Off to the mall.

Druuna woke the next morning, slightly sore but much more relaxed than she had been for a number of weeks. After having what Samuel called an “outpost breakfast”; which was just tinned rations of meat, some hard bread and diluted beer, Druuna washed herself off with the outposts well and gathered up her gear for her journey into the mall. After saying goodbye to the guards at the outpost, Druuna left and walked to the mall’s entrance.

The building was bigger than anything Druuna had ever seen, and it looked to be four or five stories tall from the entrance. The walls of the building were made of the sturdy material from the old world known as “concrete”, which was a powerful type of adobe. The beige paint on the walls had begun to chip and fall off and the plate glass doors of the entry way were all broken out. Taking a deep breath, Druuna walked into the dark building and saw an amazing sight.

Grand skylights with their glass panes missing let in enough sunlight for Druuna to see the mall. All around her there were rooms upon rooms upon rooms, all of them stacked up to the ceiling. Odd rubbery stairways and the ancient moving rooms called “elevators” linked levels of shops together.

Druuna quickly decided upon a location and searched one of the rooms near the entry way, not wanting to wander too far into the mall just yet, as the rumors of a tribe living in the deeper parts of the mall made her wary. The inside of the first store was painted an odd, brownish color with green colors also present. As far as Druuna could tell, the building had once provided water, likely it was a pumping station at one point. The water had gone bad though, and it was all a brownish color. After searching the room for awhile, Druuna found an old machine that had a scratched label on it reading “Cappuc-” there was more to the label, but she couldn’t read the rest. Using her Swiss-army knife, Druuna snipped out the good copper wires from the machine and placed them in her pack; knowing she could get a few caps for good wire at the market.

Once she realized she wouldn’t find anything else at the store, Druuna left and went to the next one. When she looked inside the room, Druuna couldn’t help but squeal in happy surprise! Books! Ancient tomes of hidden knowledge arranged in great shelves along the walls and in aisles! Druuna quickly began searching the books and looking for anything useful. She took one that said “Basic Engineering”, one that said “A farm’s biology”, “Forty years of history”, “The Microchip”, “Electricity: A children’s book” and “The beginners Kama Sutra”. After putting the books that looked like they would interested her in her pack, Druuna frowned; she’d like to take all the books there back with her, but she couldn’t carry them all. It was already nearly noon time, so Druuna sat down behind one of the rows of bookshelves and had a quick lunch of rations and water before she started scavenging again. She was feeling brave enough to travel further into the mall and she still had the spiked club with her. On the other hand, there were still a number of stores near the entry way that she could search.