Chapter 297: The Price Of Glitter
The craft store appeared several minutes later at the far end of a small shopping plaza.
Most of the surrounding storefronts had been broken into long ago, leaving shattered windows and dark interiors behind faded signs, but the craft store’s front glass was still intact beneath a wide purple awning.
Chenghai slowed the SUV before turning into the parking lot, carefully steering around the vehicles that had been abandoned between the faded lines. One had a shattered windshield, while another sat with both front doors open and dried blood covering part of the driver’s seat.
Weeds had grown around the tires, and a thick layer of dirt covered the hoods, making it obvious that none of them had moved recently.
There were no fresh tire tracks near the store entrance either. That was a good thing.
Zhenlan studied the glass doors while Chenghai drove closer. "It doesn’t look like anyone has used the front recently."
"That doesn’t mean the store is empty," Lingyun replied from behind him.
"No, it doesn’t."
Rouxi leaned forward between Yuche and Lingyun so she could see through the windshield. "Is it burned down?"
"No."
"Is there an army standing outside?"
"Not that I can see."
"Then park the car and let’s go inside."
Chenghai started to pull into the space closest to the entrance, but his attention shifted toward the building across the street before the SUV came to a complete stop.
"We have company," he said.
Zhenlan followed his line of sight and found a man lying flat against the roof of an old pharmacy. He had positioned himself behind the raised ledge so that only part of his head and one shoulder were visible. Something metallic caught the sunlight beside him, although Zhenlan couldn’t tell whether it belonged to a pair of binoculars or the scope of a rifle.
A second figure appeared near the roof-access door and disappeared again almost immediately.
Lingyun twisted around to look through the rear window. "Do we want to deal with that before we go inside?"
Rouxi studied the rooftop for a few seconds. "Are they coming toward us?"
"No," Chenghai said.
"Are they pointing guns at us?"
"Not yet."
"Then they can keep staring. Maybe they’re bored too. People watching is a fun sport after all."
Chenghai parked in front of the store without arguing.
The first watcher remained in place while they climbed out of the SUV, but the second reappeared near the roof-access door with a handheld radio raised to his mouth. Whoever controlled the streets would know about the vehicle and the five people inside it before they made it through the entrance.
Zhenlan glanced toward Rouxi, expecting her to at least acknowledge the radio, but she had already started walking toward the craft store with the baby vine curled around her wrist. Yuche stayed beside her, while Lingyun checked the darkened windows and Chenghai waited near the SUV long enough to make sure no one approached from behind.
The watchers had made their decision.
For now, they were observing.
Zhenlan slipped the folded map into his pocket and followed the others inside.
The front door opened with a long, protesting groan, releasing air that smelled like dust, paper, and old fabric. The electricity had been gone for months, but the large front windows allowed enough sunlight inside to reveal the first several aisles.
Unlike the grocery stores and pharmacies they had visited after the apocalypse began, almost nothing had been stripped from the shelves.
Survivors had taken food, medicine, batteries, and anything else that might keep them alive for another day, but apparently no one had been desperate enough to fight over yarn or decorative fake flowers.
Rouxi stopped just inside the entrance and stared down the nearest aisle. "Oh," she said softly, her eyes going wide. The sound held more genuine interest than anything Zhenlan had heard from her in forever.
She crossed the aisle and picked up a bundle of purple embroidery thread, turning it over in her fingers before comparing it with another shade from the same display. After several seconds, she added both to the plastic basket Lingyun had taken from beside the entrance.
"There are too many purples," she complained as she reached for a third shade. Not like Zhenlan could really tell a difference between them all.
"Then take all of them," Lingyun suggested. "It’s not like you are on a budget or anything."
Rouxi looked at him as though he had finally managed to say something intelligent. "That is a surprisingly good idea."
"It does happen occasionally," he shrugged. Zhenlan felt his shoulders drop, almost forgetting about the people who were watching them. This was the relaxed moment that they all needed but never knew.
And he wasn’t the only one to feel that way.
The tension inside the store eased as they moved farther between the shelves. Rouxi added black fabric, wooden embroidery hoops, needles, and several patterns she clearly had no intention of following. Whenever the basket became too heavy, Yuche took it from her without comment, only handing it back when she wanted to look through the contents.
Chenghai found an abandoned shopping cart near the end of the aisle and began following them with it.
Zhenlan remained several steps behind, watching the spaces between the shelves and listening for any movement deeper inside the building. Rouxi might have decided that this was a simple trip to buy thread, but there was no such thing as a completely safe building anymore.
Still, for several minutes, the store almost felt normal.
Rouxi stood in front of a display of decorative flowers while Chenghai held up a package of pink roses for her inspection.
"No," she said.
"You like pink."
"I like purple."
"You wear pink headphones."
"That does not mean everything I own needs to match them."
Chenghai returned the roses to the display and picked up a package of small white flowers instead. Rouxi considered them for much longer before dropping them into the cart.
Lingyun appeared from the next aisle carrying several containers of glitter against his chest.
"No," Rouxi said the moment she saw him.
"You don’t even know what I’m planning."
"I don’t need to know. Glitter never leaves. If you open any of that inside my house, I’ll make sure that the plants will eat you."
