Well, thankfully, the first chapter is already showing positive signs, so here I am, posting the next chapter. I guess we'll see how this goes...
Reply to Reviews:
Guest: I'm very aware Alby was killed by Grievers- I cried a little after reading that part of the book (I know, I'm weird... whaddya gonna do... XD). In this, the battle with the Grievers before the Gladers went a little differently, besides the Griever Hole being a portal. This is supposed to be an alternate ending, with a humorous twist, I suppose you could say. I wanted Alby to be here. And if you think this is crazy, well, it only gets weirder from here...
AsgardianGrizzly: Glad you liked it! ;)
StarRunner1: Yep! They're all meant to be a little OOC, so that's okay :)
Guest: Thank you! Glad you found it so!
"Welcome to the mall, boys." Teresa said, as the five of them (Alby still missing in action) stepped foot in the incredibly large building.
"It's huge!" Thomas gasped, observing the dozens of shops and all the people hurrying around.
"Have you no memory of a mall?" Teresa asked.
"I have a vague memory, I guess. Not in a mall as big as this, though."
"True, this is a pretty big mall. Now, let's go find our dear friend Alby, shall we?" Teresa went up to a mall directory. "Security office is down there, to the right." she grabbed Newt's and Thomas's wrists with her hands and dragged them down the corridor. Gally and Minho followed. They stopped at a door labeled "Mall Security". Teresa pushed the door open and they filed inside.
It was a considerably small room, six plastic chairs lined up across from a desk, two doors leading off to two different rooms. It was dimly lit and had dark blue walls.
"How can I help you?" asked the woman behind the desk.
"Yes, hi." Teresa went over to the desk. "We would like to report a missing boy."
Newt facepalmed. "Teresa, he's not a boy."
The woman appeared not hear him. "Okay. Can you tell me his name, age, and a specific description?"
"Okay, so, his name is Alby, he's about eighteen, and he's about 5 foot nine-ish maybe, he's African-American and he's got short brown hair and a muscular build."
"Well, he doesn't seem like a boy, now does he? Perhaps a young man? And in most cases, eighteen-year-olds aren't missing in a mall, they are often off by themselves. You seem too calm for it to be a kidnapping..." the woman looked at Teresa, almost seeming like she was expecting her to contradict her.
"Fine, he's a young man. But he's missing. He ran out of the car and into the mall and he went somewhere- where, I don't know." Teresa shrugged.
"Does he have a phone you can call him with?" the woman asked calmly.
"No. He hasn't had time to buy a phone."
The woman looked at Teresa, surprised. "Well, your friend must be a very busy man."
"It's been a busy week." Teresa agreed.
The woman looked at Teresa strangely. "Anyways, I suppose we can try paging him. "What's his name again?"
"Alby."
"What's his last name?"
"We're not exactly sure. And Alby isn't even his real name. Can you just try paging Alby? I mean, who names their kid "Alby"? He'll know it's him who's beeing called to when he hears it." Teresa said.
Newt facepalmed again. "Bloody hell, Teresa!"
"...Then what's his real name...?" the woman looked confused.
"I dunno. I suppose it could be Alby for all we know. Or it could be something common, just like John or Bob. Could be Juan or Frederick, who knows?!" Teresa laughed.
"Sorry, she's had a rough week." Newt placed his hands on Teresa's shoulders and moved her to the side. "His name is Alby. Unfortunately, we do not know his last name- he's a fairly new friend and for some reason, we haven't gotten around to last names. He was supposed to be sticking with us, but he went off somewhere. Could you just try paging "Alby"? My friend was right on that count- not many people have the name of Alby."
The woman seemed to believe Newt. "Okay." she picked up the phone next to her and dialed a number, "Paging Alby. Your party of five is waiting for you in the security office- please report to the security office immediately."
Ten minutes passed, and Alby did not show up.
"He's a shucking idiot." Newt muttered to himself. To the lady, he said, "Thank you very much for your help- I suppose we'll just scope him out ourselves from here."
"Good luck." she smiled at him. "He'll turn up, I'm sure."
They left the security office, and Minho asked Newt, "How'd you do it? Teresa told her the story and the lady thought she was crazy, and then you come through saying pretty much the same thing and she believes you in no time."
"Well, one, going off about how Alby might be named "Bob" did not help Teresa's situation, and two, like, three girls this week have told me I have a nice accent. So, apparently, I'm "charming". People will listen to charming accents, I guess."
