The four adventurers stopped before the escalators. Their trip back was silent, albeit slightly better lit from the candle the woman gave to Saleem. It was only when they were back up their end of the shopping center that they'd realised they'd never asked her name. So much was happening, Elizabeth doubted that she'd remember it.

"What's the plan?" Saleem asked, looking to Emilio.

"We can't tell them it's been 5 days," he replied.

"We can't tell Donovan it's been 5 days," Elizabeth corrected.

Emilio crossed his arms. "You wanna tell Interview with a Vampire that he was way off? That his candle theory is bunk? You think he'd handle it well if we told him praying didn't mean shit?"

Gowan let out a breath to calm himself. "I think we just hide what we know. At least for now."

Elizabeth gestured to the candle Saleem was holding. "You need to keep this outside."

"True," Saleem looked around for somewhere to put the candle, "he can probably count to four."

"Be careful," Elizabeth warned. "It doesn't go out, but it might set something ablaze. Clearly whatever rules we thought we knew don't mean anything. We don't want it getting knocked over."

She would forever be scarred by the fraught 90s parenting style where every rule came with an explanation. It was never just "no candles in the bathroom", it was "no candles in the bathroom because the tiles are in there and we don't want you burning the house down, because you'll kill us all." In a way, it probably kept her alive in the years before her brain stopped developing. However it kept her adulthood from having any kind of zest or vanilla-flavoured danger.

Perhaps that was a good thing.

Putting the candle anywhere nearby would alert the others waiting for them to return. Although the chance of them ever leaving seemed to get slimmer and slimmer. Nevertheless, the longer they left Donovan, Victor, and Matthew alone, the more of a chance one of them would come looking... Or Donovan would do something reckless.

Elizabeth knew that the rates of Donovan doing something reckless wouldn't fall if her and Gowan were the ones to dispose of the candle. As much as she would love to tell Emilio and Saleem to just go inside and wait. The tension in the air suggested none of them really wanted to return.

There was no more community. The air smelled like death. Matthew screamed and there was no other way to help. It was just a bank of memories that nobody wanted to cash in.

"We should get more supplies," she finally said. "We can stash the candle somewhere, get some supplies on the way, come back and boost morale."

Saleem pointed to some text on the back of his shirt. "I collected trolleys for Gleesons. I know they only do food, but they'll have wipes and shit. If we can bust down the door to the back I know how to get into the lockers. That screaming dude needs drugs and that's your best shot."

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. "And you know how to break into lockers because..."

Saleem's eyes said "How the fuck do you think?", but his voice said "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

She shrugged. "Fair." After a short moment of searching her mental outlay of the shopping center, she nodded. "It's the closest too."

After some discussion, they decided to go together under the assumption that Victor, Donovan, and Matthew being left alone in a room together couldn't get worse. With two teams of two they'd be able to commandeer two trolleys and maintain a little bit of safety in pairs while covering more of the store. Gleesons tried to keep the same store layout across it's vast Australian chains, so it was safe to assume the fresh fruits and vegetables started at one end of the store and the freezers would be at the other end. Not that the food in the freezer would be salvageable at that point.

The store was fenced with large roller doors that needed large hooks to be open and shut each day. Elizabeth wasn't so certain that Emilio would be able to simply barge his way through this time. Even with a heavy, metal chair.

Luck was on their side.

Saleem guided them to a small fire escape hallway to the side of the main entrance. Every piece of the faux-luxury aesthetic that made up the Southglen Shopping Center was immediately abandoned. The polished floors were traded for cement. Bricks replaced the clean, white walls. The hallway was cold and seemingly endless and each footstep echoed on the unwelcoming surfaces. Even with the light in front of them, Elizabeth was not able to see the other end of the hall. Even filled with four people, it seemed lonely and forgotten.

Somewhere in the middle of the hallway, there were double doors that Elizabeth assumed were fire doors. She hoped they were fire doors. Otherwise, the architect really didn't think the fire safety plan through.

Saleem reached into his pocket and pulled out a keychain that was accented with a glittery marijuana leaf.

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"That doesn't seem very work appropriate," Gowan quipped.

After flicking through a few keys, Saleem found the key that would get them through the fire doors. "If you're willing to do manual labour, you'll be able to find a megacorp willing to give you a smidge of responsibility." He waved the marijuana leaf at Gowan and held the candle behind it. His voice warbled like he was telling a scary story to a child, "Eee-hee-heeeeven if you smoke weed sometimes." He made sure to accentuate the "weed" and the "sometimes" for effect.

He held the candle to the keyhole and unlocked the door. He pointed to the darkness filtering through the other end of the hall. "There's a trolley bay out there," he paused, "or, was? Who knows. It was easier to get them from there to here. Trying to navigate through swarms of people sucked, so they got me," he jingled the keys, "these bad boys."

He wandered through like he was returning home. He leaned against the door to help the others through. The rest of the group hesitated.

Not wanting to stay in the hallway, Saleem clicked his fingers. "Yallah!" Saleem paused. "Bloody hell, I've turned into my mother," he mumbled to himself as the group started moving past him.

