The Mall

by Bryant Delafosse

  “I am sorry, but all communication with the network has been severed, ma’am.”

  “It’s Lara,” she said absently, glancing back to the hallway. “Now what?” she found herself murmuring nervously and when she turned her head back to the Bot, a figure was standing at the double doors behind it.

  The mechanic just stared at her, the light of his glasses reflecting the dim light from the hallway. “Hello again,” he muttered. “Is there a problem?”

  Disbelievingly, Lara stared blankly at the figure standing in the shadows, then chortled at him. “Wrong? No everything’s peachy. Oh, you didn’t happen to notice that all the lights are out in the Mall, did you?” Lara craned her neck and realized that now there was more light coming from the lab--dim light, but light nonetheless. “How is it that you have light when the rest of the building is as dead as Judgment Day?”

  His eyes widened and he stared at Lara as if for the first time. “Judgment Day. Nothing quite so dramatic as that,” he murmured. “I’ve hardened certain systems in the lab in anticipation of this scenario. Are you familiar with the concept of a Faraday Cage?”

  “What scenario?” Unconsciously, Lara tugged Cora closer to her. “Do you know what’s going on here?”

  “Either a catastrophic solar flare or some man-made event, possibly an attack on the United States by a rogue nation. Both would produce the resulting Electromagnetic Pulse.”

  “Uh huh,” Lara replied, trying desperately to contain her slowly building frustration. “Break it down, Doc Brown. When will the lights come back on?”

  “Oh, they won’t. All the power in the building is out,” he replied with a disinterested certainty. He made no move to come closer, but chose to continue speaking half inside/half outside the swinging doors, like a commitment-phobic turtle.

  With that image in her head, Lara had to suppress a giggle, bringing a hand to her mouth. What was it about this infernal place that “gave her the bubbles”—as her Midwestern-bred mother had been fond of saying?

  The face in the doorway studied her with interest. “Protocol is to evacuate everyone in the facility. Why are you still here?”

  Ignoring the question, Lara asked, “So you’re saying that you think the Soviets just knocked out the power in this Mall?”

  “No, the Russians would never attempt an assault of this type. It simply wouldn’t be a smart tactical move…” The other lowered his head and finally decided on a direction, withdrawing his head back into the lab, his voice fading to a murmur as the door closed behind him. A moment later, he reappeared and said in a low tone of voice, “Please come in.”

  Lara gathered Cora up and guided her through the swinging doors.

  When Lara stepped into the lab, the mechanic was clearing off a bench covered with components next to his desk, where Lara could now see that a single lamp was lit. “Please,” he said, motioning them to the seat. “I apologize. I don’t get many guests down here.” He stood and watched as Lara led Cora over to the bench and seated her. “Customer service upstairs usually handles the interaction with clients and I…” His attention was drawn to a Bot torso lying on a table, its left arm dangling. He stepped over to it and lifted the arm, placing it almost lovingly atop its dented chest piece. “I stay down here.”

  Not exactly Mr. Personality, Lara had already surmised, glancing at the book lying open atop the desk. Was that a Bible?

  “Look, sir, my son’s disappeared and I…”

  Reggie strode confidently through the swinging doors, took inventory of all the individuals in the room, then faced the mechanic with a brisk, almost military-like stance. “Sir, with your permission, I would like to power down to conserve power.”

  “Please do, Reggie,” the mechanic replied. “Thank you.”

  The silver humanoid Bot stepped over to one of the many alcoves in the walls of the lab—some empty, some hosting other Bots less sophisticated than Reggie—and backed into the space, its eyes pulsing bright once, then slightly dimmer a second time, then finally winking out completely.

  “Reggie’s going night-night now, Mommy,” Cora whispered, giving a sympathetic yawn, leaning her head against Lara’s arm, but still continuing to crank the radio/flashlight, albeit more slowly.