"I have never found you so useful." Minho said. "But I don't find your accent to be charming- just different."
"And I don't like your accent," Gally put in. "It's weird."
Newt rolled his eyes.
"I was just being truthful!" protested Teresa, as they walked towards the nearest store- a CVS- to check for Alby.
"There's such thing as being too truthful." Newt rolled his eyes again, peering down an aisle. "No Alby..."
They split up and regrouped by the cash register, Teresa holding a bag of Hershey bars. "No Alby." she said, getting in line to buy the Hershey bars.
"Nope." Minho shook his head.
Thomas shook his head, too.
"If I'd found Alby, you'd think he would be here with me." Gally said dryly.
"Me neither." Newt shrugged. "Hey Teresa, why are you buying Hershey bars?"
"Chocolate is good for the heart." she said simply, handing the cashier a five-dollar bill.
"That's bloody fabulous." Newt rolled his eyes. "But could we focus on Alby right now?"
"Sure, now." Teresa joined them with her bag. "Where should we check?"
"I say we split up and check everywhere. I don't know where Alby would end up- I've never been to a mall with him before." Newt sighed.
"Alone?" Thomas asked. He didn't like the thought of wandering the large mall alone- he'd probably get lost too.
"Fine. We go in pairs, and one of us makes a third person in a group or works alone. I'll work alone- I'm not afraid of a mall." Newt said.
"Yet you're afraid of my driving?" Teresa teased.
"I don't think there is a very high mall death rate. However, you're a different story." Newt said.
"Since I seem to be the most confident, I should go off by myself. I nominate myself." Teresa said proudly.
"Fine, you can work alone." Newt rolled his eyes. "Do whatever you want, I really don't care."
"Excellent." Teresa rubbed her hands together.
Thomas and Newt then looked at each other and shouted, "I want Minho!"
"I feel the love, guys." Minho put a hand over his heart.
"I've known him longer- you can work with Gally." Newt said quickly.
"But Gally hates me. Don't you, Gally?" Thomas looked over at Gally.
"Newt's not my best friend and neither is Minho." Gally said simply.
"But you hate me the most, right?"
"Yes."
"You guys get to bond." Newt said. "Let's meet back here in a half hour."
"Sounds good!" Teresa waved to them and skipped off to the right. Newt and Minho went left, so Thomas turned to where Gally had been standing. "Soo... up the escalator?"
Gally was not there.
"Gally!" shouted Thomas, looking around. Gally was already on the escalator. He chased after the former Builder, his thoughts on the whole situation consisted that he hated Gally, but he felt as though he would hate getting lost alone in the large building even more. "Seriously?"
"I don't like you." Gally shrugged.
"I don't like you, either, but shouldn't we stick together?"
"You're afraid of the mall, aren't you?" Gally grinned wickedly.
"I'm not afraid of the mall- I'm afraid of getting lost in it." Thomas said defensively.
"Fine, here's the deal- we stick together, but if anyone asks if we're friends, we deny everything. We also don't talk to each other." Gally stated the rules of working with him with a condescending tone.
"Why would anyone ask if we're friends?"
"You're breaking rule two."
"Honestl-"
"Shh!"
"Gall-"
"Shut up!"
"GAL-"
"I'm done. I'm not working with you." Gally walked off the escalator and started picking up the pace to get away from Thomas.
Thomas sprinted after him and jumped on the taller boy's back. "You're stuck with me."
"Get- off- me- you- shank!" Gally spun around in circles, trying to swat Thomas off his back.
"I'm sticking with you. I don't like you, but you're better than getting lost alone."
"I'm sorry, but I'd prefer to get lost alone than work with you."
"I feel the love."
"You just said you didn't like me!"
People were starting to give them weird looks as they passed.
Thomas was embarrassed, so he just said, "I'm just trying to get my worst enemy to work with me. Like you've never tried that before. Move along, guys."
"Shuck, Thomas! Get off!"
"Say we can work together."
"You're really afraid, aren't you."
"That car ride has changed me, Gally. I'm not the person I once was."
Gally rolled his eyes, and managed to slap Thomas's hand, so Thomas lost his grip on Gally's shoulder and crashed to the ground.
"Ooww..." Thomas groaned, sitting up. "Come on. Like you're not afraid of getting lost."
