June 13th, 2020 9:59

Blue eyes fluttered open, squinting against the sunlight that filtered in through the disgustingly dirty gas station window. Damnit, Ruby! the woman scolded herself. You're lucky there was no trouble last night... Ruby yawned, stretching carefully. Danny lay curled against her chest, sleeping soundly. The crimson haired woman glanced around the gas station, now lit up by the light of the morning. She smiled as she spotted Kirsten and Adam behind the counter. They had moved from their original positions of back-to-back and were now snuggling close together, arms wrapped around each other in a sibling-like embrace. Ruby couldn't help but chuckle softly at the two best friends, remembering when she would do that with her best friend, Natalie, whenever she'd sleep over. A sad smile crossed her face when she thought of the brunnette; Ruby hadn't seen her since her move to Georgia. Phone calls just didn't cut it, and the two had lost contact when Natalie had moved out of her parents house.

Ruby stood carefully, cradeling baby Danny with one arm as she pushed herself up with the other. The baby stirred, stretching one arm out as far as he could and papping Ruby's cheek with his little hand before pulling it back against his chest. Ruby smiled at the baby, walking over to the other two and nudging each gently with her foot. "Wakey wakey." she said quietly, nudging them again. Kirsten groaned in annoyance, moving to roll over only to be held back by Adam's arm looped firmly around her torso. The girl's green eyes fluttered open as she yawned, stretching as much as she could with Adam attached to her. She attempted to move again, still half asleep and not realizing the situation. She blinked a few times before she finally woke up enough to see why she couldn't move. "Adam, leggo!" she grumped, shoving lightly against the boy's chest. She grabbed one of his arms and pried it off of her, waking Adam in the proccess. His green eyes blinking open. "Adam, gerroff!" Kirsten demanded again, pulling his arm away from her for the third time. Adam immediately let go and rolled away a little bit, his face flushing. "S-sorry." he murmured, sitting up and looking at her with a sheepish smile. Kirsten stood, dusting herself off. "Whatever, you goofball." Adam smiled, relieved that she wasn't mad at him.

Ruby rolled her eyes, smiling at the nine year olds. "Alright, you two, up." she ordered in a motherly tone, causing Adam and Kirsten to look up at her. "We've gotta get going." The two nodded, Adam standing and grabbing the sweatshirt. He folded it up as Kirsten started packing up their supplies. "I'll be right back." Ruby told them, transferring Danny from her arm to his carrier. Two quiet 'ok's were their responses as Ruby grabbed two plastic bags from the counter and headed down one of the aisles, placing one bag inside the other. The woman travelled down the aisles, collecting all the non-perishable food items she could. Soon, her plastic bag was full of granola bars, chips, beef jerky, and whatever else she could find. Luckily, the gas station seemed to have escaped plundering. Until now, that is.

Ruby grabbed a case of bottled water with her free hand and went back to the counter to find that everything had been packed up and Kirsten was now playing Go Fish with Adam. Ruby crouched beside her backpack, opening it to find that Kirsten had done an excellent job at packing it. The woman packed the food into it and a couple of water bottles, leaving three granola bars out for their breakfast. She slipped one more water bottle into each of the side pouches on the backpack before sliding the rest away. With any luck, they'd be able to come back for the rest if need be. Ruby removed the infant carrier and carefully laid it on the floor before swinging her heavy backpack onto her back. She picked up the granola bars before replacing the carrier and standing. She'd hoped to find another backpack or two, so that the kids could carry some light supplies. So far, they'd been surviving out of Ruby's backpack. The food they'd gathered from Kirsten's home had run out about a month ago, and finding a place like this gas station was next to impossible.

"Let's go, guys." Kirsten and Adam looked at her, then quickly packed up the cards with a short "I win!" "No, I do!" "Nuh uh!" Ruby chuckled, taking the deck of cards and slipping them into her back pocket. Kirsten snatched up her purple baseball cap, slipping it on backwards. Ruby took Kirsten's hand while Kirsten took Adam's. Ruby lead them to the front door, pushing it open a little and peeking out. Seeing no danger, the crew slipped from the gas station and back into the outside world.