The fast food restaurant was not a good base for them to hold out a storm. This was the thought that compelled Rain to take J and wander back into the heart of the brewing storm.

To the eyes of others it would seem like he was making a heck of a mistake. Something dangerously harsh was coming and he had left the comforts of a building under the context that it was not enough to keep him and J safe? That he needed more?

If that wasn’t madness then what was?

But he did not just come to that conclusion without thinking. He took a couple of important things into consideration. For one, the restaurant had no protection from the outside world, which meant that the probability of some prowling savage beast, or beasts, coming into it sooner or later to seek shade from the storm was extremely high. And Rain wanted to avoid any unnecessary battle that could cost him his life at any means.

Secondly, it would be too damn cold.

A storm was something no one had any surety on how long it would span, so it was better to look for a safer place with a lot more warmth to cuddle in than waste precious time and regret later on when things turned out bad.

All in all, the cons outweighed the pros, and it went against his nature to settle for less.

Hmm… He didn’t know that before. That was another characteristic unlocked then.

A chill ran up Rain’s back suddenly, shivering him stiff for a moment as a brush of harsh wind swept past him from his rear.

He turned around and looked up at the sky; a few ways back the clouds were a lot more thick and dark, and within them flashed jagged bolts of lightning.

There were no sounds of thunder yet, even distant ones, so he felt that the storm was yet to begin. But it was sure as hell very close now.

Rain tugged at the sling pouch he had made from a tablecloth at the restaurant, which now held his file and knife. There was not much time left on this road.

It was hard, though, finding a good spot. Buildings were everywhere, no doubt, houses and stores alike, but they were mostly tiny ones on the verge of collapsing and either completely locked or widely open to everything.

None was suitable.

If the intensity of the brewing storm turned out to be an extremely high one, a building on the verge of collapsing would most likely come crashing down; if he was inside when that happened then the next thing he would be seeing was going to be a pearly gate.

The locked buildings were not even places he thought to bother with.

Sure, he could break their windows and take shade in them, but with locked doors his escape route would be limited if anything ensued within their walls. Large cats weren’t the only things to be afraid of. If birds could be mutated, then that meant things like snakes, lizards, and even insects could have been mutated too. Those things loved damp buildings where little to no light existed; it was risky.

Now that struck him weirdly; how come he was yet to see a mutated insect? Those things were as much as humans, so why…

Rain shook his head. Useless thoughts, they were.

He looked to his side and saw another terribly cracked two-story building, this one possessing a door held from falling by a single hinge.

With a moody sigh, Rain continued forward. He had just left a building because of its accessibility; he was not planning on entering anything too similar. His goal was to find one that was not on the verge of collapsing, that wasn’t locked, and at the same time not completely accessible to any and everything.

J was his responsibility, he was not planning on putting the cat’s life at risk, and so he would not settle for anything else.

It was for those reasons that Rain, despite his steps being continually dragged back by the blowing wind, pushed forth through its sharp, piercing screeches.

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And then, a few minutes or so later, he finally stumbled upon a spot that seemed to give him a glimmer of hope at the prospect of a safe haven in the upcoming storm.

Just like every other building, it was as well abandoned and weathered, filled with moss and cracks snaking along its grime covered walls, but it seemed to stand more erect than any other in the vicinity.

Rain looked up from the wide parking lot ridden with damaged cars rusted beyond satisfactory repair, past the human-height weeds painting the scenery in a rather ugly but beautiful primitive scenery, and up at the glass facade of the building. It was all covered in vines, but unlike the fast food restaurant long abandoned, the words of its signage could be made out. It read: ‘M&S.’

He didn’t recall this place as well, but that was fine. It seemed he had made the right choice to leave Telford road and make a curve onto Groathill Ave.

“What do you think?” with a smile, Rain asked his Companion while rubbing the back of its head. J chuffed as a response and Rain nodded his head. “I know, right?” He looked at J and grinned while pointing a thumb at himself. “I’m apparently a good scout.”

###

“This! This is really good!” Rain exclaimed with wide, sparkling eyes filled with life as he munched on a bag of salty chips he had found. “How come this place is still filled with food?” Talking while eating caused him to choke, so he hurriedly picked up the can of apple juice that he had popped open and gulped it down.

As for his question, he knew the answer to that.

The store was a rather huge one. And from his deduction on how humans were stuck in the pods and each person was released at different times it made sense that the snacks here had not been completely looted.

Something bothered him though. Looting and leaving wasn’t necessary in a place like this? Why should anyone leave? They could have just taken this place as a base, safeguard it well enough, and live happily with all the items in the store.

Although, when he thought about it, that question was hypocritical. He was going to leave as well, and most likely won’t return.

Compared to how it might have been five years ago, it was no longer safe for an extended period of living. Vines were slowly cracking its glasses, give them a bit more time and they would break them completely. Also, cutting them down was not a job a person who had just been released from a pod could do on their own.

Furthermore, its front doors were lockable from within, but its vicinity was not really that protected. Normally, it would have been hard for beasts to sneak in, but since ones like J, who could reason like humans, now existed, even if it took a while, it wasn’t far-fetched for them to be able to find a way in from some other section in the store one day.

All in all, for short term its pros outweighed its cons, but when long term came into consideration, its cons were over the pros.

Rain finished his meal after a while, which came to a total of four bags of chips and ten cans of apple juice. He exhaled in satisfaction as he stared up at the high ceiling of the building, his eyes occasionally darting between the sections on the upper floors.

“It’s getting dark,” he mumbled in notice of the storm being a lot closer now.

At this point the rumbling of thunder could even be heard, so he knew droplets were already pouring down. Those, though, were like an appetizer; the real meal would soon arrive.

“You better eat it,” Rain said to J. The Jaguar kept sniffing at the bag of chips he had opened for it. “Whether it suits your palette or not you have to put something in your belly. We have a long journey ahead of us after the storm passes. I don’t want you fainting.” He rose to his feet then with a grunt and looked around. “Or do you sense the presence of anything you could hunt?” There was no reply. “Well, I’m off to look for a map. You know how to find me.”

And he left; but not to find a map.

“This is nice! This too! They’re all nice! I wonder what my size is?” He paused, then grinned. “No questions Rain, just test them all.”

Rain was in the clothing section, rummaging through every piece of attire he could find. They were all stiff and blanketed by dust, but he didn’t mind. Anything was better than his patient’s gown. Anything at all.

“Let’s try this combination!”

With excitement, Rain picked out a black hoodie and a gray cargo trouser, putting them on as soon as he’d taken off the most recent of the outfits he’d tested, a vintage shirt and a jean shorts.

“They do fit well!”

He was still relishing in the spectacle of his outlook when, all of a sudden, he heard a low pitched scream.

A fluttery feeling instantly took hold of his belly, prompting him to turn his head to his side with his brows nudged downwards.

What was that? He knew what it was. I must have heard wrong, right?

The adrenaline coursing through his body did not let him put it off though.

Leaving his patient’s gown on the floor, Rain picked up the black crossbody bag of leather he had found—which now contained his file and knife—threw it over his shoulders, and dashed towards the location he felt was the origin of the scream.

Upon getting there he was met with a rather shocking scene, one which stunned him but at the same time baptized his heart with a stream of relief.

In the midst of the utilities section was J and two other beings who were softly drenched in what seemed to be the waters of the sky.

Rain’s mouth almost fell open at the sight of them as the roar of thunder reverberated across the room. Those beings; they were…

Humans…