I descend to where it’s safe, return to Toys R Us. Among the Beanie Babies I find my girl, my precious angel, soft and cuddly as any teddy bear.
She knew danger was coming, and she did what I trained her to do.
My Hopey is incredible.
I scoop her up without a word. I’m soaking wet, venting steam into the air, but she burrows into my armpit, wriggles her nose under my boobs. We look for an exit.
I badly want to open the emergency doors and creep out of the mall through the basement to the loading docks. There’ll be a jack somewhere, I can just jimmy the door open–except the Mech knows I’ll be creeping down there. I have one minute, max. Probably seconds. That Ötzi-swarmcloud thing doesn’t need to walk downstairs. It can float down stairwells, drift around corners, hiss through air ducts
