Taking Life Seriously

-16-

 

There was a noise of a wet thing tearing and the alarm squealed. 

They ran then, all twenty six of them, Martin lagging behind because of the weight of Aileen Anders who was slung over his shoulders like a silicone mannequin. And then they were knocking on the stock room's metal door, furious, helpless, panicking. 

In their minds they could see those things coming, thousands of them, with laser guns and tinfoil suits, and teeth. In their minds they all had teeth.

They knocked, they begged, they prayed to be let in. 

'Please someone, anyone, anyone, oh god, anyone, open the door.' But no one answered. 

They screamed at the door, at each other, at their gods, but the gods were out that day surfing on the emerald beaches of some distant world and no one heard their promises to be better people, and to go to church every Sunday, and be kinder to their dear old mommies.

'Shit! Shit! Shit!' said Dean. 

'What now?' asked Anita.

'They're in there,' said Gordon. 'We have to get them to open the door.'

'The bastards!' said Dylan.

'No, wait, wait, they can't hear us,' said Martin panting. 'It's a fortified door, it's sound proof.'

'Ah right,' said Dean, 'you can't hear shit in there when the door's closed, that's how Donovan busted us when Anita was going down..'

'Dean!' Anita cut him off.

'Shit, sorry, babe.'

'Dumbass,' said Anita.

'In the stock room? Seriously?' asked Rajesh.

Dean shrugged and smiled.

'Ewww, I touch those boxes every day, you deviant. I swear if I touched a box that had any contact with your naked ass I will...'

'Never mind all that now,' said Gordon. 'We have to try and get hold of them.'

'The intercom,' said Martin.

The pack all looked at him. 

Dylan said, 'Fuck.'

The Savemore was built in 1978 by Switch Construction in coordination with the now defunct Everlasting Holdings Ltd.  It's total size in squared meters is 7530. It has an entrance atrium with an information and cellular telephone stand and behind it are 56 aisles, which since 2002 are organised alphabetically. 

There is a separate electronics and music store to the left of the supermarket. In the front are 24 check out tills, three of which are cash only. To the right of the store are the fitness, clothing and outdoors sections. There are two toilets. One is behind aisle 23 and the other behind aisle 50. The entrance to the employee section is behind the outdoors section, and is a long corridor which splits off to a T section, with the loading bay exit on the right. On the left are management offices, the control room, the employee lounge, a locker room, staff toilets and the stock room. In case of emergency the corridor functions as a fire exit and escape hatch. There was an intercom in the management office, but it had been broken on Friday evening by a malicious janitor that had been fired by Rogers for inappropriate use of a mop.

The only other intercom was at the information stand.

Dylan said: 'Fuck,' again.