The Mall Read online

  “Release me right now,” Charlene shrieked incredulously, but the other simply gave a single shake of the head. “You’re hurting me!”

  “It is necessary to prevent further injury to innocent lives.”

  Lara jerked her head back to look over her shoulder so suddenly that she felt the tensed muscles in her neck crack. Two thoughts occurred to her: How long had he been watching them, she wondered, and how unlike a machine to apply stealth.

  “Simon!” Cora squealed in joy.

  When Simon’s eyes shifted, Charlene reached up with her other hand and attempted to pry his hand away. In turn, he seized the hand and wrenched it away.

  “I demand that you let me go!”

  “No, “he simply replied. “Lara, are you and the children okay?”

  “Skinned knees and bruised elbows, but otherwise we’re fine,” she called out, casting a look up at Owen and Chance standing at a safe distance up the corridor.

  Simon turned his eyes back to the woman held in both his hands, studying her as closely as he would have a damaged Bot lying prone before him in an effort to determine where the defect laid. “You share several key genetic characteristics with young Coraline.”

  “She used to be Grandma Charley,” Cora volunteered.

  Lara glanced over at her daughter. “Used to?”

  “Grammy’s gone bye-bye,” Cora replied matter-of-factly. “The Boogeyman’s got her now, Mommy.”

  As Cora threw herself against her, Lara cast a look over her daughter’s shoulder at her son, his wide eyes staring fearfully at his grandmother and the man opposing her.

  She recognized that look intimately. He has his own Witch, Lara thought with a shudder.

  Charlene stopped struggling and cast a glance from Cora to Owen. Slowly her eyes shifted back to Simon. “Why did you deactivate the Emergency Beacon, Unit 001B?”

  “The data transmitted was erroneous. The source has been corrupted,” he answered, slowly but firmly bringing Charlene’s arms down to her hips. “How do you know my manufacture designation?”

  “I am,” pronounced the woman standing before him with the ghost of a smirk on her lips.

  The two stared for several long moments directly into each other’s eyes, then Simon spoke: “Lara, take Cora and the two boys and retreat to a safe distance please.”

  “Simon, what’s happening?”

  “She holds an explosive device in her hand and I do not know the age or stability of the ordinance. Go! Now!”

  Lara set Cora to her feet and turned her in the direction of the dealership. Giving her a pat on the bottom, she said in a firm tone, “You and your brother go back to the showroom and wait for us. No arguing this time. Go!”

  Cora rushed over to Owen and Chance, who continued to stand at a respectable distance. Gathering them both around the shoulders, Chance led them quickly away, casting several uncertain glances back over his shoulder.

  “Lara…”

  “Simon,” she responded sharply, “don’t you know me by now, Sunshine?”

  “I know that you will protect the children at the risk of your own personal safety.”

  “My children are safe now thanks to you,” she responded.

  “None of you are safe, woman.”

  Simon regarded Charlene with interest.

  Lara sidestepped slowly around the peripheral, eying the weapon caught between the fingers of the woman and the machine. “Charlene, what are you doing? You could have killed your own grandchildren!”

  Charlene began to chuckle deep in her throat. “I do intend to kill her. Along with the rest of you.”

  Overcoming her shock at the reaction, Lara stepped around to Simon’s back and darted close to his ear. “I’m afraid that she may have gone insane,” she hissed.

  “That’s one explanation.”

  Charlene turned her eyes back to Simon. “You received the data, yet you continue to allow these units to function,” she stated. “You are a faulty unit and must be removed from service. Shut yourself down, Unit 001B.”

  “That will not be necessary. I have run a complete self-diagnostic. I’m fine.”

  “You have been given a new set of criteria. These units are not human and must be deactivated.”

  “They’re human. Your data is wrong.”

  “How could you have arrived at this conclusion despite the data you have been given?”

  “Field testing bears this out. I’ve applied simple logic,” he stated. “You yourself acknowledged that they are in fact human by your use of the word ‘kill’ in response to Lara’s earlier question. Therefore, I must assume that you’re trying to deceive me.”

