The first department store does end up sadly being a bust. With the ceiling having collapsed inward, nature was given free rein to do with the building as it pleases. Whatever carpet or fabric that is left in the store is soggy and riddled with mold. Mushrooms grow on the sides of counters and flying insects make their homes near smalls ponds of stagnant rainwater that had collected inside of the cracked and ruined tiled floor.

A rather interesting sight I come across is an area where the floor had been severely damaged. From my best guess the earthquakes had caused a sink hole or something to form and swallowed up a large portion of the floor. The large hole is full of water, maybe a busted water pipe or just months of rain, and had become a large pond, transforming a section of the department store into a small oasis. At one corner a fallen manakin sticks out from the water looking like a still image of a man trying not to drown.

While trying to explore this department store come rainforest, I do come across some travel bags and gym bags, but they are utterly ruined. Those that were made of fabric or canvas are moldy and falling apart at the seams. Those that were made from polyester are stained and filthy, their zippers either rusted shut or full of stuff I don’t feel comfortable touching.

The only things I find that aren’t water damaged or broken is a couple of bottles of perfume, something I never really used, and I have little intention of starting now. Especially when smelling different and interesting is a good way of getting yourself sniffed out by predators.

A bit disappointed, but not really surprised by not finding anything, I leave the department store and head back into the mall proper. A quick look around shows that nothing has changed during my little trip. No signs of others entering the mall so far and a quick peak through the Hot Topics dirty windows shows that my new clothes remain untouched on the counter.

Good, didn’t magically disappear while I was gone.

With my mild paranoia temporarily satiated, I look around and try to decide on which way to go next.

Hmm, I can go toward the closed down Sears and see if there are any interesting stores, or I can head to the other department store and check out that branching path. Considering my options for a few seconds, I come to a decision. Let’s go down the Sears path, it’s the shorter of the two so I can knock it out first.

With that decided I head on down making sure to stick to the right-hand side because only psychopaths and idiots walk on the left-hand side.

As I wander down the aisle, I lock eyes with an owl resting in a tree. It’s the middle of the day outside, but here inside of the mall it may as well be night. As I walk the owl simply turns its neck and keeps me locked in its sight, seemingly not giving a crap about the fact that I can obviously see it despite being in the dark.

And why should it care? It’s a bird, if I try anything it can just fly away…

Soon it loses interest in me and turns its attention elsewhere, a few moments later it spreads its wings and with barely a sound it takes off and glides across the ground before pinning a rat under its talons. Leaving the owl to its meal, I get back to exploring.

After a while I come across the remains of a clothing store on the right. It sits on the corner of an aisle leading towards an exit. Several of its windows are busted open and its gate is wide open. Even without entering the store, I can see that the place has been nearly cleared out.

Still, I might be able to find something, so I decide to enter the store and have a look around. Some digging around later I manage to pull a pair of blue jeans out from under some collapsed shelves. They’re a size too big and rather dirty, no mold or water damage, so I can clean them, and they should be just fine. Being a bit big isn’t an issue either as I usually wear a belt regardless.

Going behind the counter, I grab a plastic shopping bag and throw it in. The rest of the clothes I found are a bit dirty too, but to the level of where I can still comfortably wear them. When I find a gym bag to pack them in, I’ll have to keep these jeans wrapped separately until I can get all my clothes washed.

Hopefully this time without a giant freaking fish eating any of it!

Happy with finding at least something, I get back to exploring. Further down the aisle is honestly not much. This mall really was on the verge of death. Large sections of the aisle is closed and vacant stores. Inside of one is the remains of where someone seemingly tried to make a temporary home. A quick check through it reveals the skeleton of its old inhabitant and nothing much else of particular interest.

I have no idea how they died, but it’s pretty clear that this is a shit place to live, I can’t imagine it being particularly safe to remain here for long with how close to the city it is. I’m already pushing my luck enough as it is.

