MyTown Shopping Center

The shopping complex in 2018, with IKEA Cheras in the background

The MyTown Shopping Center (locally known as MyTown) is a massive shopping complex located near the Central Business District of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Adjacent to Malaysia's largest IKEA Store and a nearby MRT Station, the shopping center offers five levels of retail, F&B, leisure, and entertainment with a 13-hall cinema complex. It has six levels of carparks including two basement levels. When it was completed in April 2018, the shopping center instantly was a popular shopping mall, drawing thousands of people every day. It is no doubt that MyTown enjoyed success and growth, but when humans are gone from this world, can the success still be carried on?

1 day after people: Despite it being the middle of the afternoon, MyTown is eerily silent, which is not common as this would be the hour when thousands of shoppers would be visiting the mall to eat and shop. In the car park, there are hundreds of cars now left stranded, although the vehicles would not realize that their owners have long since disappeared. The air conditioners still run normally, keeping the entire mall nice and cool. But as night falls over Kuala Lumpur and the bright lights glow into the night sky, the power stops functioning, and the bright yellow lights of MyTown and the rest of the city plunge into darkness for good.

1 week after people: The cool air of the now non-functional air conditioners has escaped through the many entrances of the mall, and the entirety of MyTown is now back at room temperature. Meanwhile, the mall no longer welcomes humans, but instead thousands of ants and a few rodents that discovered the remnants of leftovers in the restaurants, and they soon begin to raid shop by shop in search of food.

1 month after people: Birds have also joined in on the fun of food hunting, turning MyTown from a shopping center to a hunting ground, where animals look for potential prey and leftovers in the now emptied restaurants. The birds also bring in seeds, but they won't grow as rainwater can't penetrate the interior of the building, for now.

5 months after people: The Klang River bursts its bank during a massive downpour, and a raging river surge inundates the Central Business District, causing the base of MyTown to be flooded with water. All the displays or objects on the ground floor are swept away for good, shattering the windows of shops. Meanwhile, the bottom 2 levels of the car park and as well as the lower ground floor are all submerged by water, creating a massive lake on the lower floors that is now the burial grounds of animals and cars. The floodwater will remain in the confinements of the car park, slowly weakening the supports. The flood washed away most of the seeds but brought in some as well, and these start to grow as rain seeps in from the building's weak spots, which are shattered windows on all floors of the building.

10 years after people: In just a decade without humans, the MyTown Shopping Center has turned from one of the most popular malls in the city to a greenhouse with a full-on ecosystem. Trees now dominate the ground floor, growing in the cracks of the floor tiles. Meanwhile, the lake that submerged the lower floors of the mall has become popular with mosquitos and is infested by thousands of mosquito larvae. Birds also have built nests on the upper floors of the building, especially on the overhangs. The grey exterior of the mall now begins to rust from corrosion. Elsewhere the cars in the upper parking lots also start to deteriorate.

45 years after people: Inside the mini-jungle of MyTown, the escalators, suffering from corrosion and bigger animals using it as a staircase, as well as being a place where birds built their nests, finally snap, and one by one they break and collapse onto the floors below, disintegrating in a large bang. Meanwhile, sections of the upper parking lot start to break and collapse, occasionally bringing down a heap of rusted cars along with it.

60 years after people: The 4 massive gray-colored satellite-looking structures are on the verge of collapse due to corrosion from the lake that hard formed 60 years prior. One of them tips over and collapses into it, setting a chain reaction and causing the other 3 other structures to collapse with it as well.

95 years after people: The support columns at the connection of IKEA Cheras with the shopping complex break apart, setting off another series of chain reactions as the weight is unevenly distributed, causing the roof to cave in. The link between Malaysia's largest IKEA and MyTown is now severed into a pile of rubble.

100 years after people: The "MyTown" emblem on the west side of the mall is now covered by vines, thereby preserving it to survive longer. Meanwhile a big chunk of a car park ramp is sent crashing down onto the ramp below, creating a pancake collapse within the car park ramp extension. But the structure still holds on for now.

125 years after people: The logos of MyTown's anchor tenants on the side of the mall start to lose their fight against gravity. The IKEA signboard is the first to come crashing down to the ground, and soon others will meet the same fate as it did.

175 years after people: Nearly all of MyTown's windows, both inside and outside, are gone. On the roof, there is a section underneath the now collapsed car ramp area where the majority of the now non-functional air conditioners are left to be destroyed, but nature gives it a helping hand. The supports, weakened by the earlier collapse, give way, and the section breaks off from the mall and collapses. MyTown is slowly but surely losing the battle for its preservation

190 years after people: The north-eastern section of MyTown breaks apart and collapses to the ground, bringing the remains of shops and restaurants, as well as a few animals along for the ride to death. Despite these partial collapses, the MyTown Shopping Complex is still standing, although it won't be the case very soon.

200 years after people: As the nearby IKEA Cheras collapses, the lake that was formed by a massive river surge continues to show its presence. As weakened car park supports collapse and splash into the lake, it looks like it has increased in size, although it hasn't in over 200 years. Meanwhile, a section of the ground floor collapses into the lake as well, further boosting the presence of mosquitos, which hold a significant presence in the area.

250 years after people: In the jungle of what was once Malaysia's largest city, the battle for MyTown's survival is about to draw to a close. 2 centuries of corrosion, rapid plant growth, and a heavier weight for floors prove too much for several columns all across the mall. Another flood will be the final blow to the pillars. The bottom pillars at the ground level tip over and collapse, creating a chain reaction from within the shopping complex which eventually brings the entire complex down on itself. In the end, the MyTown Shopping Complex is unable to live on past glories, hence nature has decided the future for it, a future that sends it down to the ground for good. A plan that applies to not just the mall, but any other building in the entire world as well.