Event: Target

Doc's face darkened, and he didn't look at Eve as he continued packing up the meat.  "Ain't never had any kind of place in the human world."

She studied him while he packed, and then got to her feet and moved close enough to rub against his leg to stop him from distracting himself. She looked up at him and gave him a high miow. <What makes you say that?>

Doc snorted, even as he absently scritched that perfect spot on her jaw.  "You got eyes.  What part of me looks like I belong with people?"

Lilybeth listened to Tanner and Riesy’s occasionally-sharp conversation and pondered.  Her family weren’t exactly regular church-goers, but they went to Mass at St. Mary’s by the Sea on Christmas and Easter, and her dad wouldn’t think of missing Father Murphy’s Blessing of the Boats--she'd sat in the captain's chair for him two years ago when he'd been down with a bad flu. She’d always just assumed there was an afterlife, that people’s souls went on somehow, but she couldn’t honestly say she’d thought much about it.  And she’d always assumed the Troubles would go away too, more or less on schedule. Though they were unusually late this year, and she’d tuned into her mom and dad’s occasional after-dinner conversations with people like Mr. Royce or Mrs. Benson, working over the rumors about why that might be.

Still, she’d been more focused on things like convincing her guidance counselor that she wasn’t crazy to want to go into fishing rather than go to college--that and making sure that Shepherd types like Brandon Martin didn’t pick on her freshman sister for coming from a Troubled family... Not that Violet needed that much help--she was cute and popular and had plenty of friends willing to stick up for her. But it didn’t hurt to send a message. And with this new wave of Troubles, and the even crazier rumors surrounding that, her world had narrowed to making sure her family was okay--that Rosie wasn't too scared, that Dad wasn't overexerting himself, that Mom and Violet were doing okay.  She hadn't had time to think about any of it until now, and maybe she hadn't wanted to.

She purred, pushing against his fingers. <That's not a real answer, and it's not about looks, anyway,> she chided, her thoughts fuzzy with pleasant warmth. <I look like a cat but that doesn't mean I don't belong with humans. So? Why do you think you don't have a place?>

"Cause I don't," Doc said shortly.  "People are shit.  I want nothin' to do with 'em an' they want nothin' to do with me."

Eve paused and let herself feel the tiny smidgeon of regret that rippled through her at the words. He wasn't all bad, or even mostly bad. He was gruff and grouchy kind of mean, but he was good. <I like... I like people, but I guess I didn't realize it until I didn't have people anymore. I worked at a gardening store. Owned it. People usually came in wanting to make something grow. Make something beautiful. Maybe... once this is over... well, if it's ever over, maybe you can come see. I won't be a cat anymore but...> She flicked Ann eat and tipped her head to look at him. <Maybe you won't think that's the worst.>

"Big garden doesn't sound like the worst place," Doc allowed.  After a moment, he added.  "It's different, out with the animals.  None of this bullshit.  Animals don't worry, judge, plan, hold grudges.  They just are.  No selfishness, no nobility, no cruelty, no kindness.  They attack to eat, to defend their young or themselves, to protect their territory.  Simple motives.  They take life as it comes, and when it's over, it's over."

“I didn’t think I was letting anything stop me from getting things done,” Tanner replied, the words short and stung, frustration welling up.  That, at least, was familiar- the sense of doing something wrong, and not knowing what, the sense of never quite measuring up no matter what the metric he was using.

He had a lot of experience with that feeling.  He wasn’t sure why it stung so much more now.

He pushed the thought away, because it wasn’t helpful, wasn’t useful, and he had other things to worry about.  He took the coat Riesy held out to him without argument- the blue flannel wasn’t quite as unreactive as the black coats had been, sent a faint ticklish sensation across his ribs, but it wasn’t uncomfortable and it looked like it would fit well enough.

“...I’m gonna- go look for a pack,” he said, flexing his fingers around the soft material.  “Kinda- headed out unprepared, I should.  Handle that.”

Because the last thing he wanted was to wind up being a burden on the group’s resources.

"Make sure you eat something," s/he called after him. "You should know from Coach. Doubt and an empty stomach make you give up faster."

S/he turned to brush past Lilybeth in the opposite direction, thinking how much that could have gone fucking better but not knowing how.

"I'm gonna stick to saving the world, it's easier," s/he muttered to Isabelle once s/he reached her.

Isabelle spent a lot longer than she needed to in the changing room. But it was private and dim and quiet and private. She leaned her head against the wall and let her shoulders shake with silent sobs for five long moments and then got down to the business of changing out of the burned and dirty jeans and long underwear. Neither of which felt great peeling off over the burn on her calf. She took a moment to properly dress that and thought wryly at least part of her wouldn’t be cold when they got back outside.

