Public Enemy Zero

11

Mitchell reached the skylight that hung over the atrium. He wanted to walk over to it but was afraid someone would look up. He looked back where he had come from. The hatch was still closed. The sound of thumping came from under it.

He decided to chance it. He squatted low and walked toward the skylight, trying to keep his body close to the roof. Through the glass he could see an overturned kiosk near the entrance to Lord & Taylor. The ground was littered with shopping bags, candles and several shoes. Off to one side he spotted an overturned stroller. Mitchell’s cheeks flushed with guilt. He could make out tiny fists pumping at the air. Off to the other side he saw the body of an older man slumped over a broken planter.

Mitchell was afraid to look any more. He decided his best chance was to keep going all the way to the other end of the shopping mall and look for an exit there. In the distance he could hear the sound of sirens. He couldn’t tell if it was police, fire or paramedics. The safe money was on all three.

As he ran across the graveled roof, his feet made loud crunching sounds. He panicked for a moment at the thought of attracting more attention from anybody below. It was pointless to worry about that now, he realized. He had to keep moving.

He tried to keep to the center of the roof to avoid being spotted by anyone in the parking lot. Another advantage, he realized, of running to the other side of the roof was that first responders were much more likely to go to the opposite side of the mall. What would happen when armed cops and firemen with axes came into the mall? He may have been able to outmaneuver two off-guard mall cops and a middle-age meter maid. What about people with guns? Was everybody affected? He’d have to put that together later. For now he needed to avoid human contact.

Mitchell reached the end of the mall where the other anchor department store was located. It was a Sears, he thought. The parking lot below looked a quarter full on that end. He saw one or two cars pulling into spaces. Everything looked normal.

Sooner or later someone would make it to the roof. Maybe the cops arriving would be a good thing. Maybe it would be the worst thing. Mitchell wasn’t ready to find out.

He jogged along the perimeter, exposing himself to anyone who bothered to look up. It was a chance he had to take to find a way to get down. At one end, he spotted a cluster of tall trees a few feet away from the building. Should he try to jump into them and climb his way down?

When he got closer, he realized they were farther out from the building than he had thought. It was looking like a bad idea. There was no way to do it and not get hurt. He heard a bottle clink off to his right.

It sounded like it was coming from below. He walked over to the edge and peered down. There was a service dock underneath. A door shut as someone walked inside. He could smell lingering cigarette smoke. Someone had just finished a break.

Right below him was a ladder. It had a sliding section locked in the upright position. He could climb down to the lowest rung and then safely drop the rest of the way down. Probably. He looked around for any other options. There was a large open garbage crusher. He could try diving into that.

He looked at the high slimy walls and decided not to. A sound of metal hitting gravel made him jerk his head back toward the part of the mall he had just run from. Someone had just knocked the hatch clean off. People were starting to climb onto the roof and sprint toward him. They were covered in red. Fuck.

Mitchell grabbed the top of the ladder and climbed onto it. He scurried down the rusty rungs. When his feet touched air, he climbed down like monkey bars. The ground was farther away than he had hoped. It couldn’t have been more than five feet, but his mind told him it was fifty.

Legs already bent to prevent breaking them, he let go and hit the ground. He let his body keep moving and came to a stop at a full squat. Nothing felt broken or sprained. He stood up and looked around a corner. There was nobody on foot. That was a good sign, he thought.

In the distance he heard the sirens getting closer. Behind him he heard the rumble of hundreds of feet running across gravel. The sound of screaming was growing louder.

Out in the parking lot, he saw a blue sedan looking for a parking spot close to the mall. Mitchell wanted to get as far away from there as possible. Preferably on foot. Maybe he could flag them down.

He ran into the parking lot waving his hands in the air. He headed toward the car. The driver, an elderly woman, put on the brakes.

Mitchell ran to the driver’s side window. She rolled it down. Mitchell started to speak. The woman let out a scream. At first he thought it was at him, but she was looking past him. Hundreds of people were on the roof looking down at him. Some of them were falling as others tried to push themselves to the front. Oh god, thought Mitchell. The sound of bodies hitting pavement echoed from the loading dock.

The woman let out another scream. Mitchell felt something claw at his arm. The little old red-headed woman was trying to climb out her window to get at him, but her seat belt was holding her in. The car moved forward slowly as she took her foot off the brake pedal.

He needed her car. Mitchell reached down and opened her door. She tried to bite him but ended up hitting her chin on the metal door as he yanked it open. She was stunned for a moment.

Keeping pace with the rolling car, he reached over and undid her seat belt. She tried to bite him again but her head hit the horn instead. Her small hands tried to claw at his arm.

As gently as he could, he pulled the tiny woman from the car. He tried not to look behind him as he heard the horrible sound of bodies hitting the pavement. When he had the woman clear of the car, he ran back to the rolling vehicle before it crashed into a parked pickup truck.

He forced himself into the small space between the seat and the wheel. He shut the door and hit the lock as his foot hit the brake. The small woman ran to the window and pounded her fists against the glass. One of her rings clicked like a dagger on ice every time it hit. Mitchell found the button to move the seat back so his chest and knees could clear the steering wheel.

He stepped on the accelerator before the woman could break the window. The car was still pointed toward the mall. As he turned around a row of cars, he saw another body fall off the roof. He headed out of the parking lot and avoided every impulse to look in the rearview mirror.

In front of him he saw a fire truck race around the perimeter of the mall toward the first department store. Several police cars were behind it. Every impulse wanted to step on the accelerator and speed away as fast as possible. The sirens and flashing lights told him otherwise. He needed not to look like he was fleeing the scene of the crime. He fastened his seat belt and tried to focus on what he needed to do next, not on the fact that along with everything else that had happened that day, he’d just committed a carjacking.