped Mo off him. When the clown/mannequin hit the wall it exploded, became a cloud of black dust and reformed into something else.
     While he stood and kicked Larry to the wall (he wasn’t any heavier than his original plaster form, so he wasn’t much of a weight) he saw that Mo was now some sort of demonic Mylar balloon animal.
     TD used Curly to pop Mo.
     Larry rolled towards TD in his new form. TD gazed incredulously at the salivating, growling big wheel that bore down on him.
     Once again Curly was his weapon of choice. The pair flew off into the distance, as Mo’s new form approached.
     Now the clown was the giant Rat-Bat-Spider thing that TD remembered from the film “The Angry Red Planet.” He had seen the movie as a child, and while most of it was nothing, the creature did unsettle him.
     He ran.
     The ratty jaws ran with drool and the spider legs skittered across the carpet after him.
     The two other clowns had taken the same form, they joined their former comrade and chased the former football star.
     It was at this moment TD decided to resign from the Merchant’s Association.

Chapter 11
“When You Are Invited To Hell, Do You Bring The Wine?”

     The cell phone in his pocket buzzed.
     If this was someone trying to sell him something he was gong to kill them.
     “TD?” The shaky voice of Molly was on the other end.
     “Baby,” Jackson answered, hoping he sounded stronger than he felt, “What’s going on?”
     He looked and knew he had outdistanced the monsters, but he didn’t know for how long.
     “We just got attacked!” Molly shouted.
     “Who was it?” He said, with anger now tingeing his alarm.
     “Not who,” she said, “It was a flock of Pink Flamingos from the lawn and garden outlet!”
     “Damn, “ he spit, “This sounds like some kind of nightmare. Are you guys alright?”
     “Yes,” she assured him, “Barry Shipbern had a gun and got most of them. Shannon even dropped a heavy cast iron pot on one.”
     “Shipbern from the bank?”
     “Uh-huh.”
     “Listen to me. Have Barry take you and Shannon and anybody else you have there into the vault of the bank. It’s outfitted with fresh air, in case anyone got locked in by mistake.”
     “How did you know…”
     “He was showing it to me the other day. When there’s no business you’ve got to talk about something.”
     “Guess so,” came the unsure reply.
     “There is also food in case the place was being robbed and the employees were locked in there for a while.”
     “Where are you?”
     “I’m okay, but there is something really screwy going on in this mall and I’m going to try to get the police. You guys stay safe till I can get there, okay.”
     As he spoke a ravenous snuggly stuffed bear was edging towards him.
     “Okay, but you don’t try to be a hero!”
     “You know me,” he laughed.
     “That’s what I’m talking about,” she said with little humor.
     “Get safe!” he said, and then slammed the bear all the way across the open space to smash against the far wall.
     “Okay.”
     “And, baby,” he said. “I love you.”
     “Love you too,” she told him, “Talk to you soon.”
     She hung up and he now saw four of those rat-bat-spider things on the far side of the hall.
     “I guess snuggly took the hint” he thought to himself.
     He looked up and realized he had taken refuge in the doorway of the closed Wine Chalet.
     The place had closed, but was scheduled to have a going out of business sale next week.
     Wine Chalet was the classy moniker they had put on the door of what was, in reality, and upscale liquor store.
     And what did every liquor store have behind the counter?
     Unlike the windows that fronted on the parking lot, these windows were without bars.
     He grabbed the trashcan from the corner and smashed in the window.
     Jumping inside, he rushed to the cash register and there he found the shotgun he had anticipated.
     It was lucky that he found it so quickly, since the monsters were right through the window just after him.
     With a roar the gun blew the face off the first one, and it wafted away.
     He leveled the barrel at the second, but somehow he missed it.
     Lucky again, he hit a wall full of alcohol. The bottled burst into flame and coated the creatures before it, who scrambled, screaming out into the hallway.
     TD picked up the extinguisher and put out the fire before it spread.
     A cursory check found one box for shells under the counter. The bad news was that there were only three more shells in the box.
     He put the shells in his pocket and walked out onto the mall.
     Two of the monsters were flaming piles of yuck.
The third was only singed, and was moving in his direction.
     It moved so fast he didn’t have time to load the gun, so he used it as a bat.
     He hit one of the front legs of the beast and it snapped like kindling. With a second swing he broke the other front leg and the thing fell forward onto the ground, its other legs not strong enough to support its large trunk.
     With the butt of the rifle he smashed its head.
     The thing disintegrated and the mist swirled off.
     Now, before anything else comes for him, he ran to the doors.
     When he hit the door he got another new, unpleasant surprise. It were as though he had hit an electrical fence.
     With an explosive “zat” of sound and light, he was hurled back.
     He looked around to see if anyone was doing it to him, or if it was the door itself.
     Again, he sprang at the door.
     Once again he was zapped three feet backward.
     He wasn’t going anywhere.
     Dazed, sitting on the floor, he tried to gather his senses.
     His first sense was sound.
     He began to hear them.
     Different sizes, different directions, but similar sounds he heard.
     Growling.
     None of it was human.
     None of it was happy.
     Almost all of it sounded hungry.
     He slipped two shells into the shotgun.
     Time to kill some evil teddy bears!

