Turn back and hide

Without another thought, Jen turned around and ran back the way she had come. She briefly reached a full sprint over the short distance, creating more noise than she was comfortable with making but if she was going to remain unseen…

Reaching the stack of trash bags she stepped behind them. She pressed her back against the wall and sunk down until she was sitting, holding her knees tight against her chest with her arms.

“Did you see something?” A female voice reached her.

Oh no, oh no, please, not after making it this far… Jen thought frantically.

“No, I didn’t see anything,” another woman’s voice arose. “What did you see?”

“I don’t know,” the first voice again. “Some movement out of the corner of my eye.”

There was a pause in the conversation before Jen heard anything more, the second voice. “Well I didn’t see anything. Probably a trash bag sinking between two others, happens all the time. Come on, there’s a lot of boxes to bring in.”

The conversation stopped and Jen soon heard the movement of cardboard boxes. She leaned forward and looked past the bags she hid behind. She saw two women, one in her forties and one closing in on her sixties. They were lifting the boxes together, one at each end, and carrying them into the store together. The stack had started three tall and three wide; one was missing from the stack and they were carrying the second one. It would take them some time to get all of these pulled in.

Jen sat back and paid attention to what she was hearing. A quick glance to her left made her feel very unprotected. She was completely exposed from that direction. Anyone coming by would see a naked, nervous woman huddling next to the wall.

She heard the two clerks come back into the hallway and grab their third box. Jen estimated it had taken them a little over a minute to make the round trip. Including the box they were holding, that could be around seven minutes waiting time. In any other situation that would be practically no time. Right now, it was a lifetime.

An echo through the hallway reached Jen’s ears and she realized that someone was down on the other end of the hallway. Listening carefully, she couldn’t tell if they were getting closer or not. If they were, then the remaining time she’d be safe in this hiding spot was limited.

Okay, think, she thought to herself. Maybe I could time it and run past their doorway.

She leaned forward again, and saw no other boxes or trash bags beyond the employees’ stack of inventory. She would have to make it far enough to get around the curve of the hallway to be out of their sight. That meant moving fast, which meant she was bound to make some noise. She had no idea how far into the back room they were going, if they would be around a corner and out of sight of the hallway. If she hadn’t timed their trips into the store well, they could be about ready to walk back out right as Jen was running past the doorway. She wrote this option off, feeling it was doomed to fail.

If that won’t work, maybe they’ll get done moving their inventory soon. Maybe the last few boxes won’t be so heavy and they can each take one at a time…

Just starting to feel resigned to waiting, Jen shifted her position and felt something poke her shoulder. Looking over, she saw a folded cardboard box standing behind the trash cans.

Wait a second, I might be able to use that to hide out! Let the ladies finish taking in their inventory and if anyone else comes by… No, that’s stupid. I would make too much noise setting it up, and if someone thought it belonged to their store then it would get grabbed. There’s no way it’d work… would it?