its way forward. When he turned off the iPad, for the first time he got a look at the time. For some reason he thought it was almost nightfall. It was only 1 p.m. He’d left the mall just a little over an hour before. He’d left his car and the mess at Rachel’s less than twenty minutes before he got to the mall.
He had been on the run for less than two hours. All hell was going to break loose very soon and a lot of angry people were going to be looking for him. However, he still had time to get more distance. He had time to find out what the rest of the world was saying.
Mitch shoved the iPad back in his backpack. He sat down with his back against the front door so he could listen to the street outside while keeping an eye on the backyard through the sliding glass doors. He pulled out an analog radio he kept tuned to the radio station and turned it on.
18
Mitch pushed one earbud into his ear. He left the other one open to listen for anything suspicious. He half expected the station to have switched over to a full-time talk format dealing with the mall events like they did on 9/11. Thankfully, no. The station was playing its normal afternoon lunchtime mix of ‘80s pop. For a moment, Mitchell felt a sense of calm from the normalcy of it. New Order’s “Blue Monday” was playing. He listened to the song a little bit longer than a man on the run should have, but he could feel his heart stop beating so fast.
He flipped the dial over to AM and went to a local news station. In his mind he expected to hear someone say “... in other news” and then go right to talking about the mall. But they didn’t. It was a car commercial. Then a commercial for a life insurance company. Then a commercial for an accident attorney. I bet that guy has a boner right now, thought Mitch.
Finally the station’s afternoon newsreader came on.
“ We’ve got an update on the incident at Park Square Mall. The fire department has said that it wasn’t a fire that caused the evacuation.”
Evacuation. That’s what they were calling it right now?
“ We’re getting more reports that a riot took place inside the mall and led to a chase of the person who instigated it.”
Was that a riot or an attempted massacre? Instigator? They didn’t understand.
“ Although official numbers haven’t been released, news helicopters on the scene have spotted what look like at least six bodies on the outside of the mall. It’s not clear yet if they fell from the roof as some people reported or if they were injured inside the mall or outside in some other manner.”
Six bodies. And that was just on the outside. He’d heard the sounds behind him as he ran. He knew a lot more people were hurt than that. Seven? Ten? Twenty? Lots of people died because he ran. Mitchell’s knuckles were beginning to whiten as he squeezed the radio. He switched hands before he cracked the plastic.
Should he have just stayed there in the food court? If he had known then what he knew now, would he have just sat there and let them get him? Part of him thought that would have been the moral thing to do. Sacrifice himself so that other people wouldn’t be hurt.
He thought about the bloodshot eyes looking at him in the food court. The horrific way people stretched their hands out at him and bared their teeth. The shrill screams. The rage.
Could he have sat still for that? It was one thing to put on a blindfold and take a bullet or to have a doctor administer a lethal dose. Those things were quick. What would it be like to be scratched and bitten until you lost so much blood your heart gave out? He knew the crowd wouldn’t have wasted any time killing him, but it would have been an agonizing death.
No matter the moral calculation of his pain versus those of others, nothing could make him want to go down like that. He’d die for someone else but not like that. Not that way.
The newsreader was still talking.
“ Police have told us that they’ll be making a
He had been on the run for less than two hours. All hell was going to break loose very soon and a lot of angry people were going to be looking for him. However, he still had time to get more distance. He had time to find out what the rest of the world was saying.
Mitch shoved the iPad back in his backpack. He sat down with his back against the front door so he could listen to the street outside while keeping an eye on the backyard through the sliding glass doors. He pulled out an analog radio he kept tuned to the radio station and turned it on.
18
Mitch pushed one earbud into his ear. He left the other one open to listen for anything suspicious. He half expected the station to have switched over to a full-time talk format dealing with the mall events like they did on 9/11. Thankfully, no. The station was playing its normal afternoon lunchtime mix of ‘80s pop. For a moment, Mitchell felt a sense of calm from the normalcy of it. New Order’s “Blue Monday” was playing. He listened to the song a little bit longer than a man on the run should have, but he could feel his heart stop beating so fast.
He flipped the dial over to AM and went to a local news station. In his mind he expected to hear someone say “... in other news” and then go right to talking about the mall. But they didn’t. It was a car commercial. Then a commercial for a life insurance company. Then a commercial for an accident attorney. I bet that guy has a boner right now, thought Mitch.
Finally the station’s afternoon newsreader came on.
“ We’ve got an update on the incident at Park Square Mall. The fire department has said that it wasn’t a fire that caused the evacuation.”
Evacuation. That’s what they were calling it right now?
“ We’re getting more reports that a riot took place inside the mall and led to a chase of the person who instigated it.”
Was that a riot or an attempted massacre? Instigator? They didn’t understand.
“ Although official numbers haven’t been released, news helicopters on the scene have spotted what look like at least six bodies on the outside of the mall. It’s not clear yet if they fell from the roof as some people reported or if they were injured inside the mall or outside in some other manner.”
Six bodies. And that was just on the outside. He’d heard the sounds behind him as he ran. He knew a lot more people were hurt than that. Seven? Ten? Twenty? Lots of people died because he ran. Mitchell’s knuckles were beginning to whiten as he squeezed the radio. He switched hands before he cracked the plastic.
Should he have just stayed there in the food court? If he had known then what he knew now, would he have just sat there and let them get him? Part of him thought that would have been the moral thing to do. Sacrifice himself so that other people wouldn’t be hurt.
He thought about the bloodshot eyes looking at him in the food court. The horrific way people stretched their hands out at him and bared their teeth. The shrill screams. The rage.
Could he have sat still for that? It was one thing to put on a blindfold and take a bullet or to have a doctor administer a lethal dose. Those things were quick. What would it be like to be scratched and bitten until you lost so much blood your heart gave out? He knew the crowd wouldn’t have wasted any time killing him, but it would have been an agonizing death.
No matter the moral calculation of his pain versus those of others, nothing could make him want to go down like that. He’d die for someone else but not like that. Not that way.
The newsreader was still talking.
“ Police have told us that they’ll be making a
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