Conquer the Wasteland

Lazy days...or dog days

Most of my days now were spent very unproductively, well at least from a successful worker's point of view.

The first day I ran wildly around the store, crashing through the aisles and taking chocolate as I went. Liam stopped chasing me after the first hour. It felt as if he just gave up trying to calm me down and in hopes that I would run my energy to the ground, he sat and watched from his recliner chair. The recliner was conveniently placed on the top floor of the mall, in the biggest bookstore I have ever seen.

Day two I spent in the candy shop and the girl stores. Surprisingly the jewelry and perfume and makeup remained almost untouched. I thought that with our self righteous and selfish society, someone would take at least something. But the shelves gleamed mockingly, as if the world hadn't been destroyed and conquered by dead remnants of it's previous inhabitants.

I wasn't really a girly-girl. I mean I could be at times, but I was mostly just weird and quirky. I didn't act like most girls did at my age, all glammed up and trying to get famous. All I wanted out of a life was the world's biggest jar of nutella and a tv with free netflix. I was no Beyonce...but when I saw that simple leather necklace with a ring carved from the bone of a whale hanging from it, I felt so glamorous I could pass out. I don't understand what the deal was, but that necklace spoke to me. It seemed so unreal and beautiful... but there was a catch. It was locked behind a sealed, barred up case and the key was nowhere to be found. Maybe that's why I wanted it so badly, because it was unreachable. I was tempted to use my Iron Beauty to bash in the metal bars, but I didn't want to scratch her nonstick coating. I was very protective of my precious pan, and not even a necklace like that could convince me to ruin it. I still desperately wanted it though.

Day three I spent going through my backpack. I pulled out an assortment of things varying from a scary looking knife to some old bubble gum. Laying the supplies all out in front of me, I realized that if Liam had not found me, I would have been hurting for resources. I threw away my dusty, plastic water bottle for a heavy duty metal one. It gleamed viciously, like my personality and I thought, why the heck not, we need another one like me in the world. So I dropped it in the bag. Hiking the backpack farther up onto my shoulders, I wandered the mall aimlessly. Mostly looking for things I needed but also some things that I could use to pass the time. I grabbed a big box of protein bars, opening it and putting the separately packaged bars into the smallest pouch in the back of my bag. Several packets of jerky and an assortment of pringles followed suit. I zipped up that pouch, ready to tackle the next thing on the list.

In the second largest pouch I placed an assortment of girl products, lotion, a big bottle of hand sanitizer, several hunting knives, (I had to break the glass container they were in too.) two packs of socks, several shoe laces, and a solar charger with different plugins. I also figured why not and grabbed the best laptop I could find, one of the smaller versions. Deciding to test out the solar charger I plugged it into the device and lay it directly under the shattered sun roof at the top of the mall. I zipped up that pouch, and moved on.

Moving to the art store, I grabbed three medium sized sketch pads, a pack of mechanical pencils, since I had no idea where I would find the time to sharpen regular ones, a notebook, and an assortment of gel pens and different art writing utensils. I didn't need them in the slightest...but after all that time I spent alone out there, in the darkness, I needed something to distract myself. And besides, I was always deeply in love with and into art, for that's what I wanted my profession to be based upon when I started my career. Now that future will never happen, it will always be an illusion to me, a mirage of what could have been. A dream.

Shaking my head, I rid myself of those dark thoughts. I couldn't think that way, at least not today. Throwing my checklist of supplies behind me, watching it fluttering in the breeze that drafted through the broken windows, I had a thought. Looking down at myself, I grimaced. I needed a new outfit. My feet led me there as if I had lived in the mall my entire life, while my mind wandered aimlessly.