Walton's World: Chapter Three

 

I walked through the electronics department, brushing white powder off my shoulders, while in the distance the howl of the she-beast and the occasional terrified and horrifically brief shriek of an associate would echo through the store, empty, save for some eighty people working the night shift. Paul had told me to meet him and the north-western tower when I was done by the door, and I had been raised that, if something goes wrong, and someone could blame you, it's best that people hear it from you first. 

As I climbed the stairs onto the tower platform, I thought to myself, no one could seriously blame me for this, right?

"There's the fucker who let the bitch in." Arthur said, pointing a trembling finger at me as a stepped onto the platform and a dozen pairs of eyes turned to look at me, including Sam's Paul's, and Allison's whose eyes starred at me from the back of what had been a team meeting, and was slowly becoming a lynch mob.

"It's not my fault!" I blurted, then clarified "I don't even know what that thing was!"

"I told you not to let any more customers into the store, Peterson."

"Patterson." I meekly corrected. 

"And you let a customer in, how is this not your fault?" He said in a measured, condescending tone. 

"Because she wasn't a customer!" 

"So you let in a loiterer," Arthur said, not helping. 

"She..." I waved my hands in the air, trying to, unsuccessfully, depict a decrepit old woman who could unhinge her jaw and had superhuman speed and strength, I eventually settled on “. was really weird..."

"I told you!" Sam said "It wasn't his fault, and he did get her off of you, Arthur."

"Enough." Paul said, choosing to change the subject once it was clear that there were no scapegoats to be found down this particular path of inquiry, "We have a trespasser in the store." He said as he pulled his tablet from what seemed to be thin air.

"According to policy, let's see, intruder on premises, okay... uhm... right." 

He evidently found the right article and tapped the scream for emphasis, then tapped again to close the tab his first tap had opened. He spoke again in his unrehearsed script reading voice. 

"First, all managers should muster their team members." He looked up and did a quick head count, there were maybe a dozen of us on this particular tower, and he glanced over at other towers, which had begun populating when the shrieks had been heard, either out a of a recognition of the danger or because an excuse had been found to stop working and hang out near the vending machines. 

"We'll call step one complete." He said as in the distance another shriek was cut off by a sound like a bag of strawberry jam being hurled against a wall with extreme prejudice. Paul cleared his throat. 

"Right, step two, take down the description of the intruder."

Paul mimicked the hand motions I'd made earlier and then checked off the box. 

"We'll call that one done as well."

"Paul." Allison interrupted, "The intruder protocols were designed for shoplifters and vandals, I think that rather than handling this internally, we should call the authorities sooner rather than later."

"Oh," Paul said, waving a hand "It's fine, we've done the intruder policy before without the police."

"The store has," Allison said "You haven't."

"Look, if we call the police, the store becomes a crime scene and we can't open tomorrow, and I'll be damned if I'm the reason we miss out on the fourth of July weekend!" 

"The store is already a crime scene!" I pleaded.

"You signed away the companies liability when you got hired, it's fine, so long as the merchandise is safe, we're fine; but, if we don't meet projected sales, it comes out of our checks, and the sales from one single weekend is enough to keep me here, paying off that debt, for the next thirty years, so no thank you, I would rather take my chances with that, weird thing, then face the wrath of corporate."

I looked around, and everyone just seemed defeated as off in the distance another thinking, feeling, person regretted their decision of signing away liability. 

"Step three," Paul said, a tremble in his voice as he tried to ignore the noises, "If the intruder has violent intentions," He paused and looked up for a moment, then back to the tablet, "activate the store security systems riot control system." He nodded then turned towards the center of the tower where a black console covered in green and red buttons sat. Paul closed the tablet and set it on his desk, then pulled the big key ring from his pocket and walked over to the wall. He put the key into a lock that held a glass cover over the buttons. There was a solid thud as Allison blocked the door from opening with the end of her cane. 

"Paul." She said in that quiet monotone, "I know you're scared, and I know what the policy is, but you don't know what you're bringing down onto us."

