Indeed they do. Zahn is slowly getting a better picture of how the stores are laid out. Most of the stores are medium sized, well medium sized for this weird mall, the medium sized ones are all around thirty meters wide. There are also smaller stores about half with width of the next smallest grouping, and larger stores that have to be something like sixty meters long. These longer stores are things like department stores, supermarkets and hardware stores.

"I think you can handle yourself. Case in point, finding the button. We probably shouldn't press anything until we're more sure what it does. Do you think they have something helpfully explanatory inside?"

"I'm not really sure," She takes a few steps and glances more closely at the archway. "There's just a bit of texture on the top of the arch there. It blends in really well though. Maybe the button is to close up the store, like the metal grating you see to close up stores in cities. There's no tracks though."

"...one of us on the inside, one on the outside?"

"That should work." She moves to stand inside and reaches out to press the button. "When you're ready."

As soon as they're both in position, he nods.

Alice reaches up and pushes the button. A thick clear barrier starts to descend from the ceiling. Alice reaches out and touches it. After about ten seconds the entire archway is filled except for a small cut out around the button. Then there's a faint snap hiss sound, a bit like what the cabinets in the kitchen and the bins in the greenhouse make when they close and the barrier flashed for a moment. Hesitantly, Alice reaches out to touch it again. "On the way down it felt a bit soft, but now it has no give at all to it."

"Don't do that again! We didn't know touching it was safe, who knows what could have happened. Come back outside, we should stay together."

Alice glances at the barrier between them but then shrugs and presses the button again. There's another snap-hiss sound and the barrier begins rising upwards again. When it finishes receding she steps forwards out of the store.

"What else do you think we can do out here? We shouldn't wander too far..."

He looks around for any unusual stores nearby. 

The stores within sight are all pretty normal, clothing shops, a few food stores and some novelty shops.

He doesn't want to go too far just yet.

"I guess we'll just wait."

"Makes sense."

"I'd been planning for this costume party for weeks."

"Do you go to a lot of them, or were you mostly excited because they're uncommon?"

"They're not that common. I love the chance to really indulge my fashion sense. Costumes let me play around with different themes and motifs more than I can ever do day to day."

"That makes sense, I like dressing up for fancy parties too. I'm not skilled enough to make my own dresses though."

"I didn't make this, but I have made some Halloween costumes. I care more about design than the actual labor involved, which is one of many reasons I stuck with math over fashion."

"Well you have good taste regardless."

"Thanks. You two were expecting something without a dress code?" 

"Yeah, I'm kinda confused by the fact that the invitations varied."

"It's not really more confusing than this place. Different invitations in different cities, whoever this is wanted a lot of reach."

"Yeah, I'm not sure what to make of that either. I don't feel like the college population varies that much from city to city."

"Maybe they specifically wanted geographic range. We haven't met anyone from China or Brazil yet, but they could be in here somewhere."

"Yes potentially. I suppose we might find out at some point."