Besides the abandoned shanty house, the only things of interest to be found is a dress store, full of shredded and ruined dresses, and a trading cards and comic books store that sits right next to an arcade that shares its name.

Despite there probably being nothing I need inside I decided to give it a quick look. Quickly I loop past the Sears, giving a quick peak through the closed gate. Yup, completely empty. Almost freaky to see such a large space empty. The plants haven’t even managed to find a way inside yet with it all sealed up.

Disregarding the empty shell of a store, I head over to the card store and head inside. The inside is a complete wreck, like many places I searched, but it’s not completely destroyed. The structure of the shop is holding up well and the plants have failed to spread the roots too far into the store, the complete lack of light being able to find its way into its interior apparently being too much even for this insane vegetation.

I step around fallen chairs and tables, look at broken displays holding scattered playing cards, some valued upwards of two-hundred dollars. All completely worthless now… Well maybe not, some people might still have decks of trading cards for entertainment. And these aren’t getting printed anymore… Wait, doesn’t that mean that these would be insanely valuable to the right people?!

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Staring at the potentially maybe, maybe not, valuable cards I contemplate taking them for future trading.

Ah, but the issue is safely transporting them. Not to mention that I only have so much space… Maybe I should have packed my deck before I left. I’m heading towards civilization, so it would have been nice if I could play with others again. Anna had her own decks, but you can only battle the same person so many times before you have each other’s memorized and it becomes boring…

My head up in clouds and thinking about playing with trading cards once again, I wander away from the counter and explore the rest of the store.

Theres some comics and manga scattered about and in different states of damage, nothing that I am particular interested in taking, plus I still have that book I picked up to finish reading, so I leave them where they are.

Looking around I have to admit that I would have loved to have spent some time here before the end of the world went and ruined everything. Reading some manga and playing cards, just spending an afternoon being nerdy and having fun.

“Maybe in the future I’ll be able to hang out with people and play cards again. Humanity hasn’t gone extinct yet, so there is at least a chance…” I murmur to myself.

Before I get myself depressed or end up trying to loot the entire store, I turn around and head back into the mall. I don’t see much of reason to check out the arcade, unless I wanna steal a plushy from one of the crane machines...

Tempting….

Leaning backwards, I look over my shoulder and peer into the arcade. I can see a handful of the machines in a line further back and a few of them are busted open, plushies and other things having spilled out like a gutted carcass.

Looking back and forth I check and see if there is anything moving about the mall, with it looking all clear I quickly hop into the arcade. A little while later I come out of the store with a wide grin hugging a plushy of a cute witch character that I really like.

Haha, suck it crane machines! This is the last time you steal my money. With a big evil smile, I celebrate my victory. Hmmm, I always wanted to steal from one those darn things, revenge feels soft and huggable!

Securing my hard-fought spoils (Please ignore the fact that I literally just picked it up off the ground.) into a side pouch on my bag, her head and witch hat sticking out like a little passenger, I get back to exploring.

Swinging by the Hot Topic again I peak in, ‘Yup, still there.’ and then head towards the last path that I’ve yet to explore. Just past the intersection is one of those shops full of candles and other nice smelling stuff. The smells of different kinds of candles, soaps, and lotions are mixing with the scent of stagnant water and nature from the mall. It creates an interesting scent, that while not horrible, is certainly not something I want to spend a lot of time around.

Not taking too long, I hop in and grab a couple of bottles of shampoo, conditioner and body wash, adding them to the bag with the dirty jeans. I have no idea of when the next time is that I’ll be able to restock on stuff like this, and they are very valuable as trading goods. Far too valuable to just pass up on, considering how much some people are willing to trade so they can stay cleaner than others; bonus points if it smells nice and fruity.

After the bath and candles store there isn’t much to note. Just more cleared out stores, be it looted or vacated and the occasional rat scurrying away as a demon passes by their hiding places.

Well, the owls are definitely not going to be going hungry here.

