Shopping

"Okay, what the hell just happened?!" Maddox questions what he is seeing now as Dog is currently lying on the ground while panting heavily and groaning from the slight pain of what she just did

Her height and body structure just shrunk down from that of the height of a cement truck to that of a regular canine looking to stand in at around 30 inches in height from what Maddox had seen before Dog decided to lay on the ground since she was exhausted from doing whatever it was that she did.

Going over to Dog Maddox's knees down and establishes a connection with her through a strand of miasma.

"What did you do?" Maddox asks immediately

'Take a look master...' Was Dog's reply as she continued to lie down and rest

So Maddox decides to take a more firm look at Dog to what it was that she was talking about and quite honestly he was a bit impressed by what she had just accomplished.

Dog compressed her body forcefully putting it into a smaller form which allowed her to look more normal in a sense, since she still looked like a wolf there was no changing that unless through Maddox's illusions.

'So her miasma can do this huh?' Maddox thinks while seeing the miasma surrounding her body was incredibly dense

"Well... I see that you can use your miasma like this but how long do you think you can stay like this?" Maddox asks since he was unsure how much miasma Dog was using

'As long as I rest I can keep this form up forever'

"Alright then keep that for now on and if need be you'll go back to how you looked like before only if your life is in danger alright?" Maddox asks while lightly petting Dog's head to comfort her

'Yes...'

Getting up and cutting off the connection from Dog, Maddox ponders about using what she did but eventually concludes that he could not use it since she was shrinking her body with miasma and any direct contact with miasma only causes him to transform into an infected while others he just absorbs if he can do so.

So with nothing more left to do Maddox leaves the building and proceeds to drive all around Las Vegas buying all the needed necessities, plus some more, and looking for a place where the girls can bathe since sooner or later they will complain about not being able to clean themselves.

While Maddox was busy shopping around the city the girls were growing a bit impatient and rowdy being couped up in a small office room that only had the inflatable mattresses they slept on and trash from the burgers that they just ate.

"So... anyone does anyone want to play charades or something?.." Vannessa asks trying to diffuse the current mood in the room

"No," Everyone says since most of them were all keeping to themselves mostly in their little world and charades was a weird game to ask to play in this situation

Everyone just keeps to themselves for now which is a bit weird considering that they all were stuck with each other for the foreseeable future.

Angella not being able to stand it anymore stands up and walks to the door to get out of the office.

"What do you think you're doing?" Rubia asks Angella

"Look I don't know why you all are acting this way but there is no way we have to follow what this guy says alright? For all, we know he could be working with some of those Infected bastards and is getting them right now," Angella says as she places her hand on the doorknob and turns it

Opening the door to the rest of the building Angella sees nothing but space around her with the sound of the AC running buzzing throughout the building.

Leaving the office everyone else was in Angella looks around hoping to see the exit since the only thing that she could see right now was the building's brick walls and no way out right now as she was more focused on the mass of fur that was lying in the middle of the room.

It was moving a bit as it seemed to be alive from the breathing but Angella was unsure why an animal would be here in this place though.

"Woof?" Dog hearing Angella opening the door of the office and leaving the room attracted her attention, so she looked around to see Angella staring at her as she was

"OH MY GOD!!!" Angella screams out in delight and beelines it towards Dog who immediately gets scared as she scampers up and starts running away

"What's goin-" Everyone else had left the room upon hearing Angella screaming out loud but were perplexed when they saw her sitting on the floor while holding a dog which was struggling within her iron grip trying to break free

"AWOOOO!!!" (Translation: 'MASTER HELP!!!') Dog seemed to be calling out to someone, but her pleas went unheard as the girls advanced forward

What ensued was the passing of Dog between all the girls who took turns hugging and petting her while she could do nothing more than whine and cry out for Maddox who was busy buying stuff. Dog was already tired from forcing herself into her current form so she could only struggle in vain she was going to follow Maddox's orders and would only change if her life was under threat which she was not.

Flash forward about two hours later Maddox is pulling back up to the building with the passenger and rear seats full of items as well as the truck bed with some items that were important for the girls to stay within the building for the time being.

He had gone to various stores ranging from grocery stores to appliance stores for something that would allow the five of the girls and himself to live there comfortably.

Spending a lot of money like this would surely be bad for anyone else but Maddox had not a good concept of money since he had a lot of it and a stable income of it at the moment so he could not worry about overspending. Parking the truck and closing up the gate Maddox grabs a few boxes of shoes with some socks before entering the building.

