The Mall (Evenstad Media Presents Book 2) Page 10
That's assuming the other lady doesn't show up and take me out. Something about her makes me nervous, from what little I saw of her. She's smart, and she started really playing this game right first thing. She's got the edge on me there, and that's somewhat terrifying. Perhaps more than somewhat.
ENTRY END
TO: Niels Evenstad
FROM: Frederick Evenstad
SUBJECT: Information Breach
SENT 2/10/2075 AT 7:51 a.m. EST
Brother,
Before I begin, I want to apologize for my behavior with you before. I should never have been so brusque with you. I trust you, but I forget it sometimes. If you need any help, you know that I'll be there for you, and I'm sure Marta feels the same way.
As for the security breach, I had my own people look into it after yours, and they agree. The breach came from somewhere within the network, but they didn't find anything to link back to any identification. It's all been hidden or otherwise obscured. But I would personally suggest looking into any new employees, particularly on the tech support end of things. They would be the most likely candidates. Or really anyone you don't fully trust.
I hope we'll see you at the restaurant tonight. Marta and I are both looking forward to it. Unless, of course, you're not up to making it. We'd both understand.
Frederick Evenstad,
Chief Operating Officer, Evenstad Technologies
—
TO: Frederick Evenstad
FROM: Niels Evenstad
SUBJECT: Information Breach
SENT 2/10/2075 AT 8:22 a.m. EST
Brother,
You should know all is forgiven, and of course I'll be at dinner. Already, I feel lighter, now that I've finally told you the truth.
I'll take your advice on the breach. It's unfortunate that it happened, but the best that I can do at this point is to work with the cards left on the table, however poor they might be. As soon as I'm done sending this email, I'll have IT look at the computers of any suspicious employees. Maybe they can make a connection that way.
I hope to see you tonight,
Niels Evenstad,
Chief Operating Officer, Evenstad Media
JOURNAL 03BILL
ENTRY 007
DATE: 2/13/2075
The time's come, I think. I have an issue to resolve, and it's definitely the day to do it, now. It won't be any easier if I wait. No easier and no better for me, in the end. Kim doesn't need to be here at this point. He's far outlived his usefulness. So today, I'm taking him out on a food run. I put it off a couple days, although I don't really know why, for sure. Maybe I'm just hesitant to kill. It wouldn't be a surprise. It's much easier on paper than it is in reality, would be my guess. Well, on screen, not on paper. I did it with Lia, but I guess this is somehow different. I’ve spent more time with Kim.
Either way, it's happening. .I'll push Kim into guards, too. And if that doesn't work, I'll have to do something else. Still have the baseball bat, I guess.
God, I hope the guards work out.
ENTRY END
JOURNAL 11KIM
ENTRY 006
DATE: 2/13/2075
Bill and I are leaving. I'm more okay with leaving than I was, but I'm still not exactly looking forward to it. It's still dangerous, and there's still a really good chance that I'll die going out there. That we'll both die, really, but Bill's at least done this more than I have. I mean, yeah, I went up there a couple times, before he showed up. But it wasn't something I did for fun or enjoyed or anything stupid like that. Right. Like I'm enjoying anything around here.
I don't know why it took so long for him to decide we should go. I told him right after I wrote the last journal a couple days ago I was ready. Maybe he picked up on the fact that I wasn't really wanting to go. But I'm not wanting to go now, so there's not anything suddenly different. Hell, I don't know. Maybe I really did get to him with all the sex. That'd be great. He'd be protecting me out there for sure, which is the best thing I can think of, given what we're about to do.
I don't know. I guess it doesn't really matter. One way or another, we're heading out.
ENTRY END
JOURNAL 08QUINN
ENTRY 011
DATE: 2/13/2075
The two guys from the makeup shop are out and on the move. They've already made it up into the food court and they're scrounging. Really scrounging. I doubt there's a whole lot left up there at this point. It doesn't bode well for anyone surviving longer than about another month, myself included. Probably less than a month, really. And that's only if the threat of murder can be removed. Which it can't. That's the way these fucks built this game. The threat of murder is always here, and it's always going to be here until just one of us is left. I know that even I'm not immune to it, and I'm not above killing someone else, if it comes to that. Maybe the blonde girl down there wouldn't do it. If anyone could resist the urge to kill, I'd put it on her. But pushed far enough, I'm sure she would. Pushed far enough, everyone would do it. It’s all about how far is far enough.
Point is, sooner rather than later, this game's over, and I plan to be alive to see it. But I also plan on getting some justice before that happens. If I don't do anything else meaningful in this stupid contest, I'm damn sure going to kill the jack-off that burned that bookstore.
