The little pony—fat and well-fed from living in the space—still had grass in his mouth and looked a bit stressed. However, Denton had finally caught himself a mount; there was no way he was going to let the pony get away. So on the street that had just been cleared of debris in the apocalypse, a scene unfolded—few people actually saw it, since aside from the shelter, the surrounding buildings were mostly empty—two sleek canine beasts raced ahead, two mutated birds darted playfully above them, while a chubby little pony struggled to keep up behind. On that pony sat a handsome, lean boy; his bangs fluttered, his expression excited, his whole body radiating energy. The boy shouted at the top of his lungs, his clear voice carried by the wind. He was singing, "Ride my little donkey, and I'll never be stuck in traffic!" The "little donkey" kicked and stomped from time to time, apparently not thrilled, but the boy on his back did not care, as he was having the time of his life. As they neared their destination, worried the noise might draw attention—mostly because Denton's pony was noisy—they all dismounted. Caroline put the pony back into the space, and they crept quietly toward the target building. Before the apocalypse, the building had been a small six-story shopping mall. The group arrived here after the deep freeze ended and the waters receded. The mall was roughly oval; each floor had a circular open area in the middle for exhibitions and elevators, with shops around the rim. William's group reportedly lived mostly on the third floor; their boss stayed in shop 306, an outdoor gear store. The others hung around near 306 without fixed rooms. The plan Caroline and the others agreed on was the one Tyler had proposed: they would impersonate William's team. It was risky, but with no power and a dim moon tonight, they could don protective suits, masks, and bluff their way in. Kill whoever they could. If they could take out the boss in one strike, the rest would be easier.Even though William's crew had not personally offended Caroline's group before, their cruelty was obvious, and since William's lot had already been partially destroyed by Caroline and the others, the grudge was real, so prevention was necessary. Outside the shelter, they put on protective suits, and for safety, also wore goggles over their masks. They exchanged glances—aside from Caroline being slightly shorter, nothing seemed off. Since height was difficult to fake, Caroline planned to hang back a little. Their objective was to kill as many as they could. With that, they pushed into the mall and made a beeline for the third floor. It was already ten minutes past midnight. To their surprise, the third floor still emitted a faint glow. According to William, they did not have a generator, and batteries and power gear were rare. So apparently William's faction had made some progress in the last couple of days. Caroline and the others exchanged looks but did not panic; they moved toward the third floor slowly. At the sound of footsteps, the people on that floor all turned to look. "Oh, you're back. How was it?" came a woman's voice as she walked toward them. Tyler lowered his voice and, imitating a hoarse tone as if he had a cold, quickly said, "Don't come closer, these suits aren't very clean." Among William's team, Christ had that kind of hoarse, sickly voice; Tyler had practiced it and sounded convincingly similar. Hearing that, the woman stopped in her tracks—exactly as the plan intended. Caroline and the others wanted to lure several of them together so they could use their skills to take out multiple targets at once. If the woman had come alone, they might only have killed her; if she recognized them, the plan would be blown. To gain trust, Caroline had already placed some supplies at the stairwell entrance from the space.Seeing the goods, the people near the light brightened. Tyler spoke up, "This is only part of it. We can move it first; we'll go change our clothes nearby." No one doubted them—greed showed clearly in their eyes when they saw the supplies. Caroline had deliberately added a few hundred cans of meat to the batch.