Kirk let Romano move away once more before he spoke to Spock.

"What is it Spock ?"

"Did you hear what he said Jim, the words he used ? He said they did as you had instructed. This suggests that whoever he thinks you are is in charge here." Spock explained.

"So why does that matter Spock ?" McCoy interjected.

"Well doctor, it might be important, or it might not. But in either way I thought it prudent that we should speak to those in charge first, and it appears Romano is not in charge" Spock answered.

"Thank you for the insight Spock. It seems that we are being taken back to the group now, perhaps whatever is going on here will become clearer once we get there." Kirk pointed towards Romano as he quietly spoke to the group. "We should follow him now, but all of you keep alert."

Romano lead the group in silence through a part of the mall they hadn't been in yet. After a few minutes of walking the group turned a corner. Kirk looked quizzically to the others in the group. This section of the mall had some lighting crudely strung up on the walls and there was no rubbish underfoot.

This mall corridor ended with two large doorways which ran the entire width of it. A huge sign over the entranceway said 'EZ-Mart'.

"Looks like they got the generator working down here. Finally some good news eh Hooker ?" Romano said to Kirk as the approached the store front.

"Erm, yes. Definitely good news..." attempted as a response.

The group entered the large store. Kirk and his men followed Romano through it, down aisles which looked as though it had been thoroughly ransacked - shelves which used to be full of different products were now almost empty or the items that were left had been smashed or deemed useless.

The away team looked around in wonder. Kirk recognised some of the it from history books.

"This place...I believe it was called a department store. These could be huge, with different parts of the store each selling different themed items. We seem to be in a section of the store that once sold children's toys" He quietly explained to the group.

Spock briefly picked up a brightly coloured car, inspected it, and returned it to the shelf. He nodded. This aisle was empty, but they continued on through, towards the back of the store where a large group of people were gathered around. At the center of the group there was some sort of activity, but the group could not see what was causing it. As they approached the bystanders moved out of the way for the group to pass through, with Romano still leading the way.

Several of the people looked on with quizzical expressions at the new arrivals.

"They are all looking at your ears Spock" McCoy whispered to Spock.

"Quite Doctor, but there is not much I can do about it now...perhaps you would like it if next time I bring a hat with me ? " Spock said dryly, eyebrow raised.

McCoy did not respond to the quip, instead focusing his attention on the faces of the people they were now walking through.

"What has gone wrong here Jim?", he whispered to Kirk. "All these people look so...weary..."

"I dont know doctor, but I'm hoping we can help somehow."

As they followed behind Romano the last few people who had been standing in the group took a step back to let him through.

They could now see what they had all been looking at. At the middle of the gathering was an older policeman who was crouched down, going through several sealed boxes. The boxes also seemed to contain food. The man was handing items out to the waiting crowd.

"Oh my l-ord!", Stuttered Romano as he saw the man.

"What is it kid ?" said Sergeant TJ Hooker as he turned around and stood up from going through the boxes.