Yet another gorgeous day, despite it being the tail end of fall, for South Dakota, truly astounding weather. The trees, still with plenty of golden to red to brown leafs. The streets, a buzz with people in large town Rapid City. A beautiful city, large full of life, not just the inhabitants. Traffic, despite there being a fair amount, was moving quite smoothly.
To the northern part of the city, a large mall known as Rushmore, at which there were several buses pulled up, all from varying school districts, including one in particular that holds its own special place…
-
“Ellie, like, hurry up girl, we don’t have all day ya know, we need to check the next store.”
“Er, you guys go on without me, I want to look around a bit yet. Shoes aren’t really my thing anyway.”
“Whatever girl, haha.”
Walking away a group of five, leaving young Ellie to herself inside the mall in front of winter jackets, though when looking around, it became clear her gaze was not resting upon the jackets. Taking a step back and a turn right, she’d then move towards the exit, off to another entrance, this time to a small new bookstore called Books and Beyond.
Right inside, a set of book stands in the back easily visible with a sign card above titled Manga. With nothing more than a slight smile she’d walk right in, looking up and down as she went in at the many different books, first the non-fiction, then fiction, teen fiction, fantasy, a decent very diverse selection. Off to the side though, one that quickly caught her eye, titled The Glass Room, “[Whoa, looks like a total Saw rip off on the cover.]”
Off in the corner of her eye though, another sight, Dustin himself in the back also checking out the books in the fantasy section. A slight smirk crossing her face before nothing as her gaze would drift back to the books, picking up one. “[Warriors? Looks like a cat thing...]”
“That’s a good one kid,” came a voice which caught her attention and also made Dustin look up. As she turned she’d lay her eyes upon a worker, dressed in black with a name tag, his name being Greg Varpkin.
“Oh uh, is it really?”
“Why yes, an exceptional series by Erin Hunter. It’s also on our forty percent off bonus for the store’s opening.”
“Perfect, I’ll give it a look through and perhaps give it a try.”
“Awesome. Can I help you with anything else today?”
“Oh no, I should be good for right now.”
“I’ll be up front then when you’re ready.”
Foot steps growing distant as he’d walk, letting Ellie return to her thoughts turning back to see if that had alerted Dustin, who was now gone though not too far off, turning to see another book in the series titled River of Fire although he was also soon stopped by the worker, “Oh, Warriors?”
“Uh yes… it’s actually something that inspired a friend of mine to write.”
“Really? Well not too surprising, it’s a great series. Any chance your friend’s work would be in here?”
“No he uh, doesn’t go through traditional publishers. I have a copy here actually.”
Reaching into his bag, he’d pull out a book by the title of Midnight: Book One- Dawn.
“Oh? Amazon publishing eh?”
“Yes… it’s a pretty good story though.”
“I’ll have to look it up.”
“Hey uh, any chance I could give that a read on the way back?”
Both the worker and Dustin turned to face Ellie who would be approaching.
“Uh… sure… so long as you don’t do anything to it.”
“I’ll be careful.”
“I take it you’re both here with one of the schools? Not a lot of kids around here enjoy books anymore, I’m kinda surprised.”
“It beats this hellhole we live in buddy,” Dustin replied back.
“Ha, that it does. I didn’t leave my house for a month after my wife left me, all I did then was read.”
“Mmm… I do it because I keep moving around with my parents. I was born a New Yorker, then I went to North Carolina, Michigan for awhile, Kansas, Utah, Montana, North Dakota, now here in South Dakota.”
“Sounds rough,” the worker then replied.
“Yeah it is but-”
The whole room in an instant rocked, books falling off the shelves and many tipping over, a blast going off, fire and smoke climbing high in the middle of the mall which was visible from this store. Ceiling fans wobbling and then falling, the worker fell quick over onto his back, yelping as he flipped and quickly began to crawl and then bolt.
Ellie, stumbling backwards and then forward, a shelf of books falling over right atop her though no crash. Looking up to see a pair of legs, hearing grunting, then quickly rolling away to see Dustin holding the shelf up until she was clear, then the crash as he also fell back.
“What’s going on!?”
Shouting could be heard, both rushing to the doorway looking out, security officials rushing by, one stopping right in front.
“You kids stay here, there’s been some sort of explosion.”
“Clearly!”
“Come on man,” another shouted, “A call just came in, it was some guy with a backpack that was the center of the blast!”
“Terrorists,” Dustin would growl.
The security officials then ran quick, leaving Ellie and Dustin alone, Dustin shaking with clear rage on his face, “Damn this ignorant world, why the hell… why the hell does this have to happen!?”
ns 172.71.254.239da2
and then Add to home screen.