Wal-Mart People

Have you been to Walmart late at night? Who has not?

Everyone loves to turn on all the radios as loud as they can and mess with the toys on display that make noise.

My friends and I loved doing that shit as teenagers. It was our sole goal that at around midnight, we would go in when nobody was there and just trash the place, then run and hide to watch the workers scramble to fix it all.

Well, a lot of us still did this even into adulthood, yeah, I know, real mature, right?

Nothing bad happened or ever got broken, just a fun game of fuck with the Wal-Mart people.

It was not until we were in our late twenties and started getting married or having families that we finally stopped; one of us even got a job at Wal-Mart, ironically enough. (laugh)

I even had a boyfriend now, and we both shared a love of pranks.

When I told him my old stories of what I used to do, he loved them and wanted to try them.

I saw no harm in it; we just had to be way more careful because of the new-age bullshit.

Everything changed after we were kids at Wal-Mart...

They had stepped up security and had a shit ton of cameras now and more workers.

The workers followed you around; it seemed almost, or maybe they just had so many in the store, it just seemed like it.

I mean, everywhere we went, there was a worker, and they’d be watching you...

There was one section I noticed that never seemed to have a single worker at any time: the electronics.

They replaced the radios with iPods and all the new high-tech crap, which eliminated the fun.

The stuff was on wires, on display, or behind glass now.

Hell, even the toy section was barren of fun!

The toys that you could push to make noise never did; we just assumed someone beat us to it and drained the battery already.

Every night we went there at midnight when it was dead and always found nothing to do for fun.

My boyfriend asked one night. “Hey, don’t you have an old friend who works at Walmart now?”

I laughed. “Yeah, that is right, I forgot.”

My boyfriend looked at me oddly.

“How do you forget something like that?” He laughed.

As he laughed and looked around the store, it occurred to me that I had never seen my friend here at night... hell, I’d never seen him.

We went to the laptops and clicked around on them for a bit.

Nothing ever new... always the same pictures and bullshit they had loaded on them.

“Wish they would provide even a bit of web access; now that would be cool.” My boyfriend said and started messing with the laptop behind me.

“Yeah, that would be fun.” I chuckled.

My boyfriend came up behind me, wrapped his arms around me, and got his lips close to my ear and whispered.

“They may not have that now, but maybe they will tomorrow as a special feature.” He whispered and let me go.

I turned to see an evil grin on his face of pure mischief.

“Ok, Mr. Loki, what is your plan?” I grinned back.

He looked around quickly, then grabbed my hand and ran us out of the store all the way to our car.

As we panted, he started the car, and we sped off.

“What the hell did you do?” I said in a sort of shock.

He grinned.

“Let’s get up early tomorrow to watch the news; it will be worth it. I’ll even make you breakfast... just call your buddy who works there and make sure he works tomorrow.” He said in a low tone.

“Okay...” I said, a bit confused.

“Trust me, babe, this will be epic.” He grinned from ear to ear.

I hadn’t seen him so worked up about something.

He had lived a really sheltered life and didn’t get to go out and have much fun, so this was probably just an adrenaline rush to him... but what did he do?

He told me to watch the news, and he’d make ME breakfast.... I began to feel a little on edge.

We got home to our apartment, and he tossed me my cell.

“Call him.” He said and went to our room and closed the door and locked it.

The uneasy feeling was growing deeper now as I looked down at my cell.

I had a missed call from an unknown number... nobody knew my number but a small handful, and it was private because of my job.

I checked for a voicemail and sure enough, there was one.

I hit play on it and listened closely...

At first, there was nothing but silence, then after a second, I heard muffled breathing on the other end.

“You’re not the first to try this...” the voice said and then hung up.

A prank caller...how? My number was unknown! I only received work-related calls, which made me upset!

My boyfriend couldn’t even call me on this line; only coworkers or my boss could.

It had to be a co-worker in on this bullshit prank with my boyfriend; I said to myself... but I knew better; I knew that wasn’t possible.

My line of work was... not the usual job people got. No, mine was private for a damn good reason, and so was my number.

“Have you called yet!” my boyfriend yelled out, startling me.

“No... not yet, I had something happen, but I’ll call him now.” I stammered out.

He just shut the door again and relocked it as before.

I went to my home phone and picked it up because my cell was only to be used for work...

I turned to the bedroom door.

My boyfriend knows I can’t use my cell unless it’s work-related, so why even toss it to me?

An unsettling feeling crept up my stomach.

I dialed my friend on the home phone; it rang three times, then he picked up.

“What do you want?” he said roughly.

“Hey, to you too, jeez.” I started, but he cut me off.

“I hope you’re fucking happy, you dumb bitch, why don’t you grow the fuck up already!” He yelled and hung up.

I tried to call back to ask what the hell that was about, but he had blocked my number.

I left a voicemail.

“Hey, I was told to call you from my boyfriend... he did something at the Wal-Mart tonight and I don’t know what, and he is acting weird and told me to call you and make sure you’re working tomorrow and watch the news...”

The phone died, and the lights went out....

I looked at my bedroom door and heard it creak open slowly.

“Alex?” I called out uneasily into the darkness.

I heard slow footsteps coming towards me.

I stepped back and ran for my front door, bolted out of it, and into my car and sped off as fast as I could.

