"Ahh," Lia sighed when the group reached the second floor. "I love the smell of books."

Meanwhile, Miles was wrinkling his nose. "I'm not half surprised."

Percy said, "We need to change clothes or we're going to get sick."

Miles liked the idea of changing clothes. Their clothes were dripping all over the carpet, and the sticky feeling of rain-slick clothes plastered to his body was something he'd rather rid himself of as soon as possible.

"Where do you think we're going to find clothes in a library, Percy?" Lia asked. She sounded tired, but also looked uncomfortable in the soaking clothes.

"Actually," Miles said. "Beneath the library - around the opposite side from where we entered - there's a couple of little stores. Coffee shops, souvenir places, probably a clothing shop or two."

"Isn't it dangerous to go back out?" Aaron asked.

"Maybe," said Miles with a shrug. "But if we leave through the back door of the library we can probably just slip into one of the stores without even getting wet. They're all under the same roof."

Aaron seemed confused, but didn't ask questions.

"I'll go," Miles offered, since he knew where it was and he knew that the others would probably have asked him to go, anyway. "Can someone come with me?"'

"You're going now?" Lia sounded shocked.

"What, you want me to wait 'til nightfall or something?" Miles scoffed. "I'm telling you, it's easy to get into those stores from the back exit of the library. We'll be perfectly safe."

"I'll go, then," she said, tugging the backpack off her back and passing it to Percy. "We won't need that," she explained when Percy gave her a quizzical look.

Miles wondered if he ought to leave his knife behind - it was still in his hand. Lia had hers, too. He decided against it. It was better to be safe than sorry.

"Are there any food stores down there?" Aaron asked, and it only now struck Miles that that was something that would be useful information.

"I don't think so," Miles replied. "I mean, unless you get want week-old cafe food."

Aaron waved a dismissive hand through the air. "No, thanks. We can find somewhere else."

"We have enough food for now," Eira said.

Miles wasn't as concerned about food right now as he was about getting what they needed while the rain outside would continue to drown the sound of their movements. "Lia, let's go."

Lia met Miles by the top of the escalator, ready to go back down again. "If we're not back in fifteen minutes -"

"We'll be back," Miles interrupted, grabbing her sleeve and giving it a soft tug towards the escalator. He started down it, one hand on the railing and knife in the other hand. He sensed Lia hesitate behind him, but she eventually followed him, trotting to reach his side.

"So," she said when they met the bottom, "where are we actually going?"

Miles took the lead by a few inches, taking a minute to remember where he was going before setting off. "There's another entrance to the library. The doors to it are manual and can be opened only from the inside, so we'll open those. Then there's like, a patio area with cafes and other small stores." Miles wove his way around sleeping HelpBots and continued on. "It's sheltered, so we won't get wet. Then we'll go onto the path and duck into the first clothing place we see."

"You said we'd be safe!" Lia said. "Going out onto a public path isn't safe. We'll be in plain sight."

Miles knew that what he'd said before hadn't been entirely accurate, but he couldn't take it back at this point. "Look, we'll be in and out of the first clothing store along the path real quick. We won't be seen."

Lia looked at Miles, and he looked back at her, taking in her disbelieving expression before finally blurting, "If we die, you can blame me, okay? But we'll be fine."

This seemed to be good enough for Lia, for she turned away from him again. When they reached the back door of the library, Miles had to stop and just try to figure out how to open it. Unlike the doors at the front of the library, these ones weren't automatic, nor glass. "How the fuck do you even open these?" Miles muttered, pacing up and down alongside the door, patting it up and down to try and find some kind of mechanism that could open it. There were no identification or passcode screens, nowhere to insert some type of card, no flashing light.

"Miles," Lia said.

"What?"

"Is that a handle?"

Miles stopped walking and turned to where Lia was pointing. Sure enough, there was a simple turning knob to open the door. "Fucking old-fashioned doors," Miles grumbled as he grabbed the knob and turned it. It wasn't locked, and the door swung open at once.

"Take the lead," Lia said, but Miles was already doing that. It was colder, outside, with the chilly wind and his wet shirt. Where the Unaltered pair stood currently was under an old mosaic roof and a paved ground. Unlike the front of the library entrance, the back entrance looked like it hadn't been changed since some time in the very early 2000's, which at this point was more than fifty years ago. The worn look of the place might have been charming to others, but it only annoyed Miles. The wooden cafe chairs and rustic tables that sat on the pavement outside their respective coffee shops looked just as old as their surroundings.

