Dave focused on pedalling his bike and rode through the car park. He stopped on the exit ramps and looked back at the shopping centre. He didn't really see anyone but he lifted an arm and waved anyway. Dave resumed pedalling and reached the familiar highway that he travelled before.
Dave looked around before focusing on the west. There was something west. Something that called him. Something that would contradict the uselessness that he felt. Dave pushed on the bike's pedals and tried to answer that call.
* * *
It was about the middle of the afternoon when Dave slowed down and stepped off his bicycle. Except for a few stops to drink some water, Dave had pushed himself to travel as far as possible as fast as possible. Maybe he had some sort of fear that if he didn't travel far enough that he'd be tempted to turn around and return to the shopping centre.
He had reached an intersection of two main roads. On one corner of the intersection was a simple corner store. It was a single floor shop with wide open doors. Dave placed his bike against the wall nearest the door. He didn't immediately walk into the store, instead he walked along the sidewalk in front of the open doors.
It was a small place and he could easily see inside. It was a store that sold the basics to the locals. Milk, bread, cereal, and some tinned food. It wasn't a fancy place and only served a role as a place of convenience to the local residents. If one wanted more variety, one most likely had to jump into a car and drive to a nearby shopping centre - most likely the one that Dave had just left.
There was nothing that worried Dave in the store, so he looked at the buildings that were placed around the intersection. He was looking for a place to stay the night. This wasn't the city any more and he couldn't see anything higher than the single story buildings that were around him.
Dave looked back at the convenience store that he had inspected. It was the only building that he could see with a flat roof. He didn't appreciate the idea of sleeping out in the open on a roof, but it was much safer than being on the ground floor. So far he hadn't seen any threat that could climb and he didn't like the idea of getting trapped behind a door on the ground floor.
Dave began to walk around the store. The front had the usual facade with the shop's name printed in big letters. That wouldn't be the way to get up on the roof, so Dave walked around a side alley to the back of the building. At the back of the store, Dave noticed a split ladder system. It was the sort that had a looped cable that allowed a person at the top to roll the bottom half of the ladder up or down. It would have been a pain to get the ladder down if it was in the up state, however it was currently down and it allowed Dave to climb onto the roof.
Glancing around nervously, Dave started climbing the ladder. Besides the noise of his climb he didn't hear anything else. He reached the top of the ladder and stopped. Instead of climbing onto the roof, he stayed on the ladder and looked over the roof. It wasn't a large roof, but it was flat and clearly someone had been there recently.
Dave looked back before fully climbing onto the roof. The detritus of a small camp site was near the far wall. Dave walked over and began a closer inspection. Mostly a bunch of dirty blankets, some tied up plastic bags containing some open tins and a barbecue. The heavy looking barbecue caught Dave's interest immediately as it must have been a complete shit to get up onto the roof. Near the barbecue was a cardboard box filled with the odds and ends of running a barbecue.
This was going to be as good as place as any, so Dave took off his backpack and placed it down. Dave gave his back a pained stretch, his fists raised in a big Y.
He walked to the edge of the roof, looked over the half-wall and checked out the streets below. It seemed safe enough. Dave went to the ladder climbed down and walked around to the store again. He went in and found a carry bag and gathered a few tins of soup and some extra water bottles. He already had a good supply of these in his backpack but he intended to keep those as an emergency supply.
As Dave walked by the store's counter he noticed that some people had put some money on the counter surface. He was impressed that someone, even during the fall of society, still made an effect at maintaining the social contract. Dave shook his head with amusement when he noticed just how comfortable he had become with the changes.
Dave left the shop and walked around to the ladder. He climbed up with the shopping bag hanging from one shoulder. Once he was on the roof, Dave put the shopping bag down and used the cable system to raise the ladder to its up position with a loud clatter. The noise startled Dave a bit and he spent a minute walking around the roof seeing if he attracted any visitors.
Satisfied that he was alone, Dave took out two soup cans and walked over to the barbecue. He looked into the box nearby and fumbled around with the contents until he got a fire running in the barbecue. He wasn't the most efficient at using a barbecue, but since he wasn't intending to stay here long he wasn't too bothered.
Dave looked at the soup cans and realised that he didn't have any pots. In the spirit of an experiment, Dave used the tins' pull
