The Mall (Evenstad Media Presents Book 2) Read online

  Need to get back to him. He's over there trying to turn me on and get my attention. Not subtle at all. Not saying it isn't working, either. I just couldn't have asked for a better tool to get dropped in my lap. He wants me, and I can make good use of that.

  ENTRY END

  JOURNAL 11KIM

  ENTRY 003

  DATE: 1/13/2075

  I was pretty sure I was going to die. Some huge musclehead came in here. Says his name is Bill. Bill. It's such an ugly name. Much uglier than him. He's totally not my type, but I saw the way he was looking at me, after we got past the part where I pleaded for my life. I know that look, used to get it all the time in the clubs and bars back home. If he thinks I'm cute enough to fuck, I'm going to use that to my advantage. That's how Rita won last season, so there's no reason it can't work this time around, too. I'm going into full on slut mode with him. He's a big, strong guy. He can keep me safe, once I’ve won him over. Should be easy enough. Most guys are pretty easy to figure out. All I have to do is get him to blow a few loads and I should be set. So I guess I'll be fucking on national TV. Or international TV. Hell, I'd do it live and in person, if it was life or death like this. Plus he's not the worst looking guy I've slept with.

  He's eyeing me. Got to stop the journal and get back to work. Have to pay the bodyguard, after all.

  ENTRY END

  JOURNAL 04DANA

  ENTRY 003

  DATE: 1/14/2075

  It's quiet in here. It's night time, so all the overhead lights are off, and there's just a little moonlight coming in through the windows. I like it. It's as close to peaceful as I’ve seen in here. There's a girl who runs around about this time, but she hasn't tried to kill me, so I just ignore her and she ignores me. At least that’s how it’s worked so far. Besides her, most everyone is just asleep or holed up in their stores. Except the woman who died over there.

  The young man from the pet shop is still there on the floor, too. He's starting to reek. You can't get away from the smell. It's probably not very healthy to be breathing in whatever comes off a dead body when it's decomposing, but there's not a lot I can do about it. No place to bury him in here.

  I've been watching someone else, lately. He's not as close, but I think I could like him, maybe even enough to risk asking him for help instead. Just looking at him makes me feel more peaceful. I don't know why, exactly. He's older than the pet shop one, though clearly younger than me. He's down in a toy store at the opposite end of the mall, past the fountain. And the men with guns. But I'm playing with a notion. It's kind of crazy, but with things going the way they are, and all of us apparently up for death, I don't think any of us could make it to the end alone. I know for a fact I can't. Two weeks trying proved that fact to me.

  Looking at him, I just can't help but think that maybe I should go over there, risk be damned. We could do our best to just live this all out in peace. It won't last, but I could make it a little longer over there with him, I think. I just have to wait for the right time to actually make it over to him without getting shot at. I'm still working on just how to do that. I’ve started throwing what I could find out to try and attract the guard’s attention to see how far they would go. I’m sure there has to be some safe space for us to move, otherwise the show would be horribly boring. I don’t know if I’ll learn anything or just look like a fool doing it, but it’s better than simply thinking.

  If I ever do figure out a way to make it across to this new man, that’s definitely where I’ll be.

  ENTRY END

  A Plea into Emptiness: On Evenstad Media's 'The Mall'

  Posted 1/13/2075

  I'm putting this up knowing full well what might happen. And knowing full well how few people are really going to pay any attention to what I have to say. When Evenstad Media put out 'The Park' last year, a lot of people posted about how wrong it was, how disappointed they were in society for relishing in the death, the flat out murder. Anyone who said those things with any sort of following didn't make it, always ended up dead relatively soon after posting about it. So I can fully expect this to be one of my last posts, if not my last post. But I still feel like it needs to be said. The detractors could all go hide and stop voicing their opinions, but then Evenstad wins. And if Evenstad wins, society loses. I would rather die for being a lone voice than live knowing that I was lying.

  'The Mall' is evil, and society is worse for having it. The fact that humanity as a whole watched this once, and now is watching it unfold again? That makes me weep. Have we fallen so far? I don't want to believe it, but the evidence is too clear. We must have. Otherwise, Evenstad Media would never have renewed this bloodbath for another season. And again, this season is one of the top rated programs on any channel, and will probably take the number one slot before too long. That just adds to the depression of this whole thing. It's not just back on the air, but it's been embraced once again.

  Nothing I say here is going to make a difference. I know that. But maybe this can inspire one more person to take my place, to voice another dissenting opinion. And maybe they can convince two others after they 'mysteriously' die. Then each of them two more, and on and on until there's finally a movement against the sins of Evenstad Media.

