Shopping at Northlands mall

Beth Te Aika, Zoë de Groot and Cassie Hoodless were shopping in Northlands mall on Saturday afternoon. After 2 and a half hours of non-stop shopping, the group of 3 girls started to make their way back to the bus stop. On the way, Beth noticed that someone was following them. So she told Cassie and Zoë and they decided to try to lose him. They ducked into shops but whenever they turned around he was always there.
“Maybe he’s no threat. Let’s just go get our coats and our other stuff.” Cassie said. So the girls walked to the lockers by the entrance to Northlands and opened locker number 46. Inside were their coats and previous shopping bags that got to heavy to be carried around with all the new clothes and shoes in. They turned around and there were 4 men standing in a line. They grabbed each of the girls’ arms. Cassie and Beth screamed but Zoë just dropped the bags and allowed them to be led away.
5 minutes later the girls were standing in a small room with a large coffin-looking object at the end of the room. The men let go of the children and the girls dropped to the ground. Zoë spotted an open window. She gestured to the others, trying not to let the men see. The girls crawled slowly over to the wall. They sat for a while, making sure they could get the right time when the men weren’t looking and make a run for it. Even though they were tired after being pulled around they managed to get the timing right and after a bit of silent climbing they were up and out of the window and running along the path to the sea. It was only a matter of seconds until the men realised the girls were gone. Though, lucky for Zoë, Beth and Cassie, the men were too large to fit through the small window so it took the men longer to get to the girls.

Zoë, Beth and Cassie ran into a shop. Cassie ducked behind a counter and sat very still whilst the assistant gave her an odd expression.
“I hate my step-father” She said. The assistant looked at the man running in through the door and standing with a blank expression on his face.
“you’re safe here, chickie.” She said, looking back at Cassie. The girl nodded.
Zoë ran behind another worker and followed them into the ’restricted’ part and dressed as a young shop assistant.
Beth pulled a long black coat on over her clothes and posed as a mannequin.
The four men walked slowly around the shop looking for the three girls.
“Atishoo!” sneezed Beth.
A man ran for her and grabbed her around the waist and put her over his shoulder.

Another man looked everywhere for Zoë. Then he decided to ask if anyone had seen his little niece. He walked up to the nearest person dressed in uniform.
“’scuse me.” He said in a polite tone.
“Have you seen…” He didn’t finish his sentence as Zoë turned to look the man in the face. He grabbed Zoë the same way Beth was held.

The last two men looked for Cassie. The last man was a little on the…large side. He had picked up a chocolate bar and was just paying for it at the counter as he saw a little foot from behind the lady behind the till. He pushed her away and picked up Cassie like the other men did.
The four men carried the girls back to the room they were in before. This time, Zoë noticed, they had shut the window. That was their only escape. The girls sat with their heads on a box, looking up to the ceiling.
“Look, netting.” whispered Beth to the other two.
“So…?” Cassie whispered.
“escape.” Beth said. Sitting up.
She climbed onto the box and jumped to the other one behind that.
The men looked behind but didn’t think that jumping on boxes could give them any escape…
Beth jumped up and un-did the knot in the two corners that was keeping the netting on the ceiling.
“Sir. Music is good. I’m putting some on.” Cassie said, tactfully. She took her cell phone out of her pocket and opened it. She selected the ‘music’ folder.
“Not too loud, you horrible little ugly things.” one of them said, still looking at a mysterious piece of paper that they had on a table.
“Asshole.” Beth said as Cassie gasped.
Music came on and the girls got up and danced about. Cassie and Zoë danced over to the corners to undo the knots of the netting on the ceiling.
Zoë and Cassie took the corners over to Beth.
“On the count of 3, we throw the netting over them, grab the key off the wall and make a run for it.” Beth had a good plan.
“1...2...3” whispered Zoë. The three girls threw the net over the four men and made a run for the key, but alas, they were too slow.
The men wriggled free of the net and caught the girls.
The fourth man went forward to the large coffin-looking object and pushed in a code which opened the lid.
It was a red metal inside with labels and stickers and posters and strange markings.
The men lied the girls down in it, strapping the hands down by their sides but leaving their legs free. The men each kissed a girl on the cheek. Cassie and Beth spat in a man’s face and Zoë kicked him.
“You *&%^@#$! What are you doing to us?” Cassie shouted.
“Chill, little girlie. Literally, You’ll chill.” The man with a beard said, laughing.
“Oh, shit! Cassie, they’re going to freeze us to death!” Beth shouted.
Zoë’s shouts were muffled by the lid closing on them. The men put in the code, locking the lid shut. Then, the second man pushed a blue button. The machine hissed and went silent. The freezing process had begun.

