He scoffed, passing by one of the various posters on the walls of the wholesale store. They were half torn already due to time, but in the past may have displayed ads of the products available in the store.

Last night had not been the best. He had spent all of it trying to get his clothes to dry, with little to no result.

He had decided to survey the store in the end. He hadn’t searched it completely yet, only the places that looked interesting. So, it was about time he searched this from nook to cranny.

There were a lot of aisles in there, tall aisles with huge cardboards at the very top of them. On the bottom sides were the products the store once offered when it still operated. Most of them were beyond use now.

The first few aisles on the left were completely filled with products used for cleaning. He barely had any use for them. He did no extensive cleaning after all. When his clothes became dirty, he simply threw them away.

One part of his search was to look for the clothing section, he didn’t wish to spend another night wasting his time on drying his damp clothes. That seemed to be a vain effort.

He found the clothing section soon enough, just required some slow meticulous searching. He tried out new clothes, not caring for whether he looked ridiculous in this mismatched outfit or not.

“Alright, time to go out”, he said as he picked up his backpack and exited the store.

Today was a rare day of little to no rain, hence his mood was better than usual.

There was a slight breeze on the streets, creating a euphoric feeling when it touched his face. The puddles from last night’s rain were still on the roads, a bit muddy due to the dirty roads. In the past this city was known for its development, especially the roads that were specifically made for motor cars to traverse.

The signboard when entering the city had said:

“Welcome To Alzeria”

Alzeria, the city of the future they used to call it. The jewel of the south.

Now, even its most main streets displayed a scene of ruin.

He was walking slowing, gauging out his surroundings. He wasn’t in a rush after all, the canned food he had found in the store would suffice for now, so food wasn’t an immediate concern. Although, more food was always welcome. That coupled with the fact that he was bored and there was no rain today, led him to a stroll of some sorts in the vicinity.

There was a restaurant of some sort right next to the store, possibly for the travelling people who had just entered the city. He was on the outskirts after all.

He eyed the restaurant, it was a small establishment. Its sign board had long since collapsed, lying on the ground bent and rusted. Tall grass and weeds had grown outside the place, it took him a while to notice the sign board, in fact. It was obscured by the wild vegetation.

“Storm and strong winds on the loose again”, he said as he jumped over the sign.

The main door of the restaurant was made totally out of glass, funnily enough, the glass was totally smashed, rendering the door useless.

“Maybe one of those automated doors”, he noted as he stepped through the broken glass door into the restaurant. The building had large windows and there was enough illumination coming through the windows, so there was no use for his flashlight.

As suspected, there weren’t much tables on the ground floor of the restaurant, most of the space was occupied by the counter and workspace, and a room in the back that was probably a kitchen.

He had no business on the upper floor, so he walked towards the counter, avoiding chairs that were strewn across the ground. There was a desk bell sitting on the counter, begging to be pushed.

“Ah, so this was a place that wasn’t doing well in terms of business”, he realized.

He dinged the bell out of sheer curiosity and amusement. And then again, and again. Third time’s a charm and apparently start of boredom too.

He made an unimpressed face and vaulted over the counter, the only point of interest was the kitchen. He kicked open the kitchen doors and walked in.

There was a sudden noise in the room, as if someone had just hidden somewhere inside.

His danger sense immediately started to blow up, and in the next few seconds, he took off his backpack, opened it and took out the crowbar.

“Damn”, he muttered under his breath as he clutched the crowbar in his hands and approached the boxes in the back. There weren’t a lot of boxes but there were enough to hide a human.

Crowbar in his hand, he quickly looked behind the boxes.

“Huh, odd. There’s nothing here”, he said as he relaxed. “Must’ve been my imagin-”, his sentence trailed off as he felt something soft on his shoe. He looked down, and in the next moment, life left his eyes.

It was a rat, a huge rat. And it was staring right at him, instead of running away.

This wasn’t good.

In a moment, he jolted back, kicking away the rat in the process.

“Shit! No, no, no. No way!” he said as he ran back to the kitchen doors. He was hearing a lot of screeching from behind.

There wasn’t just one rat, he had waddled right into the nest of huge rats.

He threw open the kitchen doors and jumped over the counter in a rush, scratching his elbow. But he cared not, a scratch was ten times better than a rat bite.

He didn’t stop running until he was outside of the restaurant, then he kept looking back while hastily walking. He didn’t stop until he was well away from there, and walked until he reached the opposite side of the road.

“Note to self: never waltz in like you own the place”, he made a mental note about his predicament.

“Hmm?” he noticed a yellowish paper sticking to the side of his backpack. “Must have tagged along when I jumped over the counter”.

He picked up a small stick lying on the street and scratched the paper off his backpack. The paper fell on the ground and he bent down, trying to take a good look at it.

“Seems to be a brochure of some kind”, he said as he looked carefully.

There were various announcements written on it regarding the restaurant. One said something about coupons enabling you to go to a trip to a big city.

Specifically, The city of the Old Saints.

He gave out a weak laugh. “Well, this would have been convenient back in the day, ironic because that is exactly where I am headed after i find something worthwhile here”.