The Unwanted Winter - Volume One of the Saga of the Twelves

by Richard Heredia

  Before them, Derek just stared back at them like they were insane or something. But, being the trooper he was, he took a second much larger drink. He still grimaced hugely, shaking his shoulders and chest at the sour flavors coursing over his taste buds.

  That had made the girls laugh some more.

  A few minutes later, all three of them had finished their respective stouts. They had lain back on the same burlap bags Derek had found hours earlier. They placed their heads together, so their feet radiated out of the center in a rudimentary triangular. Hyun was already feeling exhaustion begin to overtake her as the buzz from the beer began to work its magic. Finally, her mind was distracted from the events of the day.

  In the first moments of silence a rather tipsy Derek had said, “Hay, K-him, ha-cum you never stook up for me wh-when it came to your boh-oy friend, huh-auh?” He’d hiccupped loudly.

  Hyun bunched her shoulders and tiny gurgles of laughter made her bounce on the coarse material under her back. Leave it to alcohol to bring out someone’s true thoughts, she had thought trying to keep as quiet as possible.

  Kimberly had puffed noisily. She always did so when she was exasperated, but rather than mouth-off, she fell silent, wrapped in thought. “I wish I had, Derek, but… well, shit, I just… it was just better to leave things as they were, ok?”

  “Betah fo who... yooo?” asked the inebriated boy, a trace of anger in his tone.

  “You just… you all, just didn’t know… what it was. Ah shit, man, go to sleep,” Hyun remembered her saying, but Derek said nothing, only silence followed.

  Kimberly rolled over and shut off the flashlight. After she’d finally settled, Hyun heard snores coming from the teenage boy. She knew immediately why he hadn’t answered, he had passed out.

  She had felt sleep creeping up on her quickly, so she managed, in the dark, before she lost consciousness, “It was hard for him, Kim. Sonny really tormented him in a bad way, for a long, long time.”

  She had felt Kimberly stiffen through their ramshackle bedding. “You don’t think I fucking know that, Hyun?” she had rasped through what sounded like a clenched jaw.

  “I had to make sure you did,” she had replied, feeling very groggy at the time. Her head was underwater.

  The last thing she remembered was Kimberly’s terse, but simple response.

  “Bitch.”

  Hyun shrugged off the memory, her mouth slightly dry from the beers as she looked down at the two sleeping forms of Derek and Kimberly, who, through the night, had turned to face one another.

  I need some water… and a toothbrush, she thought as she looked around, realizing she could see. The light from the huge skylight in the center of the mall was letting in enough daylight through the lower portions of the building. Though the light itself was weak, or diffused at best, she could still make out her surroundings. It wasn’t direct sunlight, but it was sunlight all the same. Morning time! She gained her feet, glancing about. She was looking for the “bathroom” section of the store, hoping it had one. She found a sign marked “Toiletries” three isles down and began to make her way toward it.

  She peered down the aisle and immediately saw a myriad of toothbrushes – pegged, covering nearly a five-foot area of the wall sectional. She made her way to them, looking for any medium-firm ones, grabbed a brightly pink one. She scooped up box of Colgate, snagged a few other items and headed for the bottled water section of them store.

  Once there, she pulled a half gallon of water from one of the shelves, tucked it under her arm, and walked over to the “baking” portion of the market. She selected a large pot, in which she placed all the items she was carrying. She trudged her way to the front of the store, holding the big pot with both hands, sat down, and quickly set about washing-up. It marked the first time she had done so in almost two days.

  Well, more like a day and a half, but still… there’s no excuse!

  After she wiped the grime from her face with water, she dried it with a hand towel she had pulled from one of the wall sections when she walked by it. Then, she brushed her teeth. She followed that by brushing out all of the tangles that had settled into her shoulder length, thick mane of hair over the course of her “adventure” in this odd place.

  When she was finished, she stood up and looked down at her clothes. She was still wearing her waist-length, powder-blue, goose down jacket over a darker blue cashmere sweater and a pair of stone-washed, azure-colored, Lucky Brand jeans. She still had on her black Prada double-buckle, short boots on her feet.

  She went rigid, an errant thought striking her. Quickly, she felt into her jacket pocket and pulled out the beanie matching her sweater in both color and material. For some reason, she wanted to make sure she had everything she had with her from that night. To her, it was a silent way of reassurance. I’m ok, really… I am.

  Overall, her clothes were clean and were suitable for now. What she really wanted, was a change of underwear. Having to walk around in the same pair of panties for nearly forty-eight hours didn’t make feel all that happy, or clean.

  Maybe I can grab some from Macy’s or something. Might be worth a shot, right? I certainly need to retire the ones I am wearing now, she surmised, trying to ignore the icky feeling rising in her mind.

  She hated feeling dirty, especially that kind of dirty.

  She walked outside the Fish Market, leaning out to see if anything had changed overnight. She peered left, then right – nothing. It was exactly as they’d left it the night before. Deserted. Wide-open. Silent.

