Psychos' Stories

Alice Hudson skipped along Willamette mall. She was holding hands with her grandfather Cliff. His gruff face turned caring and soft when he saw his granddaughter's beautiful smile. Alice loved spending time with her grandfather. He was in the Vietnam War and frequently talked about it. He was proud about it, but sometimes got sad while telling his stories. But Alice wanted to see him happy, and it made them both happy to go to the mall. Alice loved it there. She thought it was really fun. She especially liked the Space Ride in Wonderland Plaza. Her grandfather was friends with many people there, like Cletus the gun-shop owner. Cliff liked to visit the gun shop. Even if Alice was with him, he still visited.

"Alice honey, do you want to go to the Huntin' Shack with me today and see Cletus." He said.

"Okay grandpa." She replied. Alice liked Cletus; he was always so funny around her. He always made jokes and gave her candy from his special jar that he kept from the customers.

The North Plaza was under construction and many of the stores were empty. When Alice and Cliff reached the Huntin' Shack, Alice noticed there were 3 men she had never seen before there admiring the sniper rifles.

"Hey, Cletus." Cliff said as he entered.

"Well if it isn't my favorite customer, and her grandfather." He replied sarcastically.

"You're really funny Cletus, who're these guys." The man in the Orange vest spoke up.

"My name's Roger Hall, these are my sons Jack and Thomas. We're hunters from a few towns over. We heard that the best hunting store in the state was up here in the Willamette Mall. So far, Cletus is living up to that expectation."

"Well, let me be the first to welcome you to Willamette, Colorado. My name's Cliff Hudson, and this is my granddaughter Alice." Thomas took interest. He liked kids. He got along great with them.

"Hello Alice, I'm Thomas. How old are you?"

"I'm seven years old."

"Do you like magic Alice?"

"Yes, I love magic." Thomas took a bullet from an ammo box on the counter. He put it in his right palm and closed his fist. He waved his left hand over his fist and opened it to reveal an empty palm.

"You're paying for that you know." Cletus chimed in.

"I'll bring it back, don't worry. Alice, check your left pocket." She did just that. There was the bullet. She gave it back to Thomas, who put it back in the ammo box.

"Wow! Cool trick!" she exclaimed. The whole time, Cliff was over looking at the handguns. Suddenly, he remembered something from earlier.

"Oh, Alice I forgot. We have to go to the Seon's Food & Stuff to pick-up some things for your mother."

"Okay grandpa, bye Thomas!" she said.

"See you Cletus. It was nice meeting you Roger, Jack, Thomas."

"See you later." They all said. Cliff and Alice started walking toward Seon's Food & Stuff. Seon's was the giant food store in the North Plaza. It had all the food that Alice had ever known. The owner, Steven Chapman, was nice to Alice too. He was very protective of the market. People say that the last time that he caught a shoplifter, he chased them out of the market with their own shopping cart. Alice had never seen him that way though. They stepped into the market.

"Hi Steven!" Alice said.

"Why, hello Alice. How are you today?" he responded.

"I'm fine."

"Hey Steve, were just here to pick up a few things for Alice's parents." Cliff said.

"By all means, as I say 'The Customer is Always Right'." Steven replied. Cliff and Alice walked ahead through the aisles. They occasionally stopped to pick something up off the shelves. Alice was right, Seon's was huge. There were at least 6 aisles, 2 frozen foods sections, a wine section, a pharmacy, and a meat counter. The meat counter was where Larry worked. Larry Chaing was the large Asian butcher that worked behind the meat counter. He took pride in his work. He was always reassuring people of it. He would always say "Don't worry, I'm a butcher." The meat counter was their next stop.

"Hello Larry, I'm in desperate need of your masterful work." Cliff said.

"Oh yes, I am the master of the butcher shop and would be happy to oblige you Cliff, my friend. Oh, hello Alice. How are you?" He said.

"I'm fine, how about you?" she replied.