"And you don't know what that thing is!" Arthur said, stepping forward, "So shut up, back up, and let your superiors handle this."

Allison spun to face Arthur "How long have you worked here?"

"Three months." Arthur said.

Allison turned to Paul.

"And you?" 

"Eight."

"And you," she said, turning to another employee."

"Uhm, Eight."

"And yo..." She pointed at me, then moved her face a bit to my right."

"Uhm, yeah, eight, just like them."

Allison nodded as she looked at the crowd.

"None of you find it weird that none of you have worked here for more than eight months? Not a single one of you questions what happened nine months ago, why all of these positions were suddenly opened?" 

Her voice was nearly, terribly, so close to having inflection in it as she spoke. 

"Of course not, you aren't curious people, you don't notice patterns, you weren't here, you don't know what happened, and corporate wants it that way, because if you knew, none of you would ever..."

Overhead, the lights shut off, plunging the whole building into darkness, after a moment in the dark, an ethereal red glow filled the void, as the emergency lights came on. Bathed in red, with the distant sound of a claxon alarm, Allison turned. Paul was standing at his desk and looked back towards the vacant terminal. 

        "Who hit the switch?" Allison demanded, but everyone shrugged before she turned back to Paul.

         "Who else can activate this? Is there a terminal on the other towers?"

         "N...no, only this one, it's why it's the general managers tower, plus it's the closest to the bathrooms.

"Attention all associates," Came the PA voice from before, but now with an angrier, more menacing tone. "The emergency riot control procedures have been activated, all entrances and exits have been sealed, all personnel are to remain in their muster stations. Countermeasures are being deployed."

There was a brief pause, followed by the sound of the PA voice playing outside. 

"Attention Shoppers." The pleasant voice said, returning, "The Walton's World Family of Retailers is shocked and horrified by the events of [INSERT RECENT CAUSE FOR SOCIAL UPHEVEL], and stands in solidarity with the [INSERT MARGINALIZED DEMOGRAPHIC] Community. In solidarity with your protest, this store will be closed until [INSERT HOLLOW PROMISE HERE]. You can still access all our services online, or at [INSERT ADDRESS OF STORE CLOSEST TO POLICE DEPARTMENT]."

Everyone stood quietly, staring at Paul. 

"So, now what?" Arthur said, glancing first at Paul, then Allison, who was using her cane to support herself as she crouched down to the floor and covered her head and neck with her arms. 

"Now," She said, "We wait for the countermeasures."

The store erupted. 

Blinding flashes of light and the piercing crack of gunfire ripped through the air, in the distance, a howl of panic screams was cut off by the wailing groan of the she-beast. I looked up to see her suddenly erupt from the ground level and up into the support beams. She was bleeding but moving quickly. Now above the level of the gunfire, she could scramble through the lattice ironwork that held up the roof, occasionally swinging front darkened mercury light to light. She howled as she made her way towards the southern end of the store. I looked up and saw several cameras following her path, only to notice a small amount of smoke emanating from the cameras. 

"Turrets?" I said, stunned.

"Each camera is armed with a clip of 9mm hollow-points." Allison said "In the event of an emergency, Riot mode will activate, and fire on anyone not wearing a Walton's World vest."

I poked my head up over the railing of the tower and down into the showroom floor, where I could see at least one blood drenched employee, their vest covered in bullet holes.

"The technology is imperfect." Allison said "It uses the QR Codes printed over your vest, but they tested it in direct light, not the dim, red light of riot mode."

"So there's a fifty/fifty chance that it just shoots up?"

"Historically, it’s been sixty/forty, against."

The she-beast continued clambering through the metal work, above the sight of the cameras, she struck the far wall, and made her way to a vent. She pulled the grating away and disappeared into the duct work.

"She's leaving!" Sam said. 

"No," Allison said, "Not in riot mode, that vent can't take you to the outside, it just leads to the..."

She stopped and turned so quickly she nearly fell over.

"Deactivate riot mode, do it now!" She screamed at Paul, stepping over to him, her cane striking the floor with every other step.