  Without thought, she rubbed her hands on either side of her jeans, wondering if she should go back for the flashlight. At the last minute, she decided against it. She would look for another one while she went on her quest for some new undergarments. They couldn’t be dependent on a single source of light once the sun went down. It would be lame if the one they had failed and they were forced to bumble around in the dark.

  She walked down the left concourse of the mall toward the department store on the west side of the structure. It was directly opposite the huge Target store whose entrance was behind her, beyond the escalators, which, as she deemed earlier, were illuminated by the giant skylight in the middle of the mall. She walked on the tips her toes, desirous of making as little noise as possible for some reason. Her head turned this way and that, as she paced down one side of the large duel-level passage, stores of varying types passing on either side of her as she made her way toward the department store. The darkness grew the further she moved from the skylights, so when she came within few establishments of her destination, she decided it was time to go find another flashlight.

  She darted into an accessory store, filled to the gills with custom jewelry, treading slowing toward the front counter in hopes of finding what she was looking for stashed somewhere behind it. She tip-toed around the counter and found herself peering through the semi-darkness at a crazed jumbled of shelves and cubbyholes. Some were filled with small plastic bags of varying sizes, but most filled with junk that really had no feasible reason for being there. Hyun let out an exasperated huff at the disorganization, but began to move things around in hopes she’d miraculously come across a flashlight somewhere within the teeming mess.

  After shoving random items back and forth for a while, she gave up, realizing she was never going to find anything of use in a place of such a low operating standard. She stood to full height with a disgusted grunt, carefully made her way out of the store, heading for the store on the other side of the concourse. It was a women’s clothing store, selling knock-offs of last year’s fashion at incredibly low prices.

  Probably owned by Asians, she deduced from her initial impression of the shop. She noticed the racks were mismatched and the signs inside the store seemed to be an amalgam of signage from three or four different retail chains that had closed in the past few years. Yup, Asians, sooo typical. She frowned at her unbidden racial profiling, wondering when she’d developed such a slant. She was from that part of the
world. Well, at least, ancestrally. She’d been born in the United States.

  Yet… that gave her an idea and she was glad her thoughts had meandered. She made her way through the store to the very back. It was almost completely dark. She felt her way as she went, looking for the manager’s or the owner’s office. She had a hunch somewhere, in such a room, a flashlight would lurk.

  Her father always had a flashlight in his lower left desk drawer, among other things. To her utter annoyance, he had always postulated every sane person in the world should have an emergency stash somewhere in their desk should there be an earthquake or a terrorist dirty bomb, etc., etc., etc., but if these people were anything like her father… That is where she would find something of practical use.

  Asians.

  Well, it was worth a try…

  She found the back door. It had to lead to either the stockroom or a back office of some sort. She put her weight against the door to open it. It moved without impediment, but when the door itself came free of the jam, she heard a faint click as if she had triggered something. She froze, uncertain of what to do next.

  There was a tiny whirling sound and before she could react, the hallway beyond the door came alight with a pale green glow. She pushed the door open a bit more and saw along either side of the passage, where the walls met the floor, two strips of floor lights had come to life. They were strong enough, so she could see down the corridor. It was over fifty feet in length with four doors, two on the left, one on the right, and one at its’ end. The three leading to rooms along either wall were office-type doors with simple locking doorknobs, while the one at the end of the hallway was heavier and was equipped with a panic lock and a punch-key, locking mechanism. She glanced down to her right, to the bottom of the door jam and saw the small battery operated device that must’ve triggered the running lights once she’d broken the contact between it and the door. Emergency lighting! Maybe these were the same sort of people as her father, annoyingly efficient.

  She edged her way in, walked to the closest door on the left and tried the knob. The door opened readily. She poked her head inside the room beyond and could barely see it was some type of storeroom. It was packed high with all sorts of items necessary to run a retail clothing store. Everything from clothing racks to trash bags to cleaning products were stacked on shelves or stuffed in boxes that were, in turn, stacked upon one another as well. It would take her forever to find anything of use in that morass, let alone a flashlight, so she closed the door and walked the next closest door on the right. She turned the doorknob and walked into an orderly office, most likely belonging to the store manager or the owner. It was pitch black inside, so she peered about until she found something she could use to prop open the door. The door return would close it the moment she stopped applying pressure keeping it open. She scooted a potted rubber tree plant up against the door and made her way in, angling straight for the desk. She opened and closed all of the drawers, finding nothing but papers, pens, pencils, scotch tape, paper clips, and just about everything else one would need to run a business, but still no -.

  A dull gleam twinkled in the corner of her eye and she turned to look at a row of five, four-drawer, metal filing cabinets. She remained unmoving, letting her eyes adjust to the dim emerald light diffused throughout the chamber from the corridor beyond. Then, she saw it. It was sitting atop one of the file cabinets - a classic looking, stainless steel flashlight. The type with a handle a fraction larger than the d-cell batteries inside before it ballooned three times wider at the lighted end. It would shine with a larger stream of light than other, newer models of manufacture.

  She quickly made her way around the desk to the cabinets, snatched the flashlight and flicked the switch. Half a second later a wide beam of crystalline white light shone throughout the office. She smiled her first real smile of the new day.

  Asians rock!