  Signing off, hopefully not for the last time,

  Tim Butler

  JOURNAL 06TESS

  ENTRY 003

  DATE: 1/14/2075

  I don't quite know what to make of what just happened. I heard footsteps come up and stop, then something dropped on the floor and the footsteps went away. I sat there for a long time, just to make sure that nothing bad was going to happen. But when I finally looked out there, I saw… food. A bundle of food, tied together with bungee cords. Like a care package or something. I don't think this is part of the game. That letter didn't mention anything about us getting food delivered. So somebody came along and gave it to me, is the best I can figure. I started eating it before the idea of poison occurred to me. But I feel all right, and it's been a few hours. I should be feeling at least a little sick if someone was poisoning me. At least I think so.

  I don’t know who it is, but I owe them. This food's going to last for a while, if I stretch it out. And it means I don't have to leave the shop, which is good, too. I don't want to risk going out there, but I would have had to, if this sadistic game went on too long. I would have at least had to go far enough to find something to eat, if I didn’t want to starve. I probably would have gotten myself killed on the way there.

  So whoever my mystery benefactor is, I thank you, and I hope I can get the chance to help you out, someday, the way you did for me.

  ENTRY END

  JOURNAL 08QUINN

  ENTRY 004

  DATE: 1/14/2075

  I think I need to at least try to get through the guards around that one door. It wouldn't be the first time I've been outnumbered and made it out the other side okay. I don’t exactly feel right about killing them, but I never exactly feel right about it. I still do it. I still need to keep myself alive. I just have to get back into the right mindset for this kind of thing. I have to separate this from who I am. But I'm finding myself having a lot harder time of it than normal. When I'm doing it for work, I can do it for work. It's my job, it's for the good of my country, but it's not me. This time… I can't say that in here. It’s definitely for me, and only for me.

  I just can’t get past it. There's got to be some reason that back room needs guarding that heavy. Half a dozen of them. It's got to be big. Maybe some kind of controls. I doubt it's anything that useful, but I guess I don't know until I actually get through them and get back there.

  I've trained to do this. I just need to get started and it'll all come. I know that. I just need to make the first step out there. It'd be a hell of a lot easier with a gun, though.

  ENTRY END

  TO: Edward Andel

  FROM: Niels Evenstad

  SUBJECT: New Project

  SENT:
1/14/2075 AT 11:18 a.m. EST

  Edward,

  I'm glad to see that you haven't yet decided to leave. It gives me hope that you can do this. I gave you the assignment I did, watching the cameras, in the hope that you would have to see someone die. I wanted to make certain that you could stomach the kind of work necessary. And I feel like you can, now. So I won't make you sit and watch the footage, anymore. I'm confident you can do that part if necessary. But there are so many other parts of this job I need you to do before I can really turn anything over.

  I'd like you to start working on The Park: Live and Breathe, now. You'll need to take the lead on this project, and delegate the work where necessary. We've already implemented a basic update to coincide with The Mall. We have the option for the new playing field, complete with the guards, and have made the use of the CESUs optional. While I leave this in your hands as to what all changes should be made to the game system, one thing the fans are asking for already is a way to play as the guards. Personally, I don’t know how to go about that. They have very specific areas in which they shoot, and very specific areas in which they don’t. Perhaps as a sort of a challenge attached to standard gameplay? I’m not sure at all.

  You'll need to conceptualize it and then work with the staff here and at Evenstad Technologies to mesh everything and make it happen. You can pass all your correspondences through me, and I'll get them out for you, but I won't make any changes. This is your project, so do your best. If you can do this, it'll be a big step toward the kind of independence and leadership I'm looking for from you.

  Niels Evenstad,

  Chief Operating Officer, Evenstad Media

  JOURNAL 01MARCUS

  ENTRY 003

  DATE: 1/15/2075

  I think I've worked out a way to pay proper respect to the dead, even if they can't be buried. Most of these stores will probably stay empty, and more of them will go unused with every death. It's not perfect, and it's not pleasant, but I can get them in the stores, use them like mausoleums. I feel like it needs to happen, and I can't trust that anyone else will try to give the dead here any sort of dignity. But to me, it seems so wrong to have them rotting away on television the way they are now.

  Someone needs to try and preserve some of our humanity while we're in this hellhole, and burial rites are among the most human things we have. I won't be able to hold a service to let his family grieve, but I can do this small thing for his memory, whoever he is. And later, the woman, too. But she's… it's more important to hide this man from view, before he rots any further. No one deserves to be seen like that, and his loved ones certainly don't need to see him in that state any more than they already have.

  All I need now is something to distract the gunmen Evenstad Media sent in. I have to keep a close watch. Eventually, someone else will leave their safety behind. That's when I can go out and grab his body. I just hope that doesn't earn me my own mausoleum.

  ENTRY END

  JOURNAL 09YESENIA

  ENTRY 003

  DATE: 1/16/2075

  Things are shifting around in here, so I'm going to take advantage of everything I can. I want to survive this, and there's an opening that could let me survive better, and longer. So I really don't think I can pass it up. The big general shop on the end used to be where the big scary guy was, but he moved out. So it's empty, and I’m positive it’s the best option for me surviving this out.