(no subject)

Chapter 12
“The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of”

     TD wondered where all these monsters were coming from, and what might be shaping them.
     They all seemed to be from our childhood nightmares.
     He had to stop and smack Mr. Toad and a Weasel from “Wind in the Willows.’ They returned as Speedy Alka-seltzer and Tony the Tiger. He dispatched them likewise and they didn’t return right away.
     After a few moments. He came upon the body of Topzepopoulous.
     Now he was going to cry. And now he was going to get mad.
     That old man had never hurt anyone.
     He didn’t deserve to die like that, with horror on his face and neck broken.
     The thought leapt into his mind that he wondered what he had done with that red licorice?
     Then a roar came from behind him.
“Put ‘em up! Put ‘em up!”
     He turned in time to shoot the cowardly lion full in the face. The large creature fell to the ground without a sound. Then the body broke into a thousand wiggly worms and slimed away.
     “Hadn’t seen that before,” he thought.
     Maybe the worms were the new form?
     He saw the exit doors by the Popcorn Shoppe.
     With a moment of genuine creativity he reached past the body of his Greek friend and retrieved a bag of un-popped popcorn.
     Taking a handful, he tossed it at the doors.
     With a spark there was a flash and popped kernels of popcorn flew back from the doorway.
     Without a thought he murmured, “Cool.”
     He put a handful of un-popped in his right front pocket for further use testing exits. He then reached over and took some licorice ropes to chew on.
     “Good stuff, Mick,” He told his dead pal, “Always the best.”
     He walked on, and resumed his thought process.
     It was like these things were actually brought up out of our dreams. They couldn’t just be happening.
     He then remembered.
     All the other things he had seen fell into that same category. The demonic toys, evil clowns, invisible voices, black cats and rats, it was all things that had been in nightmares.
     He wondered what kids feared Pink Flamingoes?      Maybe just those that had seen the John Waters film.
     Even the naked children/small people were right! They looked like UFO aliens! How many people had bad dreams about them?
     Okay.
     Now all this was starting to make sense.
     The pattern was making sense, but not sense that touched the real world at any time.
     Why were nightmares coming to life in this Mall?
     Maybe the Mall builders had signed a pact with some evil entity that…hated Tony the Tiger?
     He took another bite of rope and turned to the sound of the oncoming growl.
     He let a shot go and dispatched the little red monster from Sesame Street. He couldn’t remember its name.
     He put the last shell in the shotgun. He was going to have to use it sparingly. There were no more, and there were no gun stores in the mall. Tuppences had had some sporting goods, but they were gone. And since they were here, no other sporting goods stores had sought them out.
     Only shoe stores.
     Maybe he could throw some Nikes at Godzilla when he came around the corner.
     A second later he cursed himself for his own stupidity.
     A familiar roar came from the Food Court.
     “Where’s King Kong when I need him?”
     The giant green lizard turned the corner and stomped towards TD.
     The thing’s tiny arms flailed, and Jackson recognized the movement. He was about to breath atomic flames.
     He leveled the shotgun and took a shot.
     What did he have to lose?
     Turns out, what someone was afraid of wasn’t the monster from the movies, but the balloon outside of a car lot.
     A helium filled balloon.
     The explosion was massive.
     TD Jackson flew across the mall.
     His fall was broken by displays in the Linen store.
     But, then, this is where you came in.

