"Hello," said Dave.
"Huh. Hi."
"I'm Dave. I was just riding by when I thought I might check out this place."
"Why?" asked the young man.
"Well, my clothes are starting to stink. And I'm getting a rash from several day's worth of skid marks."
The young man grinned at Dave's crass joke. "There's a few clothing stores inside. You should find something there."
Dave noticed the young man's caution. "If you point me towards something I'll grab what I need and move on."
The young man looked surprised. "Move on?"
"I've just come from the main city area," said Dave as he pointed east. "There's nothing there. At least nothing human."
The young man looked where Dave pointed and an expression of gloom washed across his face. "Oh. Yeah."
"I don't feel like it's safe to stay in or near the city. So I'm pushing to go west."
"Safe?"
"Have you looked outside when it's night?"
A pale look crossed the young man's face. "Yeah."
Dave frowned. Here was another person and people were in short supply. But some reason Dave didn't feel any desire to stay in the company of this young man. There hadn't been any cold calculations. Dave just thought that someone as passive as this young man could be more of a danger than a help. A tick passed over Dave's face as he realised how he was thinking.
"So," said Dave. "How about that clothing store? I'll grab some clean underpants and I'll be on my way."
The man man looked like he was thinking. The distant sort of thinking where it was like he was receiving a dim telepathic communication.
"Uh," said the young man. "I'll have to ask the boss."
A cold freeze passed through Dave. "There are others?"
"Yeah. I'll take you there now."
"Thanks," said Dave getting off his bike. "Lead the way."
The young man looked at Dave's bike and then looked up towards the top of the shopping mall. "Sid! Sid!" he called out.
Dave looked up and saw a face lean over. "What is it?" said a blurry face that appeared to be Sid's.
The young man pointed at Dave. "We got a visitor. He needs to see the boss."
"The boss's busy," came an unhelpful response.
"We can wait," said the young man.
"He can wait," corrected Sid pointing at Dave, then he pointed at the young man. "You need to keep looking around."
The young man looked displeased as Sid disappeared.
"So. How can I get up there?" asked Dave.
"He's probably having a nap," grumbled the young man.
"I'm sorry."
The young man looked confused. "What?"
"I seem to have gotten you into trouble. Sorry about that."
The young man grinned like a puppy. "Eric. My name's Eric."
"Sure, Eric. Thanks. Now if I could bother you for some directions."
Eric pointed into the shopping mall. "Just follow the stairs in the middle all the way up. At the top you'll see a stairwell for 'staff only'. That will take you to the roof. You should be able to find someone else to talk to."
"Is it safe in there?" asked Dave.
Eric peered into the slight gloom of the shopping mall. "The lights may be out, but the bad stuff only comes at night. It'll be safe in there, for now."
"I've mostly seen them at night, but when this first happened it was during the day."
Eric looked really nervous and started looking around as if danger was about to leap out at him.
"Don't worry," assured Dave without reason. "That was only on the day of the outbreak. I guess the newly infected can handle daylight, while the fully infected need to hide." Dave made a mental note that he needed to write this new idea down.
"Uh. Yeah," said the young man obviously relieved.
"I'll be going up. I'll see you latter."
Dave put out his hand. Eric stared at the hand for a moment before shyly shaking Dave's hand.
"Thanks again," said Dave.
"Good luck," said Eric waving as Dave began to push his bike into the shopping mall.
Eric couldn't see the frown on Dave's face. Why did Dave need good luck? What was Dave going to encounter? Dave hoped that his worries were over nothing. This was Dave's first contact with a larger group of people and he was already feeling like there were miscommunications everywhere. Sometimes Dave hated talking to people and unwinding the messy conversations in his head, but other people were also so very necessary to being able to survive in this time.
* * *
On stepping out onto the roof of the shopping mall, Dave looked around. The top of the roof was flat with numerous vents of different sorts placed in seemingly random positions. Scattered here and there were about a dozen people - more were probably hidden about the rooftop. They must of been through a tough few days as they came across as dazed if not shocked to the point of being completely dysfunctional.
After lifting his bike up the stairs to the roof, Dave then parked his bike to the side of the exit that he had just come out of. Dave took off his backpack and placed it next to his bike. Dave had stretch to enjoy his combined weight being back to normal.
Nearby there was a young woman wrapt in some filthy blankets. Her hair was a mess and her skin was filthy. How had she reached this state in only a few days? Dave knelt down in order to get his head near the same height as the woman's.
"Hi, I'm Dave."
The woman just stared blankly at Dave.
"Are you okay?" asked Dave.
Again the woman didn't respond to Dave. Giving up, Dave stood and walked further along the roof of the shopping mall. Other people stared at Dave as if he was some sort of freak. What must they have gone through to get to this sort of state so quickly? Dave asked himself. Dave walked towards a small group of dirty looking people. Had they been living outdoors the entire time? But Dave