Looking around though Maddox is a bit worried since he does not see Dog anywhere within the empty storage area within the building so he goes into the office where all the girls were.

Looking down on the floor Maddox sees Dog lying on her back with her belly being scratched by three of the girls while her tail was wagging with a content look on her face.

Eventually after being manhandled by the girls and them realizing that Maddox had been telling the truth about where they were meant they had nothing better to do... so they resolved themselves to petting the weirdish-looking dog.

"Oh, everyone, he's back!" Vannessa's remarks drew everyone's attention to Maddox and leaving Dog a bit sad as she was beginning to enjoy the attention she was getting from everyone

"Well... I see you all were busy," Maddox remarks before he tosses over the shoes and socks he carried into the group to figure out what fits who

"What are these for?" One of them asks seeing the shoes

"Well to help me unload the truck, I can't do it all by myself you know"

Maddox heads on back to the truck to start unloading more items from within since there was a lot that he had bought for everyone. Soon enough a few of the girls also walk out into the evening heat of Nevada to help Maddox unload everything from the truck.

Soon everything is inside with everyone taking a look at what he had bought with their eyes a bit wide at seeing how much he had purchased just for them.

Most of the stuff was on two foldable tables that he bought since some of the groceries that he purchased could not be placed on the ground since it would be nasty to put them there. One table was for groceries and the other was for clothes for the girls with Maddox's own purchased clothing was placed on the ground since he did not care much about them.

What Maddox had also purchased besides the clothes and groceries was a fridge that needed to be plugged in, plus the groceries put inside, he had also bought the foldable tables and some chairs to go with them. Since he knew the girls would be bored easily Maddox bought a few board games, books, and a pack of cards to help kill time and provide a way for them to not be bored.

With that, there was also a hot plate to cook things with the cooking supplies he bought to go with it and a coffee pot to allow them to drink coffee or tea if they so choose to.

Other than that Maddox just bought more blankets and pillows for everyone since he did not feel like buying anything more in terms of bedding since that would require more trips and he did want to do that.

Driving was scary, Maddox realized that now that he had been driving around Las Vegas where he got just a taste of how terrifying people can be on the road and how dangerous it can be for people since most tend to think like dumbasses.

The worse part of it was that Los Angeles has a reputation for horrible traffic and people so he was not looking forward to having to drive around back home in that type of storm.

Managing everyone to help him put things away and set up the stuff that he bought and placing them where they would not take up much space Maddox also sets up some bowls for Dog for her food and water.

The only bad thing was that Dog would have to eat a whole lot more than regular canines so Maddox prepared himself by buying a whole lot of dog food more than one dog could handle in a month by buying about five bags. He also bought some canned food since he wanted to add some variety to Dog's meals.

"Woof?" Dog asks a bit curious about what Maddox is doing by setting up her bowls and filling them with food and water

"Hold up," Maddox says as he places his hand on Dog's head and rubs it a bit to give the illusion that he was just petting Dog

"What happened?" Maddox asks first since he wanted to know what happened while he was gone shopping

Dog gives him an overview of what happened from when he left Angella leaving the office first to her catching Dog and petting her the most out of anyone else out of the girls, how they looked outside, and then retreating into the office that held their beds. After giving her report Dog wags her tail as she looks at Maddox feeling a bit content about receiving the reward of being pet on the head by him.

Dog was glad that Maddox was her master now that he had beaten him and solidified himself as the Alpha within this small pack of theirs.

Yes, Dog still had her memories and none of them were locked up since there was only a month's worth of memories of when she became an Infected as the process involves a complete memory wipe for middle-tier infected and below since they are not strong enough to retain their memories in the transformation process.

Dog knew that Maddox had beat her in her mind space and if he can beat her in the mind space then she believed he could do so as well within the real world which is why she was so obedient towards him.

"Alright then Dog what do you think about this stuff?" Maddox asks quietly while looking at the dog food that he just poured out in her bowl

'Hmm... smells weird but I will taste it first' Dog says while lowering her head to try some of the dog food

'Not bad master it reminds me of the brittle bones of humans with a strange taste to it' Dog comments as she continues to eat a bit more with audible crunching heard

"..." Maddox just stays silent at the comment about her eating people and how the dog food reminded her of it and just cuts off the connection since he did not want to hear anything about that

Maddox was glad that Dog was fine with the food that he bought her since she had something to eat but seeing as how she devoured the bowl of dog food in a matter of seconds showed just how big her stomach truly was and no amount of body shrinking could change that fact.