Pretty Boy

Chapter 14

 RJ, Dustin, and Erica had managed to drag Steve and Robin through the back hallways of the mall and into the movie theater. They figured it'd be the perfect place to hide them. A late-night showing of Back to the Future would be full of people for them to blend in. They burst into the theater and sat Steve and Robin down.

"Whatever you do, don't go anywhere," Dustin spoke very clearly so that Steve and Robin would understand him.

"Fine, dad," Steve replied. Dustin rolled his eyes.

Erica, Dustin, and RJ started to make their way to the open seats on the other side of the theater. Steve grabbed RJ's hand, stopping her.

"Wait, no, I wanna sit with you and watch the movie. Can't someone switch places," Steve said with puppy dog eyes.

RJ was unamused, "Just watch the movie, pretty boy."

She sat beside Dustin and Erica, who were already disputing what to do next. RJ knew that if she got her keys, that would give them a sure way out. The only problem was that the back hallways were bound to be swarming with Russian guards hunting them down.

"We need to get out of here," Erica was getting antsy.

RJ agreed. They had to get the hell out of that mall. She debated risking it and going to get her keys. Those keys had caused her so much trouble she was about ready to toss them down the drain. However, now, those keys were their only way out of here.

"Alright, you watch Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb. Make sure they don't go anywhere," Dustin replied to Erica before disappearing up the side aisle. RJ followed him shortly after.

They got up to the doors of the projection booth.

"Ok, so you radio Mike for backup and-"

"You'll get your keys," Dustin finished RJ's sentence.

"See you on the other side Henderson," and she slipped back into the back hallways.

Scoops Ahoy wasn't too far from the movie theater, which worked in RJ's favor. She ran down the hallway, looking behind her every few seconds to be sure she wasn't being followed. She had made it to the back door of Scoops Ahoy without any problems. She had begun to think this would be easier than she thought. The hallway still smelled like Dustin's cologne. RJ plugged her nose and made her way up the stairs.

When she burst onto the roof, she saw her bag sitting right where she had left it. She scrambled across the roof and grabbed it when suddenly the door swung open again. Two Russian guards caught sight of her, and without a second thought, she ran. She knew it was going too smoothly for her. She ran across the roof, desperately trying not to trip on anything.

As she ran, she tried to think of a plan. All of her plans that day had been more or less successful. She knew that she could think up something. She could double back and attempt to lock the door to the roof behind her. She could attempt to scale the side of the mall. Everything she could come up with seemed impossible. Then she looked around and realized where she was exactly. She was headed right for the Starcourt sign in the front of the mall. She wasn't quite sure how far of a drop it would be to the sign below, but she knew it was more feasible than anything else she had thought.

She prayed that her hunch was correct. The two men were gaining on her, so even if she was wrong and the sign wasn't where she thought it was, there was no going back. She reached the edge of the roof and dropped herself right off the edge. Thankfully, she was right and the sign was right where she expected it to be. Standing on the sign she wasn't sure where to go. She assumed there'd be an entrance of sorts to that part of the roof, but there was nothing. She could hear the men's footsteps approaching the edge of the roof, and knew there was only one way she could go...down.

She looked down off the edge of the sign and assessed her path down. However, she didn't have much time as the men had reached the edge of the roof above her. She turned backward and swung her legs off the edge of the sign. She felt around with her foot for some kind of step. She found one right below the neon letters. She slowly lowered herself down and saw where her next step would be. There were two platforms on the very edge of the pillars. She stepped from one down to the other. Her hands were getting sweaty, and she could feel her grip getting looser. She could also hear that the men were now on the sign above her.

The second platform was still way too high up in the air. If she jumped, she'd most certainly break something. She did, however, notice a small metal square that was just lower on the pillar. It was only about an inch thick and still too high to jump off from, but the groove below it was just low enough. She mustered up all the courage she could find and stepped down onto the metal. She started slipping almost immediately. She kept her left foot on the metal square and situated her right foot into the groove. She wrapped her hands around the edges of the pillar for more support.

Her left foot slipped off the metal square sending her plummeting to the ground. Luckily she was right, and it was just low enough that she gracefully fell to the ground. Unluckily, the edges of the pillar sliced through the palms of her hands. She clenched her fists and swallowed the pain. She looked up to see that the men chasing her hadn't bothered to follow her down the pillar. Only another problem awaited her at the bottom.

She looked in through the front doors and saw Russian guards attending to the doors.

~

"What do you mean she went alone?" Steve questioned Dustin.

After vomiting up most of the Drugs, Steve and Robin finally returned to a normal mind space. Only now, Steve was berating Dustin for letting RJ go to get her key alone when Russians were swarming the mall.

"Look, she practically saved our asses single-handedly, so I figured she could handle herself. She's more capable than you think of as Steve," Dustin replied.

Steve was still angry but saw Dustin's point. He knew that if everything had gone according to her plan, she'd be waiting for them out front.

They started to walk to the front of the mall, blending in with the crowds of people leaving the movie. All seemed to be going according to plan until they saw the guards at the door. They turned heel and ran.

They pushed past the current of people walking in the opposite direction. Steve was praying that RJ had made it out ok. They made it to the escalator and, one by one slid down the center part of it. They all piled in behind the counter of the pizza place.

They waited, terrified of what would happen if they were found, for what felt like forever. They could hear the footsteps of the Russian guards getting closer and closer. That was when they heard the car alarm go off, followed by the sound of the car being thrown across the food court.

Assuming the coast was clear, they slowly came out from their hiding place. They looked up to see Jonathan, Nancy, Will, Mike, Lucas, Max, and Eleven staring back at them. Then there was another rustle from across the food court. They kept their guard up, thinking it could be another guard. Across the way at the Orange Julius stand, RJ came out from her hiding place.