Seeing where Dave put the his slab of water bottles, Eric placed the slab that he was carrying on top of Dave's.
"Let's see what we can do about that trolly."
"Sure."
Dave and Eric walked down the stairs and exited into the shopping centre. They looked at the trolly.
"My back is not going to like this," said Dave.
"But carrying up all those little cans will be a pain."
"True. I'm now wishing that I looked around for cans that were on pallets."
Eric looked at stairwell. "We better get upstairs soon. There's still a lot to do before night."
"The rest of the people on the roof didn't look too busy when I was up there before."
Eric almost jumped with guilt. "They ain't bad people. It's just that their minds are a bit broken. You know."
Dave was sympathetic towards Eric. "Yeah. I know. Now let's get this trolly upstairs."
"Okay."
Dave took the handle end of the trolly and pulled, while Eric took the other end and pushed. Dave pulled back on the trolley handle so that the trolly's weight was on its rear axle. The front of the trolly then hung out in the air. For each step in the stairway, Dave would pull the rear of the trolly tight against the stair while Eric lifted the front of the trolly in order to pop the trolly up a step. It was a slow process that involved a lot of groaning and swearing but in the end they managed to get the trolly up the stairs and onto the roof.
"Just fuck me," said Dave.
Eric grinned. "Well that worked."
"I'm actually surprised because that trolly is way heavier than it looks. You have some big muscles there."
Eric laughed. "Ah. Thanks. But we were lucky."
"How so?"
"We managed to do that while it's still day. We made a lot of noise. That would have attracted a lot of attention if it was night."
Dave looked at the stairwell. "How do you block the stairwell at night?"
"What do you mean?"
"I don't see anything around that could be placed in front of this door to stop it from opening during the night."
"We just push the door shut."
"That's all?"
"Yep."
Dave wasn't happy as he looked over the door.
"Let's load those water bottles again."
Dave picked up a slab of water bottles and placed it back on top of the trolly. Eric also placed a second slab of water bottles onto the trolly.
"Now what?" asked Eric.
"Now we take these to Justin and ask his opinion."
Dave got behind the trolly to push it by the handles. The roof of the shopping complex was not designed for people and had been roughly surfaced with some tar substance. Dave appreciated Eric walking alongside the trolly, helping to guide it.
"Hey Justin," called out Dave as they approached the elevator shaft. "Got your supplies."
Dave could see Justin crawling out from under the tarpaulin.
"Shit," said Justin staring at the trolly. "You used a trolly?"
"It's the only way that I could carry this many supplies. Even so I would have been stuck at the last set of stairs if Eric didn't help."
Justin gave Eric a glance before calling out: "Sid. Sid!"
"Yeah, yeah," said Sid. "What is it?"
"Got some supplies delivered. Some people are probably hungry so make sure they have something to eat."
Sid looked at the trolly. "That's a lot of soup cans."
"The cans have pull tops," said Dave, "so you don't need a can opener. Also, between the layers of soup and water there's a good dozen or so spoons."
"Good," said Sid. "Good. I'll get to handing these out right now." Sid took over the trolly and wheeled it a short distance away.
Dave watched Sid open a palette of water and pick up some water bottles. Sid walked over to a bundle of blankets and knelt down. Sid gave the blankets a shake and woman with a worn face appeared. Sid showed her the bottle of water, but the woman did nothing but stare blankly. Sid put down the bottles that he was carrying. He picked up one and twisted off the lid before holding it towards the woman. The woman didn't seem to respond, so Sid gently placed his free hand behind the woman's head and slowly tried to pour water into the woman's mouth. Trickles of spillage came from the sides of the woman's mouth but she seemed to be swallowing some of the water.
Dave now understood what Eric had meant about there being a lot of work to do.
"Well," said Justin, "I'm impressed. I thought you would have just grabbed a bag of sweets and a can of soft drink and then come back. This isn't just some token effort."
"We all went through some tough times," said Dave. "I have no idea what I'm doing. And I guessing that everyone's just as confused as I am. Just by doing something this simple I'm hoping that we can rebuild some trust."
"You still planning on heading west?" asked Justin.
"Yeah. And I hope that you now trust me when I say that if I do find some place good, that I'll tell them about you people and we can try to rescue you."
"Well," said Eric. "I trust you. No one who wanted to hurt us would do this much to help."
"Yeah," said Justin. "You've put in a lot of effort for us. It's hard not to trust you. But I'll be blunt - a part of me is still worried. You're still a stranger to me and I can't quite get over that. What's your immediate plan?"
"There still is a bit of light in the day," said Dave. "I'd like to get downstairs up pick up some fresh clothes. Also I wouldn't mind having a quick browse for other things that I'll need that I didn't think of
