The utopia of pricy snacks gave light towards the otherwise monotone shop. The rows of snacks and drinks gave a wave of hunger towards the consumers. The primary shopers drifted towards Aisle 2. A place where the racks contained a modicum amount of knives and guns.
Dirga looked at the shoppers, and something prevented him from truly acknowledging their identities. As if a black bar blocked their eyes— causing them to run into pillars and walls.
Just as a small crowd began to form in front of Dirga—
Ack—!!
An old lady crashed into him.
"You !!" Before continuing her tirade, she touched Dirga's hands and face, particularly the structure of his bones as she gripped his collarbone.
"OYY LADY !!! KNOCK IT OFF !!" A young man, yelled at the front row of Dirga. While his face was positioned to the front row, he gripped the right arm of the old lady. Shaking it to urge her to come with him.
"LET ME GO YOUNG MAN !!" The old lady screamed. She demanded the young man to release her.
Unfortunately, the man, rebelious as he is—just used his fingers to muffle the sounds of her screaming in his ears.
Seeing the small tirade within the duo, the old lady's fingers slipped from his collarbone. Instead opting to claw at the young man's hand. And at this moment, a chance to escape began its countdown. And as the seconds ticked by, he ran. Running towards the rows filled with toys of frogs.
"Hahhh... hahhh... what a bunch of lunatics." He muttered, sweat clinging to his hair. It felt as if he ran in a 10 km marathon, though it didn't began to touch the surface of how exhausted he was on the last police run.
Dirga took a few steps forward.
One, two, three. He crashed towards the ground like a heap of hay.
As his mind scrambled to find a way to get out of this nightmare...
There was something Dirga noticed admist the falls of the shoppers...
Just like the old women that crashed into him, the other shoppers seem to instinctively be able to get the products they needed yet, they always tumble like a block of plastic waste. As if... it was based on muscle memory or...
Another theory, the black bar restricted their eyesight to only focus towards the products. Not even bothering to get their child out of knives.
"Great... what a great day..." A small thought eased his way into his ears.
Why doesn't he have a black bar in front of his face ?
"Hahhh... well... hah... that's not my... dang problem... hahhhh" His breathing became more erratic as time went on. His sweat clinged towards his tattered shirt.
He gripped the front of his shirt, and as he tried to focus his eyes...
The picture of an innocent rabbit munching on grass on the front of his shirt began to peel off leading to only white parts clinging to the fabric.
"I... hahhh... neeed... a new... shiiiirrtttt...." Something is definitely wrong. No exhaustion could last this long.
Just as his conciousness began to slip away... an announcement rang all across the supermarket.
"Attention all shoppers !! One, two. One, two.... Ahem. This announcement is given to you by the official management team of the Pine Shop. It is by great grief that I, the announcer must inform you all that the shop will begin to close at around... 10 minutes starting from now !! Please exit the shop at Aisle 4 for maximum safety. Thank you for shopping at Pine Shop !! May we meet never again !!"
Bzzzt—
The announcement cut off with a certain buzzkill. Dirga fastened his will, tried to use the aluminium racks as grip to stand. While his legs wobbled left to right, his stomach rose in anger. Raising up a bile festering inside his mouth.
A step and another. He ran. Not knowing where to go. He needs a container. Or maybe the floor could be a smart post.
"Hey, Mister. It ain't nice to throw up here, eh ?" A lady's voice coming from his back asked. A small plastic bag gave way towards Dirga's hands. A saviour has left heaven. The heaves come off slow and one by one...
The burns on his mouth cooled down. Leaving a stink of yellowish gunk inside the blue plastic bag.
"I... thank youuu—." Dirga looked towards his right, a barcode stuck towards a worker's body is alive. Dirga's eyes locked towards the static barcode.
"No problemo, Laksa !!" The barcode gave a thumbs up in response.
Laksa ?
Who the hell is this Laksa ?
....
Ohhhh.
"Right... of course, thank you ?" Dirga gave a questioning look towards the worker, urging the worker to tell him it's name.
"Ohh... I'm afraid I can't tell you my name." The worker's index finger covered it's—supposed mouth.
"Well... I can't really tell that towards a newbie, can I ? A secret at heart stays at the heart. Aaand it also... eehh violates the company's policy you see..." The worker trailed off at the end, expressing it's distate upon revealing this. It's hands becoming more expressive to compensate the lack of expression.
A barcode worker, huh ? Though, really it's existance doesn't seem too unordinary in the ecosystem of this supermarket.
Hello ? Sir ? SIIIRRR ???
Clack–!!
A resounding snap of a finger echoed at Dirga's ears and frankly, the barren section.
"Unless your ears were bleeding... you must have heard the announcement riiighhhtt ???" The barcode leaned closer towards Dirga, it smelled of new paper and a bit of a metallic undertone.
Blood ? I–
I mean... with how bizzare this 'shop' has been... it wouldnt be a shocker if something... sinister happened here.
"Helloooo ??? Sir ? Had a beam fallen off in this section ? Why are you soooo out of it ?" The barcode worker asked Dirga curiously like a kind of weird puppy.
"Haishhh... is humanity this dumb ? If it's time to close then get your body off the STORE !!!" A voice from behind cracked at it's seams. Though when Dirga looked back, the only sight he sees is a megaphone stuck to the ceiling.
As if the attention prompted it's mouth, the megaphone cracked the amount of decibles in the air.
"OYY !! GET YOUR BOOTY MOVIN' OUT THE SHOP !! YOU DEAF OR WHAT ??"
The voice coming from the megaphone almost humanized it. The shouts it uttered caused the megaphone to move almost cartoonishly.
The barcode worker snapped out of it's stuppor and panickedly jumped to cover itself. It's hands cover it's head as if it was preparing an assault from the ceiling.
Why ? Is the megaphone really that scary ?
As if answering his question..
The ceiling busted out a full onslaught of water. The barcode worker ran towards Dirga, using his body as a shield.
"What the— HEY MPRHHHHH !!!!" Dirga muffled by the new waterfall from the ceiling, went soaking wet as his body absorbed most of it.
Come to think of it... how strong is this worker that it can lift me ? A full grown ass man ?