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Caveat Lector
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Tucson, Arizona
Posts: 3,038
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[Debreu] Veni (Part V)
“It has been several months since the nation’s last terror attack, the condominium killings, and still there has been no word or further information regarding the event. Some credible sources from within the Murphy administration have told CBN that the investigation has made no progress at all. Critics have found similarities between how this incident has been bungled by investigators and the 2001 Anthrax scare, the latter of which also continues to remain unsolved. Experts believe the two cases are unrelated…” cackled a CBN news anchor on set of TV’s lined up in an electronic store. The store was in a large, indoor mall with glossy tiled flooring, large white pillars, and a dome shaped roof. Glass storefronts lined up neatly against the walls on three separate stories. There were people everywhere, some walking with a casual stroll others standing and chatting or gawking at merchandise. It was a weekend, and the mall was busier than usual. The bottom floor was dense with children hanging out with friends, some which shouted up to other kids they knew up on the second floor. The mall’s floors were all contained within the large rectangular shaped dome structure. The second and third floor were merely broad walkways that had had a metal railing running on the opposite ends from the walls and allowed shoppers to lean against them and gaze at the people walking across the bottom floor or across or up, depending where they might be standing. In the wide and open atmosphere there was the sound of people chattering, the noise of people walking as their shoes and heels made contact with the waxed floors, and a faint melody coming from one of the shops as the smell of leather goods mixed with the aroma of freshly baked cookies emanating from a coffee shop. The lighting was dim, and the wide and thick glass ceiling only made visible the gray fall clouds that warned of looming rain.
Outside the mall, across the length of the densely packed parking spaces was a freeway. It was a major ten lane wide traffic pipeline connecting several large cities across more than a few states. Just outside the Park Ridge Mall, was a place where this freeway connected with two others through a maze of off and on ramps, curved concrete bridges, and a cacophony of large lettered, reflective information signs. The major freeway was a drop down from the raised mall. The sloping wall that separated the two was covered with a thick growth of bushes, topped with a chain link fence that ran the length of the mall’s parking space. A dark figure was busily moving its way up the slope.
With quick and sharp movements the figure raised itself up the distance of the steep pitch until it reached the chain linked fence. It stopped just until it could see beyond the ridge. The sky continued to darken as clouds thickened and a cold breeze whipped against the leaves of the bushes, but the figure remained still and undeterred. It was a black shadow in the foliage, its head poking out only a few inches. Slowly it raised itself further, and freed itself from the plants. A quick combination of movements moved the shadowy figure from one side of the ten foot high fence, to the other, where it stooped behind some parked cars. It jumped from a crouch into a full fast paced run across the length of the parking lot. It shot passed the rows of irregularly lined up cars and planted trees and hedges without anyone noticing it until it made it to one of the mall’s entrances where it cleared the height of the door and then some to land on a protruding ledge. The ledge covered the entrance. The dark shape crouched low as the doors beneath it opened and a woman with a coat and a scarf walked out carrying shopping bags. The figure remained still until the woman had disappeared. It moved again, once everything was still, slowly dropping itself from the ledge, and silently opening the doors to the mall. The entrance led not to the main portion of the mall, but rather a large department store. Keeping low the figure moved undetected among the racks of clothing and shelved merchandize until it reached a wide and open entrance that connected the store with the walkways of the mall. It crouched beside a coat rack, on which some saffron women’s coats with a faux fur lined collar hung.
There were people moving about, just as before, going to and from, some in groups, and some alone. Small televisions hanging from within the store’s low ceiling played a rap music video. There were clicks of hangers being shuffled around. Somewhere, a woman shouted with laughter. The dark figure slowly rose to a standing position, and walked through the entrance to enter the mall space. The department store was on the north end of the building, and the wide entrance led out to the mall’s second floor. That dark, human shaped thing reached the railing and stopped, looking across the length of the mall’s large rectangular corridor. The structure was very long. It was several hundred yards in length. The mall was a major shopping center in the area, at the foot of where three large freeways connected. A man and a woman, closely hanging on to each other, were making their way around one side of the space outside of the department store toward the other. They both now noticed the figure standing there, facing the mall.
