CHAPTER ONE
OKAY THAT WAS WEIRD

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Much earlier than necessary, Meilin Ren's alarm went off, signalling that it was time for her day to begin. She sighed as she pushed her covers off and got out of her bed, turning off the alarm and putting on her slippers. Without bothering to get dressed, she headed out of her bedroom into the hall, passing into the living room. On the couch, she saw that her mother was already awake, sitting with a cup of tea — likely spiked — and staring blankly at the television. Meilin averted her eyes and headed into the kitchen to get breakfast ready.

Her mother, Liena, had been depressed for many years now, ever since Meilin's father had disappeared. She remembered her father well enough since she was a teenager when he left but she knew that her brother, Jianyu, had almost no memories of him. Jianyu was eight now but he was only four when they last saw their father. Not only did he not remember their father, but it was likely that he only remembered their mother as she was now; depressed, despondent and nearly incapable of taking care of her children.

When there was a small stack of pancakes on the counter next to the stove, Jianyu finally wandered into the kitchen, looking for breakfast before he went to school. She ruffled her brother's hair when he came into reach, causing him to bat her arm away as he pulled down a plate to put his pancakes on. He pulled a few of the pancakes onto his plate, then went to the fridge, pulling the syrup and orange juice out.

"Do you need a lunch today?" Mei asked her brother.

"No," he told her, taking the syrup and juice to the dining table. "Today is the day of our pizza party."

Mei nodded and placed another pancake on the remaining stack. A minute later, Jianyu came back into the kitchen and took his plate and a glass out to the table with some cutlery and she heard him begin eating. When she had a few more pancakes on her stack, Mei divided them into two stacks. She took them both out, placing one on the table across from her brother and then crossing to the living room where she placed the other plate on the coffee table in front of her mother, hoping she would eat. If she was lucky, there would be a few bites out of one of the pancakes when she returned from work that evening.

They didn't speak much as they ate, Mei and Jianyu, the only sounds coming from the show that Liena was watching, some daytime drama that Mei knew her mother took in nothing from. If someone asked her immediately after the program ended what the episode she'd just watched was about, she wouldn't have been able to tell them. No, Liena just sat there and stared at the television, sipping her tea and maybe eating enough to count as one full meal by the time she finally left her spot on the couch to go lay in bed and hardly sleep.

Just after her father had left when she was fifteen, Mei had gone into her mother's room in the middle of the night, craving her comfort for her grief. At the time, Mei hadn't known the pattern of depression she was witnessing in her mother wasn't going to break and she'd hoped Liena would soon break out of it, not because her grief had passed, but because she knew her children needed the only parent they had left. But the only thing that Mei saw when she entered her mother's room that night — and every night she tried to get comfort from her mother — was her mother, laying on her side and staring blankly at the empty spot where her father had once slept. Just like everything else, this pattern had continued for the entire four years since then.

When they had both finished eating, Mei collected the plates from the dining table and carried them into the kitchen, placing them in the sink to be washed that evening when she got home from work. She caught up to her brother in the only hallway their apartment had, the one that led to the bedrooms and the front door. Jianyu was pulling his backpack onto his shoulders and slipping his shoes onto his feet.

"You have everything you need?" she asked him.

"All my books," he confirmed.

"Your homework?"

"Yes."

"Your finished homework?" she questioned.

"Yes, Mei," he answered, rolling his eyes.

"Okay. I'll see you when I get home from work, then. Call the store if you need anything, okay, everyone knows to put you through to me," she reminded him.

"I know," he said. "I have to go or I'll miss the bus!"

"Alright, alright," she said, smiling. "Have a good day!"

Mei smiled as she watched her brother leave out the front door. She made sure the door was closed before turning into her bedroom to get ready for the day ahead of her. She had a late shift that night which meant it would be dark before she got home but she was sure that Jianyu would be able to scrounge something for himself for dinner. She'd made sure on her last grocery run to get food he'd be able to cook easily by himself.

When she was finally ready for work, Mei gathered all of her things together and went into the living room, looking down at her mother, who hadn't moved at all except that her mug was significantly more empty then it had been before.

