Passing bushy woods and valleys in an apocalyptical world it's easy to lose the track of what's going around you. Landscapes change so quickly they get blank and gray to you. Johnson didn't care about the world around him since the beginning of his way. He was always inclined to deep reflection. No soothing chirping of crickets he heard, nor he much cared about the weather. Tons of gray storm clouds could gather the white sky dome and he wouldn't even notice. He had no feeling of nature delight or fright.
A lot days passed since he had last seen anything but white colors. Snow crunching under his feet, snowflakes blocking his view, and trees all decorated white. Sometimes he saw dreams, sometimes even while walking. Summer, this definition was still in his head even though the last summer he had seen was at his childhood. Some dreams showed his fears, some made him cry and some just stirred with reality. He saw creatures while walking at night, and none of them was real.
Campfires were hard to make due the lack of dry branches. At night he sat the ground, almost putting his hands into the flame. If the day had been fortunate enough he would probably warm up some can of food. Then he just would close his eyes and fully dissolve. At the morning he would wake up covered snow and just would resume his way.
Tiny piece of civilization he noticed at the horizon, the city. The risks were high. Every single civilian was a Tempo Soldier. Tall cement fence with electricized nets. Patrols with laser guns stood all around the area. Johnson took a binocular and commenced to weigh the pros and cons. Several minutes he stood motionless. He had no money. But eventually he wasn't the one to make a decision. Dogs managed to smell him from a great distance. Few Tempo Soldiers were gradually getting closer. When he heard the shots he ran. Shotgun was a good weapon, but not for this range.
This time the luck was on his side. He managed to make a hook around the city. Even further his way he noticed an abandoned mall. His savings of food had almost nothing to offer him today. Can of corns, and bottle of water. For some reason it even seemed quite enough to fulfill his hunger for this night. However, he didn't know what would happen the next day. Maybe he wouldn't even meet a single building for the next few days. So he decided to enter the mall.
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Johnson once had feared abandoned buildings, but now exploring them was just a routine and some sort of game. All them were quite the same both at structure and charm. Main entrance was closed. He found a fire exit with an old rusty padlock, that was rotting from inside. It broke down of the first shotgun butt hit. Vast area welcomed him. No light around. He could hear as rats were crawling walls and the roof. Solitude and darkness made Johnson's mind create some hallucinations. At the far corners he saw black silhouettes staring at him with their glimpsing white eyes. He tried to ignore them.
He sipped a bit of his water bottle and started searching. The first place he decided to visit was a supermarket. Sign 1+1 = 3 was still hanging above the doorframe. Most of the shelves were empty. Some wires were hanging from the paneled ceiling, gladly the electricity was off. When he had been passing by the the electric shield beside the entrance he wanted to switch the lights on, but changed his mind. Now he was really happy about his choice. Great puddle stretched all over the floor and the wires were touching its brown surface.
Even though some shelfs had products left, many of them were long expired and covered moss. Eventually he found only one can of beef, which was actually a good finding, and a pack of crab flavored chips. According to his calculations this amount of food would take two days to devour, if he planned his nourishment properly. Also he grabbed a pack of cigarettes from the near shop. He didn't smoke, but at least he could sell it. So it was over for today.
And as always it was better to stay inside. He chose a tiny room. It seemed to be a stuff room or something, maybe nightguard had once been sleeping here. Even bed was at Johnson's service for this night. He ate a pack of chips before going to sleep, placed Amy in the corner of the room and switched on heating mode. He took of his coat. At first it was chilly. Counterpane and pillow were both cold. Soon room filled warmth and other problems approached. Rats. Johnson wasn't the only one to feel heat. In half an hour they were everywhere. Most of them were in the ceiling. The bravest one even got inside the room and started rubbing against Amy. Sometimes he felt someone crawling on him, but each time he opened his eyes no one was there. He tried hard to not think about it. It took him an hour to fall asleep.
He woke up of another itching crawling on his chest. This time it wasn't only a feeling. When he opened his eyelids he saw two black olive like eyes staring at him. At first the rat was calm, maybe stunned like Johnson, then it started peeping agressively and he left no choice but to throw it away.