Once inside the mall, they found the place in ruins. Right in the center, a big banner hung there—Golden Exhibition. Most of the counters were crooked or knocked over, and some had acid rain corrosion marks. Some gold bars were so damaged they didn't even look like gold anymore. The whole floor was covered in gold jewelry. Caroline wasn't in the mood to collect these. Finding Jet came first. Raven ran up to the next floor, and Caroline kept calling Jet's name. Sure enough, in a corner on the second floor, Caroline heard a faint, weak chirp. It was so quiet that if it weren't for Raven's amazing hearing, she probably would've never found Jet hiding that well. "Jet, you okay?" Caroline slid off Raven's back and ran over. She found Jet lying weakly in the middle of a pile of junk. He looked miserable. His wings were almost bald. The little tuft of hair on his head was gone. He was bleeding all over. Only two long tail feathers were left, exposing his bald butt, which was covered in some small stubble. "Hu ... man..." Jet called out weakly. Caroline's heart broke. She quickly pulled out the spring water from her storage space and let Jet drink it. She barely treated her own wounds on the way here, and some were still bleeding. But she didn't care. The moment she saw this poor, dying, bald bird, her heart felt like it was breaking. Caroline quickly pulled out a soft cloth from her storage space, wrapped Jet up, and held him in her arms. When she checked his wounds more carefully, she was shocked. It looked like ... Jet might've done this to himself.Yes, the missing feathers seemed to have been pulled out by Jet himself. Jet weakly explained what happened. He came near this area and ran into a giant fly. He saw it and got hit with an illusion. Then he saw one horrible scene after another. Caroline yelled that he was useless and kicked him out to fend for himself. Raven thought he was just a lazy freeloader who didn't contribute much to the team, and even hugged Snow just to annoy Jet. And Silver! She found a mutant chicken! Anyway, in his illusion, his entire world collapsed. Everyone hated him. No one loved him. Everyone told him to get lost and go far away. He got depressed and started pulling out his feathers. Slowly, he plucked out almost all his feathers. He even considered smashing his head against a wall or igniting himself with a fireball. When he was about to commit suicide, all the scenes in front of him vanished—that must have been when Caroline killed the mutant fly, which broke the illusion on Jet. The fly king thought a small creature like Jet wouldn't survive its illusion, so it told Caroline that Jet was dead. When the illusion lifted, Jet found himself back on the dirty street. In the murky water, he saw his own bloodied reflection—almost bald, like a plucked, slaughtered chicken. So ugly. Jet realized it then that everything he'd seen was an illusion. But he had lost too much blood, was emotionally exhausted, and couldn't handle the shock of being ugly, so he used his last bit of strength to hide. Caroline held the big bird in her arms, sighing softly and gently comforting him. "See Nelson's hair? That's from soaking in the spring water. Don't worry. We'll go back and soak you in it, too. Your feathers will grow back soon."Jet stayed silent, still curled up, clearly depressed. Caroline knew birds were sensitive creatures. Before the apocalypse, she'd heard of many birds plucking their feathers, losing weight, or even dying from depression. Birds are smart and emotional. They need companionship. They need mates. Many birds are monogamous—one partner for life. They're loyal, preening each other's feathers, "kiss" each other, and have delicate emotions. And Jet was a grey parrot. Grey parrots are known as the smartest of all parrots. Jet also cared about his appearance, chasing Silver like a peacock showing off his tail every day.