Chapter 4 – The Short Reunion
Bang! A group of soldiers is shooting at a lone shooter hiding behind a low wall. Bang! A soldier in the main group goes down in. Bang! The lone shooter goes down, the wall shot to pieces and the shooter’s head bleeding. GAME OVER… Continue? 10… 9… 8…
“Damn, I suck at this game…” Marvin said, taking off a visor and putting down his gun. (Yes, the entire scene above was just part of an arcade game.) Marvin puts his hands on the screen confirming ‘NO’. He checks his pocket and pulls out a cell phone. The phone has three bars out of ten. He calls Alex.
“Yeah, where are you? Which floor is that on? Ok, I’ll be there in a few minutes… wait, you’re heading where right after? Miscellaneous Goods, got it, I’m actually close I’ll be there in a bit. Okay bye.”
He hangs up and starts texting Allen:
Hey Allen, we’re meeting up @ Misc Goods on 2nd floor.
Can’t busy
Doing what!?!?!? UR a CAT!!!
You don’t wanna know…
Marvin has a disturbed look on his face.
I’ll take your word for it… Txt/call when ur coming.
K
The session ends and Marvin makes his way to the Miscellaneous Goods section. He thinks, How big is this mall anyway?
Over at the food court on the first floor at the same time at the start of the chapter, a cashier is says, “And your total is $20.16.”
Carol is with Alex, who is checking her pockets, and Alex says, “Crap, Marvin has my MiseRings… umm do you accept all change?”
“Sorry, but credit or bills only. Company policy.”
“Hey, Carol can you cover this? I’ll pay you back later.”
Carol makes an annoyed sigh, “Fine, but only because my share is in there too.”
She hands $21.00 to the cashier.
The cashier says in a rehearsed tone, “Thank you, and have a nice day~”
The two girls leave with their food, Carol with a bag of food and Alex with the drinks on a tray. On the way to the second floor, Carol uses her Talk-to-the-Hand to call Damian, “Hey are you almost on your break? Good, we’ll be there in ten to fifteen minutes. Oh, umm… Alex is with me. The one we met at the entrance before the mob rush. Love you. Bye~”
After Carol hangs up, Alex’s Talk-to-the-Hand, an older and white colored model that doesn’t cover the index and middle fingers, so she has to put her thumb to her ear and answers through her pinky and ring fingers, “Hello? Hey, Marvin, you alright? I’m at the Food Court on the first floor. Actually, I’m just leaving the food court and heading to the miscellaneous goods section. Miscellaneous Goods. Okay, see ya in a few.”
“Who was that?” Carol asked
“My brother.”
“And he decides to call like over an hour AFTER the rush?”
“Can’t be helped, his phone is an antique, the same phone my grandparents had.”
“It still works?”
“Reception is crappy, but it gets by.”
“Wooow… ah, we’re almost on there.”
“Huh… didn’t even notice we went up the conveyor belt.”
“I’ll race ya,” Carol says while speeding up her walking pace.
“I’d rather not,” Alex responds, holding up the tray of drinks to make a point.
“Whatever, I’m going ahead anyway,” Carol says going to a slow run.
“Wait! Which stand do I go to?!?!”
With some distance away, moving even faster, “The one with a bunch of flowers and smells nice!”
I wonder if that’s what it’s like to be deeply in love… Alex thought, walking a little faster.
Damian is at behind the store counter, looking a little bored since it’s a slow day and the Section the store is in is quite crowded. His Talk-to-the-Hand rings and he answers, “Hello? Oh, hi Carol. I will be in a few minutes. Hmm? ‘We’? Oh, okay, bye.”
“Girlfriend?”
“No, actually my… how’d you know I was talking to a girl?”
The person listening in responds, “I was testing some equipment.”
“Don’t you have a lab for that?”
“This is…uh…field testing…”
“Sure it is, do you have a card or something?”
“Umm…” the stranger, in casual attire plus a lab coat, rummages through all his pockets, “Here you go.”
The card reads (with several oil smudges along the sides and part of the last name):
M.a.Lo.Hi. Tech.
Man-a-Lo-or-Hi Technologies
Kamren M
CEO/Reasearch and Development Head
“Alright then, just leave me out of ‘field testing’.”
“Ugh, fine.” Kamren leaves to go somewhere else.
“Oh Damian~” is yelled out by Carol from a distance. She runs to and embraces him; She also licks his face.
“I thought we agreed you’d stop doing stuff like this…” said Damian with a red face.
“No, we agreed that I wouldn’t do anything perverted, and last time I checked this is a sign of affection amongst dogs.”
“True, but the rule of licking does NOT apply to humans…” Damian looks behind Carol, “didn’t you say there was someone with you?”
“She’ll catch up, also here’s your lunch.”
Carol hands Damian the bag, and he checks the contents, all wrapped: french fries, three cheeseburgers, and some chicken nuggets; All with the McDonald’s logo on their wrappers.
Astonished, Damian says, “They have a McDonald’s here!?!?”
“Last one in the state.”
“Lucky me, that it’s here.”
“Just be sure not to go too often.”
“I know…” he shudders
“Something wrong?”
“Nothing… just remembering the video I saw on obesity.”
“Finally found you guys,” says Alex, walking over from a couple of booths down, “This area’s like one of those bazaars from before the 2112 incident.”
