"Sounds like you guys are having a deep conversation," said Sid walking alongside Dave.
"We're just filling in some time," said Dave, "while waiting for our overnight guests to leave."
Sid looked over the car-parking spaces. "Looks pretty good down there."
"And the weather is fine as well."
"At least the weather didn't add to this shitfest."
Dave grinned. "Any idea when Justin is awake?"
"He should be awake now," said Sid. "Even though he's not normally a morning person."
"Okay. I better go and say 'goodbye' to him."
The three left the roof's edge and walked to the pile of blankets that contained Justin.
Sid gave the pile an unceremonious kick. Some groans came from below the blankets. Then Justin pulled the blankets off himself.
"Now that's a hangover," said Sid.
"This time of the day should be made illegal," said Justin.
"Don't bother getting up," said Dave. "I'm going to quickly say 'goodbye' and move on."
"Well," said Justin acting a little petulantly.
Dave grinned. "Goodbye." And put out his hand.
Justin stared at the hand for a moment before reaching out and giving it a shake. "Thanks. You were only here for a few days but you really turned everything around."
"There's still a lot to do," said Dave. "Blocking the road access. Parking some vehicles in front of the big entrances. And there's the big task of sweeping back, forth, up and down through this place to make certain that it's absolutely clear. And then you could try moving inside. Hopefully the weather will hold out until then."
"You make it sound easy," said Justin.
"That's because it is easy. Eric and Sid will be able to handle all this with ease. The tricky part is what will happen next."
"And that is?"
"I got no idea. You'll have to figure that out for yourself. Now that's going to be the real challenge. It's a challenge because you're going from making short term plans to long term plans. Other than the basic idea of 'survive' I can't even pretend that I know what this entails."
There was a moment's pause as they all thought this through.
"If I'm going to go," said Dave, "then I better go now. I can't waste any more daylight."
Justin nodded. "Good luck."
"Thanks, and you too. All of you."
Dave walked to the stairwell and picked up his backpack and pulled it on. While Dave was struggling to get the backpack on, Eric picked up Dave's bike. Sid opened the door to the stairwell.
"I'm surprised by how lethargic I feel," said Dave.
"That's what leaving friends behind feels like," said Sid.
They all stood about silent. Sid broke the mood by gesturing Eric through the door. Eric lifted the bike up, walked through the door and began clomping down the stairs. Dave followed and Sid let the door close behind them. Eric held the bike with one hand while opening the lower door with his spare hand. The three walked through the door and into the shopping centre. Eric placed the bike on the floor and began pushing it.
"This place feels really empty," said Sid looking around as they walked.
"Once everyone moves down from the roof then this place will be more lively," said Dave.
"It certainly is a turn around," said Eric. "Only a few days ago and I swear that everyone had given up."
"You two are going to be busy for a bit."
Together they walked down to the bottom floor and began to walk down the hall towards the rear docking area. When they entered the docking area they couldn't help but look around. With the roller doors down the place was oddly gloomy.
"The door is just down the side here," said Sid leading the way.
"During the excitement of getting the generator running, looking for other doors than the main ones completely slipped my mind. Good thing one of us was on the ball."
Sid laughed. "It was more like boredom. You two were gone for some time before starting the generator."
"I hadn't done something like that before. I had to scratch my head for a bit."
"Well, that scratching seem to have worked," said Sid pointing at the closed roller doors.
They got the back door. It was a single, re-enforced, fire door - certainly solid enough in its own right. Sid pressed his ear to the door and listened carefully for a moment. Dave felt guilty for talking so loudly as they approached the door. There weren't any nearby windows to look through to see if the way was clear. After a few moments, Sid unlocked the door and opened it a crack. He peeked through the crack for another moment before fully opening the door and walking out. For a final tense moment he looked about.
"We're going to need to come up with a better way of getting through this door," said Sid.
"Maybe have someone on the roof looking over," suggested Dave.
"How would we communicate? If there was something outside you couldn't just yell."
"Well," said Dave. "Isn't there an electronics store? Maybe you could find some walkie-talkies."
"I think I've seen those," said Eric.
They were now all outside the shopping centre. Dave retrieved his bike from Eric and offered his hand.
Eric took the hand and shook it rapidly. "So you're finally leaving."
"Yep," replied Dave simply.
Sid suddenly found himself unable to speak and simply put out his hand. Dave took the hand and shook it, this time with a slow but firm confidence. To an outsider it might have looked like an uncomfortable silence, but this wasn't about discomfort.
"We'll meet up again," said Dave trying to address the unspoken sentiment.
Dave got on his bike, gave Eric and Sid a gentle look and started to pedal away. As Dave was about to reach the corner of the shopping centre he turned slightly on the bike and gave a wave. Eric and Sid waved back. Soon the corner of the shopping
