Young Writers Society

Queenie followed into the store despite the clear reasons not to. She didn't like the way they were traveling, all clumped together like this. It was a recipe for disaster if those robot things were around and hostile.

But, right now, the biggest threat was probably the people around her. All in the wrong bodies, all using the wrong names. She was a bit offended no one had bothered to ask for hers, but it was probably for the best. Better to blend in. Blanding in was Briar's thing anyway.

Lacey followed the rest of the group into the store. It was an odd place. Parts of it seemed like an ordinary drugstore, but just enough was off to keep her on edge. She wanted to explore, but not wanter too far away from the group. As a result, she kept a steady pace away from them, but didn't let them out of her sight.

Most of the things in the store weren't very familiar to James, but he knew enough to recognize food on the shelves. They were in a grocery store - something that was really common on earth-like planets. All the extra screens and buttons and gadgets were entirely foreign, but he didn't think that mattered too much.

Still scanning the store for life, he hesitantly, but casually, grabbed what looked like a grocery basket from the floor.

Might as well grab some things while they were here. He wandered to a shelf with some canned food.

Boredom led Queenie to follow the guy who's most-likely-fake name was 'Jacob' to the canned foods. She scooped a can of chicken noodle soup off the shelf and turned it to the ingredients, scanning them carefully.

"Do you know the guy who's body you're in?" she asked idly. May as well start a bit of conversation, if no one was curious enough about her.

Gods, why did Briar have to look so boring?

James gathered a few cans of soup in his basket, and looked over to the girl. He didn't her name.

"No," he said with a shrug. "But I don't mind it. Who are you supposed to be? Or, what should I call you?"

Who are you supposed to be?

Queenie had to hold back a chuckle. Like Briar was some kind of Halloween costume. A basement-dwelling mad scientist assassin costume, sold at your local Spirit Halloween for forty dollars, forty-three if you wanted to add a vial of mysterious liquid to carry around for no reason.

"The body's my sister's," she admitted with a roll of Briar's eyes, "Go ahead and call me Briar." She paused, her eye catching on an ingredient on the soup can. That probably wouldn't mix well with- Wait. She was in Briar's body. She huffed out what may have been a chuckle or a sigh and dropped the can in Jacob's basket. "Must be nice, not knowing the guy whos face you're wearing."

Kaya walked towards the store with the rest of the group, somewhat on edge because they were out in the open and who knows if the robot zombies were going to be aggressive. She found herself digging her nails into her skin, stopping before she realized she almost punctured her skin with Saya's perfectly manicured nails.

By the time they entered the store, Kaya held back and picked up a basket. Jacob and some others went off towards the food area, but Kaya went to the home goods section. It seemed that they were all on their own to get their own supplies.

First she perused the medicine area and pushed in ibuprofen, rubbing alcohol, and a first aid kit in her basket. She thought about getting some nailclippers to cut her obnoxiously long nails, but then decided against it.

She kept walking around until finally she came across the kitchen aisle, standing in front of the knives. If she was going to defend herself, she needed some kind of weapon. Looking around to make sure no one was around to see her, Kaya picked a sheathed chef knife and tucked it behind the waist of her pants and sweater before leaving the aisle to find some other supplies and join the rest of the group.

Stephanie also went towards the kitchen supplies aisle - after grabbing some food from the aisle beside it. It wasn't anything major; it was just a few snacks and energy bars in case the need for a snack arose. She was more concerned about her only weapon being one she refused to use.

She didn't see Saya take a knife from the aisle, but she did see her turning away from it. Stephanie watched Saya disappear around the corner before she picked out her own weapon. She didn't want to go for one of the chef knives - what she really wanted was a pocket knife - but the bigger knives had the advantage of being sheathed.

She grabbed one, tucked it into her belt, and went looking for more supplies.

Lacey quietly started to find and gather whatever she could that she thought would be useful. Mostly, it was snacks. Mathis had gotten her off of junk food a few months ago, but she found some beef jerky and dried fruit. Not the best but still better than chips or candy. Lacey saw the others picking up weapons. Then, she had idea. It was a few aisles away, in the recreation aisle. They had a baseball bat. Perfect.