Carol, who never bothered to pay attention to history, asked, “What happened 2112?”
“In 2112, there was a predicted meteor storm by the end of that year. To prevent the destruction of all life on Earth, scientists proposed to move as many species as possible to a colony on Mars, now known as S.O.T., an acronym for ‘servo orbis terrarum’, meaning ‘Protect the Earth’ in Latin. In order for the Earth to recover after the nuclear winter that would follow the storm, the scientists managed to recreate the protozoans that resided during the Earth’s first formation. Also, at the time, the cure for A.I.D.S. had mutated into an airborne and genetic virus that lowered life expectancy to around sixty with a side effect of a seemingly random power... and no one’s listening.”
Carol wandered off to a nearby booth and Damian is arranging flowers in his stand. Damian says politely, “I’m listening, but that is 4th grade history and science.”
“That’s true. Speaking of the past, how did you save Carol when she was little?”
“She mentioned that to you, huh?”
“Why, you didn’t?” Alex questioned, leaning forward on the counter.
Damian, finished arranging the flowers, “It’s a true story, but not as exciting as Carol probably made it out to be.”
“That’s fine, I’m curious,” she says, resting her head on her hands to show genuine interest.
“I swatted away a spider.”
“How big was the spider?”
“Umm… I think this big,” say Damian as he gestures by cupping his hands, then spreading them apart to the size of an average steering wheel.
Taken aback, Alex stood upright and stammered, “That’s, that’s huge!”
“Really? Before I moved back to the States, I saw a bunch as big as a door.”
“Were you in a jungle or something!?!?”
“Yeah, how’d you know?”
Alex slouches over the counter, to the point of her head being on it, and answers, “Lucky guess… let’s just eat…”
Damian whistles in a pattern and Carol comes back shortly after, with her dog ears and tail out, wagging. Carol asks, “Is it time to eat now?”
“Neat trick,” Alex whispers to Damian, before getting up again to grab a burger from the take-out bag.
“I can hear you, y’know,” says Carol glaring at Alex.
“I know,” Alex retorted as she took a bite.
Carol rolls her eyes and gets her share. Damian doesn’t understand the tension, so he just starts to eat as well.
A bit after they finished eating, Marvin finally shows up, and says to the group, “Sorry I’m late, grabbed a bite to eat before I got here. That and it was pretty hard finding you guys without a hint.”
“No worries,” Damian stated, “Everyone here got lost at some point, except for Carol, who followed the flowers’ scents.”
Carol nodded and smiled in agreement, “I still have my canine senses even though I’m a person right now.” Actually, I still had some of Damian’s scent from this morning, so I used that as a baseline when his scent changed.
Marvin takes a seat at a nearby bench and his phone rings shortly after. He received a text:
Which stand are you at? – Allen
Marvin replies: The 1 w/ a lot of flowers
Then a second text: I think I can see u now
Allen walks towards the group with ribbons on his tail, a belt with bells, and a really frilly sweater. Carol bursts into laughter upon seeing this. Score one for the dogs. Damian and Marvin make an attempt to hold back, but end up laughing anyway. Alex sighs, disappointed, and asks, “What the hell happened to you?”
Allen, facing towards Marvin, says, “I texted you about this.”
Marvin shifts his eyes up trying to remember, “Uh, yeah.”
“Well this is the aftermath.”
Alex goes up to Allen and tightens his ribbons. Allen yelps in pain. “What the hell was that for!?!?” demanded Allen.
“For probably doing something perverted or stupid,” replied Alex in a monotone voice.
“I did not!”
“Don’t make me call the mind reader again.”
“Fine, I did.”
Alex squeezes Allen’s tail one more time before letting him go, “That’s what I thought.”
“Owwww…” Allen jumps to the counter and moves moves his tail around to make sure nothing is broken, “That reminds me, some weirdo was asking me about a strange looking elevator. Have you guys seen anything like it?”
“No, I took the escalator with Carol. How ‘bout you two?”
“I don’t even know how I got to the second floor. Damn mob rush…” said Marvin, going into a mutter.
Damian nods, “Same here, why?”
Allen, with his mouth a little full from trying to get the ribbons off, answered, “There’s supposedly an elevator somewhere on this floor that can only be used by powered people or something.”
“Well, I saw people suddenly disappear on the way from the arcade, but they’re probably teleporters, or vanishers, or something,” Marvin said nonchalantly.
Allen tugs on the ribbon and undoes it, and starts talking with the sweater muffling his mouth, “Doesn’t hurt to look.”
“Alright then, let’s go,” declared Marvin enthusiastically as he got up.
Damian cuts into the moment by proclaiming, “I still have a shift left, I’ll catch as soon as I can.”
“May I have your number then?” queried Alex, pulling out her Talk-to-the-Hand.
Damian blushes a little, “Oh, uh sure.”
After a quick exchange of numbers with everyone, Carol, Marvin, Allen, and Alex start heading toward the Arcade. Before being completely out of view, both Carol and Alex wave good bye to Damian. He waves back, and then the two girls made barely noticeable glares at each other. Damian gets back to work, but sneaks a quick look at his contacts:
Sis: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Carol: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Alex R.: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Marvin R.: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Allen R.: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Damian smiles and talks to a customer about a bouquet request.