It pinned the creature to the wall.
They continued upward.
The second floor was darker.
The escalators were blocked by piles of furniture, broken glass and bodies. Somewhere above them an emergency generator clicked once every few seconds, though it obviously had not worked for years. The stores were smaller here. Electronics, furniture, household goods. Most of the merchandise had been stripped long ago. What remained had been destroyed by looters or ruined by time.
There were signs that people had lived here.
Bai Li noticed the first one beside a shuttered appliance store. A sleeping bag had been placed behind a counter. A plastic bottle stood beside it. There were candle stubs, empty food packets and a child's drawing pinned to the wall.
Yan Cijin crouched beside the drawing.
A family of four had been drawn with bright crayons. Above them was a yellow sun.
"Someone stayed here," Yan Cijin said.
"A while ago."
"There is no dust on the bottle."
