The Darkness in Dominion Mall

Chapter 11

Billie and Layne began to open the front gates into Dominion. Now that his adrenaline was diminished, Layne could feel just how rusty the gates were and how hard it was to open. He needed to use his entire body to help pull his side of the gate open. Given how difficult it was, they could only open it enough for two people to exit at a time. After searching the outside some, Layne signaled for everyone to follow.

Billie and Layne led the group in the front. Jill and Renae followed in the back. Reggie stayed in the middle since he was carrying the rope and, therefore, needed to be guarded the most. If Layne would have had his way, he would be with Jill wherever she was positioned. He decided not to do so because it wouldn’t any of them good to get into a disagreement at such a vulnerable moment.

‘Besides, she’s with Renae. There’s no one better to be with than her.’

They first went to the food court to where Jill said she first saw an opening. The mist and falling ash was just a thick as before. For some unknown reason, but not to any of their surprise, the hole she saw in the ceiling was now covered up by a layer of oddly perfect bricks.

With no other options, they retraced their steps back to the JC Penny and continued walking on. Layne kept his eyes both in front, behind, and above the group. He was afraid of what he couldn’t see in the darkness. Afraid that there was danger around every corner; because there most likely was something around them at all times.

‘What kind a monster’s gonna attack us next? Will we be able to take it on?’ Layne thought to himself. ‘If a trimmer and gun don’t stop them, what the hell is a blunt object going to do?’

“I swear most of these were open when we got here.” Reggie said in a low voice as he searched the ceiling for an opening.

“I know right?” Billie coughed softly.

“If the chairs and some of the stores weren’t here before, who knows what else changed?” Jill whispered loudly.

“You got a point.” Reggie said quickly.

Billie coughed again but loudly again. He looked as if he swallowed or smelled something that was repulsive to him.

“Are you okay?” Layne asked.

“Yeah, it’s just, that smell’s getting to me.”

“What smell?”

“You don’t smell it? Just give it a second. I think we’re getting closer to it.”

After walking for a minute, Layne started to smell the odor that Billie was referring to. It smelled like rotten eggs mixed with blood or copper. The smell reached deep into Laynes nose and into his mouth, allowing him to taste it. The taste alone made him nearly vomit.

The others’ began to smell it as well, although they didn’t seem to be too bothered by it like Layne. They were mostly worried about where the smell was coming from and what it was exactly. Maybe it was a sign that there was something dangerous nearby?

“Look at this you guys.” Billie said as he suddenly stopped the group.

His light illuminated the inside of the store and revealed various electronic products. Microwaves, ovens, washing machines, dryers, televisions, and radios littered the shelves and ground. The sign above the doors read “Willis’s Electronic Emporium” with blue letters on a white background with some cartoonish lightning bolts’ scattered about it.

“This Is probably where the smell’s comin’ from.” Reggie said with the rope covering his mouth. “Old batteries.”

“Yeah. Let’s keep going.” Billie said as he started to walk on.

“Wait!” Layne said suddenly.

“What?”

“Look at that sign. ‘Buy one set of walkie-talkies, get another pair free!’ If there’s still some in there that aren’t broken, we could still use them.”

“Why do we need those?” Billie asked with a hint of annoyance.

“I figured that since one of us is going up, we won’t have a way to tell everyone if anything’s wrong or not without having to yell. We could do that, but, what if you need to hide and stay quiet. You know what I mean? How would you and any of us know? We wouldn’t.”

“Yeah.” Billie said. He looked like he was thinking the idea through, whether the risk would be worth the reward. “Even if we do find some, what would be the chances that they work?”

“Zero, probably. The freezer was still working in the kitchen, so there’s a chance the walkie-talkies could work too. But it’s not like were running against the clock or anything. What’s a few minutes of our time looking for these gonna do?”

Billie stared into the store for a moment and then spoke. “f**k it. Let’s go find ‘em.” He turned towards Jill, Reggie, and Renae. “Y’all don’t have to go in, but it would make looking a whole lot faster if everyone went in with us.”

“I’m good if everyone wants to go.” Renae said.

“I’m not gonna stay out here, I’m goin’ in.” Jill said.

“Yeah, me too.” Reggie concluded quickly as he took in a deep breath.

