The Mall (Evenstad Media Presents Book 2) (2 page)

JOURNAL 10ALEXA

ENTRY 001

DATE: 1/2/2075

I can plainly say this is the worst thing that's ever
happened to me. And I imagine everyone else in my position could say the same
thing. I've been kidnapped and stowed away in a dirty-ass mall. I've already
seen a bunch of people around here, but they seem to either not know I'm here
or be totally ignoring me. Either way, I'm not about to complain. This stupid
mall is so small, I sure as hell won't be able to sneak around or anything, so
the longer I stay lucky and stay hidden, the better off I'm going to be.

I've holed myself up in a big bookstore on the second floor.
It makes me feel a little bit better. Better on the surface, at least. Books
are comforting. Not to mention that it gives me a lot of places to try and
hide, if it comes down to it. I don't know. It's a big lie I'm telling to
myself, I guess. Really, books aren't going to do me any good, if someone wants
to come kill me.

The fact that someone might want to come kill me is surreal.
Really surreal. And I'm a magician. I know about surreal. I do surreal for a
living. I can barely even wrap my head around it. I mean, I guess they may not
want to kill me, exactly. But whether they want to or they have to, it gets the
same results. Someone after me. Somebody who needs me dead.

ENTRY END

JOURNAL 09YESENIA

ENTRY 001

DATE: 1/2/2075

It's the first day I've managed to do anything other than
sit here. But just barely. I don't understand any of this. I was heading home
from work, and I was ready to see my baby girl. And then… that's it. I don't
have any other memories besides waking up in this stupid mall. I crawled over
to a kitchen store and hid out there. I kept looking at the knives, thinking I
needed one. The letter I had talked about lethal force. But I wasn't going to
be able to do that. I couldn't do that. I'm a nurse. I protect people, keep
them from dying.

So I sat, and I thought. The tablet I'm supposed to use for
this journal shows the date. January second. Which makes it that much worse. I
was heading home from work on December twenty-eighth. Which means somewhere, I
lost three days. Three days of absolutely nothing. I don't know what that
means. I don't get what any of this means. It's some kind of disgusting joke,
putting me in here. But it's not funny. They forced me to leave my baby girl.
She's not even a year. What's going to happen to her, with all this? But the
people who did this don't care. They obviously don't put any value in human life.
And if this show was on last year, doing the same thing to innocent people…
just one more reason I'm glad we don't have TV at home.

Plus it means Rosa won't have to watch her mommy die.

ENTRY END

JOURNAL 01MARCUS

ENTRY 001

DATE: 1/3/2075

Horrid. I did my best to escape this ridiculous program last
year, which was no easy task. Everyone online, everyone on the news, everyone
in the magazines. All of them talked about it, as though they didn't realize
what was happening. Perhaps they didn't. Perhaps they chose to believe that it
couldn't possibly be real, that humanity couldn't sink to such a level that we
would display senseless murder and greed for the world to see, pass it off as
entertainment. I, too, wondered, at least a bit. But the fact that we didn't
know for sure, and yet we, as a species, still watched. That was enough to keep
me from participating.

Now I know it's real. I woke up here and read that
ridiculous letter. It barely told me anything. I certainly don't remember
receiving any kind of release papers, or any other paperwork, for that matter.
Forgery seems likely, because I certainly wouldn't sign up to put my life on
the line. Not for a mere chance at twenty-million dollars. Not for any money.
Money does me no good when I’m dead.

I've gone into an electronics store on the first floor.
There's no cover here and, when I checked to see if I could pull down the
security gate, I found it had been removed, or perhaps never installed. Either
way, there was nothing there I could use as protection. But I was hoping that
I’d be able to hook up something between the video cameras and TVs in here. If
I could have found a way to monitor my surroundings without exposing myself, it
would certainly have been useful. How useful, I can’t say for certain. Choosing
this store left me unarmed. At most, I would have been able to watch and wait
for my own death to come. I’d rather have it that way than have it be a
surprise, I think. Not that any of it matters. None of the cameras had
batteries in them. Seems like a stupid thing to take away, really.