ENTRY END
JOURNAL 03BILL
ENTRY 008
DATE: 2/13/2075
I couldn't make myself do it. It felt like Kim deserved better than Lia. If nothing else, he proved to be a lot more useful than she was, although I suppose she died to get me here. Besides, there really wasn't much left for food. Even less than last time I was up there. Between the two of us, we got most of it, which puts me in a good position when it's all over. I couldn't have gotten all of it if I'd tossed him aside to get shot.
I have to do it now, though. It's all done and ready to go. No more waiting around. I'll get it over with quickly and then I'll be in the best position to get the money.
Lately, I'm wondering if my own morality is really only worth twenty million to me, though.
ENTRY END
TO: Niels Evenstad
FROM: Frederick Evenstad
SUBJECT: Security Overhaul
SENT 2/12/2075 AT 3:16 p.m. EST
Brother,
As I've thought about the situation, I can't help but think that you should check over your entire network for potential weaknesses. Two separate systems were hacked and, although it was almost definitely an inside job both times, the fact is that it could have come from the outside. And even if it didn't, the fact that you had those openings in two separate systems doesn't bode well for anything else. It's your decision, of course, but if you'd like, I can have some of my IT workers check it over along with your team. It's an inconvenience, I know, but one I personally feel is well worth dealing with.
Stay well, Brother.
Frederick Evenstad,
Chief Operating Officer, Evenstad Media
JOURNAL 11KIM
ENTRY 008
DATE: 2/14/2075
I think I've definitely won Bill over, somewhere along the way. I've had good sex before, but this was some of the best. Maybe he felt guilty making me go out, or maybe something finally clicked. But I can't think that we could do that together if he wasn't at least a little attached to me. It just doesn't work that way. Really good sex only happens when there are feelings involved. And this was really fucking good.
Together, the two of us could actually make it to the very end. I know we can't both win this, which means we can't both get out of here alive. But I can settle for a couple steps closer. And when it's just the two of us… well, I guess I'll see what happens when that time gets here.
ENTRY END
04
TO: Edward Andel
FROM: Niels Evenstad
SUBJECT: Network Down
SENT 2/14/2075 AT 8:15 a.m. EST
Edward,
Just as fair warning, the Evenstad Network will be going down at nine this morning for a security overhaul. If there's anything you're working on that's stored there, you'll want to download it to your personal computer and then delete the files, so as to avoid any suspicions from the techs. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but I can’t have word of you getting out until you’ve taken your position. If anyone realized I was bringing in someone outside of the family, it would be bedlam.
Niels Evenstad,
Chief Operating Officer, Evenstad Media
—
TO: Niels Evenstad
FROM: MAILER-DAEMON
SUBJECT: Network Down
SENT 2/14/2075 AT 8:16 a.m. EST
We were unable to deliver your message to the following email address(es):
edward.a@xyzmail.com
This address does not exist in our system.
XYZ Mail
JOURNAL 08QUINN
ENTRY 012
DATE: 2/14/2075
I'm on the move real quick. I just wanted to jump on to leave a record, in case something bad happens. The big guy in the makeup store just beat the other one's head in. Dead. And then he kind of slumped down in the middle of the floor. Probably in shock. I've seen it before. Eventually, he'll pull himself together, and then God knows what he might do from there.
I'm going out to take care of that before it becomes a problem. One less murderer alive is always good with me, and with him incapacitated, it’s my only real chance to take someone that strong out of the picture. But if I don't make it back, anyone who might end up reading this should know that this game hasn't destroyed who I am. Not yet. I'm still the kind of person who'll defend an innocent human being.
Or get revenge for them. If I seem cruel to you, whoever you might be, then we wouldn’t have gotten along, because I would have done this exact same thing out there in the real world, too. Count on it.
ENTRY END
JOURNAL 03BILL
ENTRY 009
DATE: 2/14/2075
My God, I did it. I killed Kim. Just dead. Right there on the floor. A few minutes ago, he was alive. Not now. Because of me, he's gone. Just completely gone.
I thought I could handle this. I was ready to throw him out to get shot, just like with Lia. But maybe I really wasn't. I had a lot of chances to do it, and I never could bring myself. I let myself care about him, I guess. It wasn't part of the plan, and so I didn't figure for it, even when the evidence was plain.
And now I've killed him. I'm a killer. A murderer. At least with Lia, I could pawn the guilt off on the guards. I didn't know they were robots at the time, though. Now that I know that, it means I killed her too. I directly threw her at walking weapons. They didn't kill her because they wanted to. They killed her because it's what they do, the same as if I'd thrown her off a cliff. I'd still be the murderer, not the ground or the rocks.
I’m a killer.
