Aurora Wasteland Flash Fiction from Instagram…
A flash fiction inspired by the below Instagram image.
We all have windows of time in our lives where The Mall is our second home. When we’re young it’s one of the first places you can go on your own and feel safe. The mall, is what transitions youths into Youths. Day after day, trip after trip, time at the mall is spent exploring yourself, what you want to be, and who you’ll become. For others, it’s spent exploring something much more… well you’ll see.
Kamloops British Columbia is one of the hottest locations in the Aurora Wasteland. Its primary export is heat and melted dreams. The temperature has been known to drive Youths indoors at alarming rates. In particular, the Skull Foot mall is their reprieve from the heat and from time to time their parents.
It wasn’t until the tenth kid went missing at the mall that local protective services took it seriously. They’d chalked the missing children up to heat confusion and delusion. In the past kids had been known to just wander away from the city off into the surrounding desert heat never to be heard from again (though on occasion they would turn up as extras on various TV shows filmed in Vancouver).
As the eleventh and twelfth child went missing a team of Aurora Wasteland explorers stepped in. They tore the mall apart literally looking for the children. At first, it was believed that mall lawn gnomes had taken them, but their search showed no such evidence. As they were ready to pack it in and wave the white sweat-drenched towel, the team discovered a doorway under the only mall escalator. What they found was a passageway that led downwards into the earth.
After a quick procurement of climbing equipment from one of the mall stores, the team descended the passageway. Eventually, the passageway gave away to a stairwell that seemed to grow in size each step down. It didn’t take long for the steps to reach a height taller than the team members themselves. It was then that they called it quits.
That was the furthest anyone has yet to descend the stairs. The youths remain missing to this day. The mall and local police have sealed up the stairwell entrance under the escalator.
(Link to the original post on Instagram by andreewallin)
