The sun shone down during the winter day in London, England. A fifteen-year-old girl with long blonde hair and green eyes walked out of her home. Because of the sun's warmth, she decided to wear jeans, sneakers, and a t-shirt despite it being winter. As her mom exited the house, the girl took her seat on the passenger side of the car. The drive to the mall was talkative, as usual. As they exited the car, the girl noticed something strange in the corner of her eye. Looking towards the strange sight across the street, the girl was baffled to see what looked like a black phone box?
Not too concerned with the strange box, she entered the mall. As she and her mom traveled around the mall entering store after store she noticed a fifteen-year-old looking boy in nice clothes with medium-short hair all alone and talking to clerks behind counters about something, and after talking with them he would seem to look around the place searching for something. The girl stopped thinking about it and continued to shop with her mom.
They walked around the mall for about an hour more. They decided to leave, and when they got to the automatic door it wouldn't open. They tried pushing and pulling, but nothing happened. It seemed to be happening all over the mall. Doors wouldn't open up for anybody, escalators stopped moving, and people were trapped in elevators.
"May everyone, please, get to the middle of the mall while we try to figure everything out? Thank you," a man said over the speakers.
The girl and her mom walked over to the middle of the mall. The girl's mother then asked, "What do you think is going on with the mall, Samantha?"
"I don't know, mom," Samantha said looking all around the place spotting several kids crying and their parents trying to calm them down.
Samantha was about to sit down next to her mom when she spotted the boy who was talking with clerks and shoppers, and she decided to go see what he was up to. The boy started walking everywhere, he walked in and out of stores, in and out of men's bathrooms, and into the theater. Samantha followed him everywhere keeping a good distance between them, and every time he would turn around she would hide behind the closest thing. He stopped and turned around, Samantha hid behind a big flower pot with a big plant in it.
"Can I help you?" the boy asked leaning over to see Samantha.
"Hi," Samantha said standing up.
"Can I help you?"the boy asked again.
"Maybe, I am wondering, what are you doing walking around everything and looking for something?"
"Oh. I am searching for whatever made everything stop working," he said putting his hands in his pant's pockets.
"You don't think it was a power surge?" she said looking confused.
"Wouldn't a power surge also turn off all of the lights?" He said raising his right eyebrow.
"Maybe?"
"It most likely would. And the security cameras would have probably stopped working and would not have been staring at us for the past minutes we've been walking around the place," he said pointing at some security cameras that were looking straight at him and Samantha.
Samantha stared at the security camera not exactly what to do. "Okay. What are you going to do about that?" she asked looking back at the boy.
"Find out why they are looking at us and not at the people at the middle of the mall. Besides, why did they ask 'everybody' to be in the middle?" he asked looking at the ground thinking about something.
"Safety protocol?" she said shrugging her shoulders.
"Nah. They probably would've put a certain amount of people in certain areas," he said suddenly realizing something." We need to get to the middle of the mall and fast." he started running.
"Why?" Samantha asked chasing after him.
Samantha and the boy ran as fast as they could trying to get to the middle of the mall, as all of the people got into sight the boy stopped and put his left arm out to his side stopping Samantha.
"Why are we stopping?" Samantha asked looking confused at the boy.
The boy said nothing at first as he looked all around the place, then he looked above all the people and said, "Because of that," pointing to something above all of the people.
"What is that?" she asked staring at a weird cannon like thing pointing at the people below it.
"I'm guessing that 'that' is the reason why everybody is in the middle of the mall," he then looked at the people sitting unaware of the cannon above them.
"Do we need to warn them?" she looked at the boy.
"Not unless it starts, then we would most likely need to warn them."
"Most likely?"
"Yep," he said looking at Samantha.
The cannon above all of the people started up, as a bright blue light lit up the opening in the cannon. All of the people looked up at the blue light wondering what it was. The boy quickly looked up at the cannon and then back down at the people worriedly. Samantha did the same then she started to run wanting to warn her mom and the other people, but before she was able to the boy wrapped his arms around her stopping her.
"Let me go! I need to warn my mom!" she yelled trying to break free from the boy's grasp.
"It's too late. That cannon is way faster than you and those people. They won't make it and neither will you," he said tightening his grasp making sure that he wouldn't let go.
"NO! Let me go!" she said trying harder and harder to break free.
The cannon then shot down a blue laser hitting all of the people below it, the people screamed as the laser faded away. All of the people were gone, and Samantha finally broke free from the boy's grasp and ran towards the spot where her mother was and fell to her knees and started to cry.