  The mechanic smiled dimly at Cora. “Your daughter has a very healthy attitude toward Bots. I’m used to humans treating them as sophisticated appliances.” He took a step forward and went to one knee before the little girl, but instead of addressing her, he squinted at her as if studying a specimen. His eyes fell on the flashlight in her hands.

  Cora finally extended her free hand. “Hi,” she said demurely.

  “That is a very smart tool to have in this type of situation. Many standard flashlight batteries would have been rendered inoperable by the EMP.”

  “We borrowed it from the Radio Shack. Mommy said it was okay as long as we returned them when the lights came back on.”

  He cast an accusatory look at Lara.

  Sighing heavily, she said, “I’m Lara and my daughter’s name is Coraline. I have a son named Owen. The reason you don’t see my son is because he’s missing, separated from me just before the black-out. Or whatever the hell happened.”

  “My name is Simon Peter,” the mechanic replied, turning back to Cora and grasping her hand. She giggled and glanced at her mother.

  “Mommy, his hand feels like a fishie.”

  Simon rose and stepped over to a personal computer on a short dolly in the center of the room. He unplugged a hand-held device that looked like a large cell-phone and studied its screen distractedly. “You really should proceed to the north exit along with the others. Since everyone else is headed outside, it would seem reasonable to assume he’ll be with them.”

  Lara hopped to her feet, Cora mirroring her a second later.

  “He’s not with the others. My son wouldn’t leave the Mall without us. Maybe it’s unreasonable to assume, but right now, that’s what my intuition’s telling me. Believe me when I tell you, that instinct is not something I would have trusted before this day started,” Lara replied, her voice rising along with her ire. “I’m not leaving this Mall without my son. Now if you can’t help me narrow down his location, I would at least appreciate your not alerting security to my presence, because if anyone tries to take me out of this Mall without my son by my side, I’m going to physically break one of their limbs. Do you understand?”

  Simon stared silently at Lara with a blank expression, his eyes magnified slightly by the glasses. After a moment, he returned his attention to the hand-held device in his hands, not a word spoken in response.

  Lara sighed heavily and started for the door, pulling Cora after her with a firm tug. “C’mon, Cora. Let’s go find your brother.”

  “He was inside the Di-Lithium Arcade in yellow sector when the network failed,” Simon told her in a matter-of-fact tone.

  “Yellow sector? How do you know that?”

  “I have access to information saved to the parent network but not yet distributed to sib units.” He displayed the small unit in his hand as if the gesture explained everything.

  Lara dropped Cora’s hand and stepped toward him with eyes wide with expectation. “Please tell me that security has him.”

  Simon shrugged his shoulders, flipped the cover down over the device, and slipped it into the pocket of his pants.

  “Does your thingee tell you if he’s been spotted since then?”

  “That information had yet to be transmitted from the sibs to the parent when the system failed,” he replied. “If a sentry obtained that info, the data sits un-sent in its processor.”

  Lara stepped into Simon’s face, the other shrinking back slightly. “You’ll have to excuse me if I’m a tad tense just now, but what exactly does that mean in English?”

  “That is the last bit of information on your son,” he replied, studying her with a sort of cautious interest. “There is a high probability that your son left with the others. I would radio security
but all communications are down.” Simon collapsed atop a rolling stool and looked around the room at the scattered bodies of the mechanized men filling the room as far as the dim light revealed. “I recommend you proceed immediately to the northern-most exit in red sector.”

  Lara stared at the mechanic incredulously, then turned her back on him, frustration etched in her face.

  “Soon it will be completely dark inside the complex. The power of the emergency lights is limited given the charge built up from the solar panels on the roof. Oh! There goes another one.” One of the lights in the hallway flickered and died, the mechanic’s face drifting even deeper into shadow, causing even more of his features to disappear, like the tide washing a sandcastle away.

