[47] Selborne Square (3/3)

⌈Teucer⌋

The mall was too quiet that it was downright unsettling.

Couldn't tell that to them though. 

I kept looking towards the corridors branching away from the atrium, trying to see through the darkness beyond our torchlights. Every few seconds, I would sweep the beam towards each shop entrance, lingering on the gaps between overturned shelves and half-open shutters.

A few steps later, I looked back. The corridor behind us was still empty.

I turned around again and nearly walked into Maki.

"...What's wrong?"

"..."

Taking my silence for an answer, she gave me an annoyed look before continuing.

I waited until she had moved ahead, then swept my torch across the upper floors. The railings were empty. So were the balconies. I checked the ceiling after that, following the lines of exposed pipes and hanging fixtures until my light disappeared into another patch of darkness.

Nothing seemed to be moving. The torch in my hand lowered, then rose again. I stood there, listening.

"Wait."

The girls stopped near the abandoned stage, turning back towards me.

"Did you..."

I placed my finger on my lips.

Maki frowned, but Nadia nodded. The two of them fell silent.

I listened. At first, all I could hear was my own breathing and the faint shifting of their clothes as they stood there. I held my breath and strained my ears, trying to pick out anything from beyond the stage. A scrape. A footstep. Anything.

There was something. I was sure of it. At least, I thought there was. There was something... right? I turned to the girls again and mouthed the word, "Anything?"

They looked at each other.

"No," Nadia said. Maki shook her head.

My shoulders dropped a little.

Maybe it had just been the building settling. Or something outside. Either way, there was nothing I could hear now.

I let out the breath I'd been holding and lowered my torch.

"Looks like a false alarm." I finally said.

"Oh, we can speak now?" Nadia asked me.

"What was that, Teucer? You scared me..." Maki complained as she returned to rummaging through the equipment backstage. It was cluttered with old audio equipment, tangled cables and flight cases that had been left behind. A few monitors sat on folding tables, their screens black and covered in a thin layer of dust. Maki was already digging through one of the cases.

Her lack of tension irked me. Nadia...

"Teucer?"

...Well, at least she seemed alert enough.

"Don't spread out too much," I finally said, "Didn't our leader say that?"

Maki pulled out a pair of headphones and looked them over before putting them back.

"We're not."

"I know. Just... stay close to the side entrance."

"You're really worried about this place, aren't you?"

I didn't answer immediately.

My eyes drifted towards the entrance we'd come through. The door was still there, barely visible beyond the darkness.

Suppose they broke through right now, how fast could we run? Where could we run to? I scanned for a way out. Maki seemed to have sensed something from me, as she grinned.

"...It's not like that, alright? I just... don't like being somewhere I can't see properly."

"Yeah, yeah."

Annoying bitch.

I looked away from the entrance and back towards the equipment. Nadia had stopped at the entrance of a clothing store, peering into the darkness beyond the glass. The shop was almost completely black. Whatever lights it had once used had long since died, leaving only the faint beam of Nadia's torch to illuminate the very front. From where I stood, I could make out a feature mannequin near the entrance, dressed in an outfit that had probably been left there since before the outbreak. A few display stands surrounded it, their shapes barely visible in the gloom, while the rest of the store disappeared into darkness. The racks further inside were little more than vague silhouettes.

Nadia leaned slightly towards the entrance, shining her torch through the gap. The light reached only a short distance before being swallowed by the darkness.

I turned to Maki next, who was still going at it backstage of the atrium's event stage.

"What are you doing?"

She didn't answer me, keeping at her search through the flight cases. A bundle of cables came out first, followed by several charging wires, a handful of loose batteries and two phones. She set each aside without much thought before reaching into another case.

"Do you even know what half of that does?"

"Nope."

She pulled out another cable.

"Then why are you taking it?"

"It might be useful."

I stared at the growing pile beside her.

"You know there's no more electricity, right?"

Maki paused at my words, then turned to face me with a frown.

What's with her?

"Did I say something wrong?"

She held up the cable in her hand, and sighed.

"Look, I know we've been running for our lives without a break. But we can't keep thinking only about what we need right now."

"What do you mean?"

"You think the whole country's going to stay without power forever?"

That was...

"Haah. It's a rhetorical question. It doesn't really matter if the country really collapses along with our energy sources..."

She tossed the cable onto the pile and reached for another case.

"...The point is, we should have the sense to prepare for the future."

"Through these charging cables?"

