Chapter 10a: Ketchup Starfish

The three shivered a bit as they saw the sign. It seemed as if a brush of cold air passed over them. The kids looked around their surroundings; the town seemed abandoned at the time of night, with only a few people walking around. Serenity made sure to keep Slur and Grant away from any other people they see, knowing that it'd be best to avoid talking to strangers at the time of night.
	Serenity then paused. She had no money, no food, and no valuable possessions, besides the baton she had on her person.
	"What will we do now?" Serenity whispered, looking around her surroundings wearily.
	"What do you mean?" Slur replied. She sat herself down on a bench, the wood was worn down and smelled odd, possibly from rain.
	"We have no money, and no food either. We need to think of someway to get food..." Serenity looked around. Absolutely nothing was open at the time, except for a large, bright restaurant standing in front of the three. Serenity got closer to the restaurant and looked in to see absolutely no one in the restaurant besides the employees and possibly the manager counting up money as he sat at a table. Serenity sighed, noticing the theme of the restaurant was mainly seafood.
	"Ew, even if we did have the money for that, there's no way I'm eating fish." Serenity grumbled, sitting down next to Slur.
	Then, Slur got an idea in her head.
	"Well just because we don't have the money, it doesn't mean that we can't eat there." Slur smiled devilishly, looking into the window.
	"Slur, no! We aren't stealing from that place." Serenity glared at Slur, then looked back to the restaurant, noticing that food was lying on the tables "Eugh, look at that trash. I think that's a starfish covered in ketchup"
	From what she understood, Slur did not need to eat food at all. Grant most likely did not need to eat food either, but he still enjoyed eating. Serenity surveyed the area again, looking for any other signs of hope.
	"We could call Alex and Terri, they should help us with our problem, possibly." Slur shrugged, then pulled out the large, smartphone-like machine from her hair. Slur dialed a series of numbers, and was met with seeing both Alex and Terri.
	The two were in a courthouse, with Terri wearing a plain black judicial robe. The two were simply lying around on the ground, sweating profusely.
	From what appeared to be a bathroom, Kyle walked out. He held a bundle of paper and was waving it in his direction.
	"What do you want?" Alex said grumpily, tampering about with an electrical fan in the room.
	"Well, we just reached The States! We are in Maryland right now, but unfortunately we have no food, or money." Serenity answered, sitting down on a bench with Grant by her side.
	"Oh wow, that must suck. When me and Kayla got here, we were in a situation like that. Although we were with a bus driver, and she paid for a few things for us." Alex remarked, wiping sweat off of her forehead "Anyway, you probably need help then." Serenity nodded.
	"Yeah, but there really isn't anyway you can help us. You're so far away, how could you help out from there?"
	"Er... I honestly have no idea. We could maybe call our bus driver, I bet she'd drive all the way to Maryland." Alex joked, then turned around to Kyle "Now that actually isn't a bad idea! We can have her drive to Maryland, and give you some money!"
	"No." Terri muttered "We could just mail them some money. Or if we have to do that, at least have Apollo drive over there. He took us across the country in like an hour, it was a scary experience, but it would be so much faster than having an old lady drive a school bus across the country." Terri played about with a wooden gavel, trying to forget about the intense heat.
	"Fine Terri, you win." Alex glared at Terri, then focused back onto Serenity "Okay, we'll call up Apollo, he should be there in about an hour." Alex then disconnected, not even asking for an exact location.
	Serenity's hopes were up, and she sat herself back on the bench, more relaxed knowing that the three are going to get some sort of supplies soon. Grant jumped up onto the bench, trying to fit himself onto the small, wooden seat.
	"Grant, get off!" Slur yelled "You're crushing me-" Slur was interrupted by the sound of loud bird calls. Serenity looked around the area for the noise, and froze as she saw a flock of the mechanic mountain quail cameras.
	"Oh of course we have to be ambushed now"