She could hear Riesy and Tanner talking nearby. They both sounded scared and upset. Riesy’s words brought an unpleasant sour cream flavor, straight from the carton on a spoon, mouth puckering instinctively.

When she heard them splitting up she unlatched the door and stepped out. “When this is all over I’m going to buy a big house,” she announced making them turn around. “There’s bound to be a couple of them going for cheap after all this,” she smiled wryly. “I’m going to get my brothers to provide slave labor and build me a deck, and a firepit and maybe a tree house for my nieces and nephews.”

She smiled gently at her team. “The way I see it tomorrow doesn’t come if you don’t make it. If you sit by and just let things play out well you’re just asking for death and destruction. What would happen to the town if everyone just sat around now and complained, if people didn’t help each other to survive, if Dwight didn’t organize the troops, if we didn’t go looking for a book that could make things better…” she shrugged and let them spiral that.

The way Isabelle saw it, if you acted like there was no tomorrow when it came you’d be sorry. She had seen a lot of idiot drunks who partied like there was no tomorrow, had rushed many of them to the ER herself, some of them had come back from that, some had slipped into comas, some had lost control of their cars and taken out entire families who had plans for tomorrow.

There was no point in worrying if tomorrow wouldn’t come. Tomorrow tended to happen regardless of who was there to see it.

“You have to work to make the tomorrow that’s going to come better or there’s every chance you’ll like it even less than today.”

Isabelle looked at the pile of things they'd all gathered so far, supplies, clothes, food. She pointed at the biggest haul, “you’re all already acting like there’s a tomorrow anyway,” she said with a soft smile.

“But we’re losing daylight and we don’t want tonight to meet us in here, no matter how bright Tanner’s Tinkerbell is. So take fifteen to finish gathering your stuff and let’s get a move on.

Riesy felt shiz eyebrows almost fly off shiz face. That was how it could have gone better, and probably why the woman was in charge.

"Sir, yes, sir," s/he chirped, then started to cross over to where s/he could just see Eve's tail. "I'll make sure 'n' get you a discount on the lumber," s/he called, trying to find an even keel again. S/he rounded the corner and saw Doc knelt on the ground with the cat. "Mind if I sit?" S/he pointed to a spot against the freezer opposite him, not wanting to get too close for the big man's comfort.

"I'm going to hold you to that," Isabelle replied. Then headed off in search of Captain Crunch.

"Don't gotta ask me," Doc grunted, zipping up the insulated bag he'd shoved the meat into and knotting the handles together for easy carrying.

Riesy cocked shiz head and gave him a hard look, tired of grumpy boys. "Then I won't next time."

S/he folded down and held shiz hand out to Eve. "Is it completely undignified to want to scritch you now?"

With Captain Crunch in hand, water in her pack, a new blue scarf and hat and assorted medical supplies from the over the counter aisle, Izzy hunted up Riesy with 5 minutes to spare. She found shim sitting with Eve and Doc. She smiled and offered Eve a scritch too then turned her attention to Riesy and made shim sit and let her doctor the burns on shiz arm and the bites from the bugs. She was extra careful because when it hurt Riesy it filled Isabelle's peripheral vision with angry blue sparks.

When she was done she turned to Eve and Doc. "You guys okay?" she asked holding up the roll of gauze.

Eve regarded Doc for a moment, ears cocked forward as she considered his words. <Maybe,> she said at last, standing up again to stretch her front paws waaaayyyy out before straightening. <But, you know, things don't have to be simple to be good. Humans aren't simple, and it's true that we're responsible for a lot of bad things, but, we do good things too. We create art, and we sing, and make up stories, and dream about things until we can make them a reality. We protect each other. We fall in love for more reasons than can be counted. We travel as far as we can, even to space and to the bottom of the ocean, and we eat strange things just to see if we can. And... well, we're really good at making friends with animals. They seem to like us okay for the most part. Maybe you can take a page outta that book, eh?> She looked up at him and when he looked back, she winked one golden eye.

Then she spotted Riesy coming, and took a few steps closer to shim, tail up in greeting. She rubbed her nose into Riesy's outstretched fingers, giving a soft purr. It was not that weird. She seemed to have both sets of instincts, human and feline, and she'd never been good at personal space as a human anyway. It was very clear permission to go ahead.

She looked up at Isabelle's sudden arrival, and made a little trill. Her fur was still matted with drying blue insect blood and dirt, but she didn't appear to actually be damaged in any way that required attention.