"I'm slightly unnerved by the size of the mall, I'll admit, but I'm not so freaked out I need you with me!" Gally said.
"Please, just... just let me... tag along, so to speak." Thomas said.
Gally rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine."
"YAY!" Thomas shouted, very much over enthusiastically. "Let's go look for Alby!" Thomas grabbed Gally's wrist and tugged him into the nearest store- a Bath and Body Works.
Thomas took the first step inside the store, took a deep breath and coughed. "Wow, the smells are overpowering."
"Yeah... I don't think Alby would be here. I don't think he could stand all the different scents." Gally said, wrinkling his nose.
"I guess we still have to look... I think Alby's gone kinda crazy- who knows what he's doing?" Thomas shrugged.
So the two wandered aimlessly through the displays of different perfumes, soaps, and hand sanitizers. They regrouped at the front of the store, both of them shaking their heads.
"Shuck, Thomas, you smell like you dumped every single scent in this room on you. What happened?" Gally shook his head.
Thomas looked at Gally, feeling the heat rise in his cheeks. "This nice worker person offered samples, and I felt like it would be rude to say "no"."
"Oh, don't tell Teresa," Gally snickered tauntingly. "Because I'll probably be doing it first."
Thomas looked at his feet. "She's not my girlfriend." he muttered. "And I didn't like the- person- girl, I just felt like rejecting it would be rude. She was very pleasant and I didn't want to hurt her feelings."
"Sure, Teresa isn't and I'm sure your new girlfriend was lovely." Gally rolled his eyes. "Anyways, let's keep going."
They went into the next store, a store called "Lids". It was a baseball hat shop, and it was considerably small, so Thomas and Gally just surveyed from the outside.
"No Alby." Thomas stated.
"No Alby." Gally agreed.
They went to the next store, a woman's clothing store called "Destination Maternity". This was larger, so they had to go in to look.
"Gally," Thomas whispered to him. "Do you really think Alby could be in a pregnant ladies' store?"
"I don't know- the shank went crazy." Gally peered behind a rack of shirts, in case Alby was hiding behind it, which, in this case, seemed entirely possible.
Some of the people in the store- mostly pregnant women, some men who were probably just husbands of the women in the store gave them strange looks. Thomas could see why. He and Gally were teenage boys, in slightly filthy clothing, and it was quite obvious that neither boy was pregnant.
"No Alby." Thomas sighed.
Gally rolled his eyes. "Let's keep looking."
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
Thomas and Gally must have scoured fifteen to twenty different shops, covering a large portion of the upstairs area. They went to meet up with Newt, Minho, and Teresa in front of CVS again.
"No luck?" Thomas asked the other three, who were already there.
"Nope." Minho shook his head.
"If Alby was found by me, don't you think he would be here with me?" Teresa sighed exasperatedly. "Honestly, I want to shop. And I'm hungry. We must have gotten most of the shops in the mall- where could he be?"
"Eat your chocolate." Gally said blatantly.
Teresa stuck her tongue out at him. "I'm not supposed to eat in the shops. It's a mall rule."
"Teresa, Gally, Thomas, I think we also need to have a discussion about "mall etiquette"," Newt said. "The two of you are behaving worse than ol' Chucky."
"What did I do?!" protested Gally. "All I suggested was that she eat chocolate!"
"And what did I do?" Teresa added.
"And me!" Thomas protested.
"Well, Gally, you pretty much need to learn mall rules so you don't make klunkheaded suggestions. Teresa, you can't go around telling people that there's no way to know what Alby's name is, or any of ours, for the matter. And Tommy, I heard people discussing that there had been a boy who jumped on another one on the second floor and were making a scene. You and Gally here are honestly two of the few here who would get into such a thing." Newt rolled his eyes.
All three opened their mouths to protest, but then Minho beat them to it.
"Right there!" Minho shouted, pointing over Thomas's shoulder. "There's Alby!"
Newt peered over Thomas's shoulder, as well. "Bloody..." he gasped. "ALBY!" he started chasing after him.
Minho followed him, and once Teresa saw, she brushed past Thomas and joined the chase.
Thomas whirled around and gasped in surprise. "Alby!"
It was definitely Alby, but he did not look like the Alby who had fled from Teresa's car and into the mall.
"Honestly, that shank is a lunatic!" Gally shook his head.
"Says you." Thomas started running after the group and Alby.
