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A tall being glided through the mall parking lot, Her IV pole gently rattling as it rolled behind Her. A lot of the parking spaces were full of nothing but fog since it was so late that the crickets had been chirping for several hours already, but there were still a few cars parked here and there, belonging to people that had one reason or another to be out so late. As for why She had come to this mall Herself, it was so that She could see the late night news on the tv in the hangout center. Plus, She liked watching the stores close. It was fascinating.
As She approached the mall, She made sure to stop in front of the automatic doors for a few seconds so She wouldn't ram headfirst into them. Just as She had predicted, the doors seemingly glitched out for a few seconds, opening an inch, closing, then repeating that a couple of times before finally registering Her as something that was allowed inside and fully opening its doors, letting Her enter. She ducked inside, wondering why the humans in charge of this place hadn't fixed the darn thing yet.
The being swept through the building with ease, gracefully dodging the few humans there were about at this hour. She counted the shops and turns she made as she worked her way to the hangout center: Three shops down, turn left, count five more shops, go left again, choose the path with the shoe shop at the quad fork, use the escalator and not the stairs, go east through the fast food plaza, turn right at the weird ice cream man statue and continue forward until you reach the neon pink sign that marks the entrance of the hangout center.
The hangout center was a place with the vibe of an abandoned house, although to be fair, that somewhat described the entire mall at this time of day. The center had dark navy walls and carpet, with old patched-up red beanbags littering the place. In the back there was a bookshelf that had nothing on it from the 21st century, and the single couch in front of the 75 inch tv had a large scratch on it where someone's dog had gotten aggressive for some reason or another. Coupled with the musty cheese smell, it was no wonder that people barely used the place save for family gatherings and the such.
She glided over to the couch, making sure her IV didn't snag on that weird little lump that people like to put in doorways, whether or not one was in the question. Once there, She lifted the remote that was haphazardly thrown onto the seat and switched the TV on, flipping through the channels to get to the news.
"-ighters are trying their best to quarantine the strange fire consuming Los Angeles." A reporter popped up on the television screen, signaling to Her that She had reached the news. She sat back on the couch to watch what kind of insanity the mortals were doing now.
"Authorities are still unsure what had caused such a massive fire in the first place." A live recording of Los Angeles was being shown on-screen, allowing anyone watching the news to see the fifty-story tall flames streaming from the buildings. "Many believe it was an organized arson attempt conducted by multiple people around the city. This is the most likely origin, as many people throughout the city had reported seeing fires spread throughout Los Angeles before it engulfed the city."
Hah. Stupid humans. They couldn't tell divine intervention apart from their own if it was right in front of them. Which it was. Mortal fire couldn't possibly reach such heights, not without help from one of Her own kind. Though, She didn't remember Fire being able to make such big fires so soon after His previous mega-fire. When was that huge Pacific Northwest fire again? 2015? 2014? Fire should be taking at least 50 years in between each mega-fire, and neither of those dates were anywhere close to that. And She didn't remember a single time when this incarnation of Him was able to make a flame reach from the ground to the top of a skyscraper…
She switched off the tv as the reporter started going off about the casualties and injuries, getting increasingly frustrated by Her own train of thought. Perhaps She should go and ask Fire Himself about what's going on here. It had been a while since She had left Portland, so it'd be nice to go out and see the world for a bit. Cementing Her decision, she stood up and glided out of the entertainment center, making sure her IV pole got through without tipping over on the way out.
Getting out of the mall was pretty uneventful, the only thing somewhat notable was when She passed by the night guard without him giving Her any attention, but then again, that was what all humans did when they weren't giving her authority. She stopped once to stare at a broken "Open" sign that one store really needed to replace, and again at the front to let the doors do their little glitch routine before letting Her through.
Once in the parking lot, She reasoned through Her course of action to get to Los Angeles, as it was at least 14 hours away, and that was if She had a single car taking the best route possible with no breaks. Obviously, She had to walk there instead, which would take about a month at Her speed if She didn't have any time savers. But that would take far too long, and by the time She would've gotten there, Fire would've moved through the Earth's core to attack someplace else.
That left Her with two options: One, steal someone's car. Unfortunately, She had no money to use to refill the gas tank, so option two seemed a lot better: Use the bus system to get through cities quicker. She HAD heard of a bus system that brought people directly from Portland to Los Angeles, but that was probably closed. Besides, She didn't even know where to look for one of those specific buses in the first place. Her best course of action then would be to hop on one bus going south, ride it as far as it would go, get off, walk to the next city, and repeat the process.
Her plan solidified, She went off to find Her first bus, passing under street lamps whose rays of light were distilled by the fog, giving the parking lot and nearby streets a distinctly lonely but beautiful feeling to them. The sweet melancholy somewhat transferred to the city itself, with its bright lights and advertisements flashing their colors in the slim chance that one or two cars might pass by.
It was drizzling when She finally found a bus station, one that just resembled a blue box, but it was immensely better than just some random sign. This bus station was located near a Home Depot, where some random person had apparently forgotten their stuff right next to the wall. Well, that, or they had gotten arrested, who knows. She didn't understand humans. Either way, She dragged Her IV pole into the overhang to keep it dry just as the rain got intense.
Staring up at the downpour, a human might say that it was raining cats and dogs, but not Her. She likened it to crying, as if the clouds knew that they needed to disappear to clear the sky, but were too scared to not exist anymore. But in a special twist of irony, it is those tears themselves that kill the clouds to make way for better things, such as allowing a tree to grow with the water and the sunlight made available at the end of a cloud's life.
This is what stayed in the back of Her mind as She patiently waited for the day to break, bringing with it the humans and the bus needed to start Her journey.