Locked In

It was dark by the time Eagle Scout pulls into the mall parking lot.  He drives around the mall till he reaches the area which would put him at the entrance that is nearest to the video store.  He parks in the closest parking spot that he could find, because all that he wants to do is go in get the movie and get back out as quickly as possible.  Eagle Scout gets out of his car and at a fast pace walks to the entrance and into the mall. 

Now the mall has two levels Eagle Scout enters on the lower level.  Now the video store is directly across from him, but on the second level.  So Eagle Scout turns left and heads toward the escalator.  As he gets of the escalator and approaches the video store he sees two people in the store.  One is a customer and the other is a female employee, and since the employee is helping the customer at the register Eagle Scout walks in unnoticed.

The first thing he sees when he walks in is a video rack going horizontal which is the new release section.  The walls of the room hold the DVD’s.  On the left wall are Action, and Sci-Fi / Horror.  The back wall holds Comedy, and Drama, with the stores back room in the far left corner.  The right wall is Kids, and the register counter.  The middle of the store has six vertical sections, which hold the video cassettes.  The back three racks hold, starting on the left, Sci-Fi / Horror, Comedy, Drama.  Then there is an aisle going through the middle of the store.  Then the front three racks hold, starting on the left, Action, New Releases, DVD and VHS, Documentary / Miscellaneous. 

Since the employee is busy with the customer, he decides to take a look around to see what they got.  He heads to the video section of the Sci-Fi / Horror.  Time must have slipped away, because he hears an announcement saying the mall will be closing in five minutes.  The employee must have thought the store was empty, for she was starting to count the money in her register.  Eagle Scout starts to walk up there to get the movie his cousin ordered.  But as he puts the movie he was look at back on the top shelf, about fifteen movies fall off the rack. 

“Great!  What else could possibly happen tonight?” he mumbles to himself. 

So being the type of guy he is, he crouches down to pick them up.  He’s about half way done when he hears the chimes of someone walking into the store.

             “I’m sorry, but the store is closed.  I’d have to ask you to please leave.  The mall opens at ten o’clock tomorrow, you can come back then.” the employee says without looking up from counting the money

“Oh, I don’t think I’ll be leaving just yet.” said the guy known as Number Eight.

            Then the employee looks up from the money and sees a man wearing a mall security uniform, but he is pointing a semi-automatic at her. She then back away from the money with a frighten look on her face.  She doesn’t make it far when the security guy grabs her with his left hand. She gives off a scream, and tears start flowing in her eyes

“And where do you think you’re running off to?” demands Number Eight

“Please don’t hurt me?  If you want the money take it, but leave me alone.” the employee says in a frightened voice.

“Just relax I’m not going to hurt you.  It’s not you I’m after, but they never told me I couldn’t have any fun while I’m waiting.”

            Then Number Eight lowers he semi and grabs the employee with both and starts trying to kiss her.  Even though she is trying to push him away, it’s a fight she can’t win.  But her rescue is just moments away.  For on the other side of the room the Eagle Scout sees the whole thing happening.  Since he tries to avoid these situations, he just tried to stay hidden.  But then he heard a slapping sound, as he moved to see what happened he noticed a red hand print on the employee’s face.

“When I kiss you, you will kiss me back and not fight it.  For next time I will hurt you even more!” Number Eight tells the employee

            But he didn’t even have time to try, to kiss her again.  Because while he was busy talking, Eagle Scout was crawling towards them.  He reached the video rack directly behind the bad guy, and then slowly stood up.  As he stood up his eyes caught hold of the employees. 

            She didn’t know what to think.  At first she thought great two of them and started to cry harder.  Then she saw him pushing his arms forward, and saw him mouthing something.  So she wiped some tears from her eyes, to see a little clearer.  It took a couple more seconds to get what he was saying.  When she did figure it out, she did it without a moment’s hesitation.  She summoned all of the strength she could manage, and with all of her might she shove Number 8 away from her. 

            Luckily Number Eight was unaware of what was happening.  For as he went flying back he hit the video rack and almost knocked it over.  When Eagle Scout saw this he dropped to the ground immediately and put his arms over his head hoping that the rack wouldn’t topple on top of him.  Number Eight was a little dazed and as he recovers he looks directly at the employee.  He starts walking towards her his face red and his eyes bulging in anger.

“Why you little creep.”

Was all he managed to say?  When all of a sudden the video rack came falling forward.  It hit Number Eight in the back and he went down.  He then rolled over onto his back just in time to see the rack land on top of him and knock him out cold.

With the bad guy out cold Eagle Scout drops to his knees and tries to catch his breath. He began to wonder, what the heck was going on here.  A mall security guard carrying a semi automatic something was amiss and Eagle Scout didn’t want to stand around long enough to find out what it was.  

So Eagle Scout stands up and walks behind the register to where the employee is standing.  When he reached her he saw that she is wiping the tears out of her eyes, as she begins to shake.  Now she has blond hair that goes down just below her shoulders.  Blue eyes that suck you in like a black hole, and a soft smile.  That is to say what should be a smile, but she what shaking even worse and her lips were trembling.  She was going into shock and if Eagle Scout couldn’t calm her down she would be uncooperative, and if they were both to make it out of this mall alive Eagle Scout would need her to be responsive. 

“Here let me help you to lay down.” he tries telling her.

At first see didn’t know why he wanted her to lay down.  All she knew was shaking harder and getting colder as the time passes by.

“Wwwhy ssshould I?” she manages to say through clicking teeth. 