"Oh, I'm as happy as a butcher can be. So, Cliff what'll you be having."

"I'll take a 4 pounds of pork, 3 pounds of that Sirloin, and…uh, oh a lot of that Angus. Alice's mother is throwing a barbeque."

"Ah, these are good meats. I'll have them ready in a jiffy." Larry prepared the meats and gave them to Cliff. Alice and her grandfather left the market after paying for their products. Steven said goodbye to them, as usual. They left the North Plaza and walked through Leisure Park.

"What a beautiful park. It always makes me happy to see the flowers here." Alice said.

"Yeah, it is pretty. Your mother always loved it too. She…" Cliff was cut short by a man bumping into him. "Sorry, I didn't see you." The man said that it was okay in a heavy Spanish accent. He was carrying 2 black duffel bags and was with a woman. They both walked toward the North Plaza. Cliff thought nothing of it. Probably going to The Huntin' Shack, he thought. The woman looked younger than him. Maybe it was his sister. Cliff's interest in the 2 people was lost when Alice spoke up.

"Grandpa, can we go to Wonderland Plaza. I want to go on the space ride."

"Okay, honey." They walked across the park toward Wonderland Plaza. As they were walking they saw a man in a white robe with a red eye painted on it. He yelled to the people in the park.

"People of Willamette, The end is near! God has turned a blind eye to our suffering! We must repent and purge the evil ones from the earth!" Cliff thought he should do something about him.

"Alice, go wait over there on that bench and look away. You don't want to see this." Cliff walked toward the delirious man. "Hey! You there!" The man looked toward Cliff.

"Oh! Thank the powers that be! A follower has arrived. Here put on one of these raincoats and these masks. You shall be saved!" Cliff gave him a look of disgust.

"What's your name?"

"My name is Sean. You shall address me as Master."

"No, I won't. Listen, Sean there are children in this mall and I don't think you should be preaching this crap in front of them."

"The children need to know the message as well. They will be saved by me. The end is near. We must purge the wicked ones!"

"Hey Sean, come here." Sean leaned forward and Cliff punched him hard in the face. Cliff's muscles empowered the swing even more. Sean was knocked over. He only barely moved after that hit.

"YEAH! Get him grandpa!" Cliff turned around to see Alice standing on the bench and jumping up and down in joy for her grandfather socking Sean in the face.

"ALICE! I told you to look away." He walked over to her. "If your parents ask about today, promise me you'll leave this part out."

"Okay grandpa. It's our little secret. Now can we go to Wonderland Plaza?"

"Okay let's go." They walked toward Wonderland, leaving Sean to regain consciousness later. When they got there, a man stopped them before they got to the playground area.

"Hello, my name is Kent Swanson. I'm a photojournalist and I'm doing a piece on the Willamette Mall. Is it okay if I take some pictures of your daughter for it? She looks perfect for the part about Wonderland Plaza and it's attraction to the children."

"Well, first off she's my granddaughter, second, only shots that I approve of, and thirdly, only if Alice wants to do it." Kent looked down at Alice.

"Well, Alice do you want to be in a magazine article?"

"Okay." Kent made her pose in front of the space ride. Then she went over to the playground area. Kent took a few more photos. Kent thanked Cliff and offered him $30 for the shoot. Cliff accepted and Kent walked away. "Now can we go to the Space Ride?"

"Sure Honey….what's all this about?" There was a big crowd over near the space ride. Cliff did some quick thinking and picked Alice up and put her on his shoulders. "What do you see Alice?" he asked her.

"There's a clown! He's juggling. Grandpa, take me closer, he looks funny." Cliff obliged to his granddaughter's request. He took Alice off of his shoulders and kindly asked some people to move aside. When Alice got to the front she sat down next to some other kids and watched the clown's performance.

"Hello boys and girls, my name is Juggles the clown. I love performing for you kids." Juggles just kept on juggling until his finale. "Who wants balloon animals, kids?" Alice was the first one to raise her hand. "You there, what's your name?"