"Mom! This is all your fault!" she yelled at the boy. "If you had let me warn them she might have lived!"
"If I had let you warn them you would have gone with them," he said walking towards her with a serious look on his face.
"You don't know that!" she kept crying.
"Yes, I do. That transporter ray was way to fast for anybody, no matter how fast they are, to get away."
"You don't know - did you say 'transporter ray'?" she said stopping her crying and looking up at the boy.
"Yeah. That wasn't a disintegrating ray. That was definitely a transporter ray," he said looking up and pointing at the cannon on the ceiling.
"So, they aren't dead?" she asked standing up.
"Yep. What's interesting though why would someone put one in a mall?" he said with a confused look on his face.
"Who are you?" Samantha asked with a seriously/confused look on her face.
"Oh! I'm The Professor, but you can call me Professor," he said looking at Samantha.
"The Professor?" she said more confused than ever.
"Yeah," he said nodding.
"Okay, so, your name is The Professor, you know about this cannon ("Transporter," The Professor added.) okay, transporter, you just knew that something was up in this mall, and what you find interesting is that someone would put a transporter in a mall?"
"Yeah, well, what the real question is where does the transporter take you?" he looked up at the transporter and then at the ground.
"Is there any way you can find out?" Samantha asked waving her hand to get The Professor's attention.
"Yeah. Just sit under the transporter here," he said seating Samantha down and then sitting down himself." Now I just need to do this," he pulled out a small silver, white, thing out of his coat pocket, pointed it at the transporter, and pressed a button.
The thing that he was holding lit up green at the tip and the transporter turned on, Samantha looked worried at first but after seeing how calm The Professor was she calmed down. The Transporter shot its ray down hitting the two teenagers, Samantha closed her eyes as the ray hit her. She opened her eyes looking around the new place they were in, she saw The Professor walking around the area studying every detail in the room. Samantha stood up and walked over to The Professor tapping him gently on the shoulder.
"Where are we?" she said putting her hands behind her as The Professor turned to face her.
"I'm don't know just yet. But, I am making escape routes and backup plans if something goes wrong," he looked around the area spotting a big door.
"Escape routes and backup plans. Okay. So, when do we save my mom?"
"When whatever comes through those doors and I talk to it," he pointed at the big door that he had spotted.
"Okay. What should I do?" she said looking at the door and then back at him.
"Wait till I tell you to do something, and why are you acting differently?" he said with a confused look on his face.
"What do you mean by different?" she asked with an innocent smile and look on her face.
The Professor walked around the room even more and studied as much as he could, till he spotted an air vent, he walked over to it and checked it out, he then pulled the silver, white, thing back out of his coat pocket and pressed the button, making the tip glow green again around the air vent.
"Oh, this air vent is sending a special gas that makes you feel really good, calm, and innocent to distract you from whatever thing is going to enter the room," he said putting the thing back into his coat pocket and facing Samantha.
"Then why aren't you affected?" she asked.
"Yeah, why aren't you affected?" a deep handsome voice said as the big door slid open revealing a tall man wearing a nice black tux, black pants, black shoes, and a white tie.
"Because you have the gas set to only effect humans," The Professor said walking in front of Samantha.
"Aren't you human?" the man in the doorway asked The Professor with a curious look on his face.
"Maybe I am, Maybe I'm not. But, I'm sure not telling you."
"You said the gas only affects humans, so you would have to not be human for the gas not to affect you," the man said walking closer to The Professor and Samantha.
"Or, I trained myself to be immune to gasses just like you," The Professor said staying still with a smart look on his face.
"Clever clever, little one. But, you haven't figured out who I am and why I am doing what I'm doing," he said as he stopped walking.
"I'll figure out soon enough. Anyway, why don't you take us to wherever the other people are or, even better, take us to the control unit or console of the transporter," The Professor said putting his hands into his pant's front pockets.
"I'll take you where I want to take you. Now, please follow me if you will," the man said turning around and walking out of the door.
"So, what do we do?" Samantha asked looking innocently at The Professor.
"First, you eat this," he said handing her a little tablet. "It will make you immune to the gas. Second, we are going to find out what he has planned and maybe try to stop it."
"Okay," she said taking the tablet and eating it. "What is going on and where are we?" she blinked a few times.
"There we go. I don't know the answer to either of those questions, but I'll soon find out, don't worry," he said walking towards the door.
