Miles managed to get an unexpected amount of sleep that night. After he and Aaron had stayed up and conversed for the entirety of both of their shifts combined, Aaron had woken up Lia for her shift and the boys had had the opportunity to get to sleep. Much to Miles' surprise, he had actually been able to fall asleep, and that was a good thing.

When he woke up, everybody else was only just beginning to stir as well. Scratching his head as he pushed himself into a sitting position, Miles yawned and then stretched, already feeling the excitement and nerves about what today would contain.

Percy was gently rubbing his unresponsive arm. "What time will we be leaving today?" he sounded groggy, also having just woken up.

"We should go early," Eira said, her sentence concluding with a yelp as she rolled over and slipped right over the edge of the lounge and onto the carpet.

Lia was also waking up slowly. Aaron was currently the only one who hadn't woken, and by the sound of his soft snoring, he wouldn't be getting up unless told to. Miles slid off the chair he'd fallen asleep in and shuffled over to Aaron, who was fast asleep in the chair he'd been sitting in at the beginning of the night.

Miles flicked Aaron's nose, and that woke the boy up with a start. "Wakey wakey," said Miles, then turned away again to trudge towards the food.

"Let's say we'll leave in an hour," Lia said sleepily, heaving herself into a standing position and then extending a hand to help Eira up. "That'll give us time to eat and pack a bag. We'll probably want to get changed, too."

"Have we actually decided where we're going?" Miles asked as he seated himself by where they'd stacked the small amount of food they had left. Footsteps sounded behind him then Aaron sat down too, followed by Lia.

"No," said Lia, "but that's why we've set aside an hour before we're leaving."

Eira plopped down beside her brother and rested her head on his shoulder, letting out a long sigh. Percy was the last to sit, managing to find a place to seat himself between Lia and Miles. Miles shuffled a little closer to Aaron in order to provide more room for Percy.

Aaron was the first to start searching for something to eat. "We've run out of apricots!" he remarked, visibly legitimately distressed by this discovery.

"We have canned carrots," Miles said, "if you want those."

Aaron gave Miles a repulsed look. "Don't we have anything else?"

Miles looked at the little food they had remaining. "Canned... tuna?"

"I don't eat meat," said Aaron.

Miles hadn't known this until now, but it didn't shock him. He'd never actually seen Aaron eat any meat. Actually, the only thing he'd ever seen Aaron eat were the dried apricots that there were no longer any more of. "Can't vegetarians eat fish?"

"No," said Aaron, reluctantly picking up the canned carrots. "Are these safe to eat on their own?"

"They're literally just carrots."

As Aaron begrudgingly opted to open the can of carrots, Miles tried to find something that wasn't canned fish to eat. That was pretty much all they had left, though, if he wanted something substantial. His other options consisted of a single melted chocolate bar or a packet of sunflower seeds that he thought Eira would probably enjoy more than he would, since she and Lia had devoured the other packets of seeds and nuts. "Can I share the carrots?"

Aaron set the can down between them. "If you find the forks. I'm not putting my hands in that."

Miles rolled his eyes and was about to grab two plastic forks before Lia handed them to him with a smirk. He took them gratefully and passed one to Aaron, who stabbed a carrot with it at once. He lifted it to his eye level to properly inspect it.

"What's your conclusion on that carrot?" Miles asked.

"A little soft," Aaron admitted, "but all things considered" - he popped another carrot slice into his mouth - "it's not bad."

Miles laughed. Aaron did too.

"It looks the weather might hold out for us today," Eira mentioned, selecting the packet of seeds - as Miles had guessed she would - from the small number of options she had to choose from. "But that means we won't really be concealed."

"That's alright," Percy said. "We know a little better what to expect, now. I guess. Is anybody really familiar with this area?"

Miles tipped his head indecisively. "I guess so. I live like twenty minutes away and I used to come to this part of the city a heap with my friends."

"Are there any big stores that would have everything we need? Like food, water, first aid things."

Miles racked his brain for that information. There were lots of stores that had those things, but it was hard to say whether or not the supplies in those small stores would be enough, taking into account that lots of the materials had been taken already. "There's a large store nearby. Probably a ten minute walk."

"Ten minutes is a long time when we're so exposed," Lia voiced, concerned. "Is there nowhere closer?"

Miles shook his head. "Nowhere big. We'd be able to split up and cover plenty of ground in the store. We'll get everything we need."

"How will we carry it all back?"

Miles used his fork to fetch a carrot slice from the can. "Well, there's five of us. That should be plenty enough to carry a few bags each."

Eira let out a little gasp. "You know what would be really efficient? If we all got backpacks from the store and just put the stuff we get in those. That's way easier than lugging big baskets or plastic bags home, right?"

Lia clapped her hands once. "That's actually a fantastic idea. We already have one backpack, so we can easily find four more at the store, I'm sure."

"Speaking of the backpack," Aaron said, "we should probably pack it."

