The Unwanted Winter - Volume One of the Saga of the Twelves (92 page)

“
And, we’re gonna have to
gather up supplies, because we’re going to be her for a
while.”

Kimberly had just stared
back at her with a disdainful twist to her face.

Hyun continued. “We need
to find some blankets or something, maybe more flashlights. We need
to organize our food and water, and round up some toiletries. Don’t
you see? There’s a lot of crap we gotta do just in case something
goes wrong. If anything happens, we outta be prepared. Don’t you
think?”

“
Yeah, I guess you’re
right,” admitted Kimberly, begrudgingly. It all sounded good, but
the chick didn’t have to be so god damned bossy about
it.

Without another word,
Kimberly had tucked her hair behind her ears and left to follow
Derek, willing to go along for now, especially if it meant they
would be safer in the long run.

I’ll follow your lead for
now, bitch, but don’t get any ideas.

After, they’d eaten a
quick breakfast of milk and cereal, the three of them traversed
over to the department store. Kim and Derek to change their
respective under garments and scooped up some extra ones, while
Hyun had gone to lock both sets of doors leading into the mall from
Macy’s.

When they’d finished, they
split up. Each had been intent on finding some of things Hyun had
mentioned over their meal. Each of them had their own ideas of
where they may lay in the broad confines of the Eagle Rock Plaza.
While they searched, they were also to seek out every entrance to
the mall and make certain the doors were properly battened against
the storm.

Kimberly walked down the
lower level of the middle concourse to the set of doors identical
to the ones Hyun had locked earlier on the second floor. She
fastened them against the tempest, which wasn’t nearly as bad as
Hyun said. She knew the girl wasn’t lying or exaggerating, since
the lower level was actually dug into the ground. The storm’s fury
was stunted by the second level of the parking lot here.

After, she made her way
down to the Anna’s Linens, which she’d passed on her way to Macy’s.
She was in search of better bedding and extra coverings should the
doors, in fact, fail and the winter invade the mall. It hadn’t
taken her long to fill up two small shopping carts with three
twin-sized “beds-in-a-bag”, a set of towels for each of them and a
bunch of bathroom rugs they could sit or lay on when they either
ate or slept. It would provide insulation, while adding another
layer of cushion in between them and the cold, hard tile flooring
in the market. They could even put the burlap bags underneath the
rugs and add yet another layer of comfort. Kimberly had a hard time
sleeping on hard surfaces. She was sure the others did as
well.

Hyun must’ve come directly
back to the market after leaving Macy’s. By the time Kimberly had
returned, she had gathered some of the temporary cardboard displays
from around the store and had placed them near where they made
their temporary camp, behind the immediate front of the store. She
had placed within the various sections anything ready-made to eat –
rolls, breads, string cheese, crackers of all kinds, cookies,
energy bars, soft drinks, juice pouches, lunch meats (that were
still cold, because the air about them hovered around fifty
degrees), a few large summer sausages, bottled water of all sizes.
She had even grabbed a gallon of water and put two packs of instant
cool-aide into the container. She’d shaken it like crazy. Now, they
could have some cherry punch whenever they wished.

In spite of herself,
Kimberly was nodding in satisfaction when she glanced around at the
other girl’s handy-work. She might act like a nag, but Hyun usually
did excellent work, once her mind was set on something. She had to
give her credit, even though she would never tell her to her
face.

Hell no, then that shit
will go to her head
, she mused with wry
twist of her lip.

Kimberly glanced up when
Hyun had returned with another bundle of goodies held in her
arms.

She saw what Kimberly had
brought back with her, her eyes alight. “Kim! Oh my god, you
totally scored, that stuff looks
so
comfortable,” she had crooned, staring at the
bulky comforters and cotton sheets.

Kimberly could almost
imagine her thinking about snuggling up within them tonight and she
clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, the girl was a
loon.

“
Why don’t you set up our
‘beds’, while I continue to gather up some more stuff we can use.
Ok?” she continued.

Kimberly just nodded back
at her.

“
You know, even though
this place smells like a dead trout left out in the sun, they carry
a lot of useful stuff in this market.”

Kimberly had sniffed in
the positive and walked over to the burlap bags. She began
spreading them out a little farther, evening them, making them more
level than they’d been previously.

Hyun sauntered off,
looking for more things for them to eat.

The dark-haired, Emo-girl
pulled out the small carpets and began spreading them over the dank
produce bags, hoping they would stifle their unpleasant scent. She
made a medium-sized seating/eating area with the rest, placing it
in the middle of the cardboard shelving that held their food. At
least they wouldn’t be sitting on the chilly ground any
more.

Next, she began to unzip
the plastic coverings about the comforter sets. She made them each
a place to sleep, choosing a black and white, zebra striped set for
herself, while laying out a darker set bedding of earth tones hues
for Derek and a flowery-patterned one for Hyun. She felt each of
them fit their individual personalities and would contribute to a
better night’s rest for all of them. Rest and recovery was
something they would need on a consistent basis, especially since
they didn’t know how long they’d be stuck there in the
mall.

She piled two more solid
comforters on top of the others just in case they needed extra
protection from the cold when they slept or walked about. She hoped
they’d be enough protection should the outer doors of the mall fail
against the onslaught of the wind. Hyun had told her to be
prepared, so she had. She was just pushing the carts out of the
way, when Derek walked up.

“
Dang, you girls hooked us
the hell up!” His face split by a huge smile. It made his cheeks
bunch up under his eyes, in an almost comical fashion.

