Ireland stood in the aisle staring at various hair dyes. She had her hoody pulled over her hair, but a few stubborn curls hung in her face and she shoved them behind her ear unconsciously, lost in thought.

The ringing of the cash-register could be heard in the back ground and various costumers chatted amongst themselves, but Ira barely noticed their presence. "What sort of hair dye would be inconspicuous?" She wondered when a voice startled her out of her ponderings.

"Do you need anything miss?" A young clerk asked.

Ira nearly jumped. "I'm alright," she said recovering herself and smiling, with

what she hoped was a genuine smile.

The young man smiled back and said something more and she responded appropriately, but by the time he was gone her mind was moving frantically. "What should I do?" She wondered, "The clerk already saw me and he may recognize me and be able to identify me to the police and it's kind of obvious now if a hair dye goes missing." Realizing there was no hope for it and that she needed to get the hair dye now or never, Ireland took a look around her making sure no one was watching, when she was sure the coast was clear she shoved the one she had picked into her open bag.

Ireland could hear her heart beating in her ears and feel her breath coming in more shallowly. She took a few seconds to calm herself down and continued to walk casually down the aisles. She was sure she had given herself away, she wondered if she would ever find shoplifting easy. That last thought struck her with horror, she hoped she would never have to get used to stealing.

She looked around the store casually, everything in her wanting to bolt, but everything looked the same as when she walked in earlier and she knew that she and Jacob needed food and water, so that was the next order of business.

After grabbing a box of granola bars, she headed to where the large water bottles were, she grabbed one placed it in her bag, zipped her bag and started walking towards the door. At this point, Ira felt like she was going to be sick.

When she reached the doors a large group of people walked into the gas station, laughing and teasing each other about something, Ireland used the boisterous newcomers to her advantage walking quickly out the doors and avoiding anyone's notice she hoped.

Once outside, Ira sucked in a deep breath of fresh air and hurriedly made her way across the busy street and into the woods on the other side. Her stomach was still turning quite uncomfortably and as soon as she was under the cover of the trees she broke into a run. The wind whipped by her ears and the cool of the air helped to calm her nerves some, but the stress of the past couple weeks combined with the lack of sleep didn't help her stomach calm down and as she drew near to where she left her brother she began to feel very sick and before she realized what she was doing she threw up in the near by bushes, getting her hair out of the way just in time.

It took her a few moments to pull herself together and with some now very shaky legs, she began to walk to the place where she left Jacob.

Jacob looked up from his position on the ground, his face relieved at the sight of Ira, "You took a long time," he said his blue eyes troubled.

Ireland put her bag down and sat down next to him, before she responded, "I realize that," she said pulling her hood off, "but it couldn't be helped." She left out the part of her having trouble selecting a dye.

She began to unpack the contents of her bag, handing him the water first and then after he had his fill she handed him the granola bars and took her turn with the water. They stayed in companionable silence for some time, as the sun made its slow descent towards the East.

The last thing Ira took out was the hair dye; she stared at her choice for a few minutes, wondering where she was going to be able to put it in properly.

"Ira," Jay said, "Do you have to dye your hair?" His expression was sad and Ira knew what he was thinking. Their mother had loved Ira's flaming red hair, but its existence made them very conspicuous and they couldn't afford to draw attention to themselves.

"Yeah," she responded her own face troubled and she fought back the tears that threatened, it would not do to loose her countenance yet, they still had a long journey ahead of them. She turned her head away from him to regain her composure staring at the horizon, her blue eyes appearing gray as the last sliver of sunlight pierced the sky before slipping out of sight.

She looked back at Jay. He held his backpack in front of him, probably in anticipation of the cold night ahead. She saw the questions in his eyes, not sure she knew the answers he was looking for or if she simply didn't want to know them. If they didn't arrive at their destination soon, both of them ran a higher risk of getting caught and of any number of things happening and as she looked at her brothers drawn face, Ira wondered how much longer they could keep up their journey. She felt the weight of the past several months lying heavily on her shoulders and she thought she might break from all the pressure she was under, but one thing kept her moving and that was to keep her brother safe.

When they were surrounded by inky blackness and Ira had given her stomach some time to calm down and her limbs time to stop shaking, she ate a granola bar and drank some more water.

"Well," she said standing up and adjusting her bag on her shoulder, "we need to walk into the city tonight and after I've fixed my hair we can continue."

Jay got on his feet looking, Ira realized, far older than his eleven years. The world, as much as she had tried to protect him, was weighing heavily on him too and she knew he was near his breaking point.