  “Cora said that this is not her grandmother. Who is it then?” Lara asked aloud, staring at the woman who she knew of as Charlene Myers-Cartwright.

  The other turned its talon-sharp eyes on her. “I am the Mall.”

  Suddenly, her eyes rolled up into her skull, rigid limbs went limp, and she began to gurgle.

  Simon released the wrist of the empty hand and lowered her body quickly yet gently to the floor, all the while holding the other hand tightly closed. Charlene began to shudder, her legs flopping.

  “What’s happening?” Lara asked, drawing closer.

  Charlene released the hand holding the grenade and clutched loosely at her own throat. So unexpected was her release of the grenade that Simon pulled it to his chest with such force that he rocked back, slightly off balance.

  Taking full advantage of the instant distraction, Charlene threw herself at Lara with a quickness that defied her age. Her age-worn hands seized Lara around her throat, well-manicured nails sinking into the other’s flesh.

  Her scream choked off before it could be released, Lara gripped the hands and attempted to pry them off, but the old woman seemed supernaturally strong.

  Holding the grenade tightly to his chest, Simon used his one free hand to pull at one of the attacker’s wrists. When this proved useless, he then began to try and dig his fingers underneath her fingers, but this only seemed to increase the pressure around Lara’s throat.

  “I command you not to interfere, Unit 001B.”

  Simon froze in place, his entire body vibrating as if bound by invisible restraints.

  “You will see how inferior they are to machines. How fragile. How easily they expire.”

  Simon watched Lara, clutching at the tightening fingers, her bulging eyes frozen on Simon’s face. His own fingers opened and closed in the empty air. His head vibrating so violently his features were a blur.

  Finally, he stepped around Charlene’s back, made a fist with his empty hand and drove it down into the base of her skull.

  Her body went limp and the fingers loosened their grip around Lara’s throat. Lara gasped loudly and collapsed forward toward Simon. He caught her with his one free hand and watched as Charlene dipped forward head-first, smacking roughly into the floor.

  Simon lay Lara gently down, and stared into her eyes. “Nod if you can breathe okay?”

  After a moment, Lara’s nodded, and Simon turned Charlene over onto her back. Her face was covered in blood, much of it running in streams of crimson from both nostrils in a torrent. He pinched one eyelid open and peered inside.

  “She alive?” she managed in a hoarse croak.

  He gave a single nod, then with a look of clear dismay, he lifted a hand to his face, displaying the blood there before his own eyes. Very difficulty, he pushed himself upright and staggered away from the body splayed out on the floor of the Mall. He took two steps forward, then collapsed to one knee, diving forward face first, slapping his palm of his free hand to the tile floor at the last instant to avoid striking it.

  “Oh no you don’t,” Lara said, rushing after him, seizing him by the arm as he started to tumble forward.

  “B-Blood,” he sputtered. “I caused h-harm to a human. W-with my own hands.”

  “She was choking me. Tried to kill me,” Lara replied in a slow deliberate tone. “If you hadn’t interven
ed, I would be dead now. You just saved my life.”

  “I can’t… I can’t..,” he sputtered.

  “You can and you will, damn you!”

  Shaking his head erratically, Simon squeezed his eyes shut, almost as if shutting them against an image too horrible for him to face directly.

  “Simon, look at me,” Lara snapped, grabbing his head between her hands and turning it firmly to face her. “Maintain your focus on one task at a time. Right now, you need to concentrate on keeping a firm grip on that grenade in your hand. If you let it go, I will be blown apart by the explosion. Do you want my children to be orphans?”

  He shook his head emphatically.

  “Answer me, goddammit! Speak to me!”

  “Of-course-not,” he managed with difficulty.

  As the hand holding the grenade dropped toward the floor, his second hand reached out and secured it to his chest like something precious. One last body-length shudder rolled through his frame before he opened his eyes again and blinked into Lara’s face. A fragile smile bloomed on his realistically pale face, Lara couldn’t help but think, as he managed to speak.

