in the ataraxis of aftermath

moru station

And then, a few days later, Naoko found someone.

That day, she had woken up late. Well, technically she had woken up on time, but instead of getting up and getting ready for the day, Naoko found herself sighing softly and staring at the ceiling. She didn't want to get back to work today. She was tired. Even the simple act of reaching out for a bottle of water seemed like a colossal task.

She didn't know how long she stayed there, like that, her mind floating atop a vast sea of cold nothingness. It was long enough for her to hear the train thunder past, without her.

After that, it took even longer for Naoko to convince herself that she needed to get up and do something today. But somehow she did. (She suspected it had something to do with the unticked boxes on her list.)

She idly decided to go to the mall. It was one of the few places she could get to without the train and seemed like a productive enough place to be. It wasn't what she had planned on, but there was no one to blame but herself for that.

After an agonizingly slow journey of following the narrow train tracks to the next station, Naoko had finally made it.

The mall had always been one of the biggest places in the city, so it had a full three stories that were above water level. While most of the necessities people had assumed they needed had been ransacked long ago, there always seemed to be a few things that had evaded the hungry eyes of the desperate.

The building had once been beautiful - a tall, white building with sharp angles, bright colors and windows the size of houses. But now it was battered and filthy, spotty black lines jutting across it from the rising and receding tide. Most of the windows were broken and the whole area around it had smelled of mold and rotting corpses even months after everyone inside had ceased having an audible heartbeat.

Still, Naoko stepped inside, over the gnawed bones and soggy strips of fabric. She was careful to mind the large, jagged shards of glass that hovered on the surface of the water.

Naoko's first stop was the sporting goods store. It had been on the fifth floor (well, third floor now) and was tucked away in a corner somewhere, far enough from where more popular looting spots were so as to properly evade notice. She had gotten one of the first things she'd ever stolen from that store - her sturdy, waterproof backpack and chest-high fishing waders. They had held out pretty well through the years. Naoko had always meant to go back and grab some more, though, just in case something did end up happening to them and cause them to break.

So yes, Naoko knew what she was looking for. She knew what she could expect.

Or she thought she did, at least.

She was not expecting to find a person.

This person (person? mannequin? angel?) was facing away from Naoko, only their back and the soft outline of their form visible. Said form mostly consisted of a large, blocky travel pack and a thick green jacket. But they (he? she? it?) had dark brown hair, long and tied back in a braid. A baseball cap was perched snugly atop their head.

There was no way this was real, Naoko told herself, blinking long and slow. Every time she opened her eyes, she expected them to be gone, trusting them to disappear from reality like any good hallucination should.

But the phantom (human?) did not leave. Instead, they contemplated the stores in front of them, tilting their head this way and that.

Naoko was too afraid to move. Suppose this... thing was real (which it wasn't, but if it was) - what should she do? Were they dangerous? They hadn't appeared to see Naoko yet, still engrossed in their thinking, muttering softly to themself.