Abby woke the next morning feeling very well-rested and a little confused.  For a moment, looking up at the ceiling of brambles very close to her, she couldn’t remember where she was or how she’d ended up here.  Her bed was cozy and warm, and there was Liv next to her – and Liv, which was a little strange, but-

Everything came rushing back as she sat up.  She huffed tiredly – her body might not be tired, but her mind was.  They were – they were in a rabbit warren of some sort, that was right.  And they’d settled down for the night. She looked at the Livs. They were sleeping very nicely, cuddled up next to each other. She wanted to let them sleep.

They weren’t, as far as she knew, on any timetable, were they?  She sighed and laid back down, staring up at the brambles. They wanted to get home, sure, but that wasn’t really a time limit – that was just an urge.  They wanted to survive – but as far as they knew, since it was the mall itself that seemed to have it out for them, they weren’t really running away from anything.

That was the weirdest thing.  There was really no safety. The brier patch could have just gobbled them up while they slept.  It might still – it might want conscious prey. Considering some of the other things she’d seen here, she wouldn’t put it past this place.

That made her want to move.  She slipped out of the entrance – making sure to watch the doorway to their little room.  She didn’t want it to close up the moment she left – and looked around the store.

Was it a store?  Yes, there was something that looked like a cash register, although it only had a couple buttons and they were very large – almost like a kids’ toy register. She figured out with little effort which button was the “open drawer” button – and was unsurprised to find only a couple dollars in there.

The place had only sheets, blankets, and pillows.  Abby unpacked her pack and laid out everything before repacking it, making room for a blanket if not for a pillow.  They’d either gotten luck so far or the mall had places it wanted them to sleep. She couldn’t guarantee that they’d have a comfortable and warm place the next time they got tired.

She crawled out to the hallway but didn’t leave the store.  There were noises here and there, but they seemed a long ways away.

A noise from the back room sent her skittering back that way.  One of the Livs was awake.

“That feels… great.”  She stretched and looked over at her doppleganger, still asleep.  “She’d like it here, you know. We could leave her here.”