What they saw was very tall and large. It had a thick and broad back, covered with dense jet black hair that shot out of its head like fire. On each side of its arms, starting at its thick elbows and following down its wide, black arms were dark curved blades that protruded beyond the clenched fists resting on the decorated railing. The head slowly turned to face them. Its face was a featureless mask, on which two sharp edged, tilted ellipses stared out silently across to the couple. Its strands of long black hair glimmered in an even sheen. The couple continued to walk in the same direction, although slowly, toward the figure but about to give it a wide berth. The head slowly turned to face the mall again, and the couple continued to move, staring at the well defined muscles and spine protruding from the large, strangely dressed person’s back.
Below on the first floor, some kids had noticed the figure. “Woah, look at that.” A nearby mother looked up.
“Oh, how cool, you kids want to go up and meet him?” She said, with hesitation.
“What is it?” Asked another.
“A movie promo?”
“Yeah! Let’s go check it out!” yelled a boy and began running toward an escalator.
“Hold on, slow down Ted!” yelled the heavy set lady.
“Wait, a moment, look it’s dressed like the condo killer!”
“Some kind of sick joke?”
“Let’s go see him, mom!” Shouted the impatient Ted.
Then there was a roar.
The traffic in the north section of the mall came to a standstill as a loud, thunderous rumble boomed across everyone’s ear drums. It continued in a long drawn out fashion and quivered, transforming into a shaking howl that when it ended left a mall without the tapping of feet, clicking of hangers, and low murmur of voices. Only the music from the department’s stores televisions made any sound at all. Everyone looked at the figure which had its head slightly raised. It lowered its gaze…and then it began.
First the dark monster took a right step back and with its right blade, the end edge which protruded beyond the elbow, flung its arm backward quickly toward the couple that had now stopped walking. The blade’s edge pushed through the clothing of the woman, through her skin and flesh and she felt her chest tighten as the metal dislodged cell from cell, organ from organ. The elbow continued to move and with a sharp twist the blade reached the man through the woman and both collapsed. The monster faced forward and placed both of its long nailed black hands on the edge of the railing, tossing its feet over its back and landing evenly on the first floor, crouched. It stood up and moved toward a man in a grey jacket and shoved a blade into his chest. Then the figure pushed the man off the blade with one foot and jumped past three other people who fell to the floor as their blood sprayed across storefront glass. Nobody else moved. They just stared as they saw the monsters quick and graceful movements over the glossy floor. The boy named Ted, stood at the bottom of the escalator, not comprehending. His mother had stopped following him, and like everyone else stood silently. One of the people that had fallen had led out a deep gasp that had an unnatural rattle to it. A second gasp became a gargled cough and the monster reached two more people sitting on a wooden bench. Their eyes twisted in their sockets and screwed up toward the malls dome shaped ceiling when sharp edges sliced through their lungs and tour open their shirts.
There was a scream from some direction, and to Ted it seemed that it might have been his mother, but how could have been when she was on her knees with a large gash pushing out a wide red spray. Chunks of her flesh had separated themselves and landed on his face. Before he could put it all together, the eleven year old boy felt a strong grasp on his side. As if time had slowed down he could sense a coldness burying into the back of his neck, pushing into his bones in his neck displacing them, separating the cartilage and reaching his nerves. Then he no longer felt anything. His head rolled across the waxed floor that no longer shined so brightly. There was another scream and people began to run. Like a pack of wolves preying on a flock of caribou, the weakest and slowest fell first. Those not quick enough to move found themselves pierced, gashed, or slashed with those large black blades. There was no hiding. Those that had been inside stores when the slaughter began found no safety underneath racks of clothes or shelves of toys. An old lady that clung to the metal pole that held up a ring around which various assorted long sleeved shirts hid her never saw the metal that cut her in half. Her scream grew shrill when she saw the other half of her torso that the monster stepped over to pin a clerk to a wall. Glass splattered and merchandise flew as counters collapsed, shelves tumbled and people ran in terror. A duo of large, fat men, one in a football jersey, had grown brave and one had taken a bat from a sporting good store.
