"You could have phrased that differently," I said as I took the last step off the stairs leading from the tower and found myself back on the showroom floor.
"Patterson, I have no delusion about our chances of survival, even if we succeed in restoring power, we'll likely be standing right underneath this creature when power comes back on." Allison said as she made her way onto the last step, one hand on her cane, the other gripping the handrail while Paul's keys, keys to virtually every lock in the building save the ones that could take the store out of Riot Mode, jingled in her hand.
A voice crackled on my hip.
"And that's why I accepted my role of disarming the giant gas bomb before Allison could drag me to my death." Hissed the voice of Arthur over the walkie talkie.
"Those are for official use only, Arthur, please refrain from..."
I reached down to my belt and turned the dial all the way down on the radio.
"So what, this is aa suicide mission, we die so that others can live?"
"No, Patterson, we're going on a suicide mission because I'd rather have my neck snapped quickly then die gasping when Arthur fucks up and released the horrors of the Somme on the deli aisle."
"That's the spirit, dearie!" Said the kindly old voice, who had hurried up to stand between Allison and I as we walked.
"And did we really need to drag Maggie into this?" I spoke.
"You told me to ask for volunteers." Allison said.
"It's no worries dearie, I'll tag along, not sure how useful I can be, but I do still need to get my steps in, and I doubt there'll be much of that staying up in the break room."
I sighed and looked around. A well trained eye can adjust pretty well to darkness. I remembered as a child walking alone in the woods at night, holding a flashlight put certain things into sharp focus, but anything beyond the beam was hopelessly undiscernible. When I was twelve, I tried turning the flashlight off, closing my eyes, and letting them adjust. When I opened my eyes, I could see everything around me, the trees, the foliage, and since it was a path I knew, my mind could fill in the blanks. I started walking home at night all the time without a flashlight and would avoid any roads with streetlights so I could maintain my night vision.
Here, there was no starlight, no moonlight, no light pollution from a nearby city, and I'd spent so little time in here that my brain didn't know which direction I was facing, more a less what was around me, and we'd all but groped our way down the stairs after Arthur and Sam had left with the one working flashlight and two of the busted ones 'just in case' as Arthur had annoyingly insisted.
"We need light." I said "Allison, ideas?"
"Probably sporting goods." She said, if we make our way there, we can find a flashlight and batteries."
"There's a flashlight on my phone if we can get to the breakroom at the front of the building," I said "Maybe Paul can give us the key."
Suddenly, a light flashed in front of me, and filled the aisle with light. I was surprised to see that Allison was still next to me and was also surprised by this sudden development.
"Oh, I'm sorry children." Maggie said as the light suddenly turned away, "I thought, sure, the powers out, but the mobility carts are battery powered, so maybe they still work, and they do?"
"How many are there?" Allison asked, lowering her hand from her face.
"Just the one here." She spoke.
Allison looked at me "I'll drive the scooter while you two walk besides me, we'll head to sporting goods and get the flashlights, then head to utility.
"What about our phones? There were also weapons in some of those lockers."
"The lockers are on a timer, they won't open until your shift is over, to many 'cool managers' with low standards and substance abuse issues, Paul's key won’t work."
I sighed and shrugged my shoulders.
"Okay, so why are you the one riding the scooter?"
"You think you should?" She asked.
"Maggie found it," I said "And she's old."
Allison tapped her cane.
"And I'm disabled."
"And I am still trying to get my steps in dearie."
"And besides," Allison said as she stepped over and slid into the newly vacated driver’s seat, setting her cane in the basket "If the creature goes back onto the hunt, she'll probably focus on whoever is closest to the light source.
"Okay, okay, you made your points." I surrendered.
Allison nearly, almost, possibly smiled as she pressed on the throttle and the little cart hummed past me. I fell in line behind Maggie as we made our way through the darkened store. We passed out of the ring road that made up the main highway through the store and exited into the stationary section. As we made our way towards Sporting Goods, I could see some light emanating from the towers in the distance. flashlights moving around, and what looked like a campfire burning on the tower that marked the border between auto parts and sporting goods. What amazed me was, with all the visual busyness of the displays darkened, and only the distant lights of the towers visible, I was really aware of just how large the store really was.
