(Chapter 15: Welcome to Amberlaine Mall)
Lori was pissed. Not like it was any change from her usual demeanor, but she didn't care for the feeling much either way. She had been sitting in the van for more than a day, with the exception of the two stops they made to eat and the one stop for the night. Mike and Sarah, the psychos, wanted to keep going on. Girls need their sleep, Lori mused, not necessarily their beauty sleep but their anti-bitchy sleep. Then of course, there was the issue of food. None of the places had salad or bottled water, a crime in of itself, but the sheer amount of grease that came off of the truck stop food would be enough to cause a person to break out just by looking at it the wrong way.
Two days earlier, Clinton had coaxed her into a date after he got out of the hospital from some accident on his motorcycle. She was miffed by the accident, as the motorcycle was quite a bit of Clinton's appeal, but it wasn't that big an issue. He said they would be going out, instead he forced her into the van and they took off with the rest of the freak show to go to some random town in Nevada. She didn't even have time to get a change of clothes, and to top it off she broke the heel off of her shoe at the last rest stop. So, in short, she was pissed.
At least the last stop had promise. They stopped in some small town in Amberlaine, Nevada, but it was big enough to have its own mall, so at least the world was not entirely cruel. Their lunch was made of whatever could be scrounged in the food court, and although it still had more grease and calories than Lori would have cared for, it could have been worse. Much worse. Truck stop worse.
Finishing off a corn dog, Mike looked around nervously. Everything was a threat, everything could be a danger, everything could take any one of them out of the picture. The kid spilling his drink on the floor, avoid the puddle, avoid the death. A poorly wired kiddy ride, its electrical cords snaking out of the back and into an outlet in the wall. Avoid, electrocution, very painful death. The Christmas decorations scared him the most. They were hung haphazardly, many almost threatening. He could see in one of the trees branches that looked as if they were talons reaching out to grab them all.
Mall management had placed the decorations meticulously for the Christmas holiday that was soon to come. They had been positioned for maximum visual effect, accentuated by the sunlight from the skylights above. Wreaths were hanged above every store, while long streamers were suspended from the ceiling beams across the upper floor. Many decorations were set up without a care in the world for customer or employee safety, but with more than a decade of no incident, nothing was thought of it. One particularly ornate wreath near Escalator B was hung on a hook that kept it a few inches too close to an air conditioning vent. It went unnoticed as decorations tend to do, and since the blowing of the air conditioning simply rocked the large ornament back and forth, many deemed it pretty. The rocking on the hook had gradually pushed the chain from its intended position. It was visibly impossible to tell that it had moved, but a few weeks under the direct blast of the air conditioning vent had pushed it several millimeters from where it should have been. The largely artificial wreath was huge, almost the size of a football player, was on it's last legs. It simply sat on its chain, waiting for anything to touch it, anything that would send it plummeting. The air conditioning sat ticking, waiting for its correct time to turn on. Soon enough its pre-programmed setting would turn on, and if the laws of physics kept up, would send the wreath plummeting.
---------
Sensing an opportunity while the others talked, Lori braced herself. Wait for the right moment, wait for it… Nick told a joke, got everyone laughing. Now! Get up! NOW!!!
Sprinting for everything she was worth, Lori made a run for the escalators, no more than fifty feet away. Seeing this, Mike yelled, "LORI!!!!!"
With little time to react, Mike and Rudy followed suit, barreling after the girl as she made it to the escalator. Sprinting with all his might, Rudy made it to her first, years upon years of playing football finally paying off. Grabbing her by the wrist, he tried to pull her back.
"Ease up girl, you're with us," Rudy said calmly.
"No way man, I'm staying away from you guys," she replied.
"Look, coming with us is the only chance you're going to have to live," Mike said as he tried to reason with her.
"Step any closer and I scream rape," she said threateningly to the two men.
"I'm sorry girl, but this is for your own good," Rudy said as she spun her around and grabbed her in a large bear hug. It was at that point that she started screaming and getting the attention of others, shouting out shrilly, "RAAAAAAAAPPPPEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!"
It was just then as the pair stood at the top of the escalators that the air conditioning turned on. Mike watched it, almost in slow motion, as the massive wreath plummeted from its hook and swung over the up escalator towards Rudy and Lori.
"Rudy, heads up!" he yelled.