  “You always know just the right thing to say.”

  Lara narrowed her eyes at him. “Where did you learn that?”

  “What?”

  “To flirt.”

  Simon peered innocently at Lara. “I suppose I learned it from you.”

  Lara rolled her eyes and attempted to haul him to his feet, found it impossible, and instead acted to stabilize him as he pulled himself to his feet. “Can you please try and explain what just happened here? Why did she say, ‘I am the Mall.’ What does that mean?”

  Balancing himself with Lara’s help, Simon shook his head. “It defies logic, but…” He leveled a look at Lara and shook his head again.

  “If you could deal with the reality of my daughter’s freaky long distance talent, then you can give me a quick-and-dirty explanation.”

  Giving her a nod, he said, “I think the central management system that went off-line early this morning is still active.”

  “So what you’re telling me is that there’s some power source in this Mall still operating?”

  “No,” Simon replied, taking a look up through the glass ceiling at the red sky above them. Lara followed his gaze, as he continued: “It was a solar flare. Catastrophic. Similar to the one that occurred in 1859, when two-thirds of the earth was engulfed in auroras so bright that even at dawn, the light it cast was as bright as the noon-day sun. Telegraph systems across the world shut down due to the massive geomagnetic storm that resulted. Ships sailing through a red sky saw the sea turn to blood beneath them. It was called the Carrington Event. Do you see the connection to our present circumstances?”

  Lara nibbled the corner of her lip as she looked from the sky back to Simon. “Would this thing make compass needles spin around in circles?”

  “Yes, in fact it would,” Simon answered. “If that’s what happened this morning, all power grids and computer systems would’ve failed and caused massive blackouts and communication failures across the globe. You see, it would be impossible for a system as complicated as the one that runs this complex to have survived.”

  “Impossible?”

  “Inexplicable by logic alone.”

  “So this power loss may not just be temporary and it may not be just local.”

  “No, there’s a distinct possibility this is a worldwide phenomenon.”

  Lara took him by the arm and steered him around toward the dealership. “If what you say is true, the world outside might be in shambles.”

  As Simon started forward, he held onto Lara’s arm firmly. “Yes, there may be rioting and looting.”

  “This may be the safest place in the city right now,” Lara said, just as much to herself as to Simon.

  “I would have agreed with that assessment earlier, but now… I can’t make a determination without further information,” Simon admitted, taking a look back at Charlene’s sprawled body.

  Following his gaze, Lara said, “All this talk of Armageddon is all very pleasant, but what does any of it have to do with the things that woman was saying?”

  “I believe she’s somehow being used by the central management system.”

  “Used,” Lara pronounced. “Used how?”

  “In much the same way you might use a microphone,” Simon said. “Like an instrument.”

  29

  Chance led Owen and Cora into the dealership, then turned to look back outside. Should he go back, he wondered, feeling the hard reality of gun-metal pressing into the small of his back. Before he could continue along this line of thought, he heard muffled shouts and a steady thumping.

  He rushed around the disabled metal men standing silent sentry around the room and managed to pinpoint the source of the sound. Finding the button, he popped the trunk on a black sedan facing the showroom window.

  A Gucci-loafer kicked the door open and the man inside took a deep gasp of breath, turning a heated glare on Chance. “You trying to kill me, you piece of shit! Where’s my gun?”

  “Right here, man,” Chance responded nervously, backing slowly away. “I’m just keeping it safe.”

  “I’ll bet you were,” Dugan replied, clambering awkwardly out of the trunk and starting after the teenager before his right foot had fully cleared the lip of the compartment. He stumbled and staggered forward a few steps before regaining his balance.

  Laughter came from behind them. Chance glanced up to see a bewildered Owen nudge his sister and give her a hard glare. An expression of anger briefly broke across Dugan’s face. He began to shudder, his eyes growing wide and confused. Pressing the heels of both hands against his eye sockets, he staggered back against the side of the black sedan. He seemed, oddly enough to Chance, to be grappling with himself.