I pulled out my cell and called my boss.

“Hello..” the man began, as always.

“I’m Agent twelve; I need Big Red now!” I yelled.

“Patching through.” He said.

I waited for the ringing and noticed I was about to cross the Walmart.

I turned in sharply.

“This is Big Red. What is going on, twelve?” My boss said.

“My number has been compromised. I got a prank caller or maybe something worse, Sir.” I said frantically.

“Be calm, twelve, let me check the records; hold on.” He said and put me on hold.

I opened my secret spot under my seat and drew out my pistol.

I placed my thigh blades on me and went towards the store.

The uneasy feeling in my stomach lurched more now.

I put my gun behind my back under my shirt and made my way to the door.

I saw the cameras were off, and it was dark inside the store... but it was a twenty-four-seven store.

“Twelve, are you there!” I heard my boss say in a horrified tone.

“Yes, Sir!” I said as calmly as I could.

“Do you remember that serial killer a few months back we lost at the local Wal-Mart?” He said in a rushed tone.

“Yes, Sir, the one that we never found from a few states over?” I asked, confused.

“Yes, that one... twelve... I have a clear ID from your records that...”

I heard a loud bang and then a muffled cry and another bang.

“Sir?...” I muttered out.

I heard my boss gasp, followed by the sound of the phone falling to the floor, then someone new spoke up.

“So you’re twelve, huh?” The same voice that was on my cell.

“WHO THE FUCK IS THIS?!” I yelled.

“Don’t you know?” The voice said sadly.

“No, I don’t fucking know! What did you do to my boss?!” I growled.

“Oh, he’s... around... why don’t you come in; I promise we won’t be here when you arrive; we have others to deal with, after all, you’re twelve and there are eleven more you know.” The voice said and hung up.

I looked at the closed store and said, fuck it and ran back to my car.

I started the car and drove off towards my work as fast as I could.

Who was behind this, and was Red okay?

What the fuck was going on!!!

So many questions were going through my head, and all the while, I almost forgot all about my boyfriend and how he tossed my cell to me.

Maybe this was part of his plan, but then again, no, it wasn’t possible; he couldn’t know anything.

I kept my work private even from him, but he was acting funny and was pushing the pranks and was all week pushing to hear about every story of every prank I ever pulled and of everyone involved...

I couldn’t understand this fucked up situation!

I slammed on my brakes as I reached the gates to my work building...it was on fire.

I dashed out of my car, gun in hand now, and eyes zooming all over the area.

The main door was wide open, and on the wall, scribbled in blood, was a message....”Welcome Twelve”

I stepped inside, and my stomach dropped at the sight.

The lobby had bodies scattered all over, but all were hanging up like puppets...

Their bodies formed different shapes, almost like letters...

“Oh, holy fuck!” I muttered in horror as I made out the form; it read... Agent One.

The last body’s hand pointed to the copy room.

I walked in, gun ready to fire, and looked around the corner slowly.

The room was dark; I flipped on the light, and as soon as I did, I threw up.

Agent One was super-glued to the copy machine bare ass.

His left hand fingers adhered to the copy button while his other fingers adhered to the shredder.

His legs stretched out as far as they could and looked like they’d been pulled out of their sockets to reach their resting spots.

One was on a trash can; the other on the desk... Someone had mutilated his face. They had stuffed his mouth full of sticky notes, broken his nose, and his eyes... looked scooped out with a spoon...

The overhead light above swayed back and forth, and I reached up to grab it but yanked my hand back quickly, seeing on the string his missing eyes.

The eyes were fixated on the next room, his bathroom’s cold, tiled floor visible through the doorway.

I got my bearings and went forth.

I pushed the door open, and I held my mouth at the sight... his family, his whole damn family was there!

His wife’s decapitated head had her mouth glued to a smile, and her hand pointed up at the ceiling.

Blood dripped from the ceiling, and I looked up, scared to death, at what I would see...

Slowly, I looked up and from above hung his daughter... she was maybe three years old and had faced her mother’s fate too. She had a teddy bear glued to one arm, and the other arm pointed at the shower.

Her throat was slit, and the blood dripped down slowly...

“I promise I’ll kill the person who did this, I promise you!” I whispered.

I moved to the shower and pulled back the curtain, which revealed his dog.

Someone ripped the poor dog open, pulled out its guts, and scribbled a message in blood on the wall.

“November 10th, 1999, midnight, super glue, operation dipshits.”

I felt my whole body go stiff and blood run cold...

I remembered that night; my old gang had super-glued the staff room toilets and printed photos of our asses and glued them all over the place in the office room at Wal-Mart...

It hit me that there were twelve agents; me being the last, and if my hunch here was right, the next eleven agents would have died of the other big pranks we’ve done over the years...

The serial killer that got away, we never did see his face...could this be him, and even then, how could he have known about this?!

Or known about any of this?!...wait, what if my boyfriend...what if it was him!

The way he wanted details and the odd way he acted and everything up till now, and the gang, and he are the only ones who knew we were the pranksters of those events!

It had to be my boyfriend, it made sense, but why...how...

Why the innocents, why kill children?!

Anger was now taking over the fear.

I had to keep going. I did fear what I would see next, but I had to keep going.

I had to keep going and find out who did this and kill the son of a bitch!