  Her patience depleted, Lara threw open the swinging door, pushed Cora firmly through as she tossed a quick “bye, Reggie,” over her shoulder, and thrust the door back behind her with as much strength as she could muster. “Thanks for your help,” she called out bitterly.

  As Lara pulled Cora after her down the hallway, she asked her. “Mommy, why don’t we ask Reggie for help. Robots are required to help humans in trouble. It’s part of their basic programming. That’s what they taught us in Mrs. Sawyer’s computer class.”

  “We can do it ourselves, sweet pea,” Lara told her, rushing forward until she reached the end of the hallway, then stopped and glanced clandestinely around the corner. “Now, we’re going to be just as quiet as we were before.”

  Edging carefully around a fallen blue sector Bot, Lara stepped before a blank screen where a digital map had once been displayed. “Hell’s bells,” Lara grumbled looking around in an effort to get some kind of orientation. “Doesn’t anyone believe in simple low tech solutions anymore?” She gave the immobile Bot at her feet a solid kick to its head.

  Never good at directions, Lara attempted to draw herself a quick map in her head.

  Red-North—This was where they had first entered the Mall and where the evacuees where all headed. She noted to steer clear of this section at all costs.

  Blue-South—This was where they were now.

  Yellow-East—The arcade, their destination--though she had no clue where the arcade might be in this section, and without a map and with the number stores in this leviathan, it would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

  Suddenly, Lara heard footsteps behind her and she froze in place.

  Shit!

  Putting on her best vulnerable female face, she turned toward the source of the sound with a congenial smile, which turned quickly to shocked surprise.

  Simon Peter strode past, a large industrial flashlight in hand, with scarcely a look in her direction. “We should take the escalator down to the subterranean level. We can make quicker time that way.”

  Allowing a few seconds for her confusion to crystallize into understanding, Lara glanced from Simon to the silver Bot closing the distance between them.

  “Hi Reggie!” Cora hissed loudly, unable to suppress the excitement in her voice.

  “Hello, little ma’am,” it replied, gesturing for them to follow Simon. “If you could both please step this way toward the escalators, I will follow behind to prevent any possible incident. Thank you for your cooperation.”

  Lara rushed after Simon. “Hey,” she called loudly, then frightened by the volume of her own voice, she hissed, “What are you doing?”

  “Didn’t I say that I would help you,” Simon murmured, glancing back and delivering a mysterious hand gesture in Reggie’s direction.

  “Well… no,” Lara replied with confusion. “No, you didn’t.”

  “Oh, you’re right,” Simon replied in a dazed tone, glancing furtively at Lara. “Sorry.”

  He glanced back at the silver Bot again and made two more gestures.

  Reggie swept both his arms out and lifted Cora in one smooth motion, placing her securely on his shoulders, the five-year-old screeching more out of joy than fear.

  Lara spun and thrust her arms into the air as if to catch her daughter.

  “We’ll make much better time if she rides with Reggie,” the mechanic called over his shoulder.

  “She’s quite safe, ma’am,” the silver Bot announced, gently taking her tiny hands in his massive metal fingers and guiding them to either side of his smooth skull piece. “Hold tightly, little ma’am. I’ll tread as smoothly as possible.”

  As Cora grabbed the Bot’s shiny head, Lara relaxed slightly and glared at Simon. “I would appreciate some warning next time.”

  “She’s quite safe, ma’am,” the silver Bot reassured, beckoning her forward with a delicate wave of one metallic hand. “Please do not be afraid.”

  “Thank you, Reggie,” Lara responded, rushing after Simon. “You seem to have been programmed with a much better bedside manner than your friend here.”

  Simon glanced back, making eye contact with Lara. He opened his mouth then closed it again. “The escalator should be just ahead.”

  “Why are we taking the escalator? We need to get to where my son was last spotted--the arcade,” Lara exclaimed, making an effort to catch up to Simon.

  “The subterranean level is the quickest way to the yellow sector.”