"I'm off to work, Mum," she said. "I'll be back late tonight."

Liena didn't answer, she didn't even look over at Mei as she spoke. She looked down and turned away, heading back to the front door. As always, she locked the door behind her. Better safe than sorry when the only remaining occupant might as well be comatose.

At the same time she had exited her apartment, someone had exited the apartment next door and Mei turned towards them with a smile. The Ren family had lived next door to the Tyler family for as long as Mei could remember. Rose Tyler had been Mei's best friend for practically their entire lives and it was luck that they had ended up working together now that they were out of high school.

"You ready?" Rose asked her.

"As I'll ever be," Mei answered.

"Then let's do this thing."

The two girls linked their arms together and started on their walk to work with no idea of what the day had in store for them.

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The day was, indeed, as long as Mei had anticipated it would be. The customers that day were nothing that she hadn't been expecting but there were also no customers that were a particular pain, either. That was a relief. And working with Rose always made the day better, too.

When the end of the day finally came, Mei couldn't wait to get home and get off her feet. She didn't often get time to relax when she was at home but she knew she would at least get a little bit of time off her feet if only because she would be helping Jianyu with his homework at the table. Not that he needed a lot of help, he was a bright kid, but she always checked it over so that he wouldn't get tripped up by simple things like spelling mistakes.

As Rose and Mei headed out of the store with two of the other girls who worked there, they were stopped by the security guard who was holding the door for everyone to leave. In his hands, he was holding a small ziploc bag with some loose change and cash in it. It was the lottery money for the store's pooled lottery ticket. Two people always had to take it down to Wilson, who was in charge of it all and that night it seemed like it was Rose and Mei's job.

They took the elevator down to the sublevel with a bit of reluctance as they watched everyone else leave for the night. It was quiet as always when they stepped out of the elevator, looking around at all the various things stored down there like seasonal decorations, racks of clothing and mannequins.

"Wilson?" Rose called out.

"Wilson, we've got the lottery money!" Mei called out.

They headed down the corridor to their left where the door to Wilson's office was and Rose knocked on the door.

"Wilson, are you there?" Rose asked. "Look, we can't hang about 'cause they're closing the shop. Wilson!"

"This isn't like him," Mei said as they both looked around, hoping he would pop out from somewhere and apologize for keeping them.

There was a noise like something had fallen over from behind Rose and the two girls immediately turned to see what had made the noise. There was nothing in their immediate sight line, which made them both all the more nervous despite that it could have been something simply falling over. Mei grabbed Rose's hand, feeling better having that contact.

"Hello?" Rose called out.

"Could that be Wilson?" Mei asked, hoping that it was simply him and he just somehow hadn't heard them.

"Only one way to find out," Rose pointed out.

Hand in hand, the two girls made their way down the hall towards the sound, keeping their eyes and ears open for any further sign of movement.

"Hello?" Rose called out again.

"Wilson, it's Mei and Rose," Mei called, hoping he'd hear them as they got closer to the sound.

They continued down a little further, calling out a few more times and still receiving no response. Mei didn't quite understand why he wasn't answering if he was down here. And if it wasn't him who made the noise, what had made it? And was investigating really a good idea if it wasn't Wilson? The thought they could be walking into something they weren't supposed to see made Mei's stomach tie all up in more knots than it already was.

What would happen to Jianyu if something happened to her down here? He couldn't take care of himself and their mother all on his own, he was just a kid. Would he get taken away from Liena? And what would happen to Liena if there was no one around to remember to pay the bills and buy groceries? The weight of keeping her family together and anything close to happiness rested entirely on Mei's shoulders.

They turned into a room they thought was likely for Wilson to be in, a large storage room they'd found Wilson in once before when they'd had to drop off the lottery money. The room was dark as they entered and they stared into the darkness for a while, hoping to spot a flashlight in the distance. When nothing but continued darkness reached them, Rose reached over and flicked on the light. Starting from the other end of the room, the overhead lights turned on one by one, illuminating the room and the dozens and dozens of mannequins scattered throughout the room.

