The Remainders
A/N Yay! Guys, not only did I get most of the old readers back, but some new readers as well! Welcome aboard!
Part 2~ The Beginning.
Friday, June 23rd
6:33 PM
By the East elevators
Lucy
My first thought after the second announcement, was holy cockballs I've doomed this entire mall.
You see, I had my suspicions when that stupid briefcase first got hauled in, could be a potential bomb, or terrorist threat.
And my fears were almost confirmed when the mall went on lockdown.
Psh, if anybody actually believed that 'training exercise' bullshit, they deserved to get blown up.
But that second announcement really put some ice on my bones.
The only problem was, it didn't add up.
If it was a bomb, why would they keep everyone inside? If it was a bomb, wouldn't they evacuate us so that we could be safe?
Shouldn't they?
But instead, we were trapped, like rats. And the worst part was, I think a majority of the 'prisoners' were enjoying their stay.
It was a game to them, just a stupid game. It'd all be over soon enough.
Not to me.
I knew deep in my heart that this trip to the mall was going to be seared into my brain for a very long time.
"Lucy!"
I whirled around at the sound of my name.
"Luce!"
…Natsu?
He bounded up to me with that old ratty scarf of his bouncing up and down from his running.
"What…you're here!" I said, surprised.
"Of course I'm here. But when you said the usual place, I thought you meant—,"
"Uh…doesn't matter." I covered quickly, blushing at our close proximity. He smiled brightly and hooked his arm in mine.
"Looks like we're trapped here, cool eh? Where to first?" He looked so excited, so full of life.
He was just like everybody else.
"Um…how about food? I know you're probably hungry." I suggested quietly.
"You know me Luce," he said with a childish wink as he skipped back towards the food court, dragging me beside him.
I wish his happiness could've been contagious.
On our way, we walked by the east exit, and I noticed guards.
With some really big-ass guns.
A small crowd of upset civilians seemed to have gathered in front of the doors, probably loaded with questions that I wanted to ask as well.
I'm sorry; it's my fault, all my fault. If I hadn't opened that stupid suitcase-
"Hey, Lucy…what's wrong?" Natsu asked with genuine concern.
"…Er, nothing. Just hungry is all." I said, waving my problem away like a pesky fly.
But like any pesky fly, it refused to die, buzzing obnoxiously in my ear every five seconds.
Your fault. Your fault.
I couldn't help but feel sick to my stomach, knowing that I was most likely the cause of all the upset people, probably trying to make it home to their families.
"…You're not hungry." Natsu said flatly, taking us to a screeching halt.
"What do you mean?" I asked, twirling a piece of my hair which was an annoying nervous habit I had.
"What's wrong?" He asked, more forcefully this time.
I sighed and tried to think of a good excuse.
"You uh…I thought you ditched me to hang out with your girlfriend." I said with an awkward little shrug.
I…am an idiot. Confessing to Natsu is the absolute least of my problems right now.
He gave me a funny look, one I certainly wasn't expecting.
"That's…weird." He finally said, turning back forward so we could get a move on to the food court.
"Uh…why is that weird?" I asked, confused. He laughed.
"You think I'd ditch food with you just to make out with a chick?" He asked, still laughing.
"…Well, I mean—,"
He slapped my hand down. "That's a rhetorical question. Now let's eat." He said happily, using his hand to wave over the food building like his hand was the one that made it appear.
"What do you want?" I asked, perching my hand on my hip as Natsu pondered where his meal would originate. For us, this was like the final jeopardy, the most important question in all of life itself.
"Aah…hmm…what about…the…that one!" Natsu pointed to a brightly colored restaurant that had the words 'all you can eat' painted across the top.
Great.
"Are you really that hungry?" I asked anxiously.
"Do you even have to ask?" He exclaimed, already halfway there.
Great, quite possibly the end for all of us and I'm stuck with a pink haired maniac.
Friday, June 23rd
6:42
The ice cream shop
Gajeel
"Van…il…la!" Levy announced, tapping her finger nail on the glass in front of the vanilla ice cream.
"Are you kidding me? There's at least 20 flavors, and you pick vanilla?" I asked, disgusted with her awful decision.
"I like vanilla. It's my favorite." Levy said sharply, taking her tiny vanilla cone from the greasy worker with as much dignity as she could muster.
"Ugh. Books and vanilla? I think you win the old lady at eighteen award." I grumbled. She glared at me and licked her ice cream happily.
"Why didn't you get anything?" She asked after I paid for her ice cream.
"I don't want anything." I answered bluntly.
"Why did you pay for me?" She asked.
"You ask too many questions." I grunted.
"You're avoiding the question," she fired back. God she's annoying. If she wasn't so damn interesting, I wouldn't have to pay for her stupid boring ice cream.
"I can't believe we're locked in. Strange don't you think? I really want to know what's going on…" She said, dropping the previous subject completely.
