Katie - parking lot - Rex, King (possibly Ashley?)@RedVII@datadogieHer tactic had paid off. The man with the dog attacked the bearded man, getting her free. Her first instinct was to run, but if this man had a dog that meant he needed extra supplies to feed the dog as well as himself.
She didn't reply to his comment about her being alone. A list of various lies she had used swirled in her head as she tried to pick the best one for this situation. He spoke funny, which meant he wasn't from around here. He was right though. The man yelling in pain would draw monsters.
Katie kept out of reach but turned on the cute, helpless look. "I have my mom. We have a hide out inside there," she said, pointing at the deserted mall. "Its easy to hide stuff in there. You can come if you want," she said.
In reality she had only been in the mall a couple of times and didn't have anything hidden in there. But if she got him into one of the stores it would be easier to distract him in case she had to run. And maybe she could see what he had with him.
She held out her hand to the man, ready to lead him inside.
"Don't listen to her," the man on the ground wheezed in pain. "She's all alone. Little bitch is a liar and a thief."
Katie wasn't too worried about the man telling on her. In her experience adults didn't want to believe kids were smart enough to trick them. Let them think she was stupid. It meant they never suspected her until she was long gone with their stuff.
To be fair Katie had never stolen a significant amount from anyone. Usually just some food and occasionally maybe one or two other things. The less you took, the less was noticed. That was what had happened at the camp she had gone to that had a guy named Bruce in charge. He was a bad man, very mean. But because she was a kid and a girl he didn't think much of her. She wondered sometimes if he had even noticed the food and pocketknife she had stolen from him before running away.
Women were even easier to steal from because they treated Katie like a baby. They trusted her completely and would leave her alone with their supplies, thinking she was just playing, not realizing she was pocketing things until she was already gone.
So when the bearded man called her a liar and thief she just backed away looking scared of him. "Let's go," she urged the man with the dog.
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Jessalyn - school bus - Jasper@datadogieJess had filled her shoulder bag with a few shirts, shorts and even a pair of socks. Score! She made her way back to the bus and froze. The seats had been moved. Someone had been there. Or still was there...
Slowly, she set the bag down and pulled out her gun. It was out of bullets but whoever was looting her home didn't know that. Sometimes the sight and threat of a gun was enough to scare looters off.
She made her way towards the door, careful to make as little noise as possible.
A small body with dirty blonde hair was currently squatted over one of her supply boxes, stuffing her things into a bag at his side. Jessalyn couldn't help but scoff inwardly. She was being robbed by a kid?
She put the gun back into her waistband, where it was still visible, and placed her hands on her hips, looking like a mother who had caught their kid in the cookie jar.
"It's wrong to steal, short stuff," she said.