"You still don't get it, do you..." Maki sighed again. "Everyone's going to be thinking about what they need to survive right now. Food, water, shelter, weapons. Whatever keeps them alive for another day. That's what people are going to take."

She pulled out another bundle of wires, inspected it briefly, then added it to the pile.

"But if things ever stabilise, even a little, all this stuff is going to become useful again. And by then, most of it will either be gone, destroyed or sitting somewhere nobody can get to."

I frowned.

"So we're collecting junk for an uncertain possibility?"

"Not just that."

Maki glanced towards the equipment she had already gathered.

"Even if we can't use it, someone else might. There could be people out there who know how to repair this stuff or have some way of making use of it. We could trade it for something we need."

Bartering items with other people... I didn't think about the possibility, since we'd never been prepared to join other survivor groups.

...I see.

She paused, then added more quietly.

"And we're Awakened, remember? You don't suppose... there's someone out there whose ability has something to do with electricity?"

"..."

"So yeah. If you're just going to stand there, help out a little." Maki turned back to the flight cases. "A few cables aren't going to kill us."

She reached inside and pulled out another phone.

"This one's coming too."

...

I remembered the arguments I'd had with Alan. How many times had I insisted that we shouldn't waste time on something that wasn't immediately useful? How often had I told him that we couldn't afford to take unnecessary risks?

A strange heaviness settled in my chest as I looked around the abandoned stage.

"...You're right."

Maki looked over her shoulder.

"What?"

"Nothing."

I crouched beside one of the flight cases and started going through it.

If we were going to carry all this stuff, the least I could do was help. I pulled out a tangled bundle of cables and placed it beside the others. As we worked through the equipment together, Maki suddenly looked up.

"By the way, where's Nadia?"

"Huh?"

I glanced towards the clothing store.

"... ...She was over there. Maybe she's still looking around."

"Nadia?"

Hold on... did she... 

A bad thought crossed my mind.

"We should—"

"—You called for me?"

A voice came from behind us. We spun around too quickly.

The torch nearly slipped from my hand.

Nadia stood a few steps behind us.

"Jesus!"

Maki jumped too, nearly knocking over the pile of equipment.

"Don't do that!"

Nadia blinked at us.

"...Sorry?"

I stared at her, trying to calm my breathing.

"How long have you been standing there?"

"Since you started talking about... electricity?"

Isn't that right from the start?!

"Then why didn't you say anything?"

"I did. You guys didn't hear me..."

I couldn't tell whether to laugh or cry.

Nadia looked between the two of us before raising her walkie-talkie.

"Never mind that. Looks like Alan is calling. Just thought I would let you guys know before I picked up."

She pressed the button and brought the walkie-talkie close to her mouth, keeping the volume low enough that I couldn't make out anything coming from the other end.

"Alan. Yeah, we're good here. Yes..."

Her eyebrows twitched upwards.

"Mm-hm..."

She went quiet for a moment, her expression shifting from confusion to surprise. Then, unexpectedly, the corners of her lips lifted into a small smile.

"Ah... okay. We'll come to get you."

The call ended.

Maki and I stared at her.

That was an odd reaction.

"What did he say?"

Nadia lowered the walkie-talkie.

"He cleared the zombies outside the side entrance."

Maki let out a small sigh of relief.

"That's good."

"Yeah."

Nadia's smile returned.

"He said he's coming back now. And he's bringing someone with him."

"That fucker... what is he..."

"...Mr Ramesh."

My expression stiffened.

Mr Ramesh.

For a moment, I didn't know how I felt about hearing that name again.

Even if we'd only known him for a short time... he was... well, someone we could trust.

He had carried me when I collapsed. And beyond that, helped us escape.

...And then he'd left. At the time, it had felt like a betrayal. But we'd understood why. We told him about the mutants chasing us. If we were in his position, would we really bring four teenagers carrying that kind of danger into a shelter filled with other survivors? Probably not. There was no guarantee another group would accept us either. If anything, they'd probably think the same way he did.

Maybe that was why Nadia had smiled.

For all our time apart, the person we'd trusted hadn't actually abandoned us.

He was coming back. I looked towards the side entrance.

"...Let's go get them then."

Having someone like him with us again could only help.

At the very least, it meant we wouldn't have to face this place alone.

I knew. We all knew, deep down, that this was simply a moment of respite before we had to venture deeper into the mall.

Surely, not all of them had been drawn to the noise outside. There had to be more.

It was only a matter of when.