At that moment, I and a woman along with her daughter noticed each other across the floor.
After what felt like minutes of simply staring at each other, the two of them glanced at each other and they raised their hands in the air, as though to show they were harmless.
In response, I quickly put my taser in my right pocket and raised my hands. "H-hey! I don't come in harm!"
We both slowly lowered our hands and stood still, not entirely sure what to do next. I decided to slowly approach them. As I got closer, I could make out more and more of their details. The mother had long, lush hair and a thin figure, whilst the daughter had short and straight brown hair, she looked around 14 years old?
...
It's been about an hour since I met the pair, at first they seemed reluctant to even interact but they rather quickly opened up.
"How has this... thing been for you?" I asked curiously.
Although they were talkative before, they seemed hesitant to answer, quickly understanding their discomfort with the question and quickly tried to change the subject.
"Where have you been camping out?" I asked hoping they would lead me to their main base.
"Oh, we've been sleeping on the third floor so far, want to go check it out?" the young girl excitedly asked me.
"Sure! Lead the way!" I said while chuckling a little bit at her enthusiasm. The mother stayed quiet.
After chatting and walking for a couple minutes, we reached their base. It was nothing much, the girl told me they had been going to the back of the store and locking the door when sleeping at night.
"Oh, by the way, what are your names?" I asked curiously.
"I'm Lola! And my mom is Kamile! What about you?"
"I'm Adam! Nice to meet you!"
I took a moment to look around, there were 2 sleeping bags on the ground, a lot of newspapers and a couple candles.
"Are you going to make a campfire?" I asked them both.
"Yeah! Infact, we've been making campfires every night because it tends to get a bit cold at night! If you get cold, you can come warm up here!"
"Interesting, by the way, do you know if there's a grocery store somewhere in this mall?"
"Yes! Come with me, I'll show you!" she said as she waited for me by the door.
"Won't you come with?" I asked the mother curiously.
"I'm sure you both will be fine without me, I'll stay here." she responded, avoiding eye contact.
"Alright, if you say so" I responded, turning to her daughter who was still waiting by the opened door "let's go?" I asked her with a smile.
"Yeah!" She hastily moved outside, watching me leave the doorway.
"Lead the way!"
"It's on the opposite end of the first floor, so it'll take a couple minutes to walk there."
I wondered why they would decide to camp somewhere so far away from where they could get supplies.
"Look over there! That's the main entrance! When we got here, it was already barricaded, my mom told me that the door was probably shut when this whole thing started..."
I noticed she began to look sad. In an attempt to comfort her, I told her "I'm sure it's going to be fine, it might take some time, but I'm sure everything will work out."
She smiled weakly but something was still bothering her, I wanted to ask her about it but decided against it.
"Here we are!" she pointed her finger to the entrance.
"Thanks! Want to help me look for supplies?" I asked her.
"No sorry, I better get back to my mom, she probably needs help setting up the campfire."
"No worries, see you later!" I waved her goodbye.
Finally alone, I started to look for what I needed, "Oh yeah! I had forgotten I had to get something to cover the broken window!" I told myself out loud.
The store had been thrashed, a complete mess with leftover food scraps on the ground as far as I could see along with the stench of old and rotten food, it made my stomach turn, still, I had to find something useful in here.
I began looking through the knocked-over shelves, hoping to at least find something to drink. Scouring through the bookshelves, I barely found anything worth taking. When I was finally done looking through most of the store, I was nearly empty-handed. I had found 2 water bottles and just a few cans of food, which I promptly put in my bag. Worst of all, I found nothing to cover up the broken window.
I slowly started making my way back to where I first entered the mall, hoping to pass a store that would have something useful to use as cover "Bingo" I exclaimed after seeing a hardware store.
I quickly went inside, the store was surprisingly clean, especially after the horrifying state of the grocery store. I began looking around for plywood, it was surprisingly sturdy. A moment later I found what I was looking for.
The plywood was lighter than expected, while uncomfortable to hold, it was easy to carry it to the broken window. A few minutes had passed when I finally made it there.
Finally, I took down my jacket from in front of the broken window, thankfully, no zombies were waiting for me on the other side. Nonetheless, I quickly put the plywood against the broken window and used my duct tape which I took from the hardware store on my way out to be able to secure the plywood as much as possible.
After testing the durability of the plywood, I sat down on a nearby bench to relax and a wave of tiredness washed over me. I had become exhausted from everything that had happened today, I decided to go meet up with Lola and her mother.
I stood up and began making my way to their base. I was slowly making my way there, at the same time looking at the terrible condition of each store which I had somehow failed to notice.
Eventually I met up with Lola and Kamile. They had started a small campfire, Lola was already asleep and Kamile was curled up, facing the campfire. As I approached, Kamile noticed me and kept quiet.
"Hey!"
"..."
"You also heading to sleep soon?"
"..."
I understood she didn't want to talk to me. I sat across the campfire and joined her embracing the quiet and warmth from the campfire. After an eerie quietness that seemed to drag on for hours, she finally said something.
"Lola is a strong girl..."
"...huh?"