"That's just creepy," Mei said.

"Wilson!" Rose called out. 

Rose started walking into the room so Mei went after her, knots forming in her stomach as she looked at all of the mannequins watching them. Rose called out for Wilson a few more times, but they still weren't getting any response. By now, Mei was beginning to get worried. Why would they have been sent down here to Wilson if he wasn't here? And if they thought he was down here and he clearly wasn't, where was he? A lot of things just were not adding up.

Just as they reached another door and tried to open it, the door they'd come in through slammed shut even though they'd left it open. Mei and Rose exchanged a worried look before they both sprinted back towards the door, frantically pulling on the handle to no success. How was the door locked? Mei didn't think these doors were even supposed to lock.

There was a noise from behind them, and they both turned towards it, suspicious. It didn't totally sound like something just falling over.

"Is that someone mucking about?" Rose called out, taking a step away from the door.

Rose made a couple of small steps forward and further from the door so Mei hurried over to her friend, grabbing her hand for a small degree of comfort. They walked forward, Mei sticking close to Rose, waiting any second for someone to jump out at them.

"Who is it?" Rose called out again.

"Rose, I don't like this," Mei said.

The hair on the back of her neck prickled and Mei turned around at the same time as Rose, their eyes landing on a mannequin who's head had turned to face them. As they watched, they took a step forward and even turned their whole body towards them. The knot in Mei's stomach settled like lead as it took a few awkward steps forward, each matched by a step backwards by Mei and Rose.

"Okay, you got us, very funny," Rose said.

But the mannequin didn't stop like they expected. Instead, it kept shambling towards them as they backed away.

"Right, we've got the joke!" Rose yelled. "Whose idea was this? Was it Derek's? Is it? Derek is this you?"

More mannequins came alive around them, causing them to turn slightly as they kept backing away from all the mannequins that continued to walk towards them. More and more of them kept coming alive, coming at Mei and Rose as they backed away from them all. As they continued backing away, Mei's back hit a wall and she turned to look, only to see they'd somehow managed to back themselves into a corner. And while there was a door, there was no handle on this side of it, meaning they had nowhere to go.

"Rose..." Mei said.

She looked around and saw what Mei had noticed, how they no longer had anywhere to run. Her grip tightened on Mei's hand as they both turned back to face the oncoming mannequins, who were already raising their arms to strike at them. Mei squeezed her eyes closed, bracing for the impact.

Mei's eyes opened when she felt someone grab her hand and she turned to see a man there. Her brow furrowed in confusion but she didn't get a chance to really see his face.

"Run!" he told her.

He pulled on her hand and she pulled on Rose's and the man led them out through the door they'd been backed up against just as the mannequins struck a pipe which had been on the wall behind them, causing it to burst.

The man pulled Mei and Rose along down the hallway as the mannequins chased after them. Along the walls of the long corridor they were more mannequins trying to get at them through windows and grates in the walls. The man leading them didn't even spare them a glance, just continuing to pull them along with him.

At the end of the corridor, they passed through another set of doors and a lift came into sight in front of them. They hurried towards it and, luckily, the lift was already on their floor and as soon as the man pushed the button, the doors opened and they hurried inside. Looking back, the horde of mannequins following them burst through the doors out of the hallway in a rush, hurrying over towards them as the doors of the lift started to close.

Just as Mei thought they were in the clear, the mannequin who had been in the lead, the first one to move and scare Mei and Rose, stuck its arm out between the doors, preventing it from fully closing. The man jumped forward, letting go of Mei's hand to grab the arm and start yanking on it, pulling over and over again until finally, the arm came off. With nothing blocking the doors, they finally slid shut.

Silence fell and Mei felt she had a chance to breathe and for her heart rate to slow down again. She also finally got a chance to look at the man who had saved them.

He was older than her and though she could tell it was by a significant amount, Mei found it hard to pinpoint anything even close to exact. His dark hair was cut short, nearly a buzzcut, almost as if it'd had time to grow out already. He wore a leather jacket, large and loose-fitting on him, with a maroon jumper underneath.

