"Shall we pack up some pretzels for the road and move onto getting phones?" asks Riley.

Emily and Claire nod. "Sure," Alex agrees.

"Sure thing."

So they mount their bikes and are once more on their way. After they've been biking for about twenty kilometers, they near a department store and Claire speaks up. "This seems like it might be a good place to stop for clothes and we've been biking for a while."

Riley shrugs. "If you want to stop I'm okay with it."

"I wouldn't mind stopping myself. It has been a while and I'm getting a little tired myself."

"Yeah, okay, sure."

The clothing store itself is wide but shallow. There's an extensive selection with mirrors spaces regularly around the store. The one thing it's missing are any apparent changing rooms. "Maybe there are changing rooms on the upper level?" Claire muses aloud. "I'm going to go check."

"Given the bathroom situation I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't. But sure, go check. And if not we'll figure something out."

Claire walks back down the stairs a minute later. "There are no changing rooms up there either. It has the lingerie section, and a lot more formal wear though."

"Maybe we could drag a few of the racks around to make a barrier?"

"Yeah, I think that could work," agrees Claire. "It might be easier to use the upper level, though that will probably make things slower. Yeah racks it is. Maybe over in the left corner with the winter coats? I don't think we need those just yet."

"Sure. Alex you wanna lend a hand here?"

"Sure, though, I'm not sure I'm more in shape than the rest of you." He walks over and together the three of them shift some clothing racks into a lose privacy divider. It'll only work if you crouch down a bit but it's serviceable. And there is a mirror inside the boundary.

"Cool, that works. On to shopping."

The two girls start picking out outfits. Anna goes for jeans and various casual tops. Linda goes for slightly more stylish attire.

Riley mirrors Anna's choices. Claire and Emily both pick out a mix of jeans, skirts and dresses along with matching tops. Alex picks up some jeans and khakis with a selection of button-down shirts, polo shirts, and t-shirts.

"Okay, I think that should be enough for now."

"It looks like it," agrees Riley. "Everyone ready to go?" She gets nods all around. "Alright, off to the phone store."

More biking then. Anna's getting tired.

"You need to stop nagging people about exercise and get some yourself!", teases Linda.

"I don't have the time."

"I wonder whether the clinic can substitute for exercise," Riley speculates. "The encyclopedia had an article on starvation and some of the mentioned treatments involved encouraging muscle regrowth."

"Maybe, though I'm inclined to be cautious with experimenting with things we don't really understand."

"Fair enough, it makes sense to be cautious with people's health." Riley looks ever so slightly disappointed though.

"I'm sure there's lots of fascinating things we can do with the clinic once we know more."

"I know, it's so exciting." Riley smiles widely.

"I do wonder why we're being given all this advanced technology, and 27000 stores worth of merchandise," Alex wonders. "If this were a story there would be some sort of catch."

Claire shudders. "Don't say that. Let's hope there isn't one."

"I hope not too. But there's really not much we can do about it, other then learn as much as we can about the place."

"Yeah, there's so much to learn," agrees Riley.

"It's pretty cool, except for being stranded. Hopefully temporarily."