He saved his flashlight by sneaking out in the darkness. Jimmy sensed that many a shadow had fallen over those goods. There were toys and trinkets and useless things. He searched the scattering of items on the other shelves for batteries or a can opener. There were goods trapped underneath the shelf alongside the person, but Jimmy felt no urge to investigate. White ankle bones spanned the gap between boot and cuff. The boots sticking out were small, a woman’s or a child’s. He arrived at the general store to find it mostly bare, except for the remains of someone trapped under a spilled stand of shelves. The world had grown as rusty as his memory of it. He passed familiar landmarks, levels from another life with an accumulation of wear and a tangle of wires and pipes. The muscles in his legs grew warm from the use, but in a good way. Upward again, listening more closely for footfalls, keeping a hand on the rail for a vibration, he spiralled his way past the water plant on thirty-two, the dirt farm on thirty-one, past sanitation on twenty-six, keeping to the green light and aiming for the general store. Even if people survived around him, the only company one found was the kind that chased you or killed you. He remained in the darkness at the end of a strange and silent hall until the noise faded and he could feel things creeping across the tile towards him, hands with claws reaching through the inky black to tangle up in his wild and long hair, and Jimmy found himself back on the landing in the dull green glow of emergency lights, panting and not knowing what to believe. A figure flew by, hand squeaking along the railing, and then another figure close behind, shouting threats.
Pressing his cheek against the door, he peered through the gap, listening. He yanked the doors open on the next landing and pulled them to, leaving a small crack. So he ran, rifle clattering against the jugs tied to his makeshift backpack, boots clomping awkwardly on the treads, both fearful and relieved not to be alone. He could see the next landing jutting off overhead, one turn around the central post. Jimmy stopped and listened to the clang of footsteps. Until a vibration in the steps altered it.
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