“How can they do this? The police will find out. Why are they doing this? What did we do?” Zoë cried.
“I don’t know. I don’t know.” Cassie said. “But the best thing to do is not think about it. Come on, let’s talk. Beth, Where did you get your hair dyed? I went to get mine done but they didn’t have the pink I wanted for the streaks.”
“I got it done in Wellington when I went on holiday.” she answered.
“Oh.” mumbled Cassie.
“You got that watch in Wellington as well didn’t you?” Zoë said, looking to Beth.
“Yeah, it cost a lot though. But I suppose it does go 5 metres under water…” She trailed off.
Cassie had started tapping out a beat on her leg. Then she stopped. She looked up, with an inquisitive look on her face.
“What is it Cass?” Beth asked. Looking at her.
“Did you guys put your receipts in your pocket or bags?” Cassie remained looking and the ceiling of the machine. She tried to get her hand into her pockets. She could feel something in there.
“Pockets, why?” Zoë and Beth chorused.
“Got it!” Cassie cried as she pulled her lighter out of her pocket. Cassie diddn’t smoke but loved carrying it around with her she thought it would always come in handy. Mainly because her mum always tried to steal it and keep it. “Guys, can I have your receipts?” She said as she lighted it up, burning the straps off. She rolled over, burnt the other strap. She then moved over and freed Zoë and Beth. The girls all lay, stuffing their hands into their pockets. Surprisingly, the girls had not noticed the air inside the machine they were locked in, was dropping to 2 degrees. Their skin was turning lighter and soon, their lips and toes would go blue.
The three girls lay on their sides with a pile of receipts in the middle of them. Cassie tried to light them up but the lighter would not light.
“It’s too cold, that’s why” Beth said.
“Shhh! We don’t need reminding!” Cassie said as she rubbed the lighter between her hands, warming it up. She tried once more to get it to light. To their luck, the paper lit and the girls put their hands around it to warm up. After ten minutes, the air had dropped to at least -2 degrees. After two more minutes the paper had all burnt out. The girls felt in their pockets, but found nothing. They were empty. Cassie looked around, seeing the labels and posters on the walls of the machine.
“Rip them off! And any clothing that isn’t keeping you e warm! Wrist bands, hair ties, watch straps, anything!” Cassie said, feeling clever. She was the one with the plan this time.
The girls now lay with two piles of lighting fuel.
Paper and posters and pieces of clothing.
Cassie lit the paper, making it smoke more this time.
“If we don’t die of freezing-ness, we’ll die of smoke inhalation!” Zoë gasped.
“Shhh! This is to get the men to open up, then we can get out. I have a plan.” Cassie said, smiling.
“okay” Beth and Zoë chorused again.
The plan worked. The girls heard a click as the door opened. Each of the girls had a piece of burning paper in their hands. As soon as the man opened the door, Zoë threw the burning paper in his face. She jumped out, with Beth and Cassie. The two girls threw burning paper and clothing at the remaining men and ran for the door. Beth grabbed the key off the hook and shoved it into the lock and twisted it sharply. The girls ran out into the corridor and blindly round the corner. They turned so many corners and ran down so many tunnels they could not turn and go back the way they came. Until, finally, they came out onto the middle of a road. The girls walked down the road, feeling sure the men would not have followed them this far. Then, to their luck, again, they saw a police man giving someone a ticket.
“Sir, Sir!” All three girls shouted. “Sir! Four men tried to kill us! They locked us in a freezer! They were trying to kill us!” Beth told the man the story. The officer had to believe them. Their story seemed to strange, but there were many odd stories that had turned out true that he had heard. They had all the proof, light skin, blue lips and they even produced a description of the men.
“Alright girls, I’ll call for back up, if there’s four men, you say.” The officer walked round to the front of the police-car and radioed in to his quarters and asked for back up on St. Bells road.
“Show me the way, girls.” He said.
“We have to go from Northlands because I remember the way from that direction.” Beth said.
“That’s alright. The team will be at Northlands anyway.” The nice officer said.

When we arrived at the room with the freezer in, the men were on the floor, tangled in the net and burns on their faces. Their faces were red with deep holes and their eyes had sunk so far into their faces they were hardly eyes anymore. The pieces of paper the girls had thrown at them were really quite big and were completely on fire. Two of the men had hardly any hair left, it looked like it had been cut with a pair of scissors.
‘Back-Up’ arrested the men on attempted murder and the police men drove the children home.
“Thanks for picking up our shopping bags, officer.” Cassie said.
“At least we still did our shopping!” All three girls laughed and fell asleep in the back of the car.