@agcnt19
Alison rubbed absently at the fresh scrapes on her palms and her cheek, having learned the hard way that despite good intentions being a beacon in a dark city was it’s kind own hazard. She was going to be sore as hell tomorrow and at this point fatigue setting in was taking precedence over any ambitions helping anyone in all this chaos.
She’d been wandering for what felt like hours, though she had no way of knowing. The glass of yet another broken storefront crunched under her boots and she messily ground her heels in, soaking up the sound. With just a flicker of light trickling through her fingertips she illuminated the sign, the faded hand-painted lettering indicating a neighborhood deli. God. She was thirsty. Like really thirsty. She was suddenly very aware of the way her tongue felt thick and too dry in her mouth and though she’d passed up the same opportunity before she couldn’t seem to find the harm in it now. Whoever had busted it in the first place had already taken anything valuable. All she wanted was some water, if that wasn’t gone already too.
She cautiously stepped over the sharp edges of the shattered window and pushed into the store, it’s contents ransacked and the leftovers strewn around the narrow aisles. Acting as her own nightlight she navigated her way to the dark cases of formerly cold beverages. The bottles rolling around at the bottom looked a little too much like instant salvation and she took the first two she could grab and stuffed them awkwardly into her jacket, and the third she cracked open a swiftly brought to her lips, drinking it down fast. Even warm the relief of it seemed to instantly spread through her aching body, but it was a short-lived reprieve.
Out front that sound again, footsteps over broken glass. A light shined in her direction and all she could think to do was raise her hands, one of which she held the half empty water bottle. “I can pay for that?” She offered with an uneven grimace, just as one of the bottles in her jacket tumbled out. “Those too...”