Stuck at the Galleria

Act 2: The Duck Hunter (part 3)

I winced a bit as my eyes drifted through the merchandise. Stores like these were always the worst places for me to deal with, and he knew. Maybe it was just the fact that I was a teenage boy or something, but I wasn't much of a fan of even going into this place in the daytime when there were even girls there at all, let alone after hours.

I found the Duck in the back of the store, looking at the Yorkie collection of clothes. Weird. As I snuck under the shelves leading up to his location, the thought crossed my mind that maybe the Duck wasn't even a guy at all like I'd envisioned all these years.

...Nah, he was too guyish.

I crept through the aisles as silently as I could but a loud crunch under my foot broke the quiet. The Duck cocked his head up and turned around. Noticing the golden tips of my hair, he made a run for it, and I followed him up the aisles to meet him at the front of the section.

"No escaping me now, Bucky."

The Duck was stood still for a sec, and then almost seemed to disappear as he turned into a black blur around me. I tried cutting him off but he pushed me out of his way before I got the chance, and boy, it was hard, too -- I took a hard tumble into a rack of bras. As embarrasing as that was, the Duck was heading to the exit on the other side of the store and was getting there fast, so I pounced out of the pile and sprinted in the same direction.

When I said this was a hunt, I wasn't kidding. This time in particular I was chasing him, but other times when I made the first move sometimes he'd take the offensive approach. I preferred it this way though. Although I couldn't ever catch him, chasing a Duck is much, much less embarrassing than being pursued by one.

He turned around for a split second and then changed his path. We were going deeper into the abyss, and as we did so the Duck started flinging the stuff on the racks upward, Soon enough I was running in a rain of womens' underwear, which kind of made me sick to my stomach, but I had to go on.

The Duck kicked down the back door behind the counter that led to the emergency exits of the other stores. As I got into the hallway behind it, I found him climbing a staircase on the other end. I followed suit and went through the door he'd opened on the other side, and soon enough I'd found myself in the department store wasteland of Lears.

Bluh, this place was like a labyrinth only navigable by old people. And it wasn't even fun to be in, either. Unlike Wamcy's, this place was pretty much the most boring place in the mall, and considering that the flagship location of that cheap girl's store Carolyn Rizzoli is here, that's saying something.

I started wandering the aisles, looking for my target.

"Here, duckyduckyducky..."

As soon as I said it I found him running past me on the big pathway leading out to the rest of the mall. As I followed suit, I noticed the banister at the end of the store and grinned.

This was it. There was no way he could get himself a good distance away from me without being crazy and going over the edge, but that was practically asking for a set of broken bones. I started to run a little faster just to shorten the divide that much more, to rub it in.

He turned around and perked up as we got closer to the exit.

The Duck ran out of the Lears, but just as I expected him to stop at the banister, he jumped over it instead.

I gasped. He really did it!

As he fell to the ground, he tucked himself inward and rolled.

I looked on from the banister as he ran down into the mall beyond. The Duck gave me a snippy little peace sign as he disappeared.

Well, that was the end of that. The Duck escaped once again, and I had another loss to chalk up. If I chalked them up, of course. By now there were so many that I couldn't even do that. Kind of humiliating, yeah, but I was used to it by now.

I muttered a bit to myself as I walked down the empty boulevard of stores. I wasn't entirely sure where I was going but it was somewhere. My leg shook a bit for a second, and I stopped. Was this him again, just messing with me to gloat or something?

Then I realized it was just my phone. I rolled my eyes at myself a bit as I took it out. Nora was on the other side.

"Hey, Nor." I said, in as hard-boiled a fashion as I could.

"Hey Mr. Duck Hunter, you finished with your squabble yet?" she asked.

"Yeah. I lost again, if you're wondering."

I was thinking she would laugh, but she didn't.

"You'll get him someday." she said.

"Was that sarcasm or are you just feeling nice tonight?" I questioned.

"Eh, a little of both." 

"So what are the rest of the gang up to?"

"The twins and Grassy went to the security department to make sure Cow didn't sic any more psychos on us, and then I guess they're gonna do whatever after that. Pfft."

"Eh, I'm sure we'll find out what "whatever" is once the story requires it, right?"

"Yeah. Pip and Cici went off to Cheezus Crust."

"Glorified frozen pizza again?" I asked.

"Hey, Cici loves that stuff."

"I prefer Slimy Squid's Pizza Shack, but whatever. What about the new kid?"

"Oh, Tre? He's with me. I'm showing him the place. Someone had to take on the role of mama bird and I knew the rest of you wouldn't."

 "Well, that's cool, I guess. I dunno what I'm gonna do now," I said.

"Maybe you should make one last introspective speech before the story switches to me," she replied.

"Good idea."

I gazed up above me at the stores on the third floor and thought for a sec.

Sure, tonight was a loss, but what was stopping me from catching him later on? The Duck was many things, but invincible? Nah. 

I smirked a bit. He played it well tonight, but I was getting better. One day, just once, I'd catch him. I wasn't sure how, or when, or what would even occur, but it was going to happen.

Might as well look forward to the next hunt until then. Who knows, maybe that might be when it happens.