"How many of these are there?" I asked, then hastily added "Maggie, do you know?" Because I was starting to worry that Allison was starting to resent my loquacious curiosity, and I was running out of loveable qualities fast.
"A hundred, maybe more, I dunno?" Maggie shrugged.
"One hundred ninety three nationwide, more overseas." Allison said from the cart.
I scratched my chin in the dark and bit my tongue to not ask the follow up.
"I don't know exactly how many are overseas, no one really does, at least outside corporate. Walton's LLC is an American based company, but they have been known to operate stores or other facilities in parts of the world with economic sanctions."
"Like?"
"There's a Walton's knockoff in Russia that bears an uncanny resemblance to the typical Walton's World layout, and some of the supplies of raw materials or manufactured goods that go into the company’s proprietary store brand products have supply chains that are," She paused "Of suspect nature."
"All products sold within Walton's World are within acceptable deviations when it comes to involvement in humanitarian atrocities." Maggie said, "At least, according to the logo on the back of the box."
"Allison," I said, choosing to address her directly, "Are we evil?"
"Didn't you go through orientation? They make you sign a waiver stating that you won't be evil." Allison said, again, I couldn't tell, or remember, if she was joking.
"I heard that the whole thing was a rip off of the old Google motto, but I still thought it was a fun way to break up all those boring intake videos." Maggie added.
"I mean, the company. The Company is evil." I insisted.
"Almost certainly," Allison said, "Although, I'll bring this back to the way you asked the question at first, are we evil."
"Well, just because we work for the company, that's why I said ‘we’."
"Oh, I know I'm evil." Maggie chuckled, "I've got the paperwork and everything." She cooed in her matrilineal warmth.
"I don't think working for an evil company makes you evil." I spoke.
"You've worked here for a full hour, and..."
"Yeah, I know, let the psychopath in, can we drop that."
"That's not what I was getting to." Allison said "Paul said we weren't closing for another fifteen minutes, he told you to turn anyone away who was coming in."
"And?"
"Did you ever question that instruction?"
"Well, I mean, the doors slam shut at 11."
"The in-door slams shut." Allison said "But the outdoors stays open an extra 30 minutes."
I gaped at the realization, of course it would. I'd even been standing right there, and in my recollection, it hadn't closed. Maybe if there hadn't been an iron fence in the way, maybe I could have made my escape.
It'd surely be closed by now.
"Okay, but that's not evil." I said, "This store is full of nothing but useless crap as far as I can see, who even needs this stuff?"
"Patterson, there is a pharmacy here."
My stomach sank, remembering the woman talking about needing 'just one thing'.
"You were given a simple instruction, and you followed it uncritically." Allison said, "The same could be said of anyone who simply follows orders."
"Okay, okay, I get it." I said "You don't have to spell it out."
"Ha!" Maggie croaked "I did Not See that one coming." She spoke.
"So I'm going to put the question back to you, are we evil for working for an evil corporation?"
"But isn't this corporation evil because it's trying to push random crap on people who don't need it, because they treat their employees inhumanely, because they arm the security cameras with guns and take our phones away."
"Those things are all evil, yes, but it's not just one person sitting behind a big evil desk pulling all the strings." Allison said, "It's a bunch of people sitting behind small desks, like Paul, sitting in his tower, following instructions written by someone else, someone who will never be called up to carry out that order. The checklist says open at 6 because we need to make money, so we have to fix the fridge overnight, so we have to close early, but we can't close early because we have to make money, so he asks you to stand there and turn people away. You made the company a liar, made them say we were open while you're there telling everyone we're not, and enforcing that, with what? If she hadn't attacked, if she'd needed her meds, if she'd tried to push through, what would you have done?"
I got really quiet.
"Man, Peterson, from the way she talks about you, forget retail, you should have joined the mafia!" Maggie cackled.
"So wait, is all of this to say that I'm evil?"
