It would be easy to leave the mall. All the stores long shuttered. It would be easy to take down the boarded windows and let the light shine back in. It would be easy to go out into the world again. But the safety here for the thirty four people occupying Greenbrier mall was paramount. The food court skylights had become a makeshift grow garden and the water system was still on, providing water from a nearby aquifer. And they had two generators, which on Friday evenings they would gas up, fire up the ovens at the old Auntie Annie’s and make pretzels. It was the best day of the week, but one day the gas would surely run out, and the dough would grow mold.
Mondays were fashion show days, where everyone would rifle through the old Penneys department store and come back with a new look. As the years passed people got bored and some of the combinations of clothing looked like a night club comedy act.
The Build A Bear store became the nursery for any new life born here.
The old Barnes and Noble, their library.
The old Movie theater, the town hall.
The mall even had a small security office, with two guns and a small holding area. 

They had everything they needed. It would be easy to leave the mall, but it reminded them of a life they couldn’t leave behind.