James watched the can drop in his basket out of the corner of his eyes, and he smiled. "I guess I can't complain," he said with a shrug. "It's nice to meet you, though, Briar. Under the circumstances, of course."

He held his smile for a moment before he broke away and started to speed through the aisles, grabbing things faster. He left room for Briar to follow if she wanted, but there was no need to waste time.

Food, medical supplies, matches, a knife, miscellaneous utensils, a mug, all things he might normally travel with, just in different forms. And finally, a backpack to put it all in.

The backpack wasn't a material he was as familiar with, and it had some picture of some storbook character on it, but it was sturdy enough. He packed it quickly, putting the cans on the bottom. He shrugged the bag on his back and looked down the aisle, seeing Anna grabbing a bat. Good idea.

He didn't know if they would need to kill the robots, but a blunt force object was always a safe bet.

Seeing Anna grab a bat and Jacob grab a backpack presumably filled with important supplies, Stephanie realized that she was probably going to need more than a knife. It felt funny grabbing a backpack with unfamiliar cartoon figures on it and slipped it on her back; it looked so tiny compared to the rest of Jason's body. She was sure it looked out-of-place, too.

She followed Jacob's lead, though she didn't know it. She grabbed everything she had needed in the past when Arthur had been too busy taunting a certain dark knight to pay attention to his daughter: bandages and antibiotic ointment for first aid, a few more snacks than she had already grabbed, and random miscellaneous objects that she thought might be useful - like a pair of scissors.

She grabbed a bat, too, just for good measure.

Between the bat, the gun - which she could theoretically throw at someone instead of shoot them with - and the kitchen knife, she felt like she was finally prepared for whatever this city had to offer.

As she walked back from the bat rack - a baseball now also tucked into her bag - she wasn't paying as much attention to where she was going as she really should have. It was only when she hit a person that she realized she had been letting herself get careless.

"I'm sorry," she apologized to Jacob. She took a step back. "I should have been watching where I was going."

James felt the whump of something hitting his backpack, and he spread his feet and arms to steady himself, still internally marveling at how easy some movements came, and how little pain was involved.

He stood back up and looked at Jason, who had apparently followed his lead with the backpack idea.

He adjusted the straps on his shoulders.

"You're good."

He reached across the aisle and grabbed a matching bat. There was only one kind.

He spun it once in his hands before letting it rest at his side, testing out the weight and the balance.

"I think I'm ready."

Jacob looked at comfort in this situation. From how quickly he had grabbed that backpack and how his first reaction to grabbing the bat was to test out its weight, Stephanie had a sneaking suspicion that Jacob was just as used to things like this as she was. She wasn't really sure what that meant. She was only just beginning to figure out how to leave clues for Arthur's activities; her brain hadn't started making mental leaps like that.

But it was comforting to know he knew what he was doing, at least.

"I think I'm ready, too," Stephanie said. She peered around Jacob and looked at where Anna was further down the aisle. "Have you found any paper yet, Anna?"

Lacey shook her head. She’d been so focused on everything else that she’d completely forgotten about the paper, which they would need if they wanted any way to honestly communicate. Luckily, some was in the next aisle. Loose leaf. She grabbed a package of that and a box of pens for good measure and went to rejoin the group.

Queenie let Jacob go collect supplies on his own. For now, she had some other things to attend to.

While the others scrambled for the essentials, Queenie assessed Briar's body. There were aches and pains here and there - Queenie snickered to realize that Briar's shoulder still hadn't completely healed from that sparring match a while back - but she was fine. Just short. That was annoying.

Queenie headed back to regroup with the others and found most of them had picked up bats. She rolled her eyes.

"If you want to kill a robot you're going to need something that might, you know, cut through something vital. Knocking something like that around a little is a bad idea, trust me." Images of training bots flew through her head. She rolled the not-quite-healed shoulder with a wince.