ENTRY END
JOURNAL 05EVAN
ENTRY 008
DATE: 2/14/2075
I've finally got eyes on her. The one who kept skulking around. She's at it again, for whatever reason. She was hiding out in the back room of the mall. I don't know why she'd leave now, but I'm not complaining about it. It's just an example of how things change, when you change your perspective. I've adopted cruelty as my calling, furthering the work of the world. And now I'm happy to see her, when before I would have cowered. She would have been too confident for me, too much to handle when I was weak. Not now. Now I might fear her, but I want her out in the open where I can see her. I want to watch her and wait for the right time. Then it'll just be the one left in the makeup shop, and the useless girl who's hiding. I could make it out of here alive.
But not just alive. Reborn. Ready to join the world in full, after far too many years.
ENTRY END
TO: Kadar Asad
FROM: Eddie
SUBJECT: The Mall
SENT 2/14/2075 AT 11:22 a.m. EST
I know you don't know me, and for now I'd like to keep it that way. I don't know you, but I know that you're not happy with Evenstad Media. And I know that you're not alone with those feelings, especially since they started these new shows. Killing innocent people, kidnapping them, drugging them so they'll sign the contracts. That's how they make it all work, you know. That's how they got your father to agree to it, too.
I worked there for a while, and I had direct access to the top tier of management. I was the one behind all those hacks they’ve had lately, and I pulled a lot of private information out. And there's so much more, just in the things they gave me access to for my work.
That's not really what you need to know, though. That was just to try and show you that you should at least consider listening. What you need to know is that you're not alone, hating Evenstad. There's a lot of us who do, and we're coming together, bit by bit. It's not very organized, yet. Mostly individual attacks at the company. Honestly, I don't think we'll ever be much more than that. Just the honest truth. But what I do think is that we can make ourselves known, and raise our voices. And I think we can support each other, when the time comes. As a group, we're paying the legal fees for those two brothers who attacked the Evenstad employees. They don't stand a chance of winning, but it's a statement. And it's a start.
If you've made it this far, I have to assume you're at least a little bit interested in what I've told you. I certainly hope you are, because we need numbers. Every person who stands with us is one more voice, and one more way to get noticed that much more. We want to end these sick competitions, and possibly end Evenstad, although I don't think that's possible.
If you're interested, let me know and I'll hook you up with the main supporters. Then we'll go from there.
—
TO: Eddie
FROM: Kadar Asad
SUBJECT: The Mall
SENT 2/14/2075 AT 3:19 p.m. EST
I'm interested. Definitely interested. I don't know if I can do much for the cause, but I have no love for Evenstad after what happened. So if there's any way I can be useful to you and your people, I'll be happy to try.
JOURNAL 05EVAN
ENTRY 009
DATE: 2/14/2075
She went into the makeup shop, and she was armed. My guess is she got a gun from one of the guards. I've got a feeling, whatever the outcome of what happens in there, I'll only have one major threat to contend with when it's all over.
I might just try to take out the blonde one now instead of wasting time. So close to the end, I'm pining for freedom even more than I did when I woke up in here to begin with, as hard as that is to believe.
I think that's really the best plan, actually. Take care of it now, just in case. I can’t help but wonder how my friends and family are going to see me once I get out of here. Will they like it, now that I’m happier? Or are they going to shy away from what I’ve finally let myself do?
It will be curious, for certain.
ENTRY END
JOURNAL 06TESS
ENTRY 008
DATE: 2/14/2075
I heard gunshots next door. I can't take it. I've got to get out of here, even if it is dangerous. I thought it was safer, not being in sight. Now it just feels like I'm trapped. Which really, I am. It's what I wanted, in a sense. I just didn't think it through. But God, I can’t handle another second of being stuck here in this store. Not one more single second. I have to get out and at least know what the hell is going on out there. And I need to know if I should be running.
ENTRY END
WHO IS GOING TO WIN THE MALL?
THE FINAL THREE
1: Evan (58%)
2: Quinn (39%)
3: Tess (3%)
(Information Collected by The Cruise)
03
JOURNAL 05EVAN
ENTRY 010
DATE: 2/15/2075
I just heard gunshots from inside the makeup store. The damn blonde ran right after that, so I didn’t get the chance to go after her. It's not too big a concern, really. There aren't a lot of places she can go without getting killed by the guards. I can find her fairly easily.
The woman came out of the makeup shop alive. I was kind of hoping for the other one. He hid most of the game, at least as much as I saw. I missed a fair bit struggling with my own issues, so maybe he really was the bigger threat. But from what I know, the woman was probably the most dangerous, out of the two of them. She definitely is now that he's dead., so there's not a lot of point comparing the two anymore.