  Without wasting any more time, she walked back in the hallway, through the store, turning to her left, and walked the forty feet to the entrance of Macy’s department store and went in.

  Immediately, she was glad she had the light-stick, because the store was almost completely dark. The doors leading to the outside world were too far away. Plus, they were blocked by so much merchandise and portable barriers, very little of the light they let in illuminated the store.

  She stepped quietly, but purposefully, knowing the women’s lingerie department was on upper level, toward the left-hand front of the establishment. She made her way toward the escalators, both dead from the lack of electricity. She paced up the awkward steps to the second level of the store.

  Once there, she immediately doubled back on herself. What she was looking for was behind her. She flashed the light ahead of her, already seeing the racks holding the many bras and panties in the distance. She walked down the narrow, twisting aisles and into the forest of lingerie, already feeling relieved at the prospect of changing her underwear and feeling clean again, even if it was mostly in her mind. She prided herself on being a clean girl and usually went to the upmost degree to maintain her high standards regarding personal hygiene. Girls that weren’t as fastidious about themselves as she, always put her off. In her book, there was nothing worse than smelling a dirty girl. It was usually more than enough to make her puke within seconds.

  It was this type of “icky-ness” that made her shoulders shake and an unnerving tingle run up her spine. Even thinking about it could garner a reaction of pure revulsion. She pushed it from her mind and set about the task. She wasn’t looking for anything fancy or, god forbid, sexy. She wanted comfortable and practical, something she count on, especially now. She went through the department back and forth and finally settled on a few 3-packs of bikini style briefs (colors assorted). They would ride high on her waist, and accentuated her hips, which was a good thing since they were somewhat narrow from her perspective. She also grabbed a few bras she knew would fit her, making her way to the checkout counter to get a bag to carry her newfound personals.

  Without waiting any longer, she extinguished the flashlight, though she knew absolutely no one was around. She quickly stripped off her layers of clothing and outwear, boots and all, until she was completely naked in the mostly dark department store, shivering slightly at the coldness of the air, goose bumps rising all about her body.

  Real smart, Hyun, you must really enjoy rock hard nipples.

  She hadn’t thought how cold it would be in the mall until she stood within it in just her birthday suit. Thank god, the floor is carpeted! At least, her feet wouldn’t freeze up on her. She quickly put on her new undergarments, and then had a thought. Grabbing the flashlight, she walked down a few more aisles in her bright white (and fresh) bra and panties, and grabbed two plastic bags with six pairs of thick, athletic socks each. She opened one of the bags of socks when she got back to the counter and put them on. She got dressed hurriedly, of the mind the rest of her clothes would hold up for another day or two. She stuffed her soiled garments in the trashcan under the counter. She was becoming anxious to get back to the others, being all alone in a place that should’ve been teeming with people was starting to make her uneasy.

  She walked toward the mall exit of the store, the beam of light bouncing about before as she strode, the luminance growing with every step. She walked into the mall proper and once again bathed in the semi-light of the day, eking through the skylight at the center of the mall, where its three concourses intersected. On this level, there was no floor in the middle of the wide hall, so she could see down into lower level of the structure if she walked near the railing. She didn’t though. Rather, she kept to the center of the walkway, making her way toward the escalators leading back down to the Fish Market and her two companions.

  She’d just about reached the escalators when off to her left, down the only concourse that led to the front of the mall and its great sets of double doors, she heard a strange swooshing sound. It made her turn her head in that direction.

  She w
as surprised to see a few of the doors were opening and closing violently, propelled by what appeared to be varying gusts of wind. Her eyes focused beyond the glass entryway and her jaw nearly dropped to her chest. Outside howled the most violent storm she had ever seen.

  Even from this distance, she could make out huge eddies of snow, swirling and writhing in the hurricane winds, towering mystical structures of precipitation, soaring scores of feet into the nearly blackened sky of the morning. They were tornados of snow, huge and stretching into the roiling clouds above, easily EF2’s, maybe even 3’s on the Enhanced Fujita scale. They were absolutely incredible to watch. They looked alive, mean, and maybe even malevolent. She watched in amazement for a few more seconds when one of the doors flew open, screeching on its hinges. She was over a hundred feet away and still, she felt the icy cold of the air outside.

  Those doors are going to break off and then we’re gonna freeze out asses off in here, she concluded, dropping her bag of underwear, running toward them.

  It took nearly five minutes to get all six doors secured with both the thumb locks they had at waist level and the floor locks, which she jammed into the ground as far as they would go. She hoped, between them, the doors would survive the blizzard ravaging the landscape about the mall.

  Jesus Christ, we are going to be stuck here for a while. We need to plan. We need supplies.

  She turned on her heel and ran back toward her discarded belongings, intent on telling the others they were going to have to start scavenging in earnest. Their stay at the Eagle Rock Plaza was going to be considerably longer than they’d first anticipated.

  *****

  As she drifted from sight, from under the heaps of snow drifting against the locked doors, something moved. It was small, no more than a foot long and half that wide, egg-shaped, though not continuously so. At varying times, as it slithered beneath the packed precipitation, it stretched, elongated like a huge, plump earthworm.