It's My Party

They had reached the sky bridge before 10 AM, went through the elevator at Black Mall directly to the first floor library of Red Mall and then to the adjacent hospital room. With her infected foot, Akiko was the first person helped up onto the diagnostic table.

It was a little frightening. The machine had come alive and restrained her leg. Then multiple metal arms with bewildering attachments emerged from beneath the table. Her dear friends and the woman named Emily held her hands and head for emotional support while the machine did its work. It was so strange. Akiko could even read the identity the machine had assigned to her as it worked, Citizen ID #141. Emily saw the number and asked Akiko if she were the second of her party of four that had entered the elevator on December 21st. Correct! How could she have possibly known that?

And the healing was miraculous! No pain at all now. The throbbing and the rotting smell were completely gone. The machine had even cut her chains off with some kind of laser. Her other three friends were requested to return for a checkup in a week. Akiko was ordered to return for a second treatment tomorrow.

Hot showers and food and new clothes and such kindness, all four of the former prisoners were giggling with delight, the changes in their lives were so profound. And then before a chance for some needed sleep, they had an hour in the lounge to share their experiences. These people had accomplished so much! Life was full of hope again!

Three weeks ago, Akiko's elevator had opened onto a horrible scene, loud music and too much alcohol and couples making out with no consideration for the public around them. Her group of four had tried to leave almost immediately, but several of the frat boys were acting as guards by the door, and the women were shocked to find there was no way to make the elevator run in reverse.

The views out the windows were very disorienting. Through the clear hexagonal walkways, the views showed vast expanses of open fields to the south, east, and west. But that was absolutely impossible. How in the world did they get here? Nothing made any sense.

It was a miserable night for all four of them, full of surreal sexual desires and exploits. And afterwards, the following morning, there was a several-hour window where they simply could have walked off, but the situation was so strange no one did. And then the frat boys tried to watch a football game in the multimedia room downstairs. They saw the news of the coming Intruder, and that vile man Uno decided that if there were no tomorrow, then they could do anything they wanted. All the women except the close girlfriends of the compadres were raped that afternoon.

And then the next morning there was the strange broadcast of the end of the world with nothing happening at Castle Commonwealth. There was a chance that Sunday, Akiko thought, for things to evolve far differently, for forgiveness and reconciliation to occur. But Uno managed to destroy all hope for that.

His tool was Britney, one of the few women who was actively complaining about the rapes. Uno threatened to stick his pistol up her butt and pull the trigger if she didn't shut up, and a day later he did just that, helped by four of his compadres. He didn't kill her then. The gun was unloaded. Uno didn't want to waste a single bullet. But the path of the group had been set. Britney died a horrible death on Christmas day, and her blood was on the hands of all the men. Reconciliation became impossible.

Akiko's mind returned to the present, listening to Toshi sleeping quietly in the great bed with her. The beds here in this strange world were enormous, 15% longer than a standard King and 40% wider, clearly designed for two or more people to sleep in them. And it was a joy to Akiko's heart to hear Toshi resting so peacefully. Her college roommate Toshi had such a gentle personality. The frat boys loved dominating her. Toshi was always one of the first ones picked in the nightly rotations of forced sex. Such a sweet and gentle personality. It was so shocking to see her kill Fidel with the oversized wine bottle.

"Enough of that," Akiko thought to herself as she shook off the dark thoughts. "We're free now." The four women had been promised a late dinner starting around 8 PM. Akiko debated trying to get some more sleep, but her mind was alert and full of curiosity. She crept out of bed and silently left the room.

Outside her bedroom and also in front of the bedroom of Ann and Kiyoko were posted notes signed by Madison saying to come to the pantry if they needed anything. Akito wandered down the hall and through the bathroom and found Madison alone at a table by the dark eastern windows. She had a pistol completely broken down and was busy cleaning it.

"Oh, hi Akiko! How's the ankle?"

Akiko smiled back. "Fine thank you. What a relief! All the pain is gone, even when I walk on it. There's just a little itching. I feel like scratching it."

