Fixed one problem at a time, let's forget the how to avoid headaches, Roberto led the rest of the crew in the direction of the upper floor armed with his new creation. Mario seemed for a moment to want to say something about it, but avoided extending the time needed to move and change position. Finding a safe shelter was, after all, the main problem they had to solve.

Wanting to give a fair bit of credit where it was due, Roberto's homemade flashlight did a magnificent job of illuminating the surroundings as they went along. His warmth was also a welcome asset to the group, as gusts of wind from outside the building could reach them at certain points despite the tons of reinforced concrete. Of course, even those currents weren't as cold as those of their original world, still in the middle of February, but they still managed to be very annoying.

In any case, after having followed the gallery in the direction of the entrance, or exit depending on the perspective, located at the back, they finally found the first flights of mobile stairs. In theory, if Roberto's memory didn't betray him, there should have been three more ramps similar to those inside the building; another one always in the rear area and two near the front entrance of the mall.

In addition, and this actually concerned the outside, there were two more escalators, one in the front and one in the back, whose basic purpose was to allow customers to get on and off the underground parking lot. That, however, was an entirely separate floor of the main building and, more importantly, was almost scary because it was enormous. Roberto himself had only parked his car there once, and that was enough to make him decide never to go back there again, even going so far as to prefer the city traffic to the slaughterhouse and the curses of that hellish place.

These were, more or less, the bases on which the movement and transportation of the mall's clientele had been planned. However, at least as far as the interior was concerned, that plan seemed to be leaking quite a bit of water right now.

"But... were the escalators located here? Or is it just me freaking out?" Alex asked doubtfully, not understanding why the non-functioning ramp in front of them seemed to have been built on the side of the central corridor rather than in the center. No small difference, considering that way a couple of stores that should have been on that side of the gallery were missing from the picture.

"Ah... Good question." Mario commented uncertainly, swallowing the little saliva he had in his mouth and accompanying the gesture with a rather noisy sound. The discovery, or the thought of the possible discovery, affected him much more than he could have admitted; leaving him even more astonished than accepting the simple and trivial magical powers pulled out of the hat.

As a realistic and easy to please man, being able to accept the existence of "stuff", let's call them that for simplicity, of a magical or science fiction nature was not for him a too complex task, at least as long as it was an event or a logic at least understandable or reproducible by other means. But seeing with his own eyes such an evident and voluminous change in size, not even considering the weight of the whole tool, made him feel a confusion similar to when, after a long and realistic dream, the mind struggles for a few moments to understand which is reality and which is fantasy.

Camilla and Roberto instead remained silent, stopped to observe and think probably different things but with an equally complex expression on their faces. Ah, just talking about dear Camilla, by now she had mostly recovered and had already taken several meters to walk on her own. Her gratitude to her companions was a bit unfair, as she gave a hug to Sabrina and only a: "Thank you," to Alex, who however was able to breathe a sigh of relief as his arms were very close to giving out due to the effort.

Well, big ambitions and small shoulders, a tough combination to bet on. Personally, I'd keep the chips on this call.

In any case, ignoring the bad habits of making unsolicited judgments, Roberto noticed that, by now, a good minute or two had passed in which the morale of the gang had managed to plummet. Not that he could expect anything else from twenty year olds, also because even he had not managed to avoid being influenced by the change. No less, wasting time was a dangerous option that wouldn't bear good fruit to eat.

And, not being a fucking depressed dude waiting for the axe of life, certainly dying so young wasn't part of his plans. Although, if he had to be honest, getting to eighty wasn't too much of a stretch for him either. A middle way would have been ideal according, in order to avoid old age and the generational change that, almost certainly, would have been an already horrible blasphemy on its own.

Having regained his confidence, he lit another cigarette and, almost burning his face in the process, used the hand with which he held the flashlight to lift and pull his left sleeve and take a look at his watch. Good thing he had a habit of keeping his hair short.

"Ah... Due to wasting time, it's lunchtime." He then said loudly addressing the rest of the gang, drawing attention to himself once again. He then continued, pointing with the flaming tip of his flashlight to the upper floor and saying, "Let's hurry up and find a place to rest and eat, I'm starving. I didn't have lunch before I finished here," speaking with a renewed calm expression and not at all tense... sort of.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"First all that incomprehensible stuff... Then the thing I shot off my finger and now this!? How much stuff would we have to ignore before we could figure anything out? You do realize that, don't you? This isn't the same mall we were taken from and it doesn't even feel like the same season? You do realize that, right? We have no idea where the fuck we are! Does this look like we should be worrying about lunch!?"

