Embedded Files
“So what are we looking for?” asked Terry from the passenger seat of the pickup.
“A UV water sterilizer,” Dawn expertly navigated around the many potholes and cars of the wide boulevard. “Apparently it’s a big rectangle that hangs on the wall and the one we are looking for is supposedly bright orange. And we are looking for a specific one which we will hopefully find right here.” Dawn eased the pickup to a stop in the middle of the road. The four got out of the pickup. Nora surveyed the large building before them.
“Welcome to the Ontario Gateway Mall,” said Dawn as she handed out gear, “seeing as all of you haven’t been on a foraging run for some time, let me explain the basics. Always wear your helmet, keep your walkie-talkies tuned to channel 1, never go down unless you are sure you can also go up, always stay within sight of your buddy.”
Soren and Terry nodded to each other. Dawn gave everyone a bundle of climbing rope, some carabiners, a large flashlight, a leather satchel, a meter long stick with a hook, a roll of pink duct tape, a first aid kit, a small pair of binoculars, a pair of work gloves, and a grappling hook.
“Since we are exploring a mall,” continued Dawn, “the odds of any of us getting lost are low but don’t be afraid to use your pink tape roll to mark the way back to the entrance and remember that you don’t really know what a path looks like until you’ve traversed it both ways. Always notify everyone on the radio when you are entering another room to make sure you still have radio connection with us. Also this should go without saying, but don’t hit or push anything that could be connected to the ceiling, you never know if you’re in a house of cards or not. Nora and I will take the second floor. Soren and Terry, you take the first floor. No matter what, meet back here no later than two hours from now.”
Nora and Dawn trekked up the long escalator, steps clanking with each footfall. The spacious grand hall of the mall used to be uniformly white. Green moss crept from the corners and outlined where the sheet rock panels used to seamlessly join together. Debris was scattered across the randomly tiled floor adding to the chaotic impression. Various ceiling panels had fallen letting shafts of sunlight into the artificial cave, while some still dangled precariously by their power cables. The hard interior echoed easily and Nora could constantly hear footsteps, creaking, the dripping of water, and the occasional caw. The damp air was almost suffocating.
Nora tightened the straps of her backpack. ”What is your plan for finding this sterilizer?”
“Well there’s a prepper store at the end of this hallway which I have a good feeling about,” Dawn scanned the ceiling with her flashlight as they walked along.
“This place is kind of creepy, huh?” said Nora.
“Are you scared?” Dawn grinned and slowed down to walk beside Nora.
“Not necessarily,” said Nora, “it’s just that places that are meant to be packed but are currently empty feel like there’s something wrong with them.”
“Yeah,” said Dawn, “it’s hard to imagine people would spend their free time at places like these.”
“I’m sure malls were more lively when there were the people to shop at and maintain these sorts of places.”
“I just don’t understand the appeal.”
Nora and Dawn walked for a while in silence save the incessant creaking of floor panels. Then as Nora took another step, the floor panel gave out. With the sound of snapping aluminum, the hole opened wider to engulf her. Dawn narrowly escaped with a reflexive hop backwards while Nora fell a few meters. She tried to slow her fall by putting out her arms in the hopes of grabbing something, anything, but her arms just got cut up by jagged edges from layers of torn metal. Her fall was broken by a large block of insulation foam. Immediately, she shielded her face and neck. She heard several loud cracks as pieces of debris bounced off her helmet.
“Oh my god! Are you okay? Nora!”
“I’m okay, I think.” Nora peeked between her fingers to confirm that debris had stopped falling. The hole she fell from was blindingly bright but she couldn’t really see anything at the bottom of the pit, having fallen into some between-floors maintenance layer. Nora could feel warm liquid streaming down her arms as well as a warm patch on the left thigh of her jeans.
“Can you move?” shouted Dawn.
Nora slowly articulated her arms, mindful of the occasional jolt of pain. “Yeah,” she said.
