slip through the crack (open)

These places were always overly large structures with plenty of places to hide in.  Evan had never really been a fan of shopping malls preferring to buy gear at smaller stores to support local businesses or just buying things online cause you could get prices closer to cost which when it came to buying gear was a good thing.  Quality stuff was ridiculously expensive but that was the nature of things.  If a company was less likely to sell you what they make more then one time they'd have to get their money's worth out of you.  Most of the gear he was currently carrying or wearing had been things he'd actually bought before First Night and it had served him well up to this point. One particular item, however, had seen better days and would soon need to be replaced: his boots.  While the leather on the uppers was holding well the tread had started go bald about fifty miles of walking ago and had become annoying when dealing with wet surfaces.  So the mall was where he was hoping to find a new pair. 

He'd walked around the outside of the large building about three times to get a good feel for the area and make sure nothing was lurking on the fringes.  A zombie or two may or may not have been dispatched in the process but he'd finally become ready to enter the building.  He looked around himself once more before heading over to one of the doors and pulling.  The beauty of the First Night to the eyes of the survivor was that it was fast.  Once it hit an area it didn't take long to wipe the population out which left a lot stuff places.  The population these days was slim and there were only so many people brave enough to venture into places like this where the undead might potentially be around any corner in order to obtain new stuff.  Fortunately Evan was one such person and he full intended to find new boots before leaving the place.  Maybe a jar of pickles too. The monks would love that.  Not that he'd complain because those crazy old pacifists always found something awesome to do with whatever he brought to them.  He'd acquired a whole box of seeds from an abandon Lowes once and they'd grown all kinds of awesome things in the green houses.  He'd been particularly fond of the tomatoes.  Something about a sliced tomato in the summer time reminded him of home.  It was refreshing.  He'd scout around a little while he was here and see if there was anything fun left around.

His steps were careful and light as he moved around casually through broken glass and shadowed corners.  Some signs were obvious and others were dark and hard to make out. The smell was like it usually was in places like this.  The smell of death lingered in the still closed air.  Evan preferred the woods for a reason.  You could still smell it when a walker moved through the woods but it didn't linger like it did in these places.  The putrid smell would never turn the old soldiers stomach, he was far to used to it, but it didn't mean he enjoyed it.  His large knife slipped easily into his hand as he stalked the tiled halls until he found a shoe store that looked promising enough.  Thankfully there was a boot section and they had some decent steel toes as well.  He tried a couple pairs on silently and left the ones he had picked on.  He tied the laces of the old pair and laid them across the top of this pack.  Hopefully one of the monks would take an interest in the cobbler trade and be able to resole them for someone less fortunate.  On his was out he snagged a few pairs of wool socks and shoved them in his bag for good measure before stepping back out of the store.  He heard a noise on the upper floor.  Instantly he was on high alert.  It could be dead or alive or animal but he had to go check it out.  The smart thing would be to just move on and let whatever it was be but if it turned out to be someone hurt or in trouble he'd be a pretty big dick not to have checked on them.  He moved in the direction of the noise steadily.