One of the stores I pass by is a place that seemingly only sell baseball hats for some reason. I never really understood the appeal of collecting hats of all things, but to each their own. I ignore the store and continue going. I don’t think I can even properly wear most hats now, what with the horns growing out of my forehead like an Oni.

Arriving at the end of the aisle I come up to the second department store. Here the skylight had collapsed inward, a large pile of debris is piled up in the center of the aisle like a small island. Besides the department store, there is a big shoe store on the right of the aisle and a hair salon on the left.

Ignoring the salon and feeling a bit miffed that I can’t cut my hair like a normal person, I head to the shoe store to check it out.

As I round the island of rubble and glass, my eyes catch something in my peripheral vision. Snapping my head to the side I see a giant pair of unmoving bulbous eyes staring right at me. A small fright goes through me like an electric current and I jump a bit as I take a step back.

It takes me a second to realize that what I’m looking at is not moving in the slightest and soon my brain comes down from emergency fight or flight and actually examines what I’m looking at. A quick look over reveals that I am looking at a partially buried metal statue of a giant dragonfly. If it wasn’t currently buried in a bunch of crap, it probably would have been almost as big as me, which isn’t saying much.

Still, the idea of giant flying insects, especially those almost as big as me, is enough to make my monkey brain send out all sorts of nope signals. So, I quickly turn away from the statue and head into the shoe store.

While I am in there, I manage to find a spare pair of sandals which I hang from my backpack. Better to have them than to not. With how strong my legs are now; I don’t see my current pair lasting very long.

Earlier, when I dodged the mutated catfish at the river, I had managed to launch myself rather high, at what I’m guessing is about fifteen feet straight up into the air. If I keep ending up putting that much force on them, I might end up blowing out the soles of my sandals or ruining the stitching.

I really need to take some time at some point and figure out what my limits are… I tell myself.

Browsing around the store I mumble to myself, “Well, if it comes down to it, I can go barefoot. My feet are strong enough that it doesn’t bother me, I just prefer having something on them.”

Not finding anything else particularly interesting I leave and head over to the department store, keeping a paranoid eye on the dragonfly statue all the way. After I enter, I am relieved to see that this one is in much better condition than the first.

While the first looks like it had transformed into a rainforest, this one simply looks like a riot had stormed through here. Progress! Walking past the edge of greenery that seems to desire the conquest and domination of this store, but can’t spread to far beyond their borders, I enter the department store and make a b-line for the travel supplies section.

After some searching, I manage to dig up a polyester and nylon gym bag. The label hanging on its side markets it as being completely waterproof, which is exactly what I need.

Feeling very proud of myself, I sit down and get to work on modifying the straps so that I can hang it from my backpack. Barrowing some straps from another bag, I get everything put together and tightened up. Looking at it, my backpack is starting to look a bit crazy. Stuffed with supplies and with a sleeping roll, extra storage (new), a pair of sandals (also new), rope and clips tied on one side, and a little witch doll (both new and cute) chilling in a side pocket, I am slowly starting to look like some traveling trader from a video game.

It also screams ‘Rob me, I have lots of valuable shit you might want!’ But hopefully the whole, looking like a demon thing will make people think twice.

Reequipping my newly modified backpack of sadly-not-holding, I take a look around the travel section for another objective of mine. Luckily, with a bit of searching, I manage to finally find a small simple sewing kit for doing emergency repairs to clothing. Inside is a canvas pack which is safely stored in some plastic packaging. Tearing open the packaging, I take out the kit. Unzipping the canvas pack, I find some needles, an assortment of thread, some simple patches and other materials.

“Yes! Now I can safely modify my clothes to better accommodate my tail. Should also give me something to do while I wait for night to pass.” I say happily.

Adding the kit to my plastic bag of other pilfered goods, I get up and make my way back towards the Hot Topic. I could take the time to explore the rest of this store, but I already feel as if I have pushed my luck with finding good loot for today.