Acting on instinct, Rudy pushed Lori away and stepped back, the massive Christmas decoration passing harmlessly between them, although it nearly grazed Rudy's forehead by nearly an inch. As it continued swinging like a pendulum, the wreath slammed into some ceiling panels near the food court, firmly lodging itself in the ceiling. Mike and Rudy simply stood staring at each other, while Lori sat dumbstruck on the floor. The rest of the mall's occupants as well as the travelers friends just watched on in horror as the event took place.
"You ok man?" Rudy asked Mike.
"Yeah, I think so. You?" Mike replied.
"A little shook up, but I think I'll be fi-" Rudy said, cut off as the wreath broke through the ceiling panels and swung back in his direction. It hit him square on, immediately breaking his left collar-bone and knocking him off balance. Like that, Rudy was sent tumbling down the up-escalator.
At first, his sheer size gave him enough momentum to go barreling down the moving stairs, but the steps moving in an upward direction kept carrying him up further, letting him roll more than what would be natural.
Immediately, Mike ran to the STOP ELEVATOR emergency button in an effort to stop Rudy's inevitable death. His timing poor as always, Mike reached the button as the wreath and its wire broke free from their bearings, the wire coming down with great velocity as it snapped the plastic cover to the button and rendered it immobile.
The moving steps beat him mercilessly, their sharp corners tearing into his skin and through his clothing, snapping bones and ripping flesh from his body, one corner tearing free his eye and its socket. After a while, he couldn't even scream anymore, just rolling on the steps in unimaginable pain. With his one good eye, he saw the whole world turn to a skull for a split second before it all went dark.
One fall landed Rudy head-first onto the corner of the step, with the sharp metal gouging deep into his skull and killing him instantly. At the top of the escalator, Mike watched his friend take the plunge, though the moving flight of stairs conveniently brought Rudy's now stationary body right to him.
Mike was quickly joined by Katie who could only stare at the motionless body that was once her boyfriend, her first and only boyfriend thus far. She stayed oddly quiet, mildly whimpering as a tear rolled down her cheek.
Silently, the group of now six teens walked towards the mall exit without being noticed by any, all attention focused on the carnage of Rudy's death.
The awkward moment of silence that followed the horror was broken by the mall's PA system finally coming on, spewing out 70's music (quite an odd choice for the holiday season), the least offensive that could be found. It seemed sick coincidence that Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust" started playing.
Lori was pissed. Not like it was any change from her usual demeanor, but she didn't care for the feeling much either way. She had been sitting in the van for more than a day, with the exception of the two stops they made to eat and the one stop for the night. Mike and Sarah, the psychos, wanted to keep going on. Girls need their sleep, Lori mused, not necessarily their beauty sleep but their anti-bitchy sleep. Then of course, there was the issue of food. None of the places had salad or bottled water, a crime in of itself, but the sheer amount of grease that came off of the truck stop food would be enough to cause a person to break out just by looking at it the wrong way.
Two days earlier, Clinton had coaxed her into a date after he got out of the hospital from some accident on his motorcycle. She was miffed by the accident, as the motorcycle was quite a bit of Clinton's appeal, but it wasn't that big an issue. He said they would be going out, instead he forced her into the van and they took off with the rest of the freak show to go to some random town in Nevada. She didn't even have time to get a change of clothes, and to top it off she broke the heel off of her shoe at the last rest stop. So, in short, she was pissed.
At least the last stop had promise. They stopped in some small town in Amberlaine, Nevada, but it was big enough to have its own mall, so at least the world was not entirely cruel. Their lunch was made of whatever could be scrounged in the food court, and although it still had more grease and calories than Lori would have cared for, it could have been worse. Much worse. Truck stop worse.
Finishing off a corn dog, Mike looked around nervously. Everything was a threat, everything could be a danger, everything could take any one of them out of the picture. The kid spilling his drink on the floor, avoid the puddle, avoid the death. A poorly wired kiddy ride, its electrical cords snaking out of the back and into an outlet in the wall. Avoid, electrocution, very painful death. The Christmas decorations scared him the most. They were hung haphazardly, many almost threatening. He could see in one of the trees branches that looked as if they were talons reaching out to grab them all.
