Down under the station, I looked all around me, paranoid as fuck. I stepped quietly, listening everywhere for any noise. The wind blew down the empty streets. There was a full moon above me in the night sky. It was so bright that the buildings and the dead streetlights cast shadows down on the ground. The asphalt streets were covered in the dirt and garbage that had been left behind when the waters receded. I turned in a circle, looking, listening. I didn’t hear anything.

I walked south. To the west, there wasn’t much, the Major Deegan Expressway and the Hudson. To the east was where all the stores and pharmacies were. That was where I walked, my boots crunching garbage and glass beneath me.

The first pharmacy I found was mostly ransacked—we had been there before, but apparently lots of other people had been there since. The things that hadn’t been taken were dry now, but had clearly been waterlogged—swollen boxes of cereal and mashed potato flakes, filthy packages of socks, little ruined pots of blush and eyeshadow. There were still a few bottles of juice and water around, and I stuffed the few that I could carry into my duffel bag.

The next store I found was the same. Most of the waterproof things were gone, except the cheap perfume and the shaving cream. Looking at the shaving cream made me think of how regularly Lux had managed to shave even though we were living in a squat with no running water. Every morning and afternoon, she’d put a tiny bit of water in a bowl, lather up, and shave, running her hand behind her razor. Twice a day, no matter what, even after there was nobody around to see her face. She said it wasn’t about being seen by others – it was about how she felt. Standing in the pharmacy, I sighed audibly. Even here, filled with fear and not far from danger, I couldn’t keep my mind off of her.

I shook my head, trying to get the thoughts out. I had to keep my mind on the task at hand, or I could end up dead. I walked out of the pharmacy quietly, carefully, listening all around me. Down the street, the dark facade of the line of buildings loomed menacing over me.

The next pharmacy was mostly the same. I found a few more bottles of water and juice, but nothing much. The floor was scattered with crayons, a rainbow of little sticks that cracked underneath my boots as I walked on them. I moved through the store quickly and went on, looking for the next place.