Clara indicated for Francis to come and join her, he cautiously peered around the entrance door and moved to sit with them.
"Right, so," said Clara, thinking out loud, "first of all, if we are stuck in here we are going to need to arm ourselves. I've already just almost been shot," she looked towards the shattered white screen at the back of the store. It had exposed a small space which she presumed could be a way to leave the store. "Francis, you know this place, how do people in here have weapons? The security checks looked pretty extensive as we came in?"
"Yeah, they are," Francis agreed, "we can't get so much as a hammer in here to do our work."
"So how do people have," she pointed to the floor, "shotguns?"
"I found this one lying on the floor," said Kodey.
"The only thing I can think is that they have bought them whilst they've been in here," pondered Francis.
"But I thought everything you buy gets delivered out to the car parks?" said Clara.
"Most of it does," said Francis, "but you can get it to take with you, they changed it once they started privatising the mass transportation network."
"How does that work?" Clara asked.
"If you don't travel on a private vehicle they give you a miniaturiser," said Francis, as he used his right thumb and index finger to indicate an object about three inches long, "and in some of the departments they have real-life samples for you to try, it's feasible, I guess that some of them could be stolen or removed."
"OK," Clara nodded. "Miniaturiser and samples, that's where this stuff is coming from. Well we've already got one, so that is promising," she smiled, pointing towards the floor.
"So what are we doing then?" said Francis, brushing the thigh of his green trousers with the palm of his hand, removing the creases. "Are we going to buy weapons?"
Clara pondered, "I'm not sure that is a good idea, I feel like going to the place with all the guns will end up in one of us getting shot. I've almost been shot here, for god's sake! No, that is not a good idea." Clara fished into the right pocket of her jacket and pulled out the map and the psychic paper together. Francis and Kodey looked down towards it and back at each other.
"You actually bloody bought one of those maps?" said Francis, laughing.
"They are a total rip off," nodded Kodey in agreement. "The first time I came here mine broke within an hour."
"Well, it's kind of one of my rules. Get a map," said Clara, ignoring them, "and besides, it has come in pretty handy so far."
"What's that?" said Kodey, pointing at the psychic paper.
"Oh this," said Clara, moving it between her hands, "this is useful, it's my... err... identification." She held the paper up to Kodey, "what does it say?"
Kodey examined the piece of paper before saying, "it says... you're a mystery shopper."
"Really?" Clara laughed loudly. She turned it to herself and saw it was blank.
"Yeah, it says," he read again, "you can access anywhere in the TCM."
"Not wishing to prejudge the situation here, but," Clara smiled, "today is a really bad day for them to have a mystery shopper. And I can tell you, my report will not be favourable." She aimed the psychic paper at Francis. "What does it say for you?"
"It says the same," Francis read it, "mystery shopper."
There was a loud shot outside that made them all jump and look around.
"Of course," said Clara, resigned, "because Kodey has already told you what's on it." She looked down at it again, as some writing appeared. It said 'D675'. "Ok, so that's weird."
"What is?" asked Francis.
"The paper, it's telling me to go to D675. What or where is that?" Clara said, unfolding the map onto her lap.
"But it's blank?" said Kodey, confused, watching over her shoulder.
"Yes, it does that," said Clara, inspecting the map. "Where are we now?"
A white dot appeared on the map, indicating that they were at P437.
"How do we get to D675?" she said. A white line appeared on the map, directing them to the nearest transmission point, fifteen minutes walk in the direction they had been heading in before hiding in the store.
"May I?" said Francis, taking the map from her, Clara nodded. He waved his hands around the image, pinching the hologram and zooming in on it, exposing new layers of the map she hadn't noticed.
"I did not know it did that," said Clara, impressed. "What are you looking for?"
"I'm seeing where you're taking us," he said as an aside, "and what's there."
The map point showed the marker for D675, showing it was in the Diamond section of the centre. Francis moved the map away from the main boulevard towards the inner section.
"Diamonds?" said Clara, tilting her head, smiling, "now that sounds like a place I need to be." She was trying to make light of the situation.
A loud gunshot broke her mood.