In the end, it will come down to who is most willing to kill
for the sake of their own life. I'd like to think I would never do such a
thing, but I can't be sure. And given the circumstances, I don't know that I
would want to be sure. I do know that I don't want to think about it. Not until
I have to. Unfortunately, I'll have to think about it sooner than I want to.

ENTRY END

TO: Edward Andel

FROM: Niels Evenstad

SUBJECT: The Mall Launch

SENT 1/1/2075 AT 8:15 p.m. EST

The game has started. I hope I don't need to remind you of
this, but it is absolutely necessary that you watch what's happening as it
happens, as much as possible. I realize there are many cameras to monitor in
the arena, but there's no better way for you to learn what to look for than to
simply look for it. I expect, at the end of this week, and every week until you
hear otherwise, a report of which scenes you would include in the final cut of
the week's episode. I don't mean to be so strict about all of this, but our
time is limited. I have quite a lot to teach you, and only a small amount of time
in which to do it. I chose you because I thought you could handle it, and I’ve
jumped through a lot of hoops for you. I expect it to be worth my trouble.

If you have any truly untenable issues, you have my personal
phone number. Use it sparingly, please. Anything that can wait until later,
email to me. I'll respond when possible.

Remember what’s on the line for you in all of this. Your
family needs you to make better money, and I admit that influenced my decision.
But only once. If I see fit to fire you, I will. I don’t want it to come to
that, but I do want to make that clear. I’m mentoring you for a reason, and I
don’t intend to waste time doing it.

Niels Evenstad,

Chief Operating Officer, Evenstad Media

JOURNAL 07NED

ENTRY 001

DATE: 1/4/2075

Well, I've already puked twice. They made a real great
choice when they threw me in here. I watched about thirty minutes of the first
episode of this show last year, just to see what it was all about. I had to
turn it off or I would have thrown up then, too. I didn't even make it all the
way to the end, which was where someone actually died, apparently. It made a
list of the year's biggest TV moments, or I wouldn't know about it. I really
wish I didn’t know about it.

I'm in a pet supply store, and it's just morning. I can see
red sunlight coming in through the windows. I guess it could be sunset, too.
I’m not sure which way I’m oriented to tell which side’s west and which side’s
east.

All the windows have bars on them. The doors don't, but I
can see the guards standing out there with guns. So I'm definitely trapped in
this place until they decide to let me out.

I've seen lots of people running around, and they've seen
me. But no one's tried to kill me, yet. Which is pretty good, I guess. Gives me
some faith in humanity. Nobody's starting out wanting to kill anyone else. But
I wouldn’t think anyone wanted to do it in the first season, either. Still
ended up with eleven people dead in a trailer park. Sticking it in a mall
probably won't make that big of a difference, I don’t think.

I've thought about doing it, already. I could be the first
one to go out there and get things started. Maybe it would make me seem like a
bigger threat than I am. You know, something more than just a stupid pet store
clerk from BFE, Nebraska. There's enough stuff in the store I could use to do
it. Some of the antlers they sell as dog chews are pretty heavy.

But when I think about it, I can't. I mean, that's what's
been making me puke. Well, not the first time, but definitely the second time.
Even the idea that I might go and end someone's life is enough to get my
stomach flipping. I just can't do it. I even have a good opportunity for it.
There's a men's wear shop across the mall, and there's this old lady in there.
She's not hiding very well, and she looks real frail. Physically, it probably
wouldn't be hard to do it. But I can't. I'd probably get over there and just
throw up all over myself. And her. Which would be the opposite of the image I'm
trying to build up.

