"What about inside?" asked Dave.
The three walked back inside the doors. Sid closed one of the doors and rotated a dial near the door handle. They all heard a solid clacking sound of a lock engaging. Sid gave the door a tug.
"That's a solid door," said Sid.
"Good," said Dave. "That's four doors per entrance that we can close manually."
Dave walked just outside the hinged doors and looked up at the flat ceiling. "Looks like there's some sort of roller door up in the ceiling. There's even rails down the wall to hold it in place."
The three looked up at the hand-wide gap that stretched all the way across the entrance. Just within the gap they could see a roller door.
"The main doors are pretty solid, so I'm not sure why this second door is needed," said Sid thoughtfully. "Maybe it's a crash barrier to stop looters crashing cars through the entrance."
Dave walked over to the side of the entrance where he saw a panel. There was a hinged cover that he flipped up. There were a pair of buttons - one with an arrow up, the other with an arrow down. Dave idly pressed the down button. The roller door didn't move. Not expecting a response, Dave pressed the button with the up arrow.
"That's secure," quipped Sid. "Even though is on the inside of the roller door, the panel is not even locked."
"It's a paradox," said Dave. "People often scream for security but rarely ask if their requests actually make them secure. They should have probably had the controls set up to be remotely operated in a control room somewhere. But the designers then thought that go back and forth would be a pain and came up with this simple solution. This actually helps us. It would have taken a bit of time to track down a control room and determine which buttons do what."
"Could you imagine if they locked it?" asked Sid. "It would be a damn pain if we had to find a key to operate it."
"While it seems clear in here I want it to remain so. Let's close up all these doors and check out the docking areas," said Dave.
"It'll be quicker if we split up," suggested Sid. "Don't worry if you find company, noise will carry inside the store. Yell if you run into something. It shouldn't be too hard to hear each other."
Dave looked at Eric. "Are you okay with that?"
Eric nodded. "I'm used to running about this place."
"Okay," said Dave. "Be quick and we'll meet up in the middle.
Sid and Eric ran into the shopping centre. At the central intersection Sid went left and Eric went right. Dave could hear the crisp echoes of their feet.
There was no time to waste. Except for the door that Sid had locked, Dave went to every door, pulled it shut and turned the latch until he heard the lock going into place. He made certain to give each door a good shake to verify that it was firmly locked.
Dave took one last look through the doors. There was nothing out there. But how long until the three were noticed?
Pushing his worries down, Dave jogged deeper into the shopping centre until he reached the T-intersection where Sid and Eric had separated before. Dave stood still and listened. It was a faint mess of sound of shuffling feet and the distinct metallic clicks of door locks. Dave was surprised by just how well noise travelled in this store. If there was something inside the shopping centre, then they must be aware of Dave, Sid and Eric by this time.
Dave noticed the sound of running feet was getting louder. Because the hallways in the shopping centre were so straight Dave could see Sid and Eric jogging back towards Dave. When they arrived they were a little out of breath but not terribly so. Dave was impressed by their physical fitness. Impressed and a little envious.
"All good?" asked Dave.
They all nodded.
"Easy as pie," said Sid.
"Now comes the tricky part," said Dave. "I don't know my way around here. So I'm relying on Eric to show us around the docking area."
Eric nodded. "No problem. Just follow me."
In front of the trio was a large wall. It was a noticeable asymmetry in the design of the floor because they were the only solid walls to be seen. Any other place where a potential wall could be placed was instead filled with a glass store frontage begging for customers to spend their money. In the middle of the wall was a large, double-width door. The door was open to a short hallway. Immediately inside the hallway, discretely hidden from public view, were the entrance ways to the public toilets. The wide hallway wasn't too long and at the far end were another set of double doors - this time closed.
"Through those," said Eric pointing down the hallway, "is the docking area."
There was no need to say anything and the three walked down the hallway. Dave gave a nervous look at the entrances to the toilets. The shop fronts were glass and easy to see into, while, with no lights on, the toilets were a difficult, dark place to see into. They didn't linger and reached the end of the hallway quickly.
Eric gave Dave and Sid a glance before pushing the door open.
Dave had expected the docking area to be dark and gloomy. Instead he could see that most of the rear doors that should have covered the docks were open and the area was filled with light. The place appeared abandoned in mid-step. Trucks were parked about the docks. Fork-lifts were often left in the middle of some task. Pallets with boxed products were scattered about. Dave wasn't familiar with how such a place worked so to him it looked like chaos.
"What a mess," said Sid agreeing to Dave's unstated thought.
"Let's look around," said Dave. "We need to close all this up somehow."
The three looked all
