One of the stops Kathryn had made on the way home, early on, had indeed, been a full shopping mall including an attached Walmart with a public library just a few blocks away. While Patrick had taken Annie & Raea inside the Walmart for some smaller child's bike's wheels & all the supplies Kathryn would need to make the child her own set of wheels like Patrick's & Sarah's, she herself drove the few blocks to the library in search of other things.
The library was a large brick building, supporting many hurricane-proof plexiglass windows and none of them were broken by Beth as Kathryn pulled into the parking lot, ignoring the no-parking signs.
Thinking back to that tv show she had once watched, "Life After People", and wondered if it might still be useful to them in some way. She knew that the show premiered on tv in 2008 and hoped that they had been released on DVD or some such after that. She also knew that things would not be AS bad in this new world than the one theorized, there might be some notes to take for the future.
Finding the inside clean and even a little humid despite how long it's been since people disappeared, the air actually remained clean because of the plants that had been kept for decoration. Going around quickly with a couple of water bottles she found in a break room, Kathryn broke the plants out of their pots onto the carpets, bit open the bottles with her teeth & poured the water onto the very dry soil, the plants only having survived because of the humidity in the room.
Turning her attention back to the massive shelves, Kathryn quietly walked down the aisles in search of the DVD sections. After about 2 hours of searching the shelves, she finally found what she was looking for. There, silently waiting and staring at her, at exactly her new eye level, was the 2-hour original special and two box sets of a tv series she never knew was made! She also found in the same section some other DVD's, including one that theorized what would happen to "Life After Oil" and she knew that would also qualify here too! Galloping to a nearby service counter, she grabbed a basket and a pen so when she got to the aisle, she placed the basket on the floor below the section, held the pen in her teeth and used the pen as a finger to drop the DVD's from the shelf and let fall into the basket.
After collecting all of the Life After collections she wanted, Kathryn took the basket's handle in her teeth and walked down to the kid's sections, taking down a random collection for Annie. Strangely, quite a lot of them were non-fiction ocean themes and mermaid fantasy. She had also grabbed books dealing with wind & solar power, farming, husbandry, and hurricanes while also grabbing a few children's picture books about the oceans for Annie.
Carrying the metal basket of DVD's & books out the same front door she had bucked down to enter the library, she felt a small twinge of sadness at the future loss of all those books and movies. She knew she could not take them all with her; she only taken what she believed they would need.
Taking one last sigh, she carried the basket back to the truck and placed it on the floor below the driver seat before jumping up behind the wheel and going back to the Walmart mall for Patrick, Annie and Raea.
Kathryn found the two merponies & her dog sitting outside the main entrance of the Walmart next two three bikes worth of tires in various sizes as well as a pile of PVC pipe, three plastic (store) bags and two new gardening wagons full of what appeared to be towels, blankets, sheets and water bottles.
While Patrick started to lift the stuff into the back of the truck & Raea went chasing after sea gulls in the parking lot, Kathryn took Annie into the main building of the mall for some proper fitting clothes.
This mall was mostly all made of a glass roof, which was already cracked & broken, likely from Beth's onslaught; the floors were flooded about hoof-deep in most places and it already stank of stagnant water & mold. As they walked, they formed two sets of hoof prints: Kathryn's was an even four-hoof pace while Annie's was two-hooves & a trail of wheel tracks from a brand new (flatter) skateboard she had liberated from the Walmart.
Inside, Kathryn found a store for 0 to toddler and used a trash can to break the glass front door, after asking Annie to stand well back. After having seen Kathy & Patrick already breaking into the Walmart and other places, the sight of another door disappearing to vandalism no longer upset little Annie; especially when, once Kathryn deemed it safe to enter, she was given free rein to pick out ANYTHING (and pretty much everything) she wanted! Kathryn made sure Annie picked out tee shirts, long sleeves, sweaters, skirts, rubber boots, and at least one winter coat from a back room storage before letting her pick out some extras like a sparkly glitter white dress, fun socks, and some jewelry accessories. Using more of the plastic store bags, they filled six of them with all of Annie's finds before returning to the truck.