“Good, now don’t,” called Dawn. She held her walkie-talkie to her mouth, “Soren and Terry, stay where you are, Nora just fell through the floor.”
“Is she okay? Where are you?” Soren’s voice was distorted by the radio.
“She’s okay and I don’t really know so stay put.” Dawn set to work anchoring her climbing rope and then descending into the hole. As Dawn got closer, her headlamp illuminated Nora’s pit a bit more. Nora was surrounded by dust and debris. As she guessed, her arms were covered in blood and there was a large gash on her jeans and thigh. The large block of foam, being brittle, had permanently taken the shape of Nora’s rear end from the impact.
“Okay, Nora, let’s take off your backpack,” Dawn undid the clips on her bag and then gently stood Nora up. “You look pretty banged up, think you can hold it together until we get you back up on the floor?”
Nora nodded.
Dawn hooked Nora’s harness to hers and then set pulling the two of them up with the block and tackle and climbing rope.
At the top, Dawn detached the two of them. “Now just stay standing for a couple of minutes while I get this sheet laid out.” Dawn carefully extracted a plastic sheet from her backpack and unrolled it onto the ground, making sure that the topside never touched anything dirty. She then laid Nora on top of the sheet and pulled out a first aid kit from her bag.
She pulled out the walkie-talkie, “I’ve got Nora out of the hole and am going to start treating her. I’ll radio you when I’m done or after 20 minutes, whichever happens first.”
“Understood,” Terry’s voice came through the radio. “Hey take it easy man—“ Terry sounded as if he was talking away from the mic before cutting out.
“Alright let’s get you cleaned up.” Without asking, Dawn removed Nora’s sleeves and pant leg with her knife. “Sorry about your jeans. Now this part will sting.” She took a rag out of a plastic baggie and soaked it with a bottle of alcohol.
Nora winced as Dawn dabbed at her wounds.
“There there,” said Dawn, “now tell me how this mall got into this state.”
“What? Okay, well the last time this mall was ‘normal’ was probably a hundred years ago, long before the departure of the first Arkship. Goods were brought here and people came in droves to buy them.”
“And then what?” Dawn unraveled a roll of bandages. “Go on.”
“Then as mining got too dangerous due to weather, the supply of goods dried up. Malls then got turned into shelters. The local government paid them just enough to maintain the building since they could no longer make money selling things. The first unofficial Arkship departure happened around this time.”
“Unofficial?” Dawn finished with Nora’s leg and then took her right arm, “Also I guess that explains why you always find merchandise in the wrong parts of the mall. Now this will sting too. Keep going.”
“It wasn’t an actual Arkship departure but it was the first major exodus, this was when corporations pooled their resources to relocate their operations to Altaria. With that, the mall wasn’t really managed by its original owners and instead they contracted out the maintenance of this mall to one of the many businesses that specialized in taking care of the property of departed companies. I think the mall group was hoping to collect the city’s grant money for maintaining the shelters but I’m pretty sure none of that money ever made it off planet, the ‘Stewarding’ companies just pocketed it all. Ostensibly, the mall owners were maintaining this place as a proper shelter but at this point, people were starting to notice signs of disrepair. Coincidentally, the first Arkship departure happened at this time.”
“The first?” asked Dawn. She had just finished wiping down Nora’s arm with alcohol rendering it painfully cold. “Aren’t we at, like, eight now?”
“Yeah,” Nora tried to move her arm but Dawn firmly held her wrist, “by the second Arkship departure, the Stewarding companies effectively stopped pretending to take care of their client’s property. Many of the people sheltering here left, both because the building was falling apart and because Stewarding companies stopped guarding vacant houses. Houses are easier to take care of than shopping complexes.”
“Man, really hate these stewarding companies,” said Dawn, “almost done girl, then you can move your arm. Why did the stewarding companies stop doing their thing?” Dawn moved onto Nora’s left arm, the most torn up.
