29
Sarabeth’s scream ripped through the mall, making a beeline for Teena. Teena shot up off the floral bedspread where she’d been curled up. She ran through the store, doom pressing down on her.
Though it took her just seconds to reach their camp in the outdoor furniture section, Leo was already tearing out of the store. He must have tripped over the Crock-Pot of candles, because a rainbow of wax had congealed on the floor. At least nothing was on fire. Evan was steps behind him, baseball bat in hand, not even looking back for Teena, just racing out into the mall corridor to find Sarabeth.
Normally, this show of emotion for someone other than her would have irritated Teena, but right now, she couldn’t have cared less. She had been jealous of Sarabeth, yes. She’d wished she was gone, yes. But in the last couple hours, since Evan had taken her down a notch, she’d realized Sarabeth wasn’t the problem. She was.
“What the fuck?” she huffed, her heart still skittering madly in her chest as she caught up to Leo, running alongside him. They clipped past Gloria Jean’s, Claire’s, and GameStop. Leo looked straight ahead, his face pale and panicked. She looked over her shoulder for more aliens. The mall seemed as empty as when they’d arrived. “Why weren’t you with her?”
Leo was a ghost. He stared blankly, like all his words had left him.
“Where was she going?” Evan asked, matching Leo’s long strides. He avoided Teena’s eyes. She was avoiding his, too, but out of shame, not anger. She’d used him, and he didn’t deserve it. At least there was no time to make heartfelt apologies. She didn’t know what to say anyway.
“Where did she go, Leo? Did you piss her off?” Her breath came out fast, and her heart vibrated in her chest.
“No,” he croaked. “She went to the bathroom.” He turned down the corridor that led to the restrooms. The hallway was lined with posters for store sales and new movies. Except for the eerie and dark quiet, it almost looked like life was going on as usual.
Leo slammed open the door for the women’s restroom. Empty. Teena’s stomach rose and dropped as the door shut behind them. They checked every stall twice and then they checked the stalls of the men’s room with the same frantic energy.
“Maybe she’s in the mall,” Evan said to Leo. “Maybe she ran.”
The guys took off back down the corridor, yelling Sarabeth’s name. Teena hung back, looking for clues. In the rush to find Sarabeth, they’d forgotten flashlights, but Teena’s eyes had adjusted, and some moonlight still filtered in through the mall skylights. There were no overt signs of a struggle. Actually, there were no signs Sarabeth had been here at all. Teena checked the women’s restroom for the third time, stall by stall as if she could have missed something. Nothing. She turned to go find the guys. Before she got to the door, she skidded across the floor, landing on her butt in a puddle of something that felt like salad dressing and smelled like coffee.
Dread pulsed through her. Okay, they’d definitely been here. She stayed on the floor, crawling to follow the trail of slime. I must really like Sarabeth if I’m on hands and knees on the floor of a public restroom, she thought. The trail led to an employee exit door that took her to the parking lot. But that was all she could see. She could hazard a guess that once outside, the aliens had used their jet packs.
As she got back inside, Leo and Evan were still calling for Sarabeth. She ran in the direction of their voices and found them each standing at opposite ends of the decorative fountain, hollering and craning their necks in search of Sarabeth. They both looked as hopeless as she felt.
“They got her,” Teena said. “I found a trail of slime leading out the door.”
“Why did they go without the rest of us?” Leo asked, seeming angry that he hadn’t been taken.
“Maybe they knew she was our best hope of surviving, and her boyfriend just let her take off unattended,” Teena said, surprised it didn’t sting to call Leo Sarabeth’s boyfriend. “I knew we should have gone straight to the ship.”
“Gee, thanks, Teena. I wouldn’t have realized what an asshole I was without your help,” Leo said. His hair was a mess, and he looked older without his mouth drawn up in its usual smirk. “I get it. I’m a fuck-up, case closed.”
“Leave it alone, Teena,” Evan said in a low, cold voice. “It happened. There’s no going back now.”
He still wouldn’t look at her. Teena held in the tears that wanted to emerge. She didn’t have anything to say in response. This was worse than being rejected by Leo or taken to task by Evan. It felt like they didn’t even want her there.
She wanted to snap necks and bust heads and shoot the shit out of something.
This whole ordeal was just too much to take. But she needed to be more than angry. She wanted to take the higher ground for a change, not just carry out revenge for her own purposes. So she said, in what she hoped was an inspiring voice, “No, but we can go forward.”
“I know,” Leo said, turning his back on her and heading to the employee exit.
“Where are you going?” Teena asked, feeling bad that she’d blamed him. It wasn’t really his fault. They hadn’t been prepared, and they had needed the rest.
“Isn’t it obvious? To the ship, to save Sarabeth,” Evan said as he followed at Leo’s heels. His tone was matter-of-fact, and cold.
“You can’t just go. You’re not ready.” Teena ran out in front of them.
Leo rolled his eyes. “You would say that. You hate her, anyway.”
“I don’t hate her,” Teena said, knowing it was true. “I want us to save her. But we can’t if we die.”
“Fuck, two seconds ago you were blaming me for not going straight to the ship,” Leo said. “And now, when it’s more important than ever for us to get there, you want me to hang out at the mall a little longer?”
“I’m sorry for what I said. But you weren’t totally wrong last night,” Teena said, desperation coating her words. She tried to connect with Leo, so he’d see her motives were true. “We can’t just storm in unarmed, like you said. We probably should have spent the last night preparing, but all of us were having fun, not just you. I don’t regret anything that happened.” She gave Evan a meaningful look. It had been a good kiss. If only she hadn’t cut it short.
“Fun’s over,” Leo said. “I’m going. Evan, you with me?”
“Absolutely,” Evan said. Teena was still on his list of regrets, clearly. “I don’t want to stay here, that’s for sure.” He practically hurled the remark at her like one of his fastballs.
“No,” Teena said definitively. “We split up and gather supplies in the mall. A half hour, tops. You know I’m right. We wouldn’t have taken down the perimeter without our Toys“R”Us trip.”
Teena crossed her arms over her chest. He didn’t like listening to her, but she could tell Leo knew there was some truth to what she was saying.
“Fine, then fifteen. You guys can help or not,” she said. “Just so you know, I can do a lot in this mall in fifteen minutes.”