Madison nodded and gestured for Akiko to take a chair. Akiko sat and silently observed for a while. There were several bottles of solvents and degreasers and oils and a large assortment of stiff brushes that Maddy was working with, plus a small pile of cleaning rags on the side. As Akiko watched, she saw that Madison had cleaned one gun already and was working on the second. There were also rows of cleaned magazines set on a nearby counter.

"We have eighty-four rounds of ammo for the three pistols," Madison said matter-of-factly, "a fair amount of firepower. Unfortunately my brother and I the only ones here with any experience in pistol shooting. How about in your group?"

Akiko shook her head. "Not that I know of. I would doubt it though, certainly not for Toshi. Firearm possession is illegal in Japan."

Madison sighed and continued her work. "It's unfortunate that your group controls a gun shop. We haven't seen any others in the other Malls."

"What? These guns are not from the Malls. The fraternity brothers brought them from Earth."

Madison mouth formed a silent oh. "We'll have to tell the rest of the team. That's important."

Akiko bowed her head. "Sorry. We should have mentioned it earlier."

"Hey, that's okay, no harm done." Madison looked at the clock. "It's time for me to check in with the group anyway. Want to come along?"

"Huh? To where?"

"To Blue and Black Malls." Madison saw Akiko grimace at the thought of going back to Black Mall and added, "Just to the sky bridges. We'll be safe. Come on." They walked through the kitchen to the lounge elevator, and a few seconds later were in the coin superstore of Black Mall. Akiko looked around nervously and didn't fail to notice that Madison had brought the cleaned pistol with her.

Madison checked the surveillance system unit. It had recorded nothing since she last checked it an hour ago. Satisfied with that result, Madison and Akiko jumped to the sky bridge of Blue Mall next and got the same results. Madison took a quick look around the store. It was a men's clothing store called The Casual Male, and nothing looked out of place. She then called Mark and gave her report and also informed him about the guns.

"That's interesting," he commented. "Akiko, do you know how many guns they have?"

"I think so. The right to carry a pistol is one of the defining differences between a compadre and a muchacho. Uno had fifteen apostles. They're the ones with the guns, the compadres. Uno has a pistol too, but I think it looks different than the others."

"Oh? How so?"

"Uh, I never got a really good look at it. Bigger though I think."

Mark considered for a second. "So, they have thirteen pistols now, Uno, twelve compadres, and four muchachos."

"Correct. The muchachos are servants, new pledges of their old frat. They're compadre wanna-be's. And there are also the women of course."

Akiko thought she heard Mark growl over the phone. "All these Spanish titles, are they…"

"No, not at all. Just boys playing at being a gang, playing a game that's gone horribly wrong."

Mark was silent for a moment and then replied, "Maddy, Akiko, I was just about to call in. We got into the home complex of Blue Mall just a few minutes ago. It's cool in here, 10C, just as we expected from the infrared. We're working our way to the first floor library now."

"What is the Mall exit like?" asked Madison.

"Kind of cute. Their exit store is called the Stone Cold Creamery. It's on the inside arc, 59.3 spiral kilometers from Hex Hall, just as we thought. The Mall exit is on the lower level, along the back wall of a walk-in freezer."

Madison thought for a second. "So the exits to Malls 3, 4, and 5 are on the lower level, and 1 and 2 are on the upper level. Maybe that means Yellow Brick will be on the upper level too." Earlier at lunch, Kiyoko had informed the group that Black Mall's exit was in the first floor kitchen of Jacob's Bar & Grill.

Mark nodded as he walked across the cool library. "Yeah, not a bad guess… We're at the lower elevator now, opening the door. Bingo! We have an access code!"

"Read it to me." A moment later Madison and Akiko jumped to the home complex of Blue Mall, activating the elevator there and joining the main group. There was a brief moment for hugs all around. Afterwards Akiko asked Mark what their plans were.

"Well, I'm tempted to ask the rest of the group to finish the lockdown of Blue Mall while Jada and I jump to an Eastern Mountain Sports store at the end of Yellow Mall. We have Yellow Mall locked down but we haven't found its home complex yet. That's the last item on our Mall agenda…."

Akiko nodded. "I see. You want to do it while you're sure the Malls are still safe."

"Exactly."

"Need any help?"