"Okay," she followed The Professor.
The Professor and Samantha followed the strange guy down corridor after corridor until finally they entered a long room with consoles along the wall and a glass window above the consoles. Through the window, you could see a way larger room with what looked to be a big trapdoor in the floor. The Professor stared through the window and looked around the long room studying every detail he could, he looked confused at the strange man.
"If you are wondering what these two rooms are, stop your wondering I'll tell you. This room is the control room for everything, the transporter, the gas, that trapdoor in the floor in the other room, and everything else," the man said looking at a confused Professor.
"Thank you for telling us, now, please, tell me what you attend to do with the people you took," The Professor said in as serious as he could voice.
"Well, I need to feed my pet, don't I?" the man said still with his serious look on his face.
"And what kind of pet-" The Professor was cut off by Samantha.
"Where-is-my-mother?" Samantha asked in a threatening/serious voice.
"Was your mother one of the people that were transported by the ray?" the man asked turning his full attention to Samantha.
"Yes. Now, tell me where she is."
"You'll see soon enough. But, first, let me show you how I am going to feed my pet," the man said turning and looking through the window.
"What is your pet?" The Professor finally asked.
"You'll see," is all the man said.
"I hate surprises," The Professor said turning and looking through the window.
Through the window in the room, a banging noise came from under the trapdoor, as a bucket filled with steak was being held by a rope. The banging got louder and louder as the steak got closer, The Professor leaned closer to the window to see better as the strange man sneered a little. Samantha leaned in as well wanting to see what would come out of the trap door, The Professor quickly looked at the strange man and then back at the bucket holding the steak as the trapdoor started to open slowly, a clicking and screaming noise came out piercing The Professor's and Samantha's ears.
"Have you figured out what kind of creature my pet is, Professor?" the man said looking at The Professor with both of his eyebrows raised.
"Not yet, and it is rather surprising that you know my name unless, of course, you heard me through your little earpiece that, I'm guessing, lets you listen through special cameras," The Professor replied looking at the strange man.
"Very good. But, I think you should be watching the trapdoor closely," the strange man sad returning his gaze at the trapdoor.
"Interesting," The Professor said looking back at the trapdoor.
Two claws like crabs or grasshoppers emerged from the hole underneath the trapdoor and grabbed the sides of the trapdoors and tore them out of the walls and into the hole. The two sides of the trapdoor were suddenly thrown into the room where The Professor, Samantha, and the strange man were crashing through the window right beside The Professor and slamming into the wall.
"It can't be," The Professor said worriedly.
"Professor, what is it?" Samantha said looking at The Professor.
"It, my dear, is what you two are being fed to," the strange man said looking at Samantha with a wicked sneer on his face.
"Professor!" Samantha screamed.
The Professor was petrified and frozen. He couldn't keep his eyes off of the creature that was in the hole.
"Grab them," the strange man said as two robots walked into the room grabbing The Professor and Samantha.
"You won't get away with this," The Professor said trying not to struggle.
"I think I already have," the strange man said with a laugh as The Professor and Samantha were taking out of the room.
"Professor, what do we do?" Samantha asked trying to get free.
"Figure out how to get out and stop him," The Professor said not really trying to struggle.
"Who is he and what is that thing?" Samantha said looking confused at The Professor.
"I don't know who he is yet, but, that creature is something I haven't seen in a long time," he said as he and Samantha started getting tied together.
"Great. And now we're going to be fed to that thing," she said really annoyed. "Are your days usually like this?"
"Most of them. Today was unusual, I mean I ran into 'you'," he said looking around the place.
"What do you mean 'it was unusual because you ran into me'?" she said looking extremely confused and annoyed.
"It's just I don't run into very many people."
"Okay, so, how are we going to get out of here?" she asked trying to look at The Professor.
"I'm thinking," he said a starting to get a little annoyed.
"Well, can you think faster."
"I'm thinking as fast as I can," he said as the trapdoor under them opened.
They kept moving down and down slowly, the creature couldn't wait to have live food it kept jumping and trying to grab them so it could eat as soon as it could. The Professor and Samantha kept looking at it, then The Professor looked up at the strange man seeing him laughing.
"We will get out of this!" The Professor yelled.
"No, you won't," the man said over the speaker.
"Professor!" Samantha said screaming.
"Hang on, Samantha!" The Professor said looking up.
They kept getting closer and closer to the creature that was ready for its seconds.