  Lara frowned and shook her head. “My son wouldn’t go down there. If we go below, we might pass him by if he were headed toward us on the upper level.”

  Simon continued at his same pace.

  Lara reached out and snagged him roughly by his shirt-sleeve. “Are you even hearing a word I’m saying?”

  Simon swung around, a look of confusion on his face.

  “We’re not going down there,” she repeated. “We’re going to stay up here.”

  After a moment, Simon finally gave a nod of acknowledgement as Reggie came around to stand in front of him at attention.

  “Sir, I feel it’s imperative to warn you that the last remaining exit will be closed and locked shortly in accordance with policy and procedure code 6112…”

  Simon raised a hand and slashed the air, cutting the Bot off in mid-sentence as if a plug had just been pulled. He started walking again, Reggie following dutifully behind and leaving Lara standing in confusion.

  “Hello?” she called, scampering to catch up. When she reached Simon’s side, she glared up at him in exasperation. “Care to explain what that was all that about?”

  Simon made a quick series of gestures. The silver Bot led Cora slightly ahead and out of earshot as Simon and Lara continued behind them at a distance. “Mrs. Myers…”

  “Lara, please.”

  Simon appeared to lose his train of thought momentarily before continuing with even more urgency. “I must warn you, Lara, that in taking these steps to find your son, you might be placing your other child in indirect danger.”

  Frowning at him, Lara glanced up ahead at Cora, who was engaged in a running one-way dialogue with her stoic companion. “Then Mrs. Boudreaux read us a book about jellyfish and Jason Sperling kept talking through the whole thing, so he got a time out. He’s always getting time outs.”

  “Danger of what?” Lara asked Simon in a low voice.

  “Once the doors have been shut and locked, there will essentially be no way out of the Mall, until management determines that the current threat has been alleviated. Even the most optimistic outlook won’t have us out of here for a few days at least, though I suspect from the evidence I’ve seen, if we don’t leave, we might be stuck here much longer than that.”

  “How much longer?”

  “If there is evidence of looting and civil unrest,” Simon replied with a shrug, “perhaps indefinitely.”

  Lara swallowed awkwardly and stared at her smiling daughter’s face. “But there’s food and water here, right? It’s not like we’d starve or anything.”

  Simon blinked at Lara, his expression almost comical in its amazement.

  “Listen, I’m not suggesting that we just go nuts and start making snow-angels in puddles of caviar or something,” Lara added urgently. “I’m just thinking of lon
g-term survival here.”

  “Well, in such cases of survival, I would say that we would have enough food and water to sustain ourselves for well into the foreseeable future, as long as there aren’t others trapped along with us. There’s no way to know for sure, of course.”

  Lara stared at Cora silently.

  “I would advise that you let us get you safely outside then organize a search for your son.”

  “No,” Lara responded definitively, with a single stern shake of her head. “Sorry, I can’t do that.”

  Simon wagged his head slowly back and forth, frustration creasing his forehead. “I’m afraid I don’t understand your reservations. Clearly, you…”

  Lara grabbed his arm and pulled him to a complete stop. “Simon, do you have children?”

  For a moment, it looked as if he would speak, but instead he simply shook his head.

  “Try and understand when I tell you that I’m afraid. I’m afraid that I’ve already put my son in very serious danger by not being able to provide simple things like food and shelter for him. I’m afraid that when the authorities find out that I’ve lost him, during some sort of emergency, they might decide that I’m an unfit mother and take my children away from me permanently.”

  Simon simply watched as the tears began to roll down her cheeks and she rubbed them away angrily with the back of her sleeve.

  “But I’m not going to let them!”

  With that, she strode determinably forward after the silver Bot that held her daughter.

  9

  If the Mall of the Nation was designed in the shape of a cross, the tram-way formed a ring-like target around it. Even with the fast moving belts, located on the subterranean level as well, it had been the quickest way to get from one anchor store to another without going all the way back to the hub.