“Well the stewarding companies stopped because they weren’t getting money anymore and because they realized that their clients weren’t ever coming back. This is around the third Arkship departure. At this point—“ Nora inhaled sharply.
“Sorry,” Dawn was holding Nora’s arm close to her face, “there’s a piece of metal pretty deep in your arm.”
“Can you get it out?”
“Maybe? We should probably just wait for Soren to treat you back at the house where we have tools. I’m just going to wrap this up and put a bracer on it,” Dawn rummaged through her bag.
“Ah,” Nora wasn’t too excited by the idea of wearing a bracer for the rest of their field trip, “anyways, at this point governments everywhere announced the Evacuation of Earth and moved nearly all of their operations to either enclaves on Altaria or to other colonies. Ad-hoc community groups tried to take over management of public services, but this pretty much marks the start of the Collapse. And that’s probably the last major thing to happen to this mall.”
“Interesting,” Dawn tightened the straps on Nora’s wrist hand brace, “try and move your arm.”
Nora rotated her arm to various positions, noticing a slight twinge of pain as she tried to curl her fingers. She nodded to Dawn, “thank you.”
“Of course! Honestly I should be apologizing for bringing you here. I know I won’t hear the end of it from Mom.”
“I can vouch for your expert treatment and care.”
“Thanks.” Dawn turned her radio back on, “alright Soren, I’ve patched Nora up and she can walk now but you’ll need to remove a piece of metal from her arm when we get back.”
“Is she fine otherwise?” said Soren.
“Here,” Dawn handed Nora the walkie-talkie.
“Hi Soren,” Nora put on her best voice, “I’m fine save for the foreign object. Dawn and I are going to continue our search, you should too.”
“Wait, we're not going back?”
Nora glanced at Dawn who gave a nod. Dawn talked into the radio, “minor injuries don’t stop the foraging run, bro, especially when we’re trying to secure our water supply.”
“Mom’s gonna—“
“Mom’s gonna chew me out either way. If you want us to get out of here, then help clear the list.” Dawn waited for a reply for a few moments. “Alright, let’s go.”
Nora and Dawn continued to walk through the hallway, now extra cautious with Dawn walking ahead a few paces. Nora was grateful for Dawn’s care so she tried to hide her discomfort but not having sleeves or an entire pant leg made her too cold to act natural. She clutched her arms to conserve warmth.
“Are you cold?” asked Dawn without taking her eyes off the path.
“Um. I’ll manage.”
“I heard a resounding yes,” said Dawn. She pointed her flashlight at a dust-covered storefront, “there are a bunch of clothes here, let’s find something for you.” She held the radio to her mouth as they entered the store, “Terry, Soren, entering new area, can you confirm connectivity?”
“We hear you,” Terry’s voice crackled, “for our part we’re just exploring this big old plaza which should take a while.”
All of the clothes in the hanger racks were covered by a thick layer of dust. Nora could already feel her nose itching.
“Hold on, watch this,” Dawn took a damp rag and wiped down the edges of the outfits, turning the cloth over several times. When she was finished, she carefully rolled up the two outfits on either end and placed them under a nearby table. She spread apart the remaining clothes showing them to be relatively dust-free.
“Always wash your carrots before cutting them,” said Dawn tapping her temple.
“Wow, I never would have thought of that,” said Nora, impressed.
“I’m sure you would,” Dawn rummaged through the rack, “all of these pants look so restrictive. Let's take that.” Dawn handed Nora a pair of jeans with prominent rivets.
“What the—, these jeans already have tears in them,” Dawn held up a pair of jeans.
“Don’t ask me,” said Nora, “maybe we’re in the bargain section?”
“Maybe our ancestors had weird taste,” said Dawn.
Nora and Dawn went through several more racks. They now had several pairs of pants, shirts, and a dress. They took their haul to a row of cubicles towards the back of the store.
“Seems safe,” said Dawn, poking at the walls and ceiling of a cubicle with her hook-pole. “Now start with these,” she handed Nora some garments.