  I've got some cooking knives, in case I need them. It's farther than I want to go out in the open, but it could be a lot worse. I just have to take down anyone who gets in my way. If they're trying to kill me, then they're just heartless, and they don't need to be let back out of here alive. It wouldn't be right if I let them live, if they're the kind of people who can kill. Especially the kind who could kill a mother. But I'd be different. I'd be protecting myself, and doing society a service, and getting back to my baby girl, and that's okay. That's good. I need to say it enough times until it's true.

  Thank God Rosa's too young to really understand any of this. Not that I want her watching anyway, but if something comes up… she doesn't need to think of her Mama as a killer, even for the right reasons.

  Are they really the right reasons? I can’t look at it too much, otherwise this all falls apart. So yes. They’re definitely the right reasons.

  ENTRY END

  'The Mall' Falls to the Pit of Sequels

  1/15/2075

  It's a generally accepted fact that the sequel is never as good as the first one. There are a lot of different reasons for that, depending on the situation, but it's almost always true. And after last night's episode of 'The Mall,' I think we can safely say that this season has no chance of living up to 'The Park.'

  Let me get this out of the way first thing, before I even touch on the problems with this show: I don't buy it. I didn't buy it last season, and I sure as hell don't buy it this time around. They aren't actually letting people into a trailer park or a mall or anywhere else and having them kill each other. That's illegal, and anyone stupid enough to believe it's real should probably just get themselves out of the gene pool now. It's a very-well constructed ruse, complete with fake social media posts. And on that front, I would say that this season is even more impressive than the first. They’ve managed to arrange vigils for these characters, for Christ’s sake. So kudos for them on the realism.

  It's everything else that's the problem. The cast just isn't as good as the first one, which for me is the biggest disappointment. I mean, sure, they haven't interacted as much yet, which is a problem in and of itself, but even the interaction we've managed to get is just crap. Not to mention that they suddenly have a gay couple, just like they had a lesbian couple last year. Only one allowed. I guess they thought throwing it in at the end of the episode would work like some kind of cliffhanger? I don't know.

  Then there's the weird timing. The deaths were good last season. I guess part of it is that I'm just not shocked by the graphic death this time around. I saw it, I'm used to it. Hell, maybe 'The Park' was just as bad, and they hid behind the blood and gore. I don't know. But I think that they're definitely missing something, here. 'The Mall' just simply isn't a good show, and I won't continue watching it, personally. No offense meant if you like it, but they've broken my suspension of disbelief with this second season, and there's no repairing that, once it's damaged.

  After they wrap up this season, I hope Evenstad Media turns to something different, because this cash cow is bone dry.

  JOURNAL 05EVAN

  ENTRY 003

  DATE: 1/16/2075

  I think it might be fruitless to fight against the madness that this place is trying to push on me. I'll eventually succumb, and I'd rather not be exhausted to the point of death when I do. Honestly, if I could just take the full brunt of it right now, I would. While I'm still somewhat capable, let go of my sanity. Unfortunately, I can't, so I'm settling and letting myself play this game the way we're supposed to. That seems to me like it's the closest I'll be able to get to actively jumping into insanity. I’d already taken a tentative step, telling myself to go ahead and be more active. But that was the only step I took toward the end goal, and it really wasn’t enough.

  I've broken as much of the glass in this shop as I could, including the windows, and I've scattered all the shards around in front of the door and though the shop. There's one clear path so I can get out, at least, but it's damn hard to see. Anyone who comes this way is going to get torn up and distracted, and that's when I can do what needs to be done. I've never killed anyone before, good reason or otherwise. Doing my best to go mad probably isn't a good reason to kill at all. But that's in the world as a whole. This mall is its own world, the way I see it. Everything is different, even the laws. There aren't any, supposedly. And I accept that anarchy doesn't have to be destructive, or descend into murder. However, although they've negated the laws of the outside world for us while we're in here, there are new rules imposed that ruin it. We can't leave. Most of us can't
live to the end of this. We have no extra food. It might look like chaos, at first glance, but it's far from it. And those rules are what will cause our problems. Without them, perhaps we all could have lived. Or if they hadn't sent in the men with guns to keep us on track. But the rules are there, and they will be enforced, and that is what created the madness.

  So I intend to follow the rules, just the way I always did in the outside world. They abused me when I did it, but it's safer to suffer the abuses you know than those that might be so much worse.

  ENTRY END

  JOURNAL 10ALEXA

  ENTRY 004

  DATE: 1/17/2075

  It's just over two weeks in, and I'm sure I'm going to see another death any time, now. At least I will if things are going to keep a rough pace. Unfortunately, that's the best case scenario. It's been two weeks and we've had two people die. It's simple math.

  But that's still the best case. In reality, the pace probably won't hold. It's only going to increase, like a show. It all ramps up toward the big finale. Same with movies and books and everything else. The deaths will come a little faster, then a little faster, and a little faster again. If it keeps up, there could be one every day, or maybe even more than one a day. It's happened throughout history. Death always ramps up leading to the end of a war, or the capture of a serial killer. Faster and faster and faster.