Chapter 13
“Been There, Done That!”

     His cell phone rang again.
     “Honey?” came the voice on the line.
     “Molly?” he responded.
     “We’re safe in the vault. But it took a while to get a cell phone that would work from in here.” She told him.
     “I thought Barry said there was an emergency land line in there.”
     “It’s not working, for some reason,” she told him, with concern edging into her voice, “None of the land lines were working once this stuff started.”
     “I’m sure it’s involved with whatever kind of electrical charge is making the doors impassable. Did anyone call the police?”
     “The cells only work now and then in here, and nothing outside of the mall seems able to pick us up. We’re alone in this.”
     “Damn,” he thought.
     “We’ll be okay. I’ll figure out what is causing this and then I’ll come and get you out.”
     “Be careful,” she begged.
     “Don’t worry,” he reassured, “I don’t plan to do anything heroic, just survive and figure this out.”
     She started to say something, but he stopped her.
     “Honey, I got to go.”
     He tossed the phone down and answered the attack of the large purple dinosaur that jumped at him.
     With undue vigor he bashed the thing to death.
     It became a copy of some member of a boy band (he recognized the type if not the actual person) and he smacked it down again.
     This time it wafted out of view.
     “Aw, just when I was enjoying it,” he muttered.
     At that moment a throbbing in his side took the humor out of him.
     The pain reminded his body of all the other pain.
     He didn’t have time to think about that as the Frankenstein Monster, Dracula and the Wolf man lurched out of the video store at him.
     Before he could move Janey Milgrain brought a shovel down on Dracula’s head and the vampire faded away.
     “Janey?” he said as he was surprised that the 40 something shoe sales lady was here fighting monsters.
     “Shut up and kill these bastards!” She shouted.
     She took the Wolf man’s head off with one lopping movement of the shovel.
     At the same time TD put his iron bar right through the monster and it fell backwards through the plate glass window.
     As the pair of them panted in their victory, trying to get their breath back, a smile came over each of them. It was good to find someone else out here.
     “Have you found a way out yet,” He asked, and then realized what a dumb question that was, “Of course, that’s why your still here fighting monsters.”
     She was suddenly serious.
     “There is no ‘out.’”
     “Huh?” he asked, putting as much intellect into the ‘huh’ is as possible with such a word.
     She took his hand and led him to the nearest door.
     “Don’t touch it,” she waned, “Just look!”
     He thought about showing her the popcorn trick, and then he looked beyond the door.
     It took his breath away as well as any battle he had fought in the madness.
     About a hundred yards out into the parking lot, the parking lot just…ceased.
     Like it had been sliced out of some kind of Mall cake, the asphalt just ended.
     Beyond that he saw stars and a whole lot of black.
     He drew nearer the door, cautious not to touch, and scanned the sky.
     About where the moon should be in a night sky he saw something that shouldn’t be there.
     A blue-green ball with a moon at its right, was barely recognizable.
     “Holy shi…” He began.
     “Yes, that’s Earth.” Janey said, “And we’re farther away from it than we were when I first saw it, about an hour ago.”
     Every thing got deadly quiet for a moment.
     That was when he heard it.
     “Listen,” he told her.
     “What?” was her irritated reply.
     “Listen,” he said and put his ear near the crack between the doors.
     There was a definite hiss.
     “The air,” he whispered.
     “Hu-huh?’
     “It’s leaking out!”
     They were in outer space, moving away from home, and the air was leaking.
     The day just got worse.