"Ar thar be me lovely lasses! Ye be plunderin' another victim, me see!" Patrick said as he started lifting the bags into the back of the truck. Annie had come out of the mall wearing her new sparkly glitter white dress (both having cleaned & wiped their hooves on the rugs) and the skirt was only big enough to hide most of the skateboard, while still letting her tail be seen at the end. "Thar be thee most lovely gown on a most lovely of lasses," he said to Annie as he bowed to her before lifting her, skateboard and all into the back seat; Raea jumping in behind him, and curled up again with Annie.
The remainder of the ride back to U1 was relatively uneventful. Kathryn was antsy to get watching those new Life After DVD's and take down any notes that would pertain to their situation there in Miami and make sure she fact checked with Griz & Dr Jamie afterwards. You can't always believe the internet.... or DVD documentaries in this case, she thought as the day light faded and she flicked on the head lights. She also made a mental note to find more truck batteries before long.
Kathryn spoke with Annie about herself and she told of how she & her parents lived in Maryland but were down in Florida for a convention trip her dad was making. She had been home schooled so it was really easy for her to go with her dad, who was an online game programer and her mom, a part time nurse (and of course, her teacher). Annie was sad because they had to leave behind her pet hamster and the salt-water fish tank when they left for the vacation. Kathryn knew she wondered what had happened to them but she didn't want to tell this child anything like that.
Instead, Kathryn told Annie about the farm animals, Max & Millie and Lil' Mac; she also told of Griz, Jazz, Dr Jamie and Sarah. She told of Bermareda Circle, Surface Ship and of Campus City; she told of the farm fields and the magic shield Sarah made to BC. "Where am I going to live?" Annie asked at one point. "You can choose: the spare room in Sarah's ship or the spare bed in my land RV," Kathryn replied. "Um.... I think the RV.... but just for now! I might choose to move to the ocean after I see it," Annie said hesitantly. Kathryn simply smiled and nodded as Patrick leaned over his passenger seat to pour a reused bottle of salt water over Annie's tail towel.
***
Annie had fallen asleep about two hours away from Campus City but Kathryn & Patrick did not want to disturb her. As she drove, Kathryn made mental plans for Annie's new set of wheels. Patrick had been smart to grab more sizes as she will out grow the smaller sets, she thought. Maybe I'll go ahead and make all three sizes worth in one go.... saves me time later when we get more ponies and furthermore, when I get another merpony call, I can bring a set of wheels with me!
Satisfied with these thoughts and ideas, Kathryn pulled out a pair of headphones and started one of her favorite Weird Al Yankovic music playlists.
In the last hour leg of their drive home, it randomly occurred to Kathryn that although a USA flag flew on the pole in front of U1, her Canadian one still hung on her RV tucked safely in the delivery bay of U1! She gently shook her head; That just won't do anymore! First thing in the morning, I'm adding my Canadian to the pole," she thought to herself. She also made a plan to search for pairs of smaller ones for Bermareda Circle and for the Surface Ship.
***
As Kathryn drove her truck into the parking lot of U1, Patrick leaned back and gently woke Annie so she could see the place. The honking of the truck horn brought Griz, Jazz, Dr Jamie and Sarah spilling out of U1's main entrance as Kathryn pulled up front; Sarah hurried to assist Annie out of the back seat while Patrick busied himself with his own wheels and getting the back unloaded.
Kathryn looked up to the entrance to see the strangest looks on the faces of Griz, Jazz and Dr Jamie; Griz was wearing a strange new belt that held a holster of some kind for the satellite radio phone. Kathryn ignored the truck and barely registered Raea running right by them to go visit the farm animals as she cantered up to the entrance; the griffin and two ponies illuminated by the one LED entrance light. "Kathryn," Griz began. "We need to talk."