Remain Human: Changed

Part 5: Bust

1:15 PM

"Damnit!!" you shouted aloud as you kicked over a small wooden crate. You gave it a few more kicks out of the pent up frustration you had while exploring the hub, your yells of frustration echoing within the massive dark space of the warehouse unit, the faint sunlight and your flashlight being the only sources of illumination within the dark chamber. 

To say what you found amid the rubbish and boxes which was, in all a disappointment was a bit of an understatement.

For starter, most of the 1st floor was burnt down and all you managed to get out of the floor was a few boxes worth of oily, steel rings, a motorcycle frame and beauty products. Ugh, don't even want to mention the spider webs...

The 2nd floor shared the same fate as the 1st floor. That and the  fuck-all amount of rats inside half of the warehouse units was more than enough to chase you away upwards to the 3rd floor, where you are. You only got some good looks at them. Big as cats, red eyes and sure as hell willing to eat anything simply because it wants to eat. Even human. No sir, ain't staying for dinner. And while everything here seemed in far more better condition than the past 2 floors, your hopes for anything worth of your survival have been wiped. 

Everything here has been picked clean during the riots and by scavengers after that, and even with that, most of the items you found were absolutely worthless to you. Ranging from marble tiles, sunscreen, bikes, prune cake making kits (who even eats them anyways??) all the way down to wooden fucking planks. Jesus, not even half way through this place and you're considering just going back home already. Uugghhh....

Still, there's 4 more floors of potential promise left up above you. For now, you just gotta keep on moving forward....well upwards if you put it in practical terms. 

Prying free the slim crowbar from the box, you grab your flashlight and walk out of the warehouse unit. You're at the tail end of this section of warehouse units which you already cleared out. You just need to check the other warehouse units there before moving to the next storey. 

This floor seemed to border on both trashed and vacant compared to the other 2 floors where it was varying levels of rubbish, rubble and occasional animal remains. No surprise there considering that this floor used to house stonemasonry, industrial and vehicle parts and materials, beauty products and light bulbs. All these things were useful to other yous in alternate dimensions. You never really had much time at your old workplace to explore the other floors and even if you did, you would have been questioned by security for loitering around places you shouldn't be walking around. Security's ruthlessness back then sure as hell worked wonders for this place, you scoffed as you reach the first of the 8 units on this side. 

Looking right to left they appear to be in various states of disrepair including the road. Most of the shutters of each unit have been sawn open judging from the perfectly cut yet misshapen holes in the shutters. Bits of concrete and plaster litter the floor here and there with rubbish as a constant reminder of the messiness and callous disregard of the environment by humans. Water damage can be seen from the walls closest towards the outside with lines of water-damaged plaster outlining where water pipes supplying the fire sprinklers are. A noticeably huge hole can be seen between the 5th and the 6th units, rebar jutting out from the 4th floor as if someone shot a cannon ball through the ceiling. A few forklifts are scattered around the place. Looks like some people hotwired them and took the out for a joyride. Hey there's even a delivery truck at the far end. Looks relatively okay to you. Perhaps if these forklifts still worked even today....

You pull your sleeves up until your elbows and open your gasmask to wipe away the sweat on your forehead, already fat beads of sweat have formed on it. Wiping with 2 layers of latex gloves felt weird but it was an experience that you gotten used to over half a decade of scavving. Rubbing your biceps, you walk towards the first unit, a sizeable irregular hole sawed into the shutter which lead into pitch blackness. This is gonna take a good while