Free The Mall by Bryant Delafosse

button.
    “ The Elf needs food badly!” the game’s synthesized voice urgently advised.
    “Just get over here and give me a hand,” Jesse yelled, his finger a blur as he blasted monsters with his arrows.
    They had been playing Gauntlet for a good part of the night after leaving the CD store.   When they’d first come into the Di-lithium Mine arcade it had been crowded with the late night crowd of teenagers.   Now there were less than ten people left.
    “ The Elf is about to die !”
    “C’mon, use your magic!”
    “It’s not going to help, Jess,” Chance muttered, slapping the magic button with his palm.   All the monsters surrounding him disintegrated, but it did little good for the starving Elf.
    Questor the Elf disappeared in a flash of light.   Jesse pounded the side game with his fist and bellowed in frustration.   “Let’s blow this place!” he growled, grabbing his skateboard from where it leaned against the wall and tossing the other at Chance’s feet.
    “I just zeroed out my card to stay in the game,” Chance protested.   The moment he stepped away from the joystick some other kid that looked to be about ten slipped in and took over.   What were kids that young doing out this late, anyway, Chance wondered?   Could there possibly be parents in this world more incompetent than his own ?
    Jesse dropped his board to the floor just outside the arcade and stepped onto it, riding it casually up the nearly empty yellow coded corridor.
    “Dude, I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Chance warned, glancing back down the corridor.   “What if fat ass is still around?”
    “Are you kidding me,” Jesse sneered.   “He won’t bother us again.   He’s too busy hassling some little old lady in the red zone on the other side of the Mall.”   He leapt off his board.   Managing to keep the same pace, he snatched the board from the floor and tucked it beneath his arm.
    “Don’t you think we should head to Dickie’s?   He’s probably wondering where we are by now.”
    “What happened to spending the night in the Mall?”
    “I said that on a goof, dude.   Like when you said you wish somebody’d shoot President Connally.   You weren’t serious either.”
    “Shit yeah, I was serious,” Jesse chuckled.   “Hell, I think spending the night here is the least lame idea you’ve ever had.   A lot better than staying at Dickie’s.”
    “What if my folks call his house?”

    “He’s got just enough sense to cover for us.   C’mon, I’ve got something I want to show you.”   With that pronouncement, Jesse pressed the buds dangling from around his neck into his ears and hit play on his CD player.   U-2’s “I Will Follow,” drown out the words of protest Chance uttered.

13
     
    With misgivings and alarm bells going off all through her head, Lara fed fifteen of her last remaining twenty-six dollars into the vending machine just inside the theater entrance and received a debit card back, newly embossed with the Mall of the Nation logo.   Directly next to this machine was an automated ticket vender and a flashy digital marquee.
    Owen and Cora stood before the massive marquee, reading a scrolling list of the thirty some movies currently showing.
    “ Goonies ,” Cora cried.
    “No way, Smeagol, you already saw that one!”
    “I want to see it again.”
    “Thirty movies to choose from and you want to see the only one you’ve already seen?” Owen scoffed.   “I want to see Explorers .   I hear they build a spaceship in their backyard.”
    “Judging from the show times, it looks like we’re going to have to see this Back to the Future thing.”
      “Currently number one at the box office and very popular with all age groups,” the theater’s patron liaison Bot interjected.   There were a total of fifteen Bots assigned to the theater, one for every two auditoriums, each one with the fluorescent yellow strips bearing the name and logo of Cine-Verse, the theater chain, all