“Now, if anything happens or we get attacked, stop what you’re doing and sprint towards the doors. Don’t fight unless one of us is in trouble. Got it?” Layne told everyone.

The gang nodded their heads.

“Good. Now don’t get separated.” He said as he walked into the store.

The inside of the electronics’ store was about twice as large as most of the regular stores, but still smaller than the two anchor stores. It was both a blessing and a curse for them to search through it. A blessing because its large size meant more merchandise, and a greater chance of finding what they were looking for. A curse because it meant they would need to spread out some to search more ground, increasing their chances of getting separated. It also meant that they would need to sift through more junk than at the other stores.

To make matters worse, almost all of the electronics’ were scattered about haphazardly on the shelves and ground. Almost nothing was where it was supposed to be. The first set of shelves Layne searched contained a dishwasher, tv set, and VHS tapes in what was obviously supposed to be the music aisle, judging by the musical decorations, cassettes, and vinyl’s laying around.

“Do you really think they’ll have some here?” Jill asked as she inspected the inside of a refrigerator.

“Maybe?” Layne said as he rummaged through some junk. “At the very least, I hope we can find some batteries.”

“Yeah. I can already tell my lights dimming a little.”

“I think everyones’ is. The LED ones will be fine for a while, but they’ll need batteries eventually.”

“It’s gonna suck when we need to use our phones.”

“Yeah. I hope we get out before then. We might as well be blind with those damned things’.”

They searched quietly for a few more minutes and worked their way down a couple of aisles. Layne searched with Jill and was so focused on the walkie talkies that he noticed that the two of them slowly became more and more separated from the others. It wasn’t too much of a problem for Layne since they weren’t too far away from the others’. They could easily see them and work their way towards the others’ in no time.

‘And I’m the one that said not to get separated.’ He thought to himself.

“Should we go over with everyone else?” Jill asked nervously.

Layne shook his head. “Nah. We aren’t too far away, and if anything happens, we can just yell for help.”

“Okay.” Jill said with a hint of disappointment.

Sensing this, Layne walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her and hugged her intently. She hugged him back and squeezed him so hard that he found it difficult to breathe. Still, he didn’t let go of her or tell her loosen up.

‘How can someone so short be so strong?’ He thought to himself.

He didn’t mind being breathless for a moment though.

“Do you really think we’ll all make it out of here?” Jill asked with her head in his chest.

He didn’t answer right away. He wasn’t sure if there really was a way out or even if they were all going survive their ordeal. Layne knew he couldn’t tell her any of that, or any of the others’ too. The best thing for them would to have some sense of hope.

“I do.” He finally said.

“Okay.” Jill slowly let go and continued to look around with a small smile. “Let’s get back to it.”

“Yeah....What’s that?” Layne whispered as he spotted a light at one end of the store.

There was a light source at one side of the store that would flicker in and out at various intensities. Very small and faint sounds of laughter could be heard if Layne listened hard enough. He figured it might be a television or radio of some sort that was turned on. But by what?

“I dunno. Should we go and tell the others’?”

“Yeah, yeah. Hold on. I’ll go and check it out and make sure there isn’t anything up. If there is, I’ll quietly make my way to y’all. If there isn’t, I’ll tell you all it’s clear.”

Jill looked obviously distressed about his plan. “What happens if there’s something there and you get caught? What then!?” She whispered angrily.

“Then you guys need to go on without me. Mourn me when you get out. Just get out alive if that happens. Okay?”

He honestly didn’t want to do it himself. If anything, all he wanted to do was steer clear of the light. However, he knew their survival depended on whether or not the walkie talkies or batteries were at the side of the store.

Jill’s face was visibly red from frustration. She wanted to yell at him for his plan, and Layne knew it. To calm her, he worked up his already shocked nerves, grabbed her face, and locked his lips with hers.

It was like being surrounded by an ever-growing and intensifying blizzard, only to suddenly being warmed by a small campfire. It was a sensation that Layne never really felt before from anyone before in his life. Only Jill made him feel that way.

When they stopped and pulled back some, Jill had a look of both surprise and what looked like a longing for something that Layne didn’t exactly know.

She exhaled and spoke. “Just don’t do anything stupid, okay?”