"I knew it!" exclaimed Francis. He pointed at the map. "That's one of the operation centres, I thought I recognised it, right there, in the same area. How did you know that?" He looked at her, lowering his eyebrows.
"This paper," she indicated the psychic paper, "comes in useful, I told you. It's a little bit psychic."
"Cool," said Kodey, still sniffling, picking it up to examine it. "We've been working on some prototypes in the office for psychic clothes for the army to allow the soldiers to blend into their surroundings. This is fascinating."
"And it's also mine," said Clara, taking it back and putting it into her pocket.
There was another gunshot outside, closer.
"I don't feel safe staying here with the amount of gunshots I'm hearing going off," Clara said, using the wall to heave herself up. She moved towards the shotgun, picking it up by the strap off the floor. It was heavier than she had been expecting. "OK, so I think I'll hold onto this," she said, half smiling. She put her hand over the trigger, stopping short of resting her finger on the release. She half wondered if she would actually be able to fire the gun, deciding to meet that bridge when she came to it.
There was another gunshot outside that pinged on some metal, accompanied by some loud screams. Clara instinctively put her back to the wall, slinging the shotgun diagonally over her right shoulder, barrel down.
A loud guttural shout near the entrance caused Francis and Kodey to get up off the floor quickly and edge their way towards the corner of the space.
"What was that?" said Francis, moving slowly away from the entrance, pushing Kodey into the left hand side wall. Clara swung the gun around to hold it and point it towards the doorway, keeping Francis and Kodey behind her. All three of them were walking backwards in the direction of the counter, so that they could be invisible from the entrance.
A figure came staggering into the entrance.
"Get down!" said Clara said quietly under her breath, pulling Francis down to her left. They were kneeling behind the counter as a loud long wet growl sounded from the other side. Kodey crouched backwards.
Clara tried to breathe quietly as she leant to her right to peer around the side edge of the counter. She was unable to see anything, reverting to her earlier position. Kodey leant forward to look past Francis at Clara, waiting for an instruction. Clara put her right index finger to her lips as she felt them both watching her.
She crouched on her feet, slowly rising up to glance over the counter quickly. Standing twenty feet from her was a figure facing away dressed in torn black clothing, all the visible skin was a mottled purple colour. The person groaned loudly again, beginning to turn towards where they were hiding, Clara quickly ducked out of view, seeing Francis and Kodey wanting a report. She pointed in the direction quickly and did her best silent charades impression of a zombie.
Francis creased his eyebrows and shook his head confused. Clara put her finger to her lips again and pointed towards the far corner behind Kodey. They both nodded back at her, Kodey crouched onto his feet and edged silently in the direction of the corner.
Clara crouched and walked backwards, pointing the gun at the edge of the counter. She backed into Francis accidentally, misjudging the distance. "Sorry," she mouthed quietly to him. Clara indicated for Kodey to keep moving, so she could take cover.
They were approaching the area where the gunshot had landed on the wall earlier. There were many shards of glass lying on the marble floor tiles, large fabric fibres hanging limp where the wall had been broken, the occasional spark lit up the darkness beyond. Kodey sat on the floor, back to the counter again, Francis took a quick look up over the top, reminding Clara of a meerkat as he stood.
Francis slunk back down, turning his back to the counter, his face pale. He indicated with his thumb behind and then mimicked Clara's impression of a zombie. He made himself very low to the ground. Clara followed his lead.
A loud wet gargle resonated in the space above them. Kodey looked down to the floor, grimacing, head between his legs. Clara and Francis both took a cautious glance towards each other and then directed their eyes to the ceiling. Clara put her right hand on Francis' left jacket sleeve as they stayed as still as possible. Clara swallowed heavily to the back of her throat, listening carefully for any sign of movement.
Two mottled purple hands instantly appeared two feet above their heads, causing them both to jump an inch off the floor. Clara and Francis scrabbled to melt themselves into the floor as the hands grasped and snatched at the air towards the ceiling. Kodey noticed as Francis accidentally elbowed him in the ribs, he let out a small shout and started backing away. Their feet kicked around the broken glass beads on the floor as they tried to get away. The hands lowered, exposing white sleeves, coming within inches of the top of Clara's head.