Wisteria

Chapter 3: Reunion

North had woken up later that night. Things seemed the same as when she had gone to sleep. Chai was also still sleeping so North carefully moved her arm and stood up so she could stretch. Her stomach grumbled quietly as she lowered her arm from stretching. "Oh.." She decided to go find some food for herself and Chai. Since the food court wasn't too far she decided to head there first and since it was quite dark she used the flashlight on her phone to light her way.

Soon she arrived at the food court and went over to a pizza place, hopping over the counter and going into the back. Luckily for her the power was somehow still working and she got a box from one of the low heat ovens that kept them warm and fresh. This feels like stealing but.. I don't want to starve or have any of the food go to waste. She grabbed a few napkins and found some water bottles before heading back to Chai. North got back to her friend safely and sat down with the pizza, napkins and water while waiting for Chai to wake up so they could eat together. North didn't have to wait long because when Chai smelt food, she was up in a second.

"Pizza?" North chuckled as Chai was already in the box and grabbing a slice. "Thanks bestie!"

North nodded and smiled before grabbing her own slice and beginning to eat it. After a few minutes the pizza was gone and their water bottles were empty. The two sat there in their satisfied bliss before Chai spoke up. "We should scavenge."

"Huh?" North looked at her friend slightly confused.

"We should scavenge. I still have that bad gut feeling. It's making my stomach upset."

"Well.." She just nodded. "Yeah. We could do that. We'll go find backpacks and gather up things we need for basic survival."

"Hah. You sound like the main character in some apocalyptic dystopian story." Chai received a playful punch to the arm from North as the two laughed quietly. "Thanks for bringing some food. I was starving."

"Yep."

Another moment of silence passed through them. They seemed caught up in their own thoughts and didn't really speak for the rest of the night. Once day arrived the silence was still hanging over them. They only exchanged a few words with each other as they gathered supplies like clothes, food and water. They fit these things into large duffel bags that acted like backpacks. As they walked around they noticed other people doing the same, even the few security guards that were around.

The sound of approaching footsteps from behind caught their attention and the two turned around to come face-to-face with a boy who stood a bit taller than them both. He had black bushy hair that covered his eyes and a wide grin plastered on his face. "Heya guys."

Chai nearly fainted. "Caesar! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Woah." North took another look at him. "Is that really Caesar?"

"The one and only." Another boy with a red cloth wrapped around his forehead walked up behind Caesar and smacked him in the back of his head. "Ow! And the annoying older brother, Icarus."

Icarus only rolled his eyes. "Anyways, long time no see, we'll have to save the reunion for later. I'm actually glad we found some people we know. We need to get out of here."

"That's what we plan on doing. I see you guys also decided to scavenge."

Caesar popped in with a yup. "And now that we're together, we'll all get out of this dump and this fake society!"

"Fake?" North and Chai asked as they looked at Caesar confused.

"Yeah. You guys didn't know? Caesar almost got moved up to the next Generation because he decided it would be a good idea to openly protest out in the street a few weeks back!" Icarus jabbed at his younger brother with each word.

"Hey, hey man. It's not my fault that car accident happened. Should've been looking at the road and not my handsome face."

North stood there dumbfounded for a moment before speaking. "Uh.. that was me. I didn't even recognize you in the crowd with your new haircut. How do you see?"

The other two burst out laughing as Caesar stood there silently. The laughter was cut short at the sound of a large thump coming from above them along with the sound of a low hiss that sent chills down their spines. It was then silent again. A little too silent. Below them, a group of three men were rushing to the exit with a security guard yelling at them to stop. The group of men had his keys and wanted to get out of the mall because they assumed it was now safe. The man who held the keys got to the exit first and quickly began to go through each of the keys to find out which one would unlock the gate, while the other two held off the security guard. After a few tries the gates closing off the exit began to open, allowing much more natural light inside instead of the dim flickering ones. The man who had unlocked the gates, turned and cheered to the others that they were getting out of there but the other two had booked it along with the security guard which left the man confused.

The four quickly ducked down and hid as the man turned back around to leave without them, only to be met with a pale off-white face. Taken by surprise the man screamed, turned and ran away. This alerted the creature causing it to quickly chase after the man. More of the pale creatures came in through the now open exit and followed after the screaming man, whose screams were soon cut off but more were immediately heard afterwards. It must have been the other survivors. Once the monsters stopped flooding in, Icarus determined the coast was clear and, without voicing the worst, stood up. He then proceeded to hurry down the stopped escalator and towards the exit while signaling for the other three to follow, which they did. They got down there and were shocked at the destruction that used to be their city. The city had been reduced to ruin in one night.