"Probably some government screw-up." I muttered with a shrug. Truth was, I was just as confused as she was.
Why the hell are we all locked in here? Isn't this illegal or something?
It's not like I have anything better to do, but still, if I was going to be locked in a giant building with a bunch of stupid kids, you better damn believe I want to know why.
"Maybe. But I feel like if something bad was happening here, wouldn't they want to get us out instead of in?" Levy asked herself with a worried look on her face. Ugh. I hated it when she looked all sad. It pissed me off.
"Don't worry about it shrimp. I'm sure it'll all be over soon enough." I said in a less-than-comforting voice.
"You don't sound too sure…" She caught me. Damn.
"Uh…just…what do you want to do next?" I changed the subject quickly, not wanting to let her in on the fact that I was just as worried as she was.
She sighed. I really wish she wasn't so smart, it'd be so much easier to protect her.
"Hm. I don't know, do you want to get something to eat? I'm worried you haven't gotten enough to eat…" She asked.
Ugh. She's gotta make everything about someone else, it's never about her. Fuck her selflessness.
"Yeah, sure." I muttered. She smiled brightly and led the way to the food court, which was surprisingly empty right now.
"Where should we go? There's lots of good places. Hm…what about—,"
"Hey, is that Salamander?" I asked to no one in particular, squinting my eyes to see better into the restaurant.
'I think it is! And Lucy too! We should go join them!" Levy squealed, tugging an my arm in their direction.
"Ugh. Seriously? Salamander looks like he's inhaling the place…" I noted, seeing Natsu eat was like seeing a black hole in action.
"Aw, don't be silly let's go!" She encouraged, pulling me along. I wasn't really trying.
Two minutes later Levy and Lucy were screaming like they hadn't seen each other in years.
"Oh my god! You look great!"
"No, oh my god you look so cute!"
Fuck ing kill me.
"Hey Gajeel, you look pissed." Natsu said in between munches.
"You look like a fucktard. Anything else new?" I said, stealing one of his French fries.
"Hey! I needed that!" He shouted, his eyes burning with rage from that stupid French fry.
"No you didn't fatass!"
"You wanna fight me metal-face?"
"The fuck did you just call me?"
Levy sweat dropped. "Erm…maybe it was a bad idea to bring Gajeel here…"
"Oh, don't worry about it." Lucy assured her.
Smash!
"Gajeel!" I heard Levy scream from behind me.
"What? I only broke a plate over his head!" I said, holding the dish fragment in surprise.
"Wha…Natsu!" Lucy lifted a dizzy looking Natsu up from his slumped position in his chair as he moaned.
"Hey…that's foul play…no plates allowed…" He murmured sleepily.
"Gajeel! I can't believe you did that!" Levy exclaimed with an almost stern facial expression.
"Hey, he was asking for it." I answered with a shrug.
'You can't just solve problems by bashing people in the head! That's not how life works!" She huffed, puffing her cheeks out.
"It's worked for me so far!" I argued, abandoning the half piece of plate as an angry looking short man.
'Excuse me! I am going to have to ask all of you to leave!" He shouted, his face bright red and his veins bulging out of his forehead.
"But I didn't finish eating…" Natsu whined, glancing woefully at his unfinished plate.
"Get out!" The man screeched.
We all scurried out of the ugly restaurant, each muttering our own unique curses under our breath.
"Well. Where to next?" Natsu asked cheerfully, as if this were just another happy day in the life of Natsu Dragneel.
"Are you kidding m—,"
BANG! BANG!
Bunny girl jumped sixteen feet in the air and Levy almost passed out.
"Hey, what was that?" Natsu asked, completely unaware of what the sound was.
But I knew that sound. I knew it all to well.
"Gunfire." I said, my mouth dry. "Somebody's shooting a gun."
Friday, June 23rd
7:13
Mirajane
"Did you hear that?"
I looked up from my thoughts, Lisanna's worried face greeting me.
"Hear what?" Elfman asked with his mouth completely full.
"I…nothing, I thought I heard something." Lisanna asked, standing up to throw her meal wrapper in the trash.
I bit my lip nervously. We should be home by now…this whole ordeal should be over, we shouldn't still be in the mall…
"Hey Mira, something wrong?" Elfman asked, just finishing up his huge sandwich.
"No, of course not…" I covered, licking my lips in shame. I hated lying to my siblings, but what was I supposed to tell them? That something was wrong, something wasn't right?
That'd only freak them out. I needed to keep them calm.
"Hm. Ok." Elfman said skeptically, following Lisanna up to the trash can.
I hadn't gotten anything. I couldn't eat, I was too stressed out. Grandma is probably so worried, I wouldn't even be surprised if she'd called the police…
My eyes traveled the food court, empty tables and chairs were all I saw, with the exception of tons of onlookers walking past us completely unaware and without a care in the world.