After finishing eating - Miles was still hungry, but too picky an eater to even consider eating the tuna - the group began properly preparing for the day. This included things such as redressing wounds that required it, packing their backpack and changing into different clothes.

"Do you think this shirt looks better tucked into my jeans, or untucked?" Aaron asked Miles. The blond wore a white polo and cuffed jeans with a pair of shoes that would probably have been expensive if the group hadn't stolen them.

Aaron managed to look handsome in whatever he put on. Miles, who was currently trying to figure out what he could do to fix the fact that the shirt he wore now was too big for him, probably couldn't say the same. "Tucked in," Miles said. "It makes you look like a total nerd."

Aaron left the shirt untucked.

The one item that Miles was wearing that he hadn't stolen was a thin silver chain around his neck; something that had belonged to Ty, once upon a time. Miles was grateful that he hadn't lost it, but he forgot it was there most of the time. Right now, though, the chain was caught on the low collar of Miles' shirt.

"Do you need help?" Aaron asked.

"No. Fuck off."

"Rude." Aaron turned and left Miles to his own devices. Fortunately, Miles did untangle the chain from his shirt on his own and spared himself from the humiliation of needing help.

"Is everyone ready to go?" checked Lia, slinging the backpack over her shoulders and adjusting the straps. "Miles, you've got to stop changing the length of the straps when you wear this thing."

"I'm shorter than you!"

"Still."

Miles grumbled something inaudible about how it wasn't his problem that he was the height he was, and then picked up his knife from where he'd left it on the short magazine-covered table in the center of all the surrounding chairs and lounges. Everybody else already had there's, and Aaron was currently grabbing his bat from where it leaned against a chair.

"Now are we ready?" Lia asked again.

"Ready," Miles confirmed, hoping that was true. He was mostly concerned about forgetting the way to the store they were headed to, but he had to trust himself if they were to get anywhere at all.

"Alright," Lia said, starting towards the escalator. "As soon as we're out the door, we all have to be careful, okay? It's dangerous outside."

"Got it," Eira said at the same time as Miles said, "Yeah, whatever."

The Unaltered made their way down to the first floor as a group, and once they reached the door, Miles took the lead. "We all need to stay close together," he said as he started moving in the direction he remembered the store being. "We're really prone to attacks out here."

The group moved silently through the streets, remaining close together. Miles observed as they moved that the Altered seemed to be forming their own groups now, which helped Miles and his friends because it was much easier to hear a group of Altered coming than an individual one.

That being said, there were often scenes that Miles would glimpse where two Altered were fighting one another; it seemed some were more willing to be allies with eachother than others. Miles didn't know if the Altered still communicated when they were all like this, but if they did, some of them definitely weren't very good at it.

It took a little longer than the time Miles had estimated it would for them to arrive at the store. That was to be expected, though, when the amount of close calls they had with Altered and hiding they had to do was factored in. Miles was just relieved that he recalled the directions to the store. He got more confident in the way they were headed the closer they go.

When they arrived, it was obvious they weren't the first to enter the place - that was something he'd anticipated. The big glass doors had already been smashed.

"Once we're inside, we'll be a lot safer," Miles said as he and his group rapidly approached the store. "We'll all split up, okay?"

"What are we all going to get?" Percy asked.

"Uh." Miles glanced around just to check that they were still safe before continuing, "I'll go to the first aid. Percy and Aaron, you both go get food since we'll need quite a bit. Eira, you go get the backpacks we'll need and while you're there, look for anything else you think we might need, specifically in the way of informative books that might help with the e-Screen in case we can't find any in the library. Also more clothing. Lia, you get the other things, like rope and things that can be used as weapons but are safer than the knives we have and maybe more effective."

He wasn't sure if everybody had heard what he'd said properly, but when they all nodded or muttered confirmation, Miles trusted that they all knew what they'd be doing.

Very carefully, Miles stepped through the doorframe and into the store. It seemed empty. "Okay. If everybody knows what they're doing, we can split up now."

Using the signs around the place in order to guide them, the group broke up and started to head off to where they would be getting their items. Miles drifted towards the first aid section, which he hoped still had enough supplies to take with him. He also hoped Eira soon found him and provided a backpack for him to put what he collected in.

When Miles reached the appropriate aisle to begin searching for the first aid items the group required, there was the sound of quiet yet indiscreet footsteps behind him, which he wrote off as one of his group members without even turning around. It's when the footsteps stopped that Miles started to get worried - why would one of his friends be in this aisle, when they all so evidently knew where they were allocated? He considered that maybe it was Eira, but it would have been extraordinarily fast for her to fetch a backpack and bring it back to him.

Miles started to feel a little vulnerable when the footsteps started again, growing closer to him once more. Then they stopped.

Very, very slowly, Miles turned around, thinking of all the things it could be. If this was anything like the underwhelming experience he'd had in the clothes store when finding Angelina, he had nothing to be scared of.

But when Miles stopped moving and got a proper look at who was standing behind him, he felt his entire body become unresponsive with fear.

His voice was hoarse.

"Ty?"

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