As they entered, they were assigned a cart. A worker told them they could only purchase as much as the cart could hold. If they needed more, they would need to return again. The first several rows they went down were all food. Jessica picked up several packets rations just in case.

A worker wearing a green apron was stocking fruits and vegetables in a cooled section of the store. Taking a look at what they had, Jessica was startled at how fresh and good the produce looked. She walked up to the worker and asked "Excuse me, could you tell me where you got all this produce? I had a farm, and never got as good looking stuff from it as these."

Finishing putting down some yellow fruits onto a shelf he turned. He smiled and said in a civil tone "We are proud to say all produce is made from an underground greenhouse run by the Wounded Falcon Tribe. If you would like more information and an opportunity to join, please ask for more information at the front desk." He reached into his pocket to withdraw a piece of paper and handed it to Jessica.

She opened it and saw it was a brochure for joining the Wounded Falcon Tribe. It seemed to be really upselling the benefits and didn't address any negative. Jessica said "Thank you," and the worker returned to stocking.

When they were out of earshot of the worker, Melissa said "No doubt they use slave labor for the greenhouse. Though I have to admit, that is some quality produce. Only the stuff from a sky city could beat it."

As they walked down an aisle of packaged snacks, Daisy rolled over to a shelf and then waved at Jessica to come over. When she did so, the yellow blob handed her a package of cookies. Looking at the cover, she saw it read 'DoomCookies.' Below that it said that they have been the best cookies since the apocalypse and now contained raisins. 

Seeing as the blob had been working hard for her sake, Jessica shrugged and placed the pack into the cart. "Gotta reward good behavior, they have been working hard." Jessica said to Melissa. They continued on to the next row, which mostly contained personal hygiene and the like supplies. As there was no soap in the room, she picked up several bars of soap. Looking at them, she found they were made a long time before the fall.

Placing them into the cart, she spotted Skye looking at some perfume. One of its tendrils pushed it down, and it spritzed itself. Jessica got the sense that it liked the smell of the perfume, and when she smelled it, found it smelled pretty good. "Alright, you can get it Skye. But you are only allowed one thing." Jessica took the perfume and placed it into the cart.

Standing back up, she discovered Melissa was currently looking at some makeup supplies. Jessica had never used them, but she occasionally spotted them while scavenging. Going up to her Jessica asked her "Did you want to get some?"

"No, it just reminded me of my past back up in the sky cities."

"How so?"

"In some ways it's different up there then down here. One of those is the popularity contest we had in school. Part of that meant looking good, and makeup was used to that effect. My friends and I, at the time, used to spend hours doing our makeup. I thought we were hot shit, what a mistake that was'' The doctor reminisced and sighed "I don't need it now." She put the makeup kit back.

Patting the doctor on her back in a move to comfort her, Jessica then pushed the cart forward. They moved forward into an area where the store was selling alcohol. Melissa picked up a bottle and remarked "How curious, this was bottled in a sky city."

"How can you tell that?" Jessica asked walking over.

"Take a look at this black teardrop mark."

Melissa handed the bottle to Jessica for her to take a look and pointed at the mark. "All the gangs that run sky cities have their own makers mark. Only a fool would imitate one. From what I know that mark should belong to the Harkron Faction. Perhaps, that's the sky city backing Burnt Sage."

"That could be." Jessica said, then took another look at the label and was shocked. "Look at this, this bottle is 190 proof, that shit will make you go blind. No one can safely drink this." Jessica said. Looking around most of the bottles were all labeled pretty strongly. The only weak stuff was the bottles bottled down on the ground.

"I think you're supposed to mix these bottles with water. It would help clean water from bacteria. Though I find it strange the sky city would be willing to send such strong stuff down here to the city." Melissa said as Jessica put the bottle back.

"Could they be lying on how strong it is?"

"I doubt it. It would ruin the reputation of the Makers Mark."

After the Alcohol, they came across rows of clothing. Looking down at her clothes, Jessica said "My clothes are almost done for. I was only able to grab my backups before we left."

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Melissa said "I'm not in a much better position then you."

For the next several minutes they browsed the selection of clothes and Jessica picked out several pairs of tough looking clothes. Melissa did the same, though Jessica saw her add a dress. "What's the dress for?"

"In case we need to go to a fancy place for information. You should get one as well."

Thinking it through, Jessica decided the doctor was right, and she found a red dress that would fit her and added it to the pile. Continuing on they came to a shoe selection and Melissa said "We need to pick up some shoes to go with our dresses. What is your size? Mine is eight."

"Seven and a half." 