"What do you want to do next Mira? I was thinking of going to forever 21, but I didn't really think big brother was up to that…" Lisanna asked, chewing on one of her finger nails absently.
"Um, no that sounds—,"
My eyes drifted back to the people who were passing the food court.
That's weird, I could've sworn I saw-
"Mira?"
Damn it. Damn it all to hell oh shit.
"Elfman? Take Lisanna to Forever 21." I demanded, pushing him away from me.
"But I don't-,"
"Just do it!"
He backed away with Lisanna on his arm, taking the distress in my voice as a warning to move faster.
This…this is going to suck.
"It is you, Mira."
I turned around with a fake smile plastered across my lips.
"Hi Laxus."
"You look great," he said with an eyebrow raise at my outfit.
It wasn't even that great. Just a flowing blue top and a short-ish white skirt.
Something Albert would like.
Right. I have a boyfriend.
"Thanks." I finally said curtly, wanting to spend as little time as possible in his presence.
Laxus and I used to date.
For a year and a half, actually.
But we went to separate colleges, and also I'm pretty sure he was banging my best friend. I broke up with him on graduation day, and let's just say he didn't take it all that well.
"How's Magnolia U?" He asked casually, his two friends looking bored of his antics.
"It's good. I have a boyfriend now." Great now you sound like an insecure bitch.
"Is that so?" He asked, his lightning like scar shifting with his amused expression. "I bet I can take him."
"There will be no 'taking'," I scoffed, folding my arms over my chest.
"Hey, uh, Laxus? We're gonna go look for some girls. We'll meet you back here in an hour," one of his friends said, moving his dark hair out of his eyes to reveal red irises.
"Yeah ok." Laxus waved them off, his eyes fixed on me.
They shuffled away and I seriously considered following them.
"So, does this boyfriend have a name?" Laxus asked, his eyes hard and unyielding.
"Yes," I answered swiftly. He took a step closer to me and I took one step back.
"Are you gonna tell me his name?" He asked, a sick smirk covering his mouth.
One step closer, one step back.
"Albert." I said haughtily, not missing his snort of laughter.
"Albert." He repeated, not faltering his string of laughter.
"Yes Albert. And I'd appreciate if you didn't make fun of him." I defended.
"He uh…he sounds kind of fake, if you ask me…" Laxus said with a shrug once he had finished laughing.
"Fake!?" I cried in exasperation. "Albert is not fake!"
"Prove it." He challenged, taking another step forward, only this time, a table was blocking my way back.
And now I'm trapped.
"Fine." I snapped, pulling out my phone and clicking his contact number. "See?"
He looked at my phone, and Albert's contact photo. "Well if he's real, then you'll have no problem calling him."
"I will!" I said sharply, momentarily forgetting about the fact that my phone had no service.
"Oh…never mind, I can't call him." I said quickly, glaring at the no service reminder.
"Why not?" Laxus asked slyly, thinking that he had won this argument.
"Because there's no service." I said lowly. He looked confused.
"What? Why not?" He pulled out his own phone to see if the same thing had happened to him, and he frowned when he saw the results.
"That's…weird." He finally said, scratching the back of his head in wonder.
"Yeah. I-,"
Attention mall shoppers,
Not again…
Another problem has come to our attention, and we are sorry to have to tell you this. The mall will be on lock down overnight.
Plenty of surprised gasps, including my own.
Each sector of the mall will report to a different store for sleeping preparations. See a worker for more details on this subject. Section A of the mall will go to Macy's, Section B will go to Bloomingdales, Section C will go to The sporting goods store,
He's just avoiding saying Dick's…
And Section D will go to Nordstrom. Please check in with a mall official when you get to your sector and cooperate appropriately. To see what sector you are in, please locate the nearest map. We are very sorry that no more information about the training exercise will be revealed at the time. Thank you all, and goodnight.
What? Is this even legal? I looked over at Laxus worriedly and he seemed to have identical thoughts.
"Uh…let's go see what sector we're in…" He said, trying to get his mind off of the turmoil.
"Yeah…yeah ok." I said hollowly, following him to a service map where people were already gathered.
"Looks like we're in Section C," he said, pointing to Dick's on the map. I nodded and we made our way to the store, both of us not saying a word.
Oh shit…Elfman and Lisanna…
I scanned my brain, trying to remember what section Forever 21 was in. If I remembered right, it should be in Section D, but I'm not all too sure.
Great. The only person I'm going to know is Laxus.
And I'm going to spend the night, in a mall.
My grandma is going to have a heart attack.
Friday, June 23rd
7:53
Outside Columbia
Wendy
"Section B." I heard someone read off of the map. Great. I forgot where Section B was supposed to go.
Was it the sporting goods store? No…that was C…maybe it's Macy's?