"But she's still out there!" Paul said, covering the box with his body. 

"And if she gets to the utility room, she can cut the emergency power off and we're..."

The red lights blinked out. All sounds began to gradually fall away, generators, compressors, coupon terminals that spoke as you walked by, and the whirling motors of the camera guns all slowly ceased as the building fell silent.

"Okay..." Paul said "But hey, at least the turrets can hurt us."

"Right." Allison said "But we also can't leave."

"Wait." Arthur said "But if the power is out completely, we can leave, that's how the fire evacuation system works, powers out, doors unlock and everyone can flee."

"In passive security mode, yes, but Riot Mode supersedes that, the doors are barred now, no one in, no one out, no matter what.

I was starting to get very anxious, standing in the pitch black while this conversation carried on. I could hear the tapping of rain on the skylights, and the distant sound of a generator.

"There's still power." I said, holding up a finger, which in the dark was utterly pointless, "I can hear a generator."

"Oh shit." Arthur swore "The refrigerators." 

Allison sighed "I think frozen food thawing out is the least of our concerns." 

"Not the food, asshole, the refrigerants!" Arthur said. 

Allison thought for a moment.

"I know you're not about to tell me that the big, industrial freezers here are still running R12 gas inside, right."

"I am about to tell you that, you're so very clever." Arthur sneered. 

"So what?" I asked, realizing the two of them were almost certainly staring at me like I was a moron, and the lack of light was doing little to soothe that particular burn. 

"R12 was banned by the Montreal Accords 30 years ago." Allison said, "This building is only three years old. There is no way it was grandfathered in."

"Unless you're really clever, and you build the building on the old site of a refrigeration plant, and you use the land exemption, not the equipment exemption to..."

"Jesus fucking Christ I'm bored." Sam said "Get to the point, why is the refrigerator bad?"

"R12," Allison said, choosing to take the initiative "Expands as it warms, when it expands, it can rupture the piping, if it finds an ignition source and burns, it becomes phosgene gas, a chemical weapon used in the trenches of the first world war."

Everyone got very quiet as, in the distance, the generator running the tools for the refrigeration repair ran on and on, sucking in air, and passing it through a series of explosions to create a series of sparks to power the tools.

"Okay." Paul said, "So, we need to get power back on, cool the refrigerant and keep it from leaking, find a way out of the store, make sure everything is restocked for tomorrow, and deal with the monster that Peterson let into the building."

I decided not to put my name to that last one.

Paul cleared his throat and continued.

"I think we should start by listing our objectives and putting them in order of importance. Let's see, if we only stock seasonal by the morning, we can stock everything else during the morning rush and..."

"Arthur," Allison said, ignoring Paul "you know the refrigerators, you work on controlling the gas."

"Okay," Arthur said, hurriedly adding, "I'm taking Sam with me." 

"Why?" Sam asked.

"Because the next words out of her mouth are either going to be restoring power, which is where the monster last was, or hunting the monster that just took out the power, would you rather help me with a fridge, or play Marco polo with the super-Karen?"

"I'll help Arthur," Sam declared. 

"Paul, go with them, see if you can get the generator away from the cold food aisles and bring it here, you might be able to connect it to the building's grid from here and shut down Riot mode."

"Okay," He said, nodding along and clapping his hands quietly "And that'll also give me an excuse to walk the floor and survey what'll need to be cleaned up before the morning open."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Allison said before turning to me. 

"You and I are going to the utility room to restore power from there."

"Ha! Told you so!" Arthur smarmed. 

"What? Why me?" I asked.

"Because Arthur was right, that's where the beast last was, and while you've had a very limited experience fighting it, you have the most experience fighting it, and I'll take any other help I can get."

"Well, are you going to also ask for volunteers?" I protested.

"Good idea." She said, turning around, "We're going to go walk the floor to try and restore power to the machines that'll kill anyone on the floor as soon as power is restored, between us at the generators is a creature that has killed several of our associates, any volunteers?"