Mall management had placed the decorations meticulously for the Christmas holiday that was soon to come. They had been positioned for maximum visual effect, accentuated by the sunlight from the skylights above. Wreaths were hanged above every store, while long streamers were suspended from the ceiling beams across the upper floor. Many decorations were set up without a care in the world for customer or employee safety, but with more than a decade of no incident, nothing was thought of it. One particularly ornate wreath near Escalator B was hung on a hook that kept it a few inches too close to an air conditioning vent. It went unnoticed as decorations tend to do, and since the blowing of the air conditioning simply rocked the large ornament back and forth, many deemed it pretty. The rocking on the hook had gradually pushed the chain from its intended position. It was visibly impossible to tell that it had moved, but a few weeks under the direct blast of the air conditioning vent had pushed it several millimeters from where it should have been. The largely artificial wreath was huge, almost the size of a football player, was on it's last legs. It simply sat on its chain, waiting for anything to touch it, anything that would send it plummeting. The air conditioning sat ticking, waiting for its correct time to turn on. Soon enough its pre-programmed setting would turn on, and if the laws of physics kept up, would send the wreath plummeting.
---------
Sensing an opportunity while the others talked, Lori braced herself. Wait for the right moment, wait for it… Nick told a joke, got everyone laughing. Now! Get up! NOW!!!
Sprinting for everything she was worth, Lori made a run for the escalators, no more than fifty feet away. Seeing this, Mike yelled, "LORI!!!!!"
With little time to react, Mike and Rudy followed suit, barreling after the girl as she made it to the escalator. Sprinting with all his might, Rudy made it to her first, years upon years of playing football finally paying off. Grabbing her by the wrist, he tried to pull her back.
"Ease up girl, you're with us," Rudy said calmly.
"No way man, I'm staying away from you guys," she replied.
"Look, coming with us is the only chance you're going to have to live," Mike said as he tried to reason with her.
"Step any closer and I scream rape," she said threateningly to the two men.
"I'm sorry girl, but this is for your own good," Rudy said as she spun her around and grabbed her in a large bear hug. It was at that point that she started screaming and getting the attention of others, shouting out shrilly, "RAAAAAAAAPPPPEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!"
It was just then as the pair stood at the top of the escalators that the air conditioning turned on. Mike watched it, almost in slow motion, as the massive wreath plummeted from its hook and swung over the up escalator towards Rudy and Lori.
"Rudy, heads up!" he yelled.
Acting on instinct, Rudy pushed Lori away and stepped back, the massive Christmas decoration passing harmlessly between them, although it nearly grazed Rudy's forehead by nearly an inch. As it continued swinging like a pendulum, the wreath slammed into some ceiling panels near the food court, firmly lodging itself in the ceiling. Mike and Rudy simply stood staring at each other, while Lori sat dumbstruck on the floor. The rest of the mall's occupants as well as the travelers friends just watched on in horror as the event took place.
"You ok man?" Rudy asked Mike.
"Yeah, I think so. You?" Mike replied.
"A little shook up, but I think I'll be fi-" Rudy said, cut off as the wreath broke through the ceiling panels and swung back in his direction. It hit him square on, immediately breaking his left collar-bone and knocking him off balance. Like that, Rudy was sent tumbling down the up-escalator.
At first, his sheer size gave him enough momentum to go barreling down the moving stairs, but the steps moving in an upward direction kept carrying him up further, letting him roll more than what would be natural.
Immediately, Mike ran to the STOP ELEVATOR emergency button in an effort to stop Rudy's inevitable death. His timing poor as always, Mike reached the button as the wreath and its wire broke free from their bearings, the wire coming down with great velocity as it snapped the plastic cover to the button and rendered it immobile.
The moving steps beat him mercilessly, their sharp corners tearing into his skin and through his clothing, snapping bones and ripping flesh from his body, one corner tearing free his eye and its socket. After a while, he couldn't even scream anymore, just rolling on the steps in unimaginable pain. With his one good eye, he saw the whole world turn to a skull for a split second before it all went dark.
One fall landed Rudy head-first onto the corner of the step, with the sharp metal gouging deep into his skull and killing him instantly. At the top of the escalator, Mike watched his friend take the plunge, though the moving flight of stairs conveniently brought Rudy's now stationary body right to him.
Mike was quickly joined by Katie who could only stare at the motionless body that was once her boyfriend, her first and only boyfriend thus far. She stayed oddly quiet, mildly whimpering as a tear rolled down her cheek.
Silently, the group of now six teens walked towards the mall exit without being noticed by any, all attention focused on the carnage of Rudy's death.
The awkward moment of silence that followed the horror was broken by the mall's PA system finally coming on, spewing out 70's music (quite an odd choice for the holiday season), the least offensive that could be found. It seemed sick coincidence that Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust" started playing.