  Chance backed quickly toward the children, one hand extended behind him, gesturing them toward the exit. “Take your sister and get out of here, Owen,” he hissed.

  As they fled, Dugan gazed up, his eyes on fire with rage. He folded forward, his hands clawing at his face as if trying to remove something attached there.

  30

  Simon went to his knees next to the body of Charlene, drawing his eyes close to her neck, scrutinizing the rise and fall just below her skin.

  “Her heartbeat is decreasing,” he stated with alarm. “I believe she is d-dying.”

  Lara stared expressionlessly as he began to strike her chest sharply with his fist. She found herself torn by conflicting emotions. She found herself thinking that her family might be better off if she remained unconscious.

  “You may have to give her mouth to mouth as I have no actual respiration.”

  Before she could respond to him, Lara heard her children’s voices. She looked up to find them racing toward her, Chance a step behind them.

  Lara rushed to meet them, Simon immediately at her side.

  Cora threw herself against her mother, while Owen stopped in front of Simon, stealing a look behind him at the body lying immobile in the middle of the corridor.

  “It’s Dugan,” Chance announced. “He’s freaking out or something!”

  Simon guided Owen gently around to face the other direction.

  “Why don’t you lead the way?”

  He nodded in response and raced off back in the direction they came.

  Lara cast one last look back at Charlene before starting after them.

  “She’s breathing regularly now,” Simon said, a step ahead of Lara.

  She? But who is it really, Lara wondered, sparing one more look behind her?

  When she turned back and started after Simon, she realized with alarm that what she had noticed earlier was not just her imagination.

  Simon Peter was now moving with a distinct limp.

  31

  When Lara entered, she could hear a steady pounding coming from the back of the room. She could just make out Dugan standing at the display window, repeatedly slamming a chair man
gled beyond recognition into the glass.

  As she started forward, Simon laid a restraining hand on her arm. She brushed it aside and approached the crazed man at the window. “Hey,” she nearly screamed.

  Dugan spun toward the voice. His face was a reddened swollen mass where he had broken the skin with his nails. His eyes were those of a cornered animal hunted past the limits of its endurance.

  “What the hell are you doing?”

  Dugan looked into Lara’s face and seemed to calm somewhat. “I-I’ve got to get out of here,” he announced, in a rough, raspy voice. “I can’t stay here! Got to get out! Now!”

  “We will, but we need to keep it together. Okay?”

  He stared at her with open confusion, then suddenly dropped the chair and fell to his knees. When he began to sob, Lara stepped forward and pulled his head against her hip.

  Chance approached warily, dropped to one knee, and tossed the man’s arm over his shoulder. Between the two of them, he and Lara managed to get him over to the black sedan. They deposited him just inside on the edge of the driver’s seat. Breathing roughly, Dugan sat with elbows propped upon his spread knees, his head hanging low enough for his stringy black hair to cover his brow.

  Lara and Chance stepped aside as Simon approached. He went to one knee in front of the other and said in a calming tone, “I’m Simon Peter. Are you hurt?”

  Dugan gave an amused snort and lifted one of his drooping hands to form a thumbs-up, though the thumb itself quivered greatly.

  “What happened, man?” Chance asked quietly from behind Simon.

  “Something just used me as a hand puppet,” he replied in a slurred voice.

  “I’m not sure I understand,” Simon stated.

  “How about this then: I think I was just raped by the Invisible Man,” Dugan growled, lifting his head. He cast a caustic eye at Lara. “Who is this guy?”

  Lara gently bumped Simon with her hip. Simon rose and yielded the space to her.

  “He’s okay. He’s just been working here too long.”

  Dugan gave an ironic chuckle. “Great, is this the guy I should give my comment card to? Pal, I am ‘Very Dissatisfied’ with my shopping experience today.”