No, not funny looking,
boyish
, thought Kimberly,
and kinda cute…
Kimberly
let her eyes stay on him for a moment, before she shook her head to
clear her thoughts, putting her hands to either side of herself,
palms up. “Hey, I did what she told me to do,” she had tried to
deflect the compliment.
What the hell
was
that
“kinda
cute” bull-pucky all about?

“
Yeah, but still… man, I
wish we had thought of this crap last night. My back is all stiff
from having to sleep passed out on those stinky bags,” he had
said.

That’s when Kimberly
noticed he was carrying three thick, terrycloth robes and three
folding chairs in his arms. “Where did you find that stuff?” she
inquired, pointing at the items he’d been carrying.

“
Oh, this junk?” Derek
replied with a question of his own.

Kimberly raised her
eyebrows, which made him laugh self-consciously.

“
After I checked the doors
at Target, I went to the sporting goods place a few stores down on
the second floor. I thought, if it got too cold, we could use these
robes. Or if we wanted to wear them instead of our jackets, we
could. They’re more comfortable, you know, easier to move around
in.” He paused to smile and nod his head at her, flapping his arms
to show the lack of free-flowing movement he possessed within the
huge down jacket he wore.

She gave him a favorable
nod of her own through thinned lips, a little surprised at his
ingenuity.

“
I brought the chairs,
because we didn’t have anything comfortable to sit on…,” he
continued and seemed about to say more, but stopped
himself.

“
Cool,” she said suddenly,
breaking the quiet growing between them. “Toss me the robes and you
set up the chairs.”

“
Ok,” he retorted,
extending them to her, draped over one of his arms.

She took them and turned
to drop each one atop each of their blankets, not in any particular
order, because they were the same size, a man’s large, and the same
color, white. That didn’t matter though, they would fit perfectly
over their jackets and coats should they have the need to
really
bundle
up.

“
In what part of a
sporting goods store does one find robes?” Kimberly has asked, an
aberrant thought going from mind to mouth before she thought to
stop it.

“
In the swimwear section,”
the boy answered quickly. “I guess for when you get out of the
pool. I don’t know.” He smiled crookedly as if unsure.

“
Makes
sense,” asserted Kimberly. She had turned to look at him after
putting the final chair in place. She had placed them about the
carpeted area she had made beside their beds, noticing, with the
food surrounding the whole area, they would have a fairly nice and
cozy place to hang out.
Not
bad
, she thought to herself, looking it
over with a smile growing on her face.

Hyun had come back then,
dragging a box full of paper plates, plastic utensils, paper
towels, napkins, even a few bottles of hand sanitizer as well as
some hand soap complete with a dispenser. She had come butt first,
so she didn’t see what the others had done until she pulled the box
to the place where she wanted it to rest. She straightened up,
glancing about. Her eyes went wide with shock at first, remolding
into delight right before their eyes.

“
Very nice, you guys!” she
said excitedly. “Looks like we just might make it through whatever
the weather is going to throw at us, huh?”

“
Yeah, I think so,”
replied Derek at once. “Plus, there are a ton of jackets and coats,
even sleeping bags in the sporting goods store, so if we really
need to keep warm I can go back and grab a whole grip of that
stuff. I think we’re set… for now at least.”

Kimberly was nodding the
whole time. “There are a whole slew of blankets and crap back at
the linen store as well. There is more than enough to partition off
this area for more insulation from the cold if the need should
arise.”

“
Ok, good. At least we
have a back-up plan should things get gnarly around here,” Hyun had
concluded, then another thought struck her. Kimberly could see her
face turn expectant with it. “Derek, were there flashlight and
lanterns and batteries in the sporting goods store?”

The African American teen
frowned in thought. “Yeah, why?”

“
Light, my dear boy, we’re
going to need a lot of it,” she had said gesturing about them. “No
electricity, remember?”

“
Oh, duh!” the boy
exclaimed with a burst of laughter.

“
Let’s go get them,”
started Hyun. “We all should go too, because we should all have
more than one back-up light and, because of that, we’re going to
need a whole lot of batteries.”

“
Well, then let’s get this
show on the road,” Kimberly had commanded, not sure precisely why
her mood was as light as it was.

“
Are all the doors
locked?” asked Hyun as they strode from the market.

Kimberly
nodded.

“
I couldn’t figure out the
ones at Target,” began Derek. “They’re electric, so now their
totally dead. I couldn’t budge them when I tried to open one.” He
shrugged.

Hyun grunted. “Well,
that’ll have to do, I guess.”

*****

Now, some three hours
later, the three of them slouched in the chairs Derek had provided,
surrounded by six battery-operated lanterns ablaze with light. Each
of the teenagers was made lazy from the large lunch they’d just
consumed.

Derek was staring at both
her and Hyun through hooded eyes as if he could barely keep them
open.

Hyun was gazing back at
the teenage boy with a frown, wondering if he was actually
sleeping.

To Kimberly, he appeared
awake, because his eyes were moving periodically. Although, she
guessed, he could be in REM sleep. Maybe he was one of those people
who slept with their eyes partially open.
Eeeew!
She continued to stare at him
some more.
Shit, maybe the nerd was asleep
after all
, she concluded after a time, for
he hadn’t moved anything other than his eyes. His body was limp.
His face was slack. She felt a frown matching the likes of Hyun’s
descend upon her face. The more she looked at the dude, the more he
was freaking her out.

“
So what do you think
happened?” uttered Kimberly, willing to strike up a conversation in
order to distract her from Derek’s creepiness.

Hyun jumped at the sound
of her voice, which did sound loud when compared to the prevailing
silence. “Jeez, girl, you startled me.”