They made it to the trolley bays and took two of the biggest shopping carts available. It was not rocket science to guess how the groups would be split. Saleem knew how to get into lockers, and Emilio knew how to bust down the locked doors stopping them from getting to the lockers. Gowan had experience in shopping to feed large groups of people from many years of youth group camps, and Elizabeth was simply the last one left. She wasn't complaining though.

Elizabeth and Gowan begun toward the fruit and vegetable section. A lot of fruit would be soft by now. There was no point trying to gather fruit that would expire easily. Nonetheless, the whole group was craving something that wasn't just beige and in cracker form. Apples and oranges were the obvious choices. The deli made the area smell like soured meat. It wasn't at a state of decay, but it still made the space smell putrid.

They moved through the shelves trying to find fruit cups, fruit snacks, and anything fortified with vitamins. Elizabeth had the idea to hit up the baking section. Not for the confectionery, but because the dried fruit and nuts were usually nearby.

She pushed the trolley as Gowan held their candle.

"If this date went well, this could have been us a few years down the line. In the light. Having an argument over what bread to get," she mused.

"Multigrain, obviously." Gowan shot back as he scanned the shelves.

She raised her eyebrows, "A man with taste."

"How do you think it would get to that stage? How would you have wanted this fantastical life of ours to pan out?" he asked.

Elizabeth stopped pushing the trolley to think. "Well, first the date would have gone super well. Obviously, we'd have gone on that drive. We'd have looked at the stars," her eyes darted to Gowan, "but you're a gentleman, so obviously you'd still get me home at a respectable hour."

"Should I wait 24 hours to text you?"

She threw some packets of cashews in the trolley. "Nah, to hell with playing it cool. Text me the next day but at like 8am. Before you go to work. I want to be sure you're keen."

"Alright," he found a cache of apricots that he began loading into the trolley, "but only one text. I don't want to come on too strong. Our next date would be dinner."

"Do you like sushi?"

"Of course. You already established that I'm a man with taste."

"Excellent."

Gowan stood up after searching the bottom shelves. "But let's get down to the brass tacks. How many dates would we go on before you'd come to church with me."

Elizabeth hesitated. "Are you just dating me to get me to come to church with you?"

"No- but- I mean-" he stammered, before pulling at his cross necklace, "It's a pretty big part of my life."

"Would it be the church we get married in?"

"So you won't date me there, but you'd marry me there?! I haven't even proposed yet!"

Elizabeth laughed, shaking her fist jokingly. "Propose then, you coward!"

Gowan took the candle and began looking around at the cake decorating ingredients. He picked up a box and took out some tin foil, fashioning it into a poorly-constructed ring shape. "Ok, pretend we're on a beach at sunset," he told her. Getting down on one knee, he began his proposal, "Elizabeth, I don't know your last name, ever since we met in that cinema 8 months ago-"

"8 months?!"

"I'm a Christian, we move fast."

"Fair."

"Now, before I was rudely interrupted ..." He resumed his faux-passionate speech, "Ever since we met in that cinema 8 months ago, I was enamored with you. I love how stuff bounces off your head, how we watch the stars together, and how you make tiny noises like a chihuahua in your sleep-"

"Hey!"

"Look, I don't know much about you, just roll with it."

She rolled her eyes, still smiling.

Gowan held up the ring to her. "Elizabeth, whatever-your-last-name-is-"

"It's Alpin."

"Elizabeth Alpin, will you marry me?"

She took the ring and placed it on her finger, pretending to fend off tears. "Yes! One thousand times, yes! Now let's save $500,000 so we can afford a basic wedding, my love!" She put her hand to the side of her mouth, "I'm pretty sure that's what they cost these days."

Gowan nodded his head. "Reasonable. So what's the wedding plans?"

Elizabeth's smile faded a little. Her eyes zoned out into the darkness around them. "Can we skip past the part where we get married, fight over whose apartment we're going to live in, and just ... do something normal?"

"What did you have in mind?"

Elizabeth wasn't one to embarrass easily, but for a moment her heart was pounding. She was grateful that for once in this ordeal it wasn't from a survival instinct. "Can we just do the shopping?"

For a moment, they both stood motionless in the glow of the flame. Gowan made the first steps towards Elizabeth. She had both of her hands on the trolley bar, and he came from behind to place his free hand onto hers. The other hand, holding the candle, rested on the other side so that his arms were around Elizabeth. He brought his head forward and rested on her shoulder before he tilted it to the side and lightly tapped the side of her head with his.

For a moment, their bodies became the only source of warmth in the world. Elizabeth closed her eyes to try and imagine a busy grocery store with buzzing lights and clacking trolley wheels. Her smile returned as she leant back into Gowan, a solid rock for her to lean.

Without any thought, she turned around and buried her head in his chest. She placed her arms around him, snaking her arms underneath his jacket. All she could do was sob. It was a mourning for what could have been, and for all that she was losing.

It should have only been three days. They should have been looking at the stars by now. There's a dying kid waiting for them and she didn't have any clue how they could survive long term, and they were at the whim of whatever had brought the darkness.

It wasn't the darkness that scared her, but rather, it the force was keeping it there.