I wondered where my mom was. She was obviously still inside the mall, it was on lockdown, so what Section would she go to?
Friday Night was in Section C…maybe I should just go to that section, that's probably where my mom is going to look for me.
I wanted to cry. I was alone in a mall and I had to spend the night with hundreds of strangers.
So here I was, a fifteen year old girl almost in tears because she had lost her mother and didn't know where to go.
Pull yourself together Wendy!
I stood up a bit straighter to see over the crowd of screaming people around the map. The sporting good store should be to my right, and thank god…it was much less crowded that way.
I darted past the hoard of people and ducked through the quiet hall. It was about now that I really wished my mom had never sent me to a private school, the odds of me knowing someone here where slim to none. Not to mention that most people at my school are really snotty and stuck up.
The sporting good store was just up ahead, and I was surprised how little people there were. Over at Section B there were hundreds of swarming people, but from what I could see there were only about twenty people in the store.
"Hello, first and last name please?" A lady on a personal computer asked, clicking names in one at a time.
"Er…uh…Wendy…Wendy Marvell." I stammered nervously. She typed my name in and gave me the lo-down.
"Basically it's a free for all, just make sure you put the stuff back after you use it." She said.
Gosh, she makes this sound so normal…
I looked up to see if I knew anyone. No luck. And it didn't look like there were any people my age either.
I walked past an empty register slowly and sat on top of it, with nothing else to do.
I wonder where I should sleep…I wonder what I'm going to sleep on!?
Crash!
I looked up quickly to see what all the commotion was. A pink haired boy was racing towards me at top speed, looking like he had just knocked some things off of shelves.
I screamed as I fell off the register in surprise, almost falling on top of the boy.
"Whoa! Sorry, didn't see you there." He apologized, helping me get back on my feet.
"Natsu! Did you seriously just plow that little girl over?" An angry-looking blonde girl shouted from the check in area.
"I'm sorry Lucy! I didn't mean too!" He shouted back to her, with a guilty look.
"Don't apologize to me!" Lucy said. He turned to me again and apologized.
"Hey, I'm really sorry. Are you alone?" He asked nosily, probably seeing that I looked like I was ten and had nobody to talk to.
"Um…yes." I admitted shyly.
Lucy came trotting over, a motherly look on her face.
"Ah, I'm so sorry. He can be really reckless sometimes." The blonde girl said. She was really gorgeous, with warm brown eyes and styled blonde hair. She must be his girlfriend.
"That's uh….that's ok." I said nervously.
"Hey don't worry kid. You can hang out with us." Natsu said brightly, putting his lightly muscled arm over my shoulder.
"Is she alone?" Lucy asked him. He nodded and squeezed my shoulder.
"We'll take care of you."
I was about to say thanks, it was nice to have someone to talk to, but Lucy flagged over an odd looking couple to sit with us.
"This is Levy and Gajeel, guys, this is…" Lucy trailed off; she didn't know my name.
"Wendy." I finished for her she nodded and the girl who I assumed to be Levy greeted me enthusiastically.
"Hi there! I'm Levy," she had short sky blue hair that was wild and cute while being pulled back with an orange bandana and her height rivaled that of mine.
The guy, Gajeel, just grunted. He was easily over six feet with metal piercings doting his face and an angry expression, plus long black hair that was tied into a messy ponytail.
"Oh my gosh! Guys! Lets build a fort!" Natsu yelled victoriously, digging through camping supplies and grabbing several tents.
"Uh…ok." Lucy said with a shrug, retrieving all the tents that Natsu dropped.
"Let's go!" Levy said happily, grabbing blankets off of the shelf. Gajeel followed her reluctantly and I went after him, not denying that I was a bit excited.
It was just like a camp out, a big sleepover, that's all.
It was easy to pretend that nothing was wrong.
Aha, fast update :3 (I'm not very good at these)
I felt like my writing was really bad in this chapter, so sorry about that…
Next chapter will be like Jellal and Erza, Cobra and Kinana, and probably Lucy and Natsu. Natsu is extremely fun to write.
Also, Juvia in the next chapter! I couldn't leave her out!
Sooo~ I like readers they are v cool.
I was really weirded out like wtf twelve follows im confused…
Eh. I'm talking too much.
~Review Responses~
Karen: what ?
Alec: I'm Karen's number one fan! I just want her to notice me…
DeAmonQueEn: Ugh. I wish. Think more like…one giant purge inside a mall.
NoSyrupOnMyWaffles: Ah…a little bit, just a bit more fancy. whY WOULD I KILL WENDY SHE IS HOMESLICE.
I forgot to mention that I live like ten minutes away from the mall of America, which is significantly bigger than most malls, so if you're all like wtf why is this mall so big it's bc that's what I'm used to.
revIEW YOU LOVELY PPL