Mark considered for a moment. "That's very kind, but how is your ankle? It's about sixteen kilometers of biking in Blue and Yellow Malls from the terminal stores to the home complexes."

"Ah…" Akiko took a moment to stare at her foot. "It feels fine. Biking ten miles on the smooth floor, I don't think it'll be much of a stress… My major is telecommunications technology. Maybe I can be of use to you. I just want to help."

Mark turned to Jada and asked for her opinion with his eyes. Jada spoke up. "Akiko, why take the risk? There are no doctors here if we get into trouble with your ankle, just machines we don't understand." Jada then smiled. "But we do have empty side cars down in the Mall. How about you allow me to bike you on Yellow Brick, and you can help us to search when we get to the right store?"

Akiko smiled happily and nodded.

Twenty minutes later at spiral position 62.5 kilometers of Black Mall.

Dennis Diebold was silently staring into the Rabbies Dram liquor store through the transparent door. Chico his second-in-command was by his side. Chico was a large man, very well muscled, and the two muchachos with him were nervously testing the strange half-spheres that were blocking the access buttons. Meanwhile Dennis was grinding his teeth over the awful decisions that he faced.

"Stan the man, and third-in-command," Dennis thought to himself, playing a rhythm in his mind. "Santos the man, the gonad man. Damn! He was the most loyal apostle I've ever had. Just wave some sweet pussy in front of his nose now and then, and the man would sell his soul to you. Shit! The twit had tears in his eyes when he made compadre last year. Stan my man, Santos you fuck-head, you fucking fuck-head, what the hell happened to you man?"

Chico spoke softly. "Uno, you can see where they left our sled on the left."

"Yeah, I see it." Dennis pressed his face against the liquor store door and looked to the side. He could see the sled. It was almost fully loaded, and he could even see the harnesses the bitch mules would have used to drag all the whiskey back home.

Dennis gave a heavy sigh. "Chico, this setup makes no sense. Santos was our best marksman. He could shoot a quarter out of your hand from ten meters. Alberto and Fidel were good shots too. There's no way the three of them could be taken without a fight. It's obvious they were in the liquor store. But look at this place! The store is immaculate. Chained bitches couldn't have gotten the drop on three compadres, could they? It makes no sense."

Chico a.k.a. Charles nodded. "I don't think the slaves locked all these doors either. Some really weird shit went down here Uno, that's for sure."

Dennis frowned and thought again how awful this day was turning out. It wasn't until sunrise that someone finally mentioned that Santos was overdue, about the same time Chico noticed that the elevator display numbers had dropped from 024:105 to 021:104. Hell! Dennis decided to send his best muchacho runner Ricardo to investigate, and he had returned shortly after the 12:30 PM sunset with strange and horrifying news. Dennis decided he had to see for himself.

The mall was a nightmare to contemplate, kilometer after kilometer of stores with no exit in sight. At least in the other direction the mall was semi-sane, ending in a large food store called the Mex Grocer after five kilometers of stores. Dennis stared down the seemingly infinite corridor of locked stores. But this!

He had sent out scouting parties within a week of getting here. One team had traveled more than thirty kilometers on foot before turning back, obeying his orders to return within twelve hours. Unknown to them all, they had come within one kilometer of sighting the Black Mall sky bridge.

Dennis rethought his logic as he stared down the corridor. If only their cell phones were working! It would make such a difference. But they didn't, and the farther Dennis placed a checkpoint down the corridor, the longer it would take the sentries to move back and forth from their home location, and the more isolated the sentries were if they ran into trouble. Dennis saw the mistake he had made and was kicking himself mentally for his error. He should have moved the roadblock with Stan rather than let Stan take a party beyond it. Stupid! But what to do now?

They lost eight people! They went from 20 guys and 19 bitches to 17 guys and 14 bitches. And only four of the remaining bitches were women Dennis thought he could trust, women who were long-time girlfriends of the compadres. Six were pure sex slaves, in need of constant surveillance, and the remaining four he was so unsure of that they had to join the other six in the pussy barn. Yes, they had ten bitches of sweet pussy in the barn, but they needed constant guarding. What a mess.