“I can’t promise you that, but I’ll do my best not to get caught.”

Jill shook her head and let go of Layne, slowly walking off towards the others. They exchanged glances one last time before the aisles blocked their views of each other.

‘f**k me. Why am I doing this? Is this some sort of flight response to a danger? If so, I’m heading the wrong way.’

Layne slowly walked for a couple of minutes with his heavily dimmed lantern, weaving in and out of aisles trying not to disturb anything on the ground, as he soon come across the source of the light. A television. There were metal shelves arranged into a half circle around the tv and wall. On the inside, between the TV and shelves, there were freestanding mannequins’ that were covered in electronic wires and chips. They didn’t appear to be sentient as they didn’t have the pentagram-like symbol on them. The wall was lined normally with shelves and various junk. The televisions screen was somewhat filled with static and its audio was also slightly corrupted. Still, he could tell that it was playing an old show called “Howdy Doody” that was popular for its time. What caught his attention the most was what was sitting on a couch in front of the television.

A mannequin, obviously alive with its subtle movements and twitches, sat comfortably in the couch as it used its right arm to prop its head up. It sat lazily like a king would sit on a throne. Even with the bright screen limiting his vision of the thing, Layne could still see the pentagon shape burned into its hand like it was forcefully branded on.

‘Yep. Time to go.’ Layne thought to himself as he scanned the area again. He wished he hadn’t when he spotted them.

The walkie talkies.

They were hard to make out from behind the televisions glow, but their shape was unmistakable. Long, rectangular, and cumbersome looking with large antennae sticking out from the tops.

‘Just my f*****g luck.’ Layne thought sarcastically to himself. ‘I can turn back, but it looks like Jill hasn’t made it to everyone yet. Should’ve kissed her less longer I guess. And we should’ve walked over to them too.’ He looked at the mannequin and weighed his options. ‘I really don’t want any of them to go near that thing, AND I really don’t think I’ll be able to come back here again if I go back to the them. FUUUUUUUCCKK ME!’

He turned his lantern off and quietly put it down at the edge of one of the shelfs. Layne mustered up all the bravery he had left inside of him and began to silently sneak towards the mannequin.

The metallic shelves were thin enough for him to easily slide through and the normal mannequins were bunched together to allow him to safely hide behind. He positioned himself to be behind the living mannequin and to its left, just out of its peripheral.

There were three small pebbles next to his left that he picked up. He tossed one to the right of the mannequin as far as he could without making a noise. The pebble hit something metallic, but it was barely audible over the television. However, it appeared to slightly move its head as though it thought it heard something.

‘Yeah, yeah you heard something. Now go look for the noise. It might be something to kill.’ Layne commanded the mannequin in his head.

The mannequin turned back to the tv, ignoring the noise.

Layne waited a few seconds before throwing the next pebble. It landed closer to them than the last and its landing was louder as well. The mannequin sat up in the couch and turned his head at a very unnatural angle like an owl would turn its own head. It was now obvious to Layne that whatever these creatures were, they weren’t restricted in their movements by the limitations of a bone, muscular system or tendons; or this one wasn’t at the very least.

‘Just go. Just go. You know you want to see what the noise is. It’s not like it’ll kill you.’

The mannequin slowly rested back into the couch and turned its attention back to the television again.

‘Son-of-a-bitch.’ Layne frustratingly sighed to himself. He looked at the final pebble in his hand. ‘Last chance before I have to find more stuff to throw, I guess.’

Layne tossed the pebble about thirty feet away, hitting one of the metallic shelves and creating a loud and high-pitched pinging noise. There was no doubt that the mannequin had to have heard it.

The mannequin shot up from the couch with such lightning speed that Layne nearly let out a noise after realizing it was standing. It stood, slightly hunched over, and stared intently at the origin of the noise. It slowly walked over to the shelves, its legs softly cracking as it went.

Layne knew that this was his chance.

He tried to quickly and silently mimic the footsteps of the mannequin to mask his own. Even though the show was probably loud enough to hide his steps’, Layne didn’t want to take any chances of it hearing him. Each of his steps matched the creatures and he kept his eyes glued on it while using his peripheral to move towards the walkie talkies.

