The Half Mutt Mate

Chapter 11: Shop Shenanigans

I woke up a few hours later, my head pounding. The sun had risen outside, though it was largely hidden due to the blinds covering the shop windows and the fact that we were sat behind a grocery aisle at the back of the store. It was a small corner shop, with maybe four or five aisles of canned goods and every day essentials, though it was empty of all people. I blinked a few times to clear my head. 

With a start, I sat up, ready to leave at any second. Kayden, however, gestured to me from where he was sat, playing with Ella's hair as she dosed next to him. He smiled and beckoned me over.

"It's okay, we don't have to leave just yet."

I raised my eyebrow questioningly at him.

"It's a Sunday, so they're closed all day. We should be safe for a few hours." 

I nodded, standing up again. "Are there any security cameras?"

"No, I checked. It's a small town; I guess they trust each other." 

I laughed and turned to the aisle nearest me. I picked up a can of baked beans and weighed it in my hand, calculating the pros and cons. After a second I put it down and picked up another can. Kayden watched me in surprise as I moved up and down the aisle, choosing an object every now and then to place on the floor. As the pile of goods got bigger, Kayden grew curious.

"What are you doing?" Kayden asked. 

"I'm choosing what to take with us when we leave."

Kayden stared in shock. "You're going to steal from here?"

I shrugged, placing a packet of rice on the floor. "The colder it gets the harder it is to find food. We need to eat. I'm only taking what we can carry, it won't be noticed. Anyway, most of this stuff is close to its sell-by date. This place is really under-stocked."

It was true. The whole store looked like it was going to shut down, what with its dirty floors, half empty shelves and the smudges visible on the windows even with the blinds. I grabbed a packet of mini marshmallows and ripped them open, offering some to Kayden.

"Come on," I said. "These are three weeks out of date, no one's going to buy it either way."

Kayden looked visibly grossed out by the marshmallows, but he was as hungry as I was so he took a handful. 

"I've never seen you steal something before," he said through a mouthful of mini marshmallows.

"Yeah, well, I've changed. Desperate times call for desperate measures and all that." I smiled sadly. A four months before I would never have considered doing something like that, but when you're hungry you'll do anything. You'll eat out of the trash if you have to, and you'll be happy about it. 

I wandered through the store selecting a handful of items and useful things. Soup, a pair of socks, water. I deliberated over the potatoes for a while, they were quite heavy, but I took a few of them loose because I figure they would be worth their heavy weight in gold when we were hungry. There was a little section at the back of the store with some tacky souvenirs from the town on display. I stopped for a second, wandering if I should really take anything from there. 

I took a step back and noticed the boxes sitting on top of the shelves. They must have been there to make restocking easier, but they were very dusty -- it didn't look like anyone had touched them in a long time. That made sense, I couldn't imagine anyone really wanting the souvenir socks and t shirts being sold. 

I looked down at my own clothes. They were ragged and dirty, and they didn't smell very nice. When I'd escaped from Thomas I didn't have anything else with me, so I had had to wear the same clothes for a month and a half before they got too torn from running to wear any longer. I'd stolen some slightly warmer replacements, which had lasted until then, in late October. I looked back at Kayden and Ella, who weren't doing much better on the clothes front. It was no wonder the wolf had been able to track us -- we must have been dead easy to smell.

I didn't need to think about it any more -- we had to get some new clothes. I called Kayden over from where he was sat and he sighed and got up, gently moving Ella so as not to wake her. 

"I'm going to try get at those boxes on top of the aisle. Can you give me a leg up?"

"Seriously?" Kayden asked, looking doubtful. "I'm pretty sure someone's going to notice that.

"Nah, look at the dust. It's not been touched in ages -- by the time the have to restock they'll think they just miscounted and we'll be long gone anyway."

Kayden shrugged and got down on his knee. He laced his hands together and I stepped into them. With a heave he sent me upwards, nearly toppling over as I clutched to the top of the aisle.

"Ah, careful!" I laughed, gasping as I tried not to fall. "Give me a second."

I scrambled up to the top of the aisle shelf, which groaned a little under my weight. I grabbed the box directly in front of me and nudged the other to the edge so I could reach it from the ground. The shelf was shaking beneath me. 

"Okay, can you catch me when I come down?" I asked.

I saw Kayden step back and reach out his arms in preparation. "I'm coming down now," I said as the shelf started to shake even more.

I took a deep breath and slid down from the shelf, into Kayden. He managed to catch me under the arms, breaking most of the fall, and allowing me to reach the ground without being hurt. I giggled as I swung the box around and placed it on the floor. Climbing on top of a rickety old shelf was dangerous, but kind of fun too. Kayden was smiling too, though he looked a bit more stressed about the whole situation. 

"Okay," I said, leaning over the box. It was cardboard and already open, so I pulled apart the top and rummaged through. After a quick examination I discovered that, luckily, this was the box containing all the tacky shirts and socks. I pulled out three sets of the socks and three different sizes of the shirt -- small, medium and large, for Ella, me and Kayden respectively -- and handed them to him.

"We should change out clothes. It'll make our scents weaker because they're new and will still smell like the store. We'll also be harder to spot from far away if we're wearing something different."

Kayden nodded, though it was obvious he didn't like the look of the shirt. I didn't either, but it was no time to be fussy. I picked up Ella's shirt and walked over to her, gently shaking her awake. 

"Come on, you need to get changed," I said, handing the shirt to her. Ella glared at me but took the shirt. 

I turned away from her and back to Kayden -- that was a mistake. It turns out we had left the open packet of mini marshmallows within her reach and of course, Ella being Ella, she grabbed a handful of them and threw them at me. 

I spun back around, spluttering. Kayden was bent over, trying not to laugh as stray marshmallows fell out of my hair. There was one sat on my shoulder, which miraculously hadn't fallen off yet. I smirked at Ella, recovering from my shock, and dived for the marshmallows. She rushed towards them too, but she wasn't fast enough, leaving me to chuck about a million in her face, laughing all the time.

"Marshmallow war!" Ella yelled, wrestling me for the packet. Kayden joined in and pretty soon we were all sat, exhausted and laughing, on the shop floor, covered in tiny little mini marshmallows.

Kayden sighed and stood up, brushing himself down. "We better get this cleaned up," he said with a smile. "We've only got a few hours to sleep before we need to get going."