"You pulled his arm off!" Rose exclaimed.

"Yup," the man said, tossing it at Rose. "Plastic."

"Very clever, nice trick," Rose said, looking at the plastic arm.

"Who are they, then, students?" Mei asked. "Is this a student thing, or what?"

The man looked back at her, confusion clear in his blue eyes. "Why would they be students?"

"I— I don't know," Mei said.

"Well, you said it. Why students?"

"Uh, I guess to get that many people all dressed up and... being silly, they'd have to be students, right?"

"That makes sense, well done," he said.

Mei's brow furrowed. "Thanks."

"They're not students," he told her, eyes fixed up on the digital display of the floor they were on.

"Whoever they are, when Wilson finds them, he's going to call the police," Rose said.

"Who's Wilson?"

"Chief electrician."

"Wilson's dead."

The elevator doors opened and he walked out, leaving Rose and Mei confused and shocked by the news he'd delivered to them so casually. Rose was the first one out of the elevator with Mei close behind her.

"That's not funny, that's sick!" she accused.

Almost as if he wasn't listening to the words Rose was saying, the man turned as soon as they'd come out of the elevator and guided them further away from the elevator, telling them to shield their eyes before quickly turning back towards the elevator call button.

"I've had enough of this now," Rose went on. 

There was a strange blue light coming from in front of the man and a moment later, the entire panel of the elevator call button sparked like it was fried. The man turned away from it just as quickly, walking away as if this was just a normal thing.

"Who are you, then? Who's that lot down there?" Rose called after him. "I said, who are they?"

Wanting answers, Rose hurried after the man and Mei followed quickly behind her, not wanting to be left alone after everything they'd just been through. They finally caught up to him as he was round the corner into a smaller hallway.

"They're made of plastic," he explained. "Living plastic creatures. And they're being controlled by a relay device on the roof. Which would be a great big problem if I didn't have this."

He paused, turning back towards them, showing them something he'd pulled out of an inside pocket of his jacket. Mei had only ever seen bombs on tv, but what he was holding definitely looked like a bomb. The only thing giving Mei any sense of ease was the bomb he was holding was only a little larger than his hand.

"So," he continued, hurrying towards a set of doors and then pushing them open, holding it out for Rose and Mei. "I'm gonna go upstairs and blow it up. And I might well die in the process, but don't worry about me. No, you go home. Go on, go and have your lovely beans on toast. Don't tell anyone about this, 'cause if you do, you'll get them killed."

With Rose and Mei now outside, he pulled the door shut. Mei exchanged a confused glance with Rose. They turned away from the door, preparing to leave when suddenly the door pushed open again and the man reappeared.

"I'm the Doctor, by the way. What's your name?"

"Rose."

"Meilin."

"Nice to meet you, Rose, Meilin," he told them with a smile before lifting the bomb once again. "Run for your life!"

He pulled the door shut again quickly. With his words ringing in their ears, Mei took Rose's hand again and they ran out of the alley. They made their way around the building, slowing down once they reached the street corner at the front, ducking out of the way of the few people still walking, leaning back against the stone wall to catch their breath.

After a moment, they exchanged a glance and hurried forward. They glanced both ways before darting out into the street. When they were nearly across, a car horn blared at them and they jumped out of the way of a car that had come screeching to a halt to avoid them. Mei called out her apologies as Rose pulled her to the safety of the sidewalk.

They stopped there on the corner, across the street from the store they worked at, glancing back at it. Anxious anticipation had been sitting in Mei's stomach ever since that man, the Doctor, had said the building was going to explode. She couldn't believe they had gotten this far with nothing. She wondered if she was wrong in her assumption he meant the building and there was only going to be a small explosion on the roof. Still, she had expected to hear it.

Just as they looked away, getting ready to head home, a loud explosion caused them to look back rapidly. It was big, larger than anything Mei had expected. Fire consumed the entire roof and even the top floor windows had blown out.

This time, they didn't even have to look at each other. Mei and Rose did exactly as they'd been told. They ran for their life.