“Let’s get this ****er,” said the man with the bat as everyone else ran in other directions, away from the monster. They approached it from the back, and the larger man of the two, unarmed, attempted to grab the monster. The man flung his arms around the creature’s wide back and felt something damp against the creature’s cold and hard skin. It was his own blood. Pain shot forth from his hands and arms and he pulled back to see his flesh mangled and sliced. His brother took the bat and broke it across the figure’s back but it only turned and as it grabbed one man by the neck the other fell to his knees clawing at the floor with blood flowing freely from every direction. The large dark hands tightened around the fat man’s neck. After his neck snapped, and he had been dropped, his body went into convulsions and crimson foam bubbled from his lips. His eyes screwed up in their sockets.
Within a few minutes the bustling mall had become quite empty. There were people’s remains strewn out across the entire mall’s three floors. A woman in her late twenties had found a hiding spot inside a glass elevator. When all the commotion had first began, her father had pushed her inside and slipped on the floor and fallen as the elevator doors closed. He had yelled, “Go Janet, just go!” In vain she punched at the elevator’s buttons as it began to descend, down to the first floor, where people were still dying. The elevator came to a stop and began to beep loudly after she had pushed the emergency stop. It continued to sound for several minutes, like a beacon as the mall transformed into an impromptu killing field. Finally, using a fire extinguisher, the lady had managed to shut the beeping off by spraying with crazed motions into the elevators control panel. There were a few sparks, some smoke, and the alarm stopped. About a half hour later, she was still clinging to the floor of the elevator, which had stopped halfway between the third and second floor. The bottom of the elevator was not glass, and it hid her as she lay face down. The mall had become much more silent. There were a few screams, some glass shattering, and other sudden noises now and then coming from various directions as hidden victims again and again found out the hard way that no there was no place to hide. Janet, however, realizing this, still felt safe, considering the thick glass walls and closed metal door.
After a while, the screams stopped, and there was only silence. It was becoming evening. Janet peaked her head up from the floor for a second but dropped it not wanting to see the anymore of what was out there. The young woman, in her blue dress, pushed herself back and leaned against the cold, steel elevator doors. Sweat poured from her skin. She kept her gaze low and thought about her father. She thought about being rescued. Though barely able to move and shaking, she drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Janet came close to dozing off until the elevator suddenly shook violently. There was a loud metal clang and her heart froze. For a few minutes silence returned, and throughout that time, Janet did not move or breathe much. A mild tinking noise came from up above her. She kept her eyes down and did not look up. There was another tink, followed by another. It was the sound of metal tapping against glass. Curiosity overcame fear, but only enough for Janet to look up. She let out a gasp. A dark head hung upside down from the elevators roof and stared into the compartment. The head’s black hair hung around it as the broad piercing ellipses stared into her eyes. A metal blade tapped lightly on the glass beside the head. Janet’s eyes were wide with terror. The head drew up and disappeared and again for a long time, until the police came and finally rescued her, there was only silence.
The police did not take long to arrive. The first people that had managed to run out of the mall in time, and therefore survived, were on their cell phones talking to emergency operators. Within twenty minutes the mall was surrounded by vehicles with flashing lights on all entrances. Nobody was within close proximity of the building, but every now and then a person or two would come running of the building. Debreu had called Clark, as he was supposed to be on duty, to find out the details, but it turned out that Clark was nowhere to be found. Instead Walras had arrived at the scene and was setting up S.W.A.T. and issuing orders. The commissioner was on the line, and federal marshals and the F.B.I. had just arrived. Up above in the sky an assortment of police and news helicopters circled the structure. Crowds had formed by parked ambulances. Although hidden behind a canopy of clouds, the sun was just beginning to set, and there was still enough daylight to see clearly. Street lamps had just begun to warm up. Detective Debreu arrived in his city sedan. He stepped away from the car and walked over to Walras.
“Where is Clark?”
“No idea.”
“What’s the situation?”
“The power is cut. S.W.A.T. has entered through from the fourth floor of the Mellon’s department store, and have begun to clear the area.”
“How many men?”
“Twenty, sir.”
Debreu looked at the mall’s wide and gaping concrete façade. “Get me a radio, I want to hear what’s going on.”
Inside the lightless Mellon’s department store, a set of men dressed in heavy body armor with rifles raised moved toward the east stairwell.
Last edited by s|k; 30 May 2006 at 08:20.
Reason: Adding part number to title
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Re: [Debreu] Vidi
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