"I'm telling you what every college student learns, either in class, or at the student loan office when they learn what their monthly payment is, money is the root of all evil."
It was that comment that got me thinking again, and hoping that, maybe, I could draw the conversation in a different direction.
"Oh yeah, what did you study in school again?"
The mobility scooter stopped. Allison, the back of her head silhouetted against the light from the scooter, didn't look back.
"Sam mentioned he was a professor at the college, and that he knew you, I was just...asking..." I trailed off, "You just seemed to know a lot about Chemistry.
"Do you hear that?" Allison said. I hadn't, but now that I wasn't talking, I thought I could.
murmuring.
"Where is that coming from?" I asked.
"All around us." Allison said, she reached forward and turned off the scooter, casting the aisle into darkness. Suddenly, my memories of walking alone in the woods flooded back, the flashlight had been covering certain details, like how the light from the tower had gone away and moved to the aisles around us. Looking up, I could see that there was a soft warm light coming from above the stacks on either side of us. Moving through the upper reaches of the shelves, where the silhouettes of men holding sticks and other bladed weapons in their hands.
"What do we do?" I asked.
"HEY!" Maggie yelled, "You assholes, what are you doing sneaking up on us like this!"
"Maggie!" I said, "What are you doing?"
"These are, presumably, our coworkers, Patterson." Allison said, "It's reasonable to assume they're not hostile, but maybe couldn't make us out with the bright scooter light on.
Allison grabbed her cane from the basket and stood up from the chair.
"Do any of you know where I could find Mr. Gallagher? He's the department head for Sporting goods, I need to talk to him about getting some supplies to get the power up and running again."
Allison waited for a reply, it finally came, in the form of an arrow, whizzing through the air, and embedding itself in Allison's cane.
`
Chapter 5
"Duck!" I yelled, tackling Maggie to the ground as Allison doubled over, her cane knocked out from underneath her. She swore and rolled next to the cart as another arrow struck the seat and bounced off the steel frame.
"Why are they shooting at us!" I yelled as a hail of miscellaneous missile merchandise fell from high.
"I..." Allison said, on the verge of sounding phased, "I don't know!"
"No worries dearies!" Maggie said, from what light I could see coming through the shelves, she used the arrowhead to start cutting at the wire bundles under the seat.
"Here we go!" She said as a spark briefly illuminated a look of genuine fear of Allison's face, "Me and the girls used to get drunk after bingo and race these, you just have to bypass the throttle limiter, and then the only thing that'll slow you down is if you don't have the balls to be bold!" She laughed like a maniac, then reached up from the throttle as a novelty snow globe slammed into the floor next to me, showing me in a spray of rubbing alcohol, strophe snow, and shattered glass.
"Hold on you pussies!" Maggie screamed as she pushed down on the throttle from the floor. The electric motors whined into action and the tires squealed as they tried to find purchase on the wet floor. Allison was starting to pick up on Maggie’s Mad plan, and she grabbed onto the basket with one hand and started deflecting missiles with her cane in the other hand.
Meanwhile, I grabbed onto Maggie for dear life as the mobility scooter found its legs and took off, dragging us along with it. I tried to climb up onto the seat, but nearly caught one last arrow for my troubles. Maggie, for all her tenacity, hadn't taken into account that with all of us dragging the scooter to the right, our escape path was severely limited.
I let go of Maggie and grabbed onto the back of the scooter as it tore out of the aisle and back into a pedestrian thoroughfare.
The scooter veered right, sending me hurdling to the left. I used the momentum to grab onto the left side of the scooter, looking forward just in time to see the support column we were bearing down on. I managed to slide my legs around the side of the scooter and reached up with my foot.
I kicked at the handles, and caused the scooter to veer left, missing the post, and sending us down yet another aisle with a horrendous squeal of cheap rubber and burning electronics.
With my legs now facing forward, the pull of the floor on my clothes was now working against the grain as it were, and my shirt was pulled up my back, leaving raw flesh to be the new medium over which I was dragged. It only took a second of exposure before I screamed, let go, and went tumbling into a display of flavored woodchips for a suspiciously cheap meat smoker.
