Eventually she's done! Finally!! She has defeated the terrible really long and bad shower. 

The last chamber returns her belongings and blows warm dry air at her!

Eee, that's sorta nice! She picks up her belongings (including Cheep, who doesn't shower) and sneaks out. She is really confused about what the shower is for but maybe it's just for being mean.

Cheep has gotten the same treatment as her pocket everything, which involved radiation bombardment and high temperatures and passing through some chambers with inhospitable gas mixes. He may have had even less fun than her even if his process was faster.

Cheep did not have a fun time at all! If he weren't a monster mouse he wouldn't be alive but instead he just had a very unfun time and a bunch of his hair fell out and also his body went to sleep even when he didn't want it to and he is really sad and kinda whimpering afterwards. 

"Cheep!!!"

Meelia very carefully hugs Cheep and cries and oh no this was even worse for him why'd they do that oh no oh no oh no.

Eventually she sneaks out, still cradling Cheep.

The door to the outside of the red district is by a police station and a loading zone for a shoe store and a military recruitment office and a lumber yard.

Meelia recognizes that that is a police station! She very carefully sneaks past to avoid being spotted on her way back into the red district. She's sorta scared now - she really really doesn't want that to happen again - but she's brave and adventuring means bad things happen sometimes. 

There is a truck departing the red district, and one coming back in, and they maneuver around each other at the aperture into the district.

Meelia rolls under the one coming in and clings to the bottom, sneaking out once it passes by a shadowy place in the red district. This time she won't be seen by anyone while she explores. She's not sure what's going on but she's going to find out cause that's what she does.

The truck she's clinging to parks in an underground garage and then two reds get out of it and plug it in and leave.

She sneaks out, avoiding people unless she's sure she can hide from them.

She can pretty easily creep around the parking garage, evading reds going to and returning from work in their various trucks.

So many people with red hair! She explores some more, still trying not to be seen.

Everyone here has red or pink hair!

If she goes over to the edge of the parking garage where it's open to the air she can see the street level. Rowhouses, cobblestones, an old lady sweeping the steps up to her home, a one year old playing with a nearly-empty container of red spray chalk and trying to make enough of it come out to draw a satisfying squiggle, somebody perched on an apartment building roof trying to clean out a gutter. She has a decent view into a fourth-story apartment being used as a salon where someone with purplish roots to their hair is getting it trimmed and dyed coral pink and coral red in streaks.

She sets out, looking for the person who whispered to her about not wanting the police earlier. As long as everyone has red hair she'll probably stop trying to hide so much.

The old lady with the broom yelps upon spotting her and disappears into her house.

Oh no! People are still scared of her. Maybe they think she's going to call the police? She'll continue walking around and try to find someone she can explain this too who isn't too scared.

The one year old with the chalk isn't scared! ...but her relative who's watching her from indoors is petrified and scoops her up and rushes her indoors.

"I'm not going to hurt you or tell the police or anything!" she yells to them as they go and hide.

They close their patchwork curtains firmly.

She keeps wandering to see if there's anyone who can explain things to her. She really doesn't want to scare people but she is worried and wants to help and can't do that without knowing what's going on.

Unfortunately, everyone is either terrified of her or caretaken by someone who is.

Meelia's pocket everything goes off.

She pokes at it.

"Why are you making that sound?"