"Looks good," said Dave.
"Yep," agreed Eric.
"Okay. The sooner we start the better."
"I'll get Sid," said Eric.
They turned from the roof's edge and walked over to where Sid was sitting on some blankets. Sid was using a spoon to scrape the last of the contents from a soup can.
"I miss cooking," said a surly Sid.
"Well," said Dave, "if we can lock up this shopping centre then we might be able to set up a kitchen."
"There's no power though."
"Fire is what we mostly need and I'm sure we could find some gas cylinders. If not then some barbecue grill that we feed with wood."
Sid grunted in agreement, put the empty can to one side and stood up. "We really need to do something about garbage."
Dave nodded. "I'm surprised that sewerage isn't a problem as well."
Sid nodded knowingly. "It will be. That's one of the main reasons why I'm not completely opposed to this plan of yours."
Dave looked back and forth between Sid and Eric. "Let's start."
They started walking towards the stairs that led down from the roof. Scattered here and there were sad piles of blankets in which people slept. Dave was disappointed that no one else jumped up and tried to join their little team, but he also understood the strain that they were under. Some people need a little prodding before hope grows in their hearts.
"Where do we start?" asked Sid as Dave opened the door to the stairwell.
Dave peered into the gloom of the stairwell. "I first want to look around. The place needs to be clear first."
As a group they walked into the stairwell, letting the door click closed behind them.
"What if it isn't clear?"
Dave stopped in front of the closed door that opened to the inside of the shopping centre. "I hadn't thought of that. I guess that it's up to us to clear it then."
"What do we use get rid of them? Profanity?"
Sid spoke in a cynical voice, but Dave understood that Sid didn't mean anything negative. "You wouldn't happen to have a gun?"
Sid lifted up his empty hands. "This is Australia. Can't arm the prisoners."
Dave frowned.
Eric spoke up. "It's been clear every morning so far. Maybe it still is."
Dave opened the door and walked onto the top floor of the shopping centre. They walked towards the middle where a hole in the floor let him see the other levels. The others joined Dave in looking about. It all looked still and empty. Even straining one's ears revealed no sense of there being others.
"I never realised how creepy this place looked," said Sid.
"You raised a good point," said Dave. "Does anyone know where there's a tool shop?"
"A tool shop?" asked Sid. "Eric has explored this place more than me. He's the one to know."
"What sort of tools are you after?" asked Eric.
"Gardening tools. Rakes, axes, crowbars."
"I get you," said Sid. "Those would make some decent weapons."
"I've never fought one of them before," said a nervous Eric.
Dave sighed. "Neither have I. The only way that I've survived so far has been to run away."
"Heroes don't die old," said Sid.
"Yeah. But there's no way we can survive the way this place is currently set up."
Sid turned to Eric. "Lead the way."
"Okay," said Eric.
The gardening store was on the second floor. Its front displays filled with lawn mowers and flower pots filled with fake plants. It didn't take long to find the heavy tool section away from the front.
Dave looked over the stock. "Any ideas?"
Sid scratched his arse in contemplation. "Things like the pick would probably be bad as they'd get stuck in a body pretty quick."
"How about an axe?"
"I think that one of us should take an axe, but it might be a problem to use in combat. It would be slow to swing and suffers the same problem as the pick in that it could get stuck easily. However, while we're going around we might need a way to break open a door and the axe might be useful."
"One axe and what else?"
Sid picked up a crowbar. "These. Smack someone in the head with his and you'll cave in their skull. Hold it just above this curved part so that it's harder for your grip to slip off. This will be more than enough to cave a few heads in."
Sid gave Dave the crowbar and gave another crowbar to Eric. "I'll take the axe because I'm the strongest here."
"I'm good with that," said Dave. "You okay with this?" said Dave to Eric.
Eric merely nodded as he grew aware of the responsibility that this little team was bearing.
"Good," said Dave. "Let's go check the bottom floor. We need to scout out the various ways of getting in."
They walked out of the tool store and walked down the escalator to the ground floor.
Dave looked back and forth. "Looks like three main entrances. One entrance for each compass point. Except one."
"That's the side where there's a large undocking bay for the trucks," said Eric.
"That's going to be tricky. So let's check the main entrance ways first."
"Do you want the check all of them?" ask Sid as they walked towards the nearest one.
"I don't think we need to," said Dave. "I'm mostly checking to see how the entrance way works. Maybe we'll be lucky and can close the entrances without power."
Sid snorted. "I think that someone has already tried, but I'd like to see how it is done for myself."
"Exactly," agreed Dave as he looked at the approaching entrance.
Dave walked through the doors and looked back at the entrance. "This is better than I thought. It looks like there's two sets of doors. One set is a standard set of hinged doors. It looks like we can just close those by hand."
"Let's try it," said Sid approaching one of the doors. He pulled