Camilla, however, greeted him with a series of high-pitched and particularly pissed-off screams that forced him to temporarily retreat a step. The sudden outburst of the girl's emotions had seriously put him on edge, having always had difficulty in reasoning with people in a similar state of mind. However, when he repeated in his head the words he had just heard, he realized that he was not the only one who had noticed the big picture.

So, accompanying his brief advance with a genuinely astonished, "Oh...", he decided to try to make an effort outside of his usual payroll by starting a discussion. To his further surprise, however, Sabrina beat him to it and, gently grabbing the girl's sleeve, said in a low, somewhat timid, but firm tone: "I think he's right," refusing even to argue before Camilla calmed down at least a little.

In fact, having reached that goal, and having the full and interested attention not only of the girl but also of Roberto, she resumed speaking explaining her position, saying in a manner similar to the previous one but lowering her head a few degrees: "We won't solve anything if we continue to stop every time we find something difficult to explain. I am afraid, really very afraid right now. I would like to know what happened to us and why, but I also understand that it will be impossible to find the answers to these questions in a short time. So, I think it's..." Here the poor star felt the stares of the rest of those present so focused on herself that she felt compelled to stop for a second and seek shelter by moving her gaze even further to the ground.

Only then did she conclude: "I think it would be better to do one thing at a time. We don't even know if there might be other people in this building or what the temperatures might be once the sun goes down... We should pay more attention to things like that rather than getting stuck in anxiety and fear... Yeah, that's it..."

A gentle-toned harangue that certainly worked much better than the provocations Roberto was about to make, even without testing the hypothesis in the field. Not only that, but the fact that it was the most defenseless person who had pulled out his attributes and managed his own fear made the oldest and most ignorant part of the male DNA inside Alex and Mario's cells react.

The two, once again, had fallen in front of yet another inexplicable event. There wasn't even half a danger in sight, yet their souls had been crushed enough to rob them of both words and thoughts and they had needed a wren to get their heads back on their shoulders. A real shame that as men they could not afford. Even if, to be completely honest, at best they could both be defined as 'boys', a step below the idea of 'man' that movies and TV series had built in their minds.

Despite everything though, illusion or not, comfortable life or not, how could they afford to make such a figure? In front of girls? Where was their pride, where were their balls? No, no, no... Here there was absolutely a need to set the record straight.

"Yes, he's right. Let's stay focused on our primary goal. If we're going to make it to tomorrow morning, we've got a lot to do." Mario commented after a violent cough, walking in the meantime until he reached Roberto's side, somehow stating his position.

"But... But... How can we..." Camilla tried to argue back, not understanding how it was possible to look away from all the weirdness that was happening to them. Who cared about shelter or lunch when they had no idea where they were even? How could they be acting so crazy?

"Calm down." Alex told her, in a tone so strong that it seemed he'd even grown an extra pair of testicles. "That's not important now! We have to think about surviving before getting lost in reasoning," he then said with a more violent and 'male' twist, both characteristics that didn't match with his usual way of doing things and that led Roberto to raise his arms and whistle like a fan would have done during a goal action.

"For now, don't think about it," he continued, softening his tone, while offering her his right hand to comfort her, stroking her shoulder gently. She, poor thing, struggled with all the strength she had left in her body not to cry but she couldn't, ending up filling her cheeks with tears. Alex would have liked to run away at that point, but she had decided to show only her best side and sweep her teenage worries and wanking under the carpet.

And... Well, maybe because even Camilla never expected to find herself in front of such a firm and resolute presence, she was able to put aside the crap about being simple childhood friends and threw herself into his arms, seeking comfort by sinking her head on his chest. A slightly uncomfortable task given the difference in stature, but still tender if you pretended not to notice that detail.

"Oh! Way to go! Way to go! See how I was right when I said that's your girlfriend?" Roberto exulted, clapping his hands together and lighting himself another celebratory cigarette, inciting Mario to do the same. He didn't accept the courtesy cigarette, wanting to stay healthy as a good person, but used the opportunity to laugh it off.

"Sons of... She and I are not..." It was the barbaric and unconvincing attempt to block a ball that had already been hit with a left-footed shot and perfectly aimed at the cross of the goalposts. So weak and useless that Alex couldn't even finish what he was trying to say when he felt the girl tighten her grip and didn't even try to deny the accusation, almost defining with certainty a new problem in his already messed up life.

Good luck soldier, you'll certainly need it!