Inside the cubicle, Nora started to remove her shirt, being careful to not flex her left arm.
“So I guess you really are going to leave?” said Dawn from the other side of the cubicle door.
“Yeah,” Nora threaded her left arm through a thick flannel shirt.
“I know I always say this, but why?”
“What do you mean ‘why?’” Nora gave up on doing all the buttons with one hand, settling on every other.
“I mean I get wanting to be with your mom and dad,” Dawn responded, “but like, your parents won’t be around forever, you know? Not in the same way friends or a partner will.”
Nora stared at the new pair of jeans she just picked up, trying to think of how to respond but also what specifically was being asked.
“You, Soren, Terry, and I; we should all die at roughly the same time, you’ll never be alone if you stay here. Who do you know in your generation out there?”
“Well there’s Kimberly,” Nora folded up her torn jeans out of habit.
“Like Kimberly from the 3rd grade?”
“Yes, and Yuri and Kate,” continued Nora.
“Do you know where any of them are? Or what planet they are on for that matter?”
“No,” conceded Nora, “and it would be hard to find them. And to be frank, I don’t really know what will happen. I really wish I knew anything other than that I’ll miss you all.” Nora tightened her belt and opened the cubicle door. “How do I look?”
“Incredible!” Dawn’s face lit up, “you look like you’re about to go off and fight a bear, especially with the funky riveted jeans.”
Nora laughed, “I feel like I already fought a bear, and lost.”
Dawn laughed.
“Do you want to try the other outfits on or just go?” she asked as Nora looked in the mirror.
Nora thought for a moment as she looked at herself. After a decade of wearing more or less the same outfit, it was transformative to see herself in totally unique attire. She felt like a different person, someone who didn’t spend their whole life doing the same things with the same people in the same places and who wasn’t in the slightest daunted by the unknown. She had a sudden feeling that she really could be anything she wanted to be.
“How much time do we have?” asked Nora.
“Plenty of time girl.”
“Okay, I’m going to try these next,” Nora took a dress shirt and slacks into the cubicle.
“To continue answering your question,” Nora now had extra confidence in her decision, “it’s important to remember that I’m not going from one small community to another. There will be many more options and opportunities on Altaria than even I can imagine I bet.”
“That’s crazy,” said Dawn, “but does that possibility outweigh the guarantee you have here? Like, what’s wrong with here?”
“Well aside from the dwindling genetic diversity, staying here also means being hemmed in.” Nora slipped on the slacks.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I know that if I stay here, I will spend my life fixing things and solving problems as they crop up on the farm, which is fine, but out there I could sculpt planets, design space ships, visit moons, or find uses for alien plants.”
“I guess that’s cool,”” said Dawn, “honestly, I think I don’t get it because it scares me more than it excites me.”
“I understand,” Nora buckled her belt, faster this time, “it scares me a lot too.” She opened the door, “what do you think?”
“Hmm, I like the other one more,” Dawn looked in the mirror with Nora.
“Help me tuck in the shirt.”
“Okay.”
Once finished they both looked in the mirror again. Nora didn’t need an answer to know she liked the outfit.
“Wow, it’s a real sharp profile, you look like you don’t take orders from anyone, you decide what happens,” Dawn put her hands on Nora’s shoulders while looking in the mirror.
Nora couldn’t help but smile slightly. She just felt right in that outfit.
“Ah, especially when you use that piercing stare. You look like you already know everything about me.”
“I feel like I know everything about myself,” said Nora, “okay what next?”
“You should do this,” Dawn handed Nora a sundress.
“You know this has no useful purpose,” said Nora, amused.
“Humor me.”
“Hey, this is Soren,” his voice crackled over the radio, “I think we found the sterilizer. Can you come to us so that Nora can ID it and we can go?”
“We’ll be there in ten minutes,” replied Dawn into the radio. She turned to Nora, “okay hurry, before you leave forever.”
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