Melissa went over the selection and picked out a pair of red heels and handed it to Jessica who said "I've never worn heels."

"Don't worry, I will teach you how to walk in them." Melissa said and picked out a black pair for herself. Placing them into the cart, they continued onwards and entered an electronics section of the store. Glass rolled over to the laptop area and waved excitedly for Jessica to get the one it was pointing at.

Under the Laptop, she found it's labelled price at Two Hundred Arcs. "Alright Glass, I will get it for you. But you will need to share it with us okay?"

The green blob waved its tendril in agreement. Jessica placed it in the cart, and Melissa nodded. "We did need a portable computer, for some of the jobs I'm thinking of we will need one."

Not needing anything else in the electronics at the moment, they moved onwards to the Hardware and mechanics section. There they found Sam staring looking lost at a series of paint cans. Going up to him, Jessica said "Hey there Sam."

Sam was startled then looked over at them and said "Oh hey Jessica, and Melissa. What are you two doing here?"

"Just picking up some supplies, we will need a few things if we plan to stay here for awhile. When we stopped at the lobby this morning Lisa told us you were picking up some stuff to fix up the inn?"

"Yeah, I thought I would try my hand in repairing the place up. Though I'm feeling out of my depth with this. Hopefully, her uncle knows how to fix things. Right now, I'm focusing on painting the place up. I'm just trying to decide which paint will go well in the rooms."

When he had said this, Glass rolled over to a set of green paint cans and waved at Jessica to suggest them. Sensing it was just picking a color similar to itself, Jessica shrugged and said "Why not choose the green paint?"

"Hmm that could work, I was leaning towards red, but green might be easier on the eyes. Thank you for the advice." Sam said and picked up the cans and placed them into his cart. When he did so, Jessica saw into his cart and noticed he had put several of those bottles of alcohol into his cart.

"Sam, I don't want to butt in and give you some unwanted advice so you can take it or leave it. Don't go drinking those bottles, it's not going to end well for you." Jessica said.

"Oh, not to worry. I'm not a big drinker, plus I am not getting these to drink. I took a look through some of the rooms, and they had my skin crawling in horror. I need something strong enough to clean the rooms, and well the only thing other than this is fire. I don't think Lisa would appreciate me burning down the place so I'll use this instead."

"Oh speaking of cleaning up the inn, we are looking for a deal with her uncle for the blobs to help clean the rooms."

"You are? That's great. It's already a daunting challenge for me to clean up the whole inn by myself."

"The blobs will do all the hard work, so thank them." Jessica said.

"Of course, I'll help convince her uncle to hire you, we need all the help we can get."

"Much appreciated, we will see you later Sam." Melissa said and they walked onwards where the path split into two directions.

A sign indicated the left path took them to checkout, and the right took them to weapons. Melissa looked at her and said "We should pick up a few more weapons just in case."

"Yeah, as good as my laser gun is, it's best to buy something for low key use in the city."

They went down the right path and ended up in a distinct section of the store. A great multitude of weapons were lined up on the walls. They were all chained up, and you needed to get permission to get them down, but the wide variety of weapons amazed Jessica.

She examined a pair of pistols and noticed they were made out of some ceramic material. An employee walked over and said "Those are one of the products we are testing out. While not as durable as our metal models, these ceramic guns are specialized to shoot a high temperature round into mutants."

"When you say not as durable, what do you mean?" Jessica asked.

"They need specialized ammo. If you use other ammo, the gun will likely break in a few shots. Typically we would have designed it not to accept regular ammo, but the section chief said to make them able just to have another option incase of an emergency."

"What's the point of shooting high temperature rounds?" Melissa asked.

"To the south of the city lies the mutated forests, There are several plant mutants that like to consume people. It's risky to carry around fire, as it can draw other mutants, so by using high temperature rounds you can kill the plants without having to carry fire."

"Wouldn't that just cause the plants to ignite and thus you draw the mutants anyway?"

"Well after you fire, you're supposed to run." 

"I see." Jessica said and continued examining the guns on the wall. In the end she picked out two pistols and a pulse gun. Melissa picked up a shotgun and a machete. The worker packed up their weapons and asked "Would you like to purchase ammo as well for your weapons?"

Jessica nodded and got two boxes for each of the guns. They went to checkout and when they ultimately paid for everything they got, Jessica found herself down to only a thousand arcs. Looking at Melissa, she said "I think we are backtracking in progress."

"Don't worry, I have an idea. Let's return to the Inn. I will divulge my plan to you when we get back into the room." They handed the bags to the blobs to carry and headed back to the inn.