Hide in the trash cart.

Without further thought, Jen turned towards the grey cart. The cart stood about three feet high, coming up to Jen’s hips. Glancing to her left, Jen moved several trash bags aside and lifted her right leg over. Pausing for a split second to make sure her foot was on something reasonably solid she shifted her weight lifted her other foot off the ground. The cart moved slightly as she did, and for a second Jen was worried she was going to fall and create a loud noise. The cart stopped and Jen gripped the rim of it to stabilize herself as she finished climbing in and started slinking down into the cart.

Oh christ, I hope I don’t run into something wet or rank in here, she thought as she shoved her legs deeper into the bags ahead of her.

Once she felt situated she leaned forward and grabbed the trash bags she had moved, pulling them down on top of her as she laid down. From her position she couldn’t see anything but the bags, but she had no way of knowing if there were any gaps further down, exposing a small section of her body. She shifted slightly, settling deeper into the trash and hoping it would be enough to completely cover her.

She heard the voice again and was now certain it was a male approaching. It was difficult to judge how far away they were, but Jen held as still as possible in the event they were within sight of the cart.

Seconds later she heard the same male voice, now quietly muttering. Knowing they were right next to her she did what she could to keep her breathing slow and even, despite her heart thundering inside her chest. She silently prayed the bags atop of her wouldn’t rise and fall with her breath. But intense panic set in when she felt the cart start to move.

Oh no, it is the janitor, she thought.

Jen began trying even harder to control her breathing and calm herself, not wanting to make any noise that might give away her presence. She didn’t know for certain that she was moments away from being caught yet. Despite how bad her situation appeared, she might find an opportunity to get out of this.

The cart slowed to a stop and Jen listened intently, hearing the janitor take a step then a slight rustling sound. She nearly jumped out of her skin when the bags on top of her suddenly jostled and shifted, but she managed to **** back a scream as she realized it was just additional trash bags being added to the pile on top of her. Then she felt the cart start moving again.

Unable to gauge the speed they were moving at, Jen had no way of estimating her position in the mall. She felt the cart taking a turn before it returned to a straight line of travel. After being pushed along for some distance the cart again came to a stop. She heard the janitor step away a short distance. Before she could consider whether she might be alone soon and able to escape, she heard a door opening. Seconds later the janitor stepped back and the cart began to move again.

Suddenly the cart hit a rough bump, jolting Jen slightly inside her hiding place. She bit back another yelp of surprise. The cart continued moving forward before coming to a stop. She heard the janitor taking another two steps, then a rustling noise as the trash bags minutely shifted atop of her. Unsure of what was going on, the sound of a large thump with a slight metallic echo hit Jens’ hears. In a moment horror it dawned upon her that the janitor just threw one of the trash bags into a steel dumpster.

Oh god, she thought in a panic, I’m about to get caught!

She debated scrambling out and making a run for it as she heard a second trash bag drop into the dumpster. This was far from an ideal solution but she knew that with each bag the janitor moved the chances of a part of her body being exposed increased.

Jen felt herself trembling, her heart racing, her breathing growing rapid to a point she couldn’t control it. She started to convince herself that escaping the cart and sprinting to Eve’s car any way she could was her only way out, but her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a tinny voice, followed by the janitor’s exasperated, “yeah, what?”

Forcing herself to hold her breath, Jen listened as the tinny voice relayed something to the janitor. Now knowing that he was talking on a walkie talkie, she couldn’t understand a word coming out of the speaker but she was able to hear the janitor as clear as day.

“You keep sending me on these assignments and the trash is never going to get done, you know,” the man said, clearly aggravated.

The speaker fired up again, a short sentence was spoken and the janitor said “fine, just once that’s done let me finish what I’m doing, alright?”

Jen could hear the man stepping away now. She barely heard a quiet beep before a door opened. After it slammed shut, she waited in silence for a few seconds before she decided to chance checking out her surroundings.

She sat up, shifting bags out of the way and was greeted by darkness. Confused, Jen paused for a second, listening, and heard the sound of distant cars.

Oh shit, I’m outside, she thought.

Jen realized that she was now in the dock of the mall, where trash was disposed of and deliveries of inventory arrived. Thinking back to the hallway she was just in, she understood that this was where the corridor on the right led to. Clambering out of the cart, she looked around in a panic. Several large garbage dumpsters stood in front of her. To her right were several shipping doors for semi-trucks to back into. The dock was set into an alcove, a wall to her left providing one direction of cover but the wall far to her right was beyond the shipping doors and of little help in that regard. Straight ahead was the parking lot, a few cars scattered about the lot. Beyond that was the mall perimeter, lined with trees, bushes, and tall decorative grasses. As she watched she saw a car drive by, it’s headlights poking through the gaps in the trees.

Okay, no one can see me from that far away, she told herself, I just need to worry about anyone in the parking lot or coming through the dock doors.

Turning around she saw the wide double-door leading into the mall. She must have been pushed through there in the cart. She hurried over to the door and pulled at the handle, but it was locked. A magnetic card reader sat next to the door, a tiny light blinking red.

Not going back that way, she thought sullenly.

She moved back towards the edge of the dock, looking out over the parking lot. She didn’t see anyone walking through the parking lot, and couldn’t see any sign that the cars in front of her were occupied.

I know I have to go left, Jen thought. Eve is parked that way, on the other side of the mall.

She walked to the edge of the dock and dropped down, moving close to the wall on her left. Peering around the corner she saw the wall continue onwards, with one of the entrances a ways down. Surrounding both sides of the entrance were a small clusters of bushes. She’d been here often enough that she knew little spots of greenery sporadically bordered the building, bushes, shrubs, and some tall narrow evergreen trees on occasion. She also knew there were some large gaps between these places, and she could be stuck totally exposed right when someone happened to exit the building or drive by. Additionally she wasn’t sure how much she liked the idea of dashing across the entrance. There was certainly every possibility that she could time it well, but if her luck went wrong and she had to move quickly, she might not notice a clerk or security guard, inside until she was already in full view.

What other option is there?

Jen looked around and it then it hit her. There were a fair number of cars left in the parking lot, not a lot but the vehicles of employees who hadn’t left yet and night workers stood intermittently about the lot, some of them well away from the street lamps providing the only illumination in the area. She would have to make a long dash to reach the closest car, but once she was in the lot she could see that most of the cars were a little closer to each other than the distances she would have to cover going around the building from plant to plant.

That would seem a lot more exposed, she thought, even though in some ways it’s safer. It would increase the distance to Jen’s car, too, taking a bit of a longer way around. I just don’t know…