It stopped at the edge of the televisions line of light on the ground and stared into the darkness.

‘what’s the deal is with this one. It seems relatively normal compared to the other ones. Sure, it’s naked and torn, but it doesn’t really stand out from the bunch.’

As he was momentarily lost in thought, Layne didn’t realize just how close he was to the television and ran into it. The picture on the screen went from a fun family show to pure static that hissed like a threatened cat.

The mannequin slowly turned its head to face Layne. He covered his mouth and tried to mask his heavy breathing as it began to walk towards him. Whether he was frozen by fear, or he had subconsciously already accepted his death, Layne didn’t move a single muscle. He stood as still as the very mannequins’ he had previously hidden behind.

He closed his eyes and said a silent prayer to himself.

‘God, I don’t care if I make it out of this alive. Please just watch over everyone else and help them get out of this Hell. That’s all I’m asking from you.’

He could hear the mannequin stop just a few feet in front of him. He was sure that his time was about to come to an end.

Suddenly, there was a small knocking sound coming from in front of him.

Layne opened his eyes to see the mannequin lightly hitting the television and messing with the wires on top to fix the picture. He was confused since there was more than enough light reflecting around the area for even someone with poor eye sight to see him. Yet, the mannequin appeared to be oblivious to his presence, even thought they were a few feet away from each other.

Its eyes were eerily human like, similar to Jerrys and the patched mannequins’. The whites of its eyes were unnaturally more blood shot than the others’, his iris was an orangish tint of red, and its pupil reflected back some of the light that was entering it. The mannequins face twitched and moved as if it had facial muscles underneath the surface of its “skin.” Whether it did or not, Layne couldn’t care less about it.

He thought it over in his mind as the mannequin tried to fix the televisions picture; How it stopped just in front of the TVs light and didn’t enter the darkness and how it currently didn’t see an obvious target. Layne came to two conclusions.

The first was that the mannequin was stuck to its spot in the light of the tv, unable to leave and doomed to an eternity of old reruns. The second was that, like Layne and the others, it simply couldn’t see in the dark without a light source to aide it. However, it would appear that it could only see in well-lit areas and not ones that were barely lit.

With one last good knock, the picture quality returned to its original grainy and distorted look. A small and subtle smile grew on the mannequin’s face as the light from the show reflected off his eyes. It got up and slowly turned as it returned to the couch.

It stopped dead in its tracks a foot away from the chair.

Layne stood quietly still as he stared at the mannequins back. He knew he didn’t move an inch or even make a noise as he still stood with his mouth covered by his hands. He kept asking himself what made the thing stop. Did it know where Layne was the entire time and was just toying with him for its own amusement? Did he unknowingly make a noise and it heard him?

As he observed it, it soon became abundantly clear to him that the creature was focused on something and not listening for an odd noise. But what was it? Layne tilted his body to the side to see over the mannequin and nearly made an audible gasp at the discovery he made.

The mannequin could see the lights from the flashlights that Billie, Renae, Reggie, and Jill were using.

Layne could feel his body changing.

He could feel his heart beat intensifying.

He could feel his arms and legs shake uncontrollably.

He could feel his breathing increasing at a quicker rhythm.

He could feel cold seat forming on his hands and forehead.

He could even feel himself wanting to scream at the top of his lungs to warn everyone.

The mannequin slowly bent over and picked up a pole-like instrument from underneath the couch. It was wrapped around in various sorts of exposed wires that hung loosely off at various points. It spoke to the pole in an unknown, harsh language and somehow made the wires glow a bright blueish glow as electricity began to course through them. The electricity would crackle out and into the air every couple of seconds.

“I will make you proud, my master! I will get my first kill and prove my worth to you. Hehehehe!” It laughed quietly with a raspy and broken voice.

Jill and the others didn’t hear the laugh as they seemed to keep walking towards the back of the store. He hoped they would, but apparently the laughter didn’t carry too far.

Layne, against his natural born instincts’, grabbed the walkie talkies and bolted away as loud as he could. As he knocked a shelf over, he warned his friends and girlfriend.

“RUN FOR IT GUYS!” He screeched as he knew the creature had taken the bait.

Layne sprinted away, feeling like a minnow that was chased by a shark