I watched as the mobility scooter and its light disappeared down another aisle, Maggie screaming like a banshee all the way. I rolled onto my back in time to see a figure approach. I was cast into light from a number of camping lanterns that, with a second glance, looked to be creating a fake flame effect with a piece of tissue paper and small fan.
"So, who do we have here?" said a deep, condescending voice.
"Northerner from the look of him." Said another.
"I mean, I am from Wisconsin." I choked.
"Shut up! Doorman!" Another shouted as he kicked me in one of the unbroken ribs that I'd been saving for a special occasion.
"Wait..." I said, "Doorman? Northerner?"
"The North had one job, keep out the crazies." Said a tall man as he stepped forward and sneered down on me, pulling at his vest.
And stupid hat.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me." I moaned.
"East siders don't let in the crazies, do we? We can't, we've got guns, and ammo, and knives, and everything else that you have to keep safe from the crazies. But is that our job? No, because we do our job!"
"We do our Job!" came a chorus from around him.
"Doormen like you just stand around all day, let anyone into the store, any customer, doesn't matter if they're tweaking, or 'just looking', or carrying a backpack to shoplift in, just open door, policy, everyone can come in."
"Yeah," I groaned, trying to sit up, "I was under the impression that this is how stores worked."
"Well not anymore pissant!" The man said "We're doing things different once all of this is over, we're taking over the north, once we have the door, we have the store. We've got the guns, and the ammo, and the knives, and everything else that you need to survive."
"You said that already," I said "Or, well, most of it."
"Think you're so funny, do you Doorman?"
"I hope so, I'm worried I'm running out of redeeming qualities." I moaned
"Well how about we cut you to pieces and use you as bait for one of the beartraps we've got ready to catch this little beasty that y'all let in."
"I didn't think we were allowed to sell bear traps anymore."
"Sell em'?" The man said, offended, "These ain't merchandise, Barry's been building them in his garage in his spare time!"
"Hello!" came a voice from the back of the mob.
"Oh," I said, "That's kind of cool, I guess."
"Thanks," came the voice that I assumed was Barry, "It helps keep the mind off the ex."
"I'm," I struggled for the words, "Glad you found a creative outlet."
"Thanks, I hope you like them, sounds like you're going to be in a few of them here soon, let me know if they're comfortable."
As disappointed as I was at the prospect of my new future as chum, I couldn't fault him for his positive attitude.
"Can you just do me one favor?" I said, "Just take me, don't chase after the others, they're actually doing something that'll help all of us, and I don't want them to get hurt just because I messed up and let in a crazy person."
"Well, that's very magnanimous of you." The man in the stupid hat said, "I think that that's reasonable, and you know what, Doorman, I think under different circumstances, maybe we could have been allies in all this."
"I kind of doubt that. I think you might be insane."
The man in the stupid hat shrugged, "Yeah, well, a soccer mom just ate the face of our department manager, so insane is sort of a relative term."
"Hey, does your manager happen to still have his keys?" Barry asked.
"Huh? No, we needed them to get into the utility room."
The realization hit me and the mob in the same instant.
"You don't have keys, do you?" I asked.
"No..." The man in the stupid hat said.
"Which means you can't access the guns."
"Nope." Barry said.
"But if you had the keys." I continued.
"Which are in the hands of an octogenarian and the cripple..."
"You would have an arsenal." I finished
I stared up at the man in the stupid hat for a beat.
"Barry." The man said, "Beat him to death, everyone else, find the girls."
"Okay!" Barry said as everyone else fanned out, "Sorry, but hey, if it's any consolation, I'm just following orders."
"It's not," I said.
And there I was, laying on the flat of my back about to be curb stomped by a Luddite gun fanatic. Growing up in rural America, you always assume that this is a possible way to die, but I'd moved to the city partially to get away from this, and I hated that my last thought before being smeared across the linoleum is that my stupid dad was right about Chicago.
And then, Barry's head got smeared across the Linoleum. I looked up to Allison, sitting in the basket, her cane still waving through the air. She looked down at me in disgust.