“Because you are going into shock.” he informs her.  “And if you don’t lie down so we can get you system back under control, you’re going to lose consciousness.  And I don’t fell like carrying you out of here, whit who knows what is happening here.”

After a pause she nods her head in agreement and lies down.  When she is on the ground she sees Eagle Scout turning over a metal trash can and looks at him in confusion as he lifts her feet and places them on top of the upside down trash can.

“So can I ask what your name is?” Eagle Scout inquires.

“It’s Angie.  Yours?”

“Richard.  And don’t worry; I’ll have you out of here in no time.”  Noticing an uncertainty look on her face he whispers “Trust me.”  And he gives her a reassuring smile.

“Thank you, Richard.” was all she managed to say.         

In that moment of silence Eagle Scout heard a sound coming from the area with the unconscious man.  When he went to investigate he found the sound emitting from the head set the phony guard was wearing.            

“I hate telling you this, but someone’s going to be looking for this guy.” Eagle Scout mentioned.

She had almost gotten over her initial shock and didn’t think she would be able to control herself if more guys came rushing in here with guns only to find their buddy unconscious on the floor with two strangers hovering near the body.

“What are we going to do?” she finally had to ask.

Eagle Scout took a minute to think as he looks around the store.  He saw an unconscious body surrounded by videos and an overturned rack.  His gaze sent him looking outside the store, where at first he saw nothing.  Then it dawned on him that the other stores had their lights off and their gates locked up for the night, as oppose to this one with the gate still open and the lights blaring.

            “Where is the light switch to this store?” he rattled without taking a breath.

            Startled and wondering why she said, “The circuit breakers are in the back storage room.  Why?”

            Looking at the back wall he saw the door leading to the back room, then he look at the front gate again.  He looked back and forth between the two doors wondering how he could possible be in two places at once.  He had only on option.

“I really hate to do this, but can you move?” he asked the employee.

Still confused she took a couple of deep breaths she said, “I believe so, but only slowly I’m afraid.”

“Just move as fast as you can and turn the lights off.” he told her.

As she stood up she got a sudden dizzy spell.  Shacking out the cobwebs see saw Eagle Scout closing the store gate.  She realized now what he had planned, and as quickly as she could manage she made her way to the back room and flipped the circuits that turned the lights off.

With the store looking like it was now closed the next thing that needed to be do was to hide the unconscious body.  But before Eagle Scout hide the body he wanted to tie him up, incase he regained conscious Eagle Scout wanted to make sure he wouldn’t be able to get away and inform his buddy’s.  The only thing Eagle Scout needed was some rope so he could bind the phony security guard’s hands and feet.

             “Angie, do you have any rope?” Eagle Scout calls out.

“There might be some in the back room.  Hold on and let me check.”

A couple minutes went by when Angie reappeared out from the back room, and walked to Eagle Scout.  “Sorry no rope, but I found these box straps.”

Looking at the straps he says, “That’ll have to do.”

By being in scouts Eagle Scout knew all kinds of knots, but instead he decided to lash the bad guy’s hands and feet together. 

“I’ve never seen that done before.” Angie mentions.

“It is called lashing.” he tells her.  “It’s not a common process, but it will hold.”

With the phony guard’s hands tied behind his back, and feet securely lashed together, Eagle Scout and Angie dragged the body to the back store room.  Where Eagle Scout found some duct tape, and placed it over the guard’s mouth.

Before Eagle Scout left the back room he took the phony guards knife, and hand gun.  Then immediately takes the guys head-set and puts them on, so he can hear what these guys are up to.  Back out on the sales floor Eagle Scout grabs the semi-automatic from under a pile of videos.

            Eagle Scout heads over to the register, where Angie was counting the money, and places the semi and hand gun on top of the counter and removes the bullets from out of the weapons.

Placing the money in a bag along with the sales receipts, Angie notices Eagle Scout removing pieces from off the weapons.

“What are you doing?” she quickly question.  “Aren’t you going to use those to get us out of here?”

            “Oh, I am going to get us out of here alright, but I don’t use guns.”

After hearing his reply Angie sits on the floor, puts her head in her hand, and begins to cry again.

While Eagle Scout is disassembling the weapons, he notices some Styrofoam balls used for packing, and start jamming some of them in into the barrel of the guns. With the Styrofoam balls jammed tightly in the barrels and as he is reassembling the weapons he hears Angie mumbling to herself.

“I’m going to die I just know it.  I’ll never see my family or boyfriend again.”

            After his reassembling of the weapons he sees an orange florescent marking lying on the counter. With the marker he circles the tip of the weapons going around the chamber hole.  When he finished with the weapons, he goes around the counter and sits down next to Angie, and puts his left arm around her shoulder.

            “It’s going to be alright.” he begins.  “I promise I will get you out of here alive.” 

“That’s easy for you to say.” removing his arm from her shoulder.  “You’re not the one who had a gun pointed in your face, and was suffering from, what did you call it, SHOCK.” Angie said in a slightly angered voice.

Feeling a bit ashamed he utters, “I’m sorry I didn’t mean it to say it like that.  But the truth is I am scared too.  It’s not like I make a habit of knocking out guys who happen to have weapons everyday.  In fact, when that guys buddy’s find out he’s missing they’ll be looking for me too.  So try to relax, while I think of a way to get us out of here.”

            Having no plan of how to get out of this situation and not wanting to tell Angie that he walked over to the front gate.  He did this so he could leave Angie some time to herself.  He was primarily stalling to actually see where and how many other bad guys there were.  He knew that there was an exit across from them on the lower level, but when he looked out through the gate Eagle Scout saw his second phony security guard patrolling that area.