Vee's Adventures PT1

Vee's Adventures PT1

Vee paused to rest from his rigorous trek to the south, or so he thought. Come to find out the directions he politely asked from some misleading townsfolk, now miles away, had all told him to go the wrong way! He smiled at a nervous passerby to hide his anger, he never felt so dumb in his life; all this time he was going further north!
He blamed being lost on himself for trusting strangers again, something he thought would be a given by now and that he lost track of time causing him to walk all night.
The once darken sky littered with stars was beginning to brighten, the forest around him was beginning to stir back to life out of their peaceful sleep. He enviously hissed through his teeth at them, watching his frozen breaths swirl in the air, creating strange shapes.
Vee wrapped his coat tighter around his thin frame, shuddering at the bitter cold and began his way to the next city.
‘First things first is to sell all this junk and buy supplies then it’s off to the south,’ he thought, avoiding eye contact with the many people he weaved through, heading deeper into the crowd where there might be a pawn shop of some kind; not forgetting to also collect a few items here and there from their careless owners not keeping their belongs close or deeper in their pockets. He lazily snagged some electronic device, his golden eyes settling on his next stop and his checkpoint: Kris and Kye’s Pawn and Shop.
“I don’t care what he said!” some lady yelled as he shoved through the door. He stepped around a broken TV that was lying on its side, next to it there must have been twenty more or so lining the back wall, each one with bad signal to good, but all on the news. Some red headed human was the news anchor, his lips moved but no words were heard, just the black and white subtitles that were always a few seconds off. The other isles held signs labeling their contents: shoes, CDs, computers, hard drives, game consoles but the racks where empty and sideways on the tile floor: signs of a recent robbery, “We are never getting business with your pawn shop in my clothing store!”
Vee took a second look at the room, ‘what clothes?’
The door had unexpectedly slammed behind him, causing him to stare blankly at a deep brown vixen and a pale yellow hedgehog arguing over who really owned the store. They silenced instantly at his presence their blue eyes switching into a more welcoming hue, “Err… if is this a bad time-,”
The vixen smiled calmly, “Oh, this is a perfect time! Come here!”
Her companion lightly pushed her out of the way, resting his elbows on the counter, “Welcome to Kris’ Pawn!” he greeted merrily.
“-And Kye’s shop!” Kye added happily shoving him back, “Need any help selecting anything to buy?” Vee decided not to laugh at the irony of the empty store.
Vee approached the two carefully, his eyes straying to the cash register, “I’m here to pawn some things,” he dumped out his messenger bag, spilling a collection of random phones and music devices, lots of jewelry, scrap metal and old knives.
Kris stared at these as thinking of how one such as he got a hold of such things and laughed, “So you’re a scavenger! I didn’t know that anyone still did that. Where are you from?”
Vee rubbed his shoulder, “The south. The war hit there badly, this town is untouched compared to my home,”
Kye stepped in, “Oh, trust me we know. All these damn TVs Kris has and no one buys it! All we do is sit around and watch the news!” she scoffed again, sending Kris a dirty look, “No one will do business with us because of the break-ins! Of all the things they never take all our TVs!”
“You’re just mad that they had a party in the lingerie isle and you had to clean up after wards,”
Kye shook her head, “So what’s your name?”
“So how much could I get for this?” Vee asked, avoiding the question.
“Your name and whatever mister Let’s-open-up-a-store-together-guy,”
Vee could help but smile as the two engaged in another verbal assault on each other, but he was wasting time, “Excuse me, I’m actually in a hurry…,”
Kris nodded understandingly in the abrupt silence, as he went to the register. Vee eyed the money being counted up slowly, “So where are you heading?”
“South,” he said quietly, fingers tapping against he cracked glass.
“Going back South? Why back there?”
Kye answered on her own opinion, “Why not? There are too many refugees here! I bet he had to beat some off with a stick to get here! Here to this dump.”
“The weather,” he said slowly, his eyes fixed back onto a new shine that had caught his attention through the large barred bay windows. A golden flash, he had a sudden urge to go and get it, but the money kept his feet planted, “I’m not a winter person.”
“But it’s barely fall,”
He forced his eyes to Kye’s, “Are you serious?”
Kris chuckled when her eye’s flashed with excitement, “I bet you need a jacket! That raggedy old coat won’t keep you warm if you’re behaving like this already!”
Vee asked politely, “What’s the cost?”
She turned on her stool to Kris; he rolled his blue eyes at her, “A third of what you’re going to get.”
“I’m sorry but ten ones and a ten dollar bill is all I have and I need things to sell,”
‘I might as well steal a jacket…,’
“It’s cool, Kris. I just need enough to buy a room, I can do what I can from there,” He accepted the money and shook his head at the fox, “No thanks, Kye. I won’t be here that long-,”
One of the giant TVs behind him flashed red. The store owners’ eyes showed anger and confusion. Taking the remote, Kye enabled the volume.
“There is a state wide lockdown!” a voice announced, causing Vee to hiss again, “No one gets in or out; city wide lockdown-!”
Kye muted the TV and glanced to Vee with a quick smile, “How about a parka?”
END PART ONE.