Riesy took the doctoring with a sly grin and one raised eyebrow, forgoing any smartassed comment because s/he could be gracious, s/he could. S/he rolled shiz head against the freezer to look down at where Eve was batting at shiz fingers. "Dude I am not trying to be an asshole, but do you want like a collar or anything? Or like a...b..ath?" S/he knew it was a bad idea, but the poor thing's fur was matted and shiny still with bug guts. And maybe they weren't the only bugs that had bothered her.

"Thanks, Izz," s/he said quietly, when the medic was finished.

“Yes’m,” Tanner replied automatically, when Isabelle gave them a time limit; he’d paused when she’d started to speak, listening to her speech with a twisting unease. He felt guilty about causing an argument, worse about the fact that enough people had overheard it that it’d caused a scene. He hadn’t intended to be a disruption.

He just- had to pull himself together, get himself organized, and do better. He could be useful. He could.

He would. They didn’t need any more reason to regret bringing him along.

Course of action decided, Tanner shrugged into the jacket so he didn’t have to carry it, and headed for the camping section. He picked up a sturdy-feeling bag, and hesitated- he should put the box of Nutty Buddies down, not waste space on snacks of minimal actual value, but...

He tucked them into the bag, laying the box flat at the bottom, and moved to an endcap display. It was locked, and it contained folding knives- substantially more impressive ones than his little swiss army knife. He used his knife to undo the screws, and took out the two nicest of the blades, pocketing one and dropping the other in his bag, and considered. Food, water, medicine, tools, lights- he had no idea what would be more useful.

“If you’re planning on staying, I probably don’t need a flashlight,” he said, casting a sideways glance at the glowing orb still following sedately at his shoulder. “But I probably shouldn’t count on that, huh.”

It didn’t reply, and he picked up a camping lantern and a pack of carabiners, hooking the lantern onto the top of the bag. He picked up a bulk pack of jerky, as well, and moved away from the camping gear and into the sports section of Sporting Goods, picking up an aluminum bat; he preferred wood, but aluminum was lighter, and he was going to have to carry it around.

He considered, for just a moment, seeing if they had a set of hockey pads that would fit, just in case- but that would be bulky, and he was already louder than he wanted to be. Instead, he skipped back through Menswear and picked up a pair of gloves and two heavy scarves off of an end display, and then cut back across to the pharmacy, picking up a basic first aid kit before moving back to the groceries. A pair of large water bottles, two packs of dried fruit- apples and figs- and two boxes of powerbars and the bag was bulky, but not too awkward, and maybe it wasn’t the most professional setup, but it was a lot more prepared than he’d been.

He grabbed one more water bottle, and a box of cereal bars, and a fresh orange, and settled down closer to the Pharmacy to eat his makeshift breakfast, bolting the food so that he’d be ready to leave before they ran out of time.

"She ain't hurt," Doc conveyed, happy to let the heavier conversation drop.  "But oughtta get that shit off her.  Don't want her cleaning it up the usual way."

<Little late for that, Doc. If the blood was gonna kill me, it'd have done so by now, considering the amount I've already licked off. Besides, where are we gonna find a bath? The water out there was... not water. And tell Riesy no collars. I don't want to stand out if we need to sneak anywhere.>

"No collars, better for sneaking this way.  Gotta be a sink around here somewhere," Doc grumbled, knowing they probably didn't have time anyhow.

“Yeah, I’m calling not it on that,” Isabelle responded tapping her nose. “You guys have got five more minutes. I think the cat wipes are in the end cap on the pet aisle. Hurry up. I’ll meet you back at the changing rooms."

With Riesy seen to and no one else in need of medical attention Isabelle boosted herself off the ground and headed back toward the dressing rooms where she’d last seen Tanner and Lily. Those three could sit on the cold ground near the freezers if they wanted but Izzy was at least going to go sit on the slightly warmer carpet. Maybe she’d stretch out for a minute til they all showed up.

She sat down on the carpet and thought about laying down but that felt too vulnerable. She settled for sitting with her back against the door of one of the changing rooms, playing her beam of light against the ceiling and clothes racks until the shadows started to creep her out. Then she closed her eyes and drank some from her water bottle, listening for the others.

"I'll grab one of those rub down gloves," Riesy said, shoving to shiz feet and heading back towards the pharmacy through the pet department. "That way we can just do it when we have the time and she doesn't have to get wet."

S/he swung back to the pharmacy to retrieve her own pack, leaving the burnt coat where it laid. S/he raised shiz chin at Tanner's bat where it leaned next to him. "Nice longarm." It was all s/he could think to offer as an olive branch.

“Thanks,” Tanner replied, putting on a tentative smile. “Always did like baseball, and Coach Walter said I had a heckuva swing. Figured- it’d be nice to have the option.”