Though the state of the place irked him, he was grateful for the shelter that the colourful roof provided. "This way." He moved towards the footpath that came away from the patio area and prepared to be hammered with the heavy rain once more. "It doesn't look like anybody else is around," he commented when Lia caught up.

"Like you said," she put in, "it's easy to hide in this rain."

That didn't make Miles feel any better, but he knew she was right. There could be Altered anywhere nearby and through the fog, they'd be essentially invisible. Miles winced as left the shelter behind and started along the path, buckets of rain immediately reminding him that there was no way he could've hoped to stay dry.

Miles felt Lia grab his hand and then shout over the rain, "I don't want to get separated!"

Miles didn't provide a verbal response, but tightened his grip on her hand to acknowledge that he'd heard her. He ducked his head against the icy bullets that fell relentlessly as he tried to navigate his way to where they were going. He lifted his head every time they passed a store to check what it was. They passed a souvenir store, a bakery and a second-hand bookstore before Miles finally located the small clothing store through his hazy vision, and he quickly pulled Lia towards it.

The glass door was already shattered. That made Miles immediately uneasy, but he didn't hesitate before stepping through the doorframe and guiding Lia in after him.

At once, being out of the rain was a relief. Miles sucked in a breath of air and shook out his hair like a dog, letting go of Lia's hand.

Lia pushed wet locks of ebony hair from her forehead. "Somebody else was here."

Miles narrowed his eyes as he eyed the shattered glass all over the floor. "Or is here."

"Do you still have your knife?"

Miles nodded and lifted the weapon to show her.

Finally, he took in his surroundings, taking a few more steps away from the doorway. The shop was small and Miles was immediately annoyed to find that there would be no clothing his size here. It was all adult clothing, and though he was sure most of the others in his group would find a fit in these he doubted his low height would let him. As bothersome as that was, he tried to be glad about the fact that they'd at least found this place and they'd have warm clothes.

"Let's get more than we need," Lia suggested.

Miles was about to respond when, from behind the checkout desk, something rattled. He froze. "What was that?"

Lia shook her head helplessly, also glued to her place.

Miles took one cautious step forward, then another. "Hello?"

Nothing happened.

He turned back to Lia. "Let's just get what we need and get out of here."

She nodded immediately, snatching up a translucent shopping basket to put the clothes in and then started walking. Miles followed her, falling into step by her side. Examining the racks and shelves as he passed them, Miles was searching mostly for sizes that would fit him, since Lia was already starting to stack tops and bottoms into the basket that would fit everybody but him. Slowly, he started to drift away from Lia, getting graphic t-shirts that caught his eye. He tried not to pick anything up that he wasn't going to put in Lia's basket, for he was still saturated and didn't want to get anything wet. Not that it would matter much.

"I'll be back in a second," Miles said to Lia, and without waiting for her answer he pulled away and moved towards the either side of the shop, where he was hoping to find sizes that fit him. It was hard to move from place to place quietly when his wet shoes squeaked on the linoleum floor, but he tried to anyway. Winding his way around racks and shelves of men's clothing, Miles tried to focus on things that would actually be suitable to wear instead of just what caught his eye first, which wasn't so hard considering his usual regulation was to prioritise comfort over style anyway. He reminded himself also to search for shoes that would fit him - he wouldn't be able to stand these soggy shoes for much longer.

Miles had had his attention caught on pleated skirts when there was a soft noise from behind him that almost sounded like footsteps. Miles stilled.

He turned around, but the lighting was dim and there didn't appear to much out of place. He could still hear Lia moving around the other side of the store, so he trusted that it had just been her that he'd heard.

Probably. Hopefully.

Miles moved away from the skirts - they'd be too impractical to wear during the predicament the world was in right now - still trying not to get his wet hands all over the clothes, though he was drying off a little bit over time. He located shirts in the smallest size offered and started sorting, coming to terms with the fact that he was probably going to end up wearing something too big for him. It was only occurring to him now that it would have been more convenient to have a basket of his own, but he hadn't been prepared to split up with Lia.

There was another noise behind him, and this time Miles knew it wasn't Lia, for it was close to him. Close enough to be unnerving. Miles stopped moving, feeling his heartbeat accelerate.

He didn't turn around to look this time.

There was another movement close to him - so close he practically felt it.

Then, a voice.

"Are you scared?"

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+1914 Words.