"My name's Alice."

"Well Alice, what's your favorite animal?"

"I like giraffes." Juggles quickly went into action. He twisted the balloon into a giraffe in record time.

"Here you go Alice." Juggles finished up his performance and gave some more kids their Balloon animals. After the performance, and all the people left, Cliff walked up to Juggles.

"Hey, uh Juggles…So what's your real name?" Adam's voice changed to a lower tone.

"My real name's Adam, Adam MacIntyre. I really do love performing for these kids. It's my life's work. Just seeing their smiling faces makes me happy."

"Well, Alice's birthday is coming up soon. Is there any way that I can book you for a show?"

"No problem, come see me tomorrow. Here's my card. Come by the address and I'll get you all set up." Cliff took the card and walked over to Alice, who was waiting over near the Space Rider.

"What was that about Grandpa?"

"Well Alice, Ad…I mean Juggles is going to play at your birthday party!"

"What! Really? Thanks a lot Grandpa! My birthday party's going to be awesome!" Cliff and Alice started walking out of Wonderland Plaza and they walked through the food court. Through there they walked through Al Fresca Plaza. Al Fresca was the only other open-air section of the mall. There was no roof over the mall hallways. There was a small plaza in the middle of it that had a small gazebo with a fountain. There were always a lot of people around it. After Al Fresca, Cliff and Alice walked through the Entrance Plaza into Paradise Plaza.

"Well, Alice do you want to go to Jill's Sandwiches for a bite to eat."

"Can we see the Megaman movie after it?"

"Sure sweetie." They did just that. After eating at Jill's Sandwiches, they went into Colby's Movieland. After seeing the Megaman movie they started walking toward the Entrance Plaza so they could leave. At the doors they looked out into the streets of Willamette. Something was wrong. "Alice look away." She did.As Cliff looked ahead, people started running toward the mall.

"Open the doors! Open the doors!!" One man yelled. Cliff did. About a dozen people ran into the mall. "Close them NOW!" Cliff did. "Start building a barricade! We can't let those things get in the mall!"

"Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Wait a minute! What are you talking about? What's going on? What are those things?"

"Don't you know Zombies when you see them!?"

"Zombies!? What do you mean zombies?"

"By zombies, I mean ZOMBIES! They've destroyed half of the town already! The mall's the last place that isn't infested. I saw a bunch of other people running toward this place. They went other ways into different plazas."

"Grandpa! I'm scared!" Alice yelled.

"Come on Alice, We're leaving."

"You can't leave. The zombies are all over the town. The mall is the only safe place. It's a good place to stay too. We have food, clothing, and places to sleep. Also, if it comes to it, we have weapons. There's a guns store isn't there, a hardware store too, right?"

"Yeah…wait that's it!" Cliff got an idea. "Alice, honey, we're going back to the North Plaza to hide with Cletus and Steven. We'll be safe there, okay?"

"Okay, Grandpa let's go!" The 2 ran through the Entrance Plaza and over too the entrance to Al Fresca. The doors to Al Fresca were blocked by zombies though.

"Come on Alice, we'll go through Leisure Park!" They ran into Paradise Plaza and out into Leisure Park. Out there they could already see some people succumbing to the zombie virus. "Alice, come here! I'll carry you." He picked up Alice and held her tightly to his chest. He shielded her eyes to the monsters in the Park. He just kept running to the North Plaza. When he finally got there, he thought they would be safe. He was wrong. There were zombies there too. He ran to the Huntin' Shack with Alice in his arms. As he ran, out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw that man from the park climbing into the ceiling of one of the empty stores. He couldn't be sure; he was too focused on the Huntin' Shack. When he got there, he found Cletus.

"Where in the hell have you two been! Here Cliff, take a shotgun!" Cliff caught the gun that was thrown from Cletus.

