I continued walking through the Eaton Centre. It really was enormous, with three extensive floors, all decked out with various stores and outlets. It struck me as odd that I would find this place in any way appealing in the way of food or general supplies. There were vending machines where I could get snacks and drinks that were probably still edible, if they hadn't been looted, but what about canned food? What kind of mall kept a healthy supply of canned food, or really any packaged and preserved food? The only supply of food that I could think of would come from the food court, and all that stuff would have undoubtedly gone bad by this point. Unless there was some power source that was keeping it fresh, or at least edible, which was definitely possible.

I thought I heard something clatter across the ground. It was distant, probably at least halfway across the mall, but it put me on alert instantly. I raised my rifle to my shoulder and moved against the wall to my left. I brought the scope in front of my eye and used it to see if I could spot anything. At first I didn't see anything, but then I saw the muzzle-end of a rifle raise into the air.

"Shit!" I realized I said that louder than I should have. It wasn't yelling volume, but it certainly wasn't stealthy. I mentally chastised myself and checked my flanks to make sure no one was trying to get the drop on me. The front entrance, where I had just come in, seemed clear, but there were a few things in and along the street that people could use as cover so I didn't really know for sure.

Regardless, I decided to press on. I'd rather deal with a known human than an unconfirmed human. I made my way up a flight of stairs, still hugging the wall to my left. I looked just over the lip of the stairs and saw the silhouette of the man holding the rifle, an M4, in the air. His finger was clearly off the trigger, and he seemed to be a bit on edge. Clearly he suspected someone was watching him and he wanted to appear non-threatening. Either that or someone already had the drop on him and he knew it. Either way, he probably wasn't the only one there.

He was looking in my direction. Not directly at me, but in my direction. I couldn't tell if he saw me, but I decided I might be better off retreating and finding a flight of stairs that wasn't in his line of sight, even if I had several advantages already. That being said, I lowered myself away from the top of the stairs and moved back down, quickly but quietly. I made a left and started cutting along the opposite side of the hall, heading towards a flight of stairs much closer to the food court that would be just behind him and to his left. I kept my head on a swivel, looking for any more potential threats along the way.