He walked past the apartment's garbage bins and into the driveway, where Dave picked up his bike and began pushing it towards the street. Once Dave got to the street he had a good look around. He didn't understand the explanation, which oddly bothered him, but the walkers didn't like being outside during the day. Why that was the case and where did they spend the day, were questions that disturbed Dave. He looked nervously at the buildings around him. Was one of those buildings filled with walkers just standing shoulder to shoulder? And how did they get inside, as they seemed to struggle with getting through gates and doors?
Dave sighed. There were too many questions that he couldn't do anything about answering. And having them floating about his head only caused him stress. Maybe it was reckless, but he need to just ignore this questions for now and focus on his plan for the day. He put his leg over the bike, sat down on its seat, pushed forward and started to slowly pedal. He headed back to the main highway and turned towards the west. He had no idea of his destination but he still felt an urge to keep moving away from the city's dead heart.
As he began to pedal at a comfortable pace, Dave tried to think about where he'd like to stop next. The place needed to be safe. Especially at night. Dave hadn't really thought about it too hard, but he had so far felt safest when he was not on the ground floor. However as he headed further out from the city centre the buildings got less tall and were now mostly single storied.
He needed resources in order to survive. Food and water were the most important. Fresh clothes would be nice. Tools and more camping gear would be a solid bonus. For this he knew that there were plenty of shops around for him to scavenge from. He hadn't seen many other living humans and didn't feel any competition for food resources at the moment.
And what about defence? So far Dave had been lucky and hadn't needed to fight a walker. The idea of hand to hand combat didn't appeal to Dave as he was just a useless office sponge. He didn't have any training in any of the martial arts. Heck, he didn't even do things like go to a gym to strengthen his body.
Being close up with the dead was too dangerous, so the only defence option would be ranged attacks, which meant guns. Dave frowned. Australia was effectively a gun free zone. You could get a gun, but it was heavily restricted and discouraged from every angle. Dave couldn't even remember having ever seen a gun shop. Australia lacked guns and the culture to accept them. Although Dave tossed the idea of guns around as a way of dealing with the walkers, he could do nothing but admit that he knew nothing about them. He had little to no idea how to use one and little idea on their actual effectiveness. Also, Dave was convinced that even if he had a gun, he probably do more harm to himself than good.
Dave kept thinking as he continued pedalling to the west. Slowly and steadily making his way out of the city.
* * *
It was approaching mid-morning when Dave spotted the shopping centre. It was a standard, big shopping mall - three stories tall and with a few dozen shops each floor - providing services from the basics to the more niche. After turning off the highway there were roads that created a ring all the way about the complex. Most of the area about the complex was open air, customer parking, while to one side of the shopping centre was a large vehicle area where trucks could come to unload products for the mall to sell. There was nothing unique about the design - it was a basic concrete and glass box surrounded by a flat tarmac area - all surrounded by a tall wire-mesh fence.
What made Dave freeze on his bike and stare was that he could just see someone walking about the transport parking space near to the side of the shopping centre. The person didn't have the grey skin of the dead and was showing clear signs of thoughtful behaviour. The person was one of the few who were left living.
Dave pedalled along the off ramp and avoided heading towards the customer parking areas. Instead he rode towards the area where trucks would offload their cargo and stopped in the open and usable distance from the person that he had spotted. Dave wanted a way to keep his distance so that he could escape if he needed to flee. Just because the person wasn't one of the dead didn't make them less dangerous.
Dave could hear some noise that sounded like someone struggling to open a latch. There were sounds of grunting. Some thumping. Dave could even make out some metallic clattering. It must have been to no avail because they seem to have given up as Dave could hear footsteps coming his way.
The young man spotted Dave and stopped. The young man slowly pushed his overly long and messy hair from his eyes, belying a