"Have you seen Steven or Larry?"

"I haven't seen Steve; I think he's still in his market. I heard Larry went down to the Meat Processing Area in the Maintenance Tunnels. I got this place hunkered down pretty well, and Steve's probably got Seon's locked down. Maybe you should go down to Crislip's and get that place safe. There are plenty of weapons over there."

"Okay, you got it. Come on Alice, we're going to Crislip's" Cliff grabbed 3 handguns, and filled a duffle bag with some ammo. Then he left for Crislip's with Alice. He picked up Alice again and held a handgun in his other hand. "Alice close your eyes and cover your ears." She did just that. After she did, Cliff started shooting at the zombies. He kept running towards Crislip's Home Saloon. He was so fixated on the zombies in front of him, that he didn't notice the ones behind him. One of them jumped Cliff from behind. The zombie knocked him over, along with Alice. Cliff quickly jumped up and shot the zombie. He looked over to pick up Alice, but she was gone. "Alice! Alice! ALICE, WHERE ARE YOU!?"

"Grandpa! AHHHHH! HELP ME! THEY GOT ME! GRANDPA!" Cliff almost lost his mind. He picked up two handguns and shot every zombie he could see. Then he saw a large bunch of them.

"ALICE!" Cliff switched to his shotgun and started shooting. Once the last zombie was on the ground, Cliff was horrified. There was Alice dead on the floor. "NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! ALICE! NO!" Cliff started weeping. Then rage took over. Suddenly, everything went white. One second, he was in Willamette mall. The next, the war wasn't over. Cliff was back in the fields of Vietnam. He had a hatchet in hand and he went to work on those Viet Cong.

Hours later, Cliff found a pesky little one. He was wearing a brown jacket and was holding a camera.

"Name and Rank, Soldier." The man turned around. "You can't tell me, can you, fella? Oh, yeah…I know why…It's because you're Viet Cong." The man was silent; he just stared at Cliff's bloody hatchet. "I'm right, aren't I? You are nothin' but a filthy communist!" Cliff swung his hatchet at the man. He missed and threw the man off guard. Cliff took this opportunity to hide. He spoke out from his hiding place. "You, son, are gonna tell me where the guerillas' hideout is…By the time I'm done beatin' information outta you, you are gonna be beggin' for death to come take you away!" Then he attacked the man. Except the man was quick, he picked up a scythe off of one of the shelves and swung it at Cliff. Cliff dodged him for a while. This fight went on for a while. Cliff couldn't believe it, but the man actually connected with the scythe. Cliff fell over with a large wound in his chest. He lied on the floor bleeding. Suddenly, he regained perspective on reality. He was back in Crislip's Home Saloon. The man was still there. He started to walk away. "You…over there..." The man turned around. "Here…take this…" He gave the man his wallet. It had a picture of Cliff, Alice, and her parents. "My granddaughter…she was done in by those damn zombies…When I heard her scream…I just lost it…Everything went white suddenly…The war…It wasn't over…Not for me…It…never…ended…" Cliff took his last breath. Then he gave up. The man took Cliff's wallet and respectfully closed Cliff's eyes. Cliff awoke in a room that he had never seen before. He thought that he had died. Then he heard a voice that he never thought he would hear again. It was Alice.

"Grandpa, I never thought I'd see you again!" Alice ran into Cliff's arms.

"Oh, honey I never thought I'd see you again either!"

"Come on, Grandpa. All our friends are out here. Mom, Dad, Steven, Cletus, Roger, Thomas, Jack, Larry, and I even saw Juggles out there."

"Really?" Cliff realized that they were all dead and this was the afterlife. "Let's go out and say hello." Cliff opened the door and walked back into the Willamette Mall. This time, it was safe again. No zombies, just friends.

"Grandpa, can i ask you a question?"

"Of course, Alice."

"Can Juggles still perform at my birthday party?"

"Of course he can Alice, Of course he can."