What to do? Dennis hated the thought of splitting his group up, but it seemed unavoidable. He also hated the thought of sucking up to some bitches too, but damn it, it couldn't be helped. His group needed to maintain a home presence, and they needed to explore this mall.

Dennis turned angrily and signaled for everybody to follow him. He had the two muchachos walk behind by a hundred meters as a rear guard, and he quietly talked with Chico about the issue on the way home. Their conversation was out of audio range of the sensors, but the last outward-facing sensor did record their stroll until they walked around the bend of the spiral.

Chapter 23.

Later that evening.

Time: Tuesday, January 15, 2019 8:48 PM

At Aggie's suggestion, part of the group spent the early evening converting the second floor of Black Mall's Modern Coin Superstore into a conference room, clearing a massive wooden display table for their use and jumping in a dozen plush leather chairs from the terminal store of Green Mall, a spacious suite of meeting rooms labeled the Hilton Executive Conference Center. They were all sitting around waiting for Fatima to start the meeting. Almost everyone's eyes were on the massive table before them. The polished wood gleamed at them, and the deep reddish brown hues were very beautiful. Mark thought it might be Hawaiian Koa, assuming it was an Earth wood.

The search for the store of Yellow Mall's home complex had been a bit of a disappointment. After a bit of discussion, Mark and Jada had changed their plans and traveled there from Yellow Mall's sky-bridge rather than its terminal store. The calculated entrance to the Mall's home complex was at spiral-mark 59,326 meters, at the easternmost edge of its spiral. It was only an extra six kilometers to travel from the sky-bridge, and it gave them the opportunity to install a sensor network as they went.

The entrance to the home complex was found easily enough, along the back wall of a produce store called The Original Farmer's Market. Akiko seemed very happy to have been the one to find the secret latch shortly after 7 PM. And as expected, Yellow Brick's home complex was cold and deserted. But the real disappointment was when they opened the local library elevator.

The display was dark. It was their hypothesis that the original members of Party #6 must have explored their home complex before abandoning it. Mark, Jada, and Akiko searched the complex, hoping that some record of the access code would have been written down. But they found nothing, and after an hour of searching, they noticed the temperature of the rooms rising as the local interface cancelled the deserted status of the complex.

The group decided to continue biking to Yellow Brick's terminal location, installing the last three kilometers (four sensor pairs) of the sky-bridge sensor network and overlapping it with a new network of sixteen sensor pairs that would be based at Eastern Mountain Sports, Yellow Mall's terminal store. They managed to jump home with just a few minutes to grab a bite to eat.

Shortly after 9 PM, Fatima started their meeting in the conference center. With their work of mall lockdown now complete, the primary topic of conversation was what to do next. The discussion quickly migrated to the new knowledge they had on population profiles.

Madison was aghast. "This is more horrible than I imagined. There are seventeen insane guys at Party #5, and twenty-one guys total. So besides you Mark, there are at most three decent guys left, and what, a hundred and four women?"

Toshi spoke up. "Excuse me, but perhaps you are being too quick to condemn all the men at Party #5. I think perhaps two of the compadres would welcome the opportunity to abandon the horror they've created."

Ann looked puzzled. "Are you thinking of the Bambino? He struck me as simply timid, not truly remorseful."

Toshi shook her head. "I never interacted with Bambino. I was thinking of Chico, and perhaps his close friend Toro."

Ann shook her head in amazement. "Toro I might agree with. But Chico?! Toshi, you're being too kind."

Toshi stared back at Ann and replied, "I was raped more than anybody. It is my right to be too kind."

Fatima tried to bring the group back to the topic under discussion. "The point is that out of the original group of people who came here, we think that eight women and sixteen men have died. This is a horrific loss, and we have to think if there's anything we can do to prevent it from getting worse. Party #6, nine men and nine women, what happened to them?"

Emily frowned. "Well, from what we know now, at least six of those men must have died." She sighed. "I think I agree with Fatima. We can't wait for more daylight to start searching for them. Their lives are too precious."

Kiyoko nodded and asked, "So we're finished with the malls for now?"

"I think so. If everybody is agreeable, our next phase should be on the surface. As long as Party #5 never gets access to a working elevator, we have them boxed in. And except for their local strip, they will find the mall to be endless kilometers of absolute desert."