So I guess I'm just going to sit around and wait for
something else to happen. I'd like to think it's never going to happen, but
Evenstad's letter said there were other opponents, and that they'll use lethal
force. So eventually, someone's going to die, and it won't be from old age.
Honestly, I don’t know if it would be better to get killed here, or just live
so long in this place that you die of natural causes. Neither option is
particularly appealing, if you ask me.

ENTRY END

JOURNAL 05EVAN

ENTRY 001

DATE: 1/4/2075

I feel like I should be more surprised about this than I am.
More upset. But really, it makes a weird sort of sense that I would end up
here. Life sucks, and for some people it sucks worse than others. Some days
suck worse than other days, too. And when a person whose life sucks gets a
sucky day, it just stacks on top of itself.

When I was young, I was idealistic. I mean, who wasn’t at
one point or another. But I can see now that it was just life setting me up to
make the fall even worse. That's why I'm stuck cleaning up a stupid high school
after the little brats go home. I've had a few days like this before, where all
the bad lines up to screw you over, and they seem to get worse every single
time. This is just another step down. Probably the last step down. I can't see
myself walking out of here with twenty-million bucks. And if I somehow did, I'd
probably lose it all somewhere along the way or get hit crossing the street
after I picked up the check.

But I guess there's some kind of silver lining in it all. My
mind feels a lot freer. I kind of just feel freer in general. Morally freer.
Emotionally freer. Everyone thinks about killing someone, at least once. I
believe that. Anyone who says they've never considered it is a liar.

I don't like the idea of killing anyone, necessarily. But it
just seems like it doesn't matter, anymore, like whoever I kill is probably
going to die anyway, since they’re in here. Assuming I actually do it. I might
not. I don't know, yet. I'm up in a little knife shop here, so I've got the
means. I think I have the stomach for it. If it turns out I don't, then I guess
I don't. Really, it doesn't make any difference to me. But I'd like to give it
a try, while I have a chance.

That'll probably just end badly for me, too.

ENTRY END

JOURNAL 02LIA

ENTRY 001

DATE: 1/4/2075

Well, this is pretty much just fucked up. Seriously fucked
up. But I think I have things under control, at least a little bit. As under
control as this kind of thing can get. This kind of thing. Right. As though
there's a whole lot of precedent for locking a dozen people in a mall to have
them kill each other. Happens all the time, I’m sure.

Right off the bat, I took to the high ground. It just seemed
like it made more sense. I won't say that nobody can sneak up on me because of
it, but I can make a safe bet that this is better than hanging out on the
ground floor, waiting for something to happen to me like all the other idiots.
I mean, there's a big hole up here. If someone either finds a gun or has a good
arm or something, they can look right over the railing and wait, then just pick
people off. Unless, you know, somebody kills them while they're trying to aim.

It's hard to think like that, and not just because it sounds
totally insane. Things have been pretty peaceful, so far. It's a really weird
thing to say, given the situation, but it's true. I haven't seen anybody die,
and this place is so small, I can pretty much keep eyes on everybody.

I took what I'm hoping is going to be a good stance. There
was a sort of sexy shop. Not sort of sexy. It’s a fucking sex store. The kind
of stuff they have to block out with a big black bar before they can put it on
TV. I think they do, anyway. Doesn't matter. I'm off on a tangent. The point is
that it's going to keep people away. I hope. If they're too uncomfortable to
handle dildos, then I'm pretty safe. And most people are, in my experience,
which makes this an awesome spot for me to try and stay alive. Other than the
fact that I'm not going to be able to really fight anyone off with the stuff
they've got around here. But I'll trade the slight inconvenience of having to
leave my home base behind to find weapons for the protection I'll get out of it.
Well, the protection I’m hoping to get out of it, if everything goes the way I
hope it does. Plus some of this stuff is technically edible, if it comes down
to the wire. There's a food court on the other side that might have something
still in there. I'm going to check it out today but, if it's empty, or I can't
make it that far without someone wising up and trying to attack me, I guess
I'll find out how long I can survive on edible panties. My guess? Not very long.

ENTRY END