"If the next words out of your mouth are a question, we're leaving you behind."
"How..." I stopped myself. "Never mind."
The muscles in my back were finally convinced to move after a short negotiation in which I promised my back muscles that we'd do some crunches for once in the near future, because they couldn't be expected to put up with such demanding projects such as 'sitting up' without the proper allocation of resources, and while I resented myself for having gone soft in the city, from a labor standpoint I had to side with my abs on this one.
I climbed onto the back of the cart while Maggie gunned the throttle, and we took off.
Even with Allison sitting in the basket and blocking the light, which had allowed them to pass through the mob quickly and quietly, we could tell that the batteries were draining fast as the light which illuminated the lower back tattoo which I only glanced at once or twice, began to fade.
"Pull over up here." Allison said, "I think we can recharge the cart for a while."
Maggie steered us into an artificial meadow that marked the transition from outdoors clothing such as hip waders and float coats, to outdoor clothing such as cargo shorts and shirts covered in American flags in blatant disregard for 4 US Code Section 8 Clause D. Between the fiberglass trees was a recessed part of the floor that held a small variety of oft-tormented trout who had come to associate the presence of people with fistfuls of loose change raining down on them like mana from a sarcastic god.
"We'll rest here for a bit." Allison said, “I think we can find most of what we'll need from the end cap displays."
"What about charging the cart?" I asked, free in the knowledge that they couldn't leave me behind, at least until the batteries were charged.
"There's a solar panel display around here that one of the guys from the food court got working so he could use a phone during his lunch breaks. He's been gone awhile, so they should be pretty well charged, even with only a few hours of charge a day.
"And if that doesn't work?"
Allison looked over at me.
"Have you ever taken an improv comedy class?" She asked.
I arched an eyebrow.
"What?"
"In the city, there are a lot of places where they teach improve, one of the games is to see how long you can go back and forth by only asking questions."
"What does that have to do with me?" I asked.
Allison blinked.
"Never mind." She said, "If we can't get the cart going, we'll just... we'll start from there and keep solving problems until we're done."
I nodded.
"Okay."
"Ha, you lost," Maggie said from across the pond.
"Did you learn anything useful about your attackers before we were able to double back and get you?" Allison said as she went to work disassembling a solar panel display while I held up a lighter Maggie had lent us for light.
"I think Barry probably pours himself too much into his hobbies, and that's what wrecked his marriage."
"So, that's a no on the useful."
"Sorry, they're the employees from the sporting goods department, they blame the northern division for letting in that lady, so they're declaring war on the north and taking over the store."
Allison kept working as she spoke.
"Well, at least their manager hasn't given him the keys."
"How'd you know?"
"They wouldn't have used bows and arrows if they had a gat, now, would they?" Maggie said from across the pond.
"So presumably the manager is holed up somewhere, that's good, if we can figure out where, we can..."
"He's dead." I said, "Got killed in the initial attack I guess."
Allison took a breath and stopped working.
"Patterson." She said, slowly, "I realize it's your first day."
I gulped.
"But surely, when I asked you if you'd learned anything useful, some of this had to have taken priority over the Barry comment."
"Fine, begrudge me some fun, you didn't just have a mob threaten to turn you into chum to lure out the She-beast."
"No dear, all she had was her cane shot out from under her by men she knew and trusted for several months who have chosen to go feral while she's trying to hold herself, this group, and the store together through sheer force of will," Maggie said as she cracked open a beer and took a seat in one of the loungers before throwing a lure into the pond, scattering the trout.
I felt like an ass and let my arms sag, then winced as I remembered I was holding a lighter and had just singed my thumb.
"I understand we're in a stressful situation." Allison said, "I won't apologize for snapping at you, that was warranted, but I'll offer that, if you do have any more information that is relevant to our survival, you can tell me, and I won't chastise you for not saying it earlier."
I nodded, then caught the reflection of the flame of the lighter on Paul's keyring, still dangling from her belt.
"Well, it's good you mention that..."
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