No clothes for Mackenzie, the basement door is stuck

Mackenzie followed the beam of her flashlight over to her basement door, still without her shorts and grumbling softly about nefarious paper shredders. She grabbed the doorknob and turned, but the door wouldn't budge.

"What?" she muttered to herself before trying again. She was met with an identical lack of door movement. "Oh, come ON!" she griped. Mackenzie began yanking harder on the doorknob, even going so far as to brace a foot on the doorframe.

Her basement door would sometimes get stuck, especially during the warmer and more humid months of summer. But it usually came free after a few serious pulls. Today, it appeared, the door was stuck quite firmly in place, no matter how hard the redhead pulled.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" she shouted to the deserted house. "Can this day possibly get any worse?!"

And that was when the right shoulder of Mackenzie's tank top split apart, right at the topmost point. The front portion drooped, revealing a generous portion of Mackenzie's breast, but stopped shy of revealing her nipple.

"What... But how...?" Mackenzie asked, dumbfounded. And then, after examining the makeshift stitches in the torn part of the fabric, she remembered. This was the tank top that had fallen victim to her old shed out back a few months ago on a particularly bad gardening day. Mackenzie had tried her best at sewing it back together afterwards, but sewing had never been a strong suit of hers. She'd been a bit apprehensive to trust her handiwork, and hadn't worn the shirt since. Now she saw that her worries had been justified.

With her clothes failing her yet again, and a stuck door blocking her from the rest of her wardrobe, Mackenzie was once again feeling like she was winding up in quite the embarrassing predicament. But this time, she was safe at home. And, more importantly, there was no one else around to see her half-clothed state. Mackenzie felt a bit of determination well up within her at those thoughts.

"Alright, you wanna play rough?" she asked the stuck door. Mackenzie casually walked back over to her beer, as if giving the door a chance to respond. "Let's play rough!" She took a few more big sips from the drink, then roughly set it down.

"I'll tell you this right now," she said, venting her pent up frustration, "if you think getting yourself a little stuck is gonna stop me from getting down there, then you've got another thing coming!"

She finished off the beer and slammed the empty bottle down on the countertop.

"I'll take you off your own damn hinges if I have to!" she shouted. "Because one way or another, Mackenzie Fairbairn is getting dressed TONIGHT!!"

Her righteous fury and determination were somewhat undercut by the left side of her tank top also coming undone, letting the loose shirt slide down her waist and pool around her ankles, leaving Mackenzie standing in her kitchen wearing nothing but a thong.

"Um..." she trailed off. She couldn't help but feel embarrassed, despite her solitude. The irony of her previous statement wasn't lost on the redhead as she crouched down to pick up her fallen tank top and shorts from before. "R-right after I make a few emergency repairs..."

With that, Mackenzie quickly darted back upstairs, clutching the unreliable clothes to her chest.

Alex returned to his desk, dumping his few gathered items onto his desk. He cast a glance over at Mackenzie's window once again. It was dark and slightly obscured by the pouring rain.

Of course it's dark and empty, Alex chided himself, What were you expecting, for her to still be standing there naked, surrounded by candles? Idiot...

Mackenzie was probably getting her own flashlight at that very moment, fully dressed and none the wiser to his earlier show. Alex shone his flashlight over the items on his desk. He had his phone, which was sitting at a usable 62%. He also had a power bank and charging cord for it in case the need arose. A water bottle and granola bar were likewise on hand, in case they were needed. An electric lantern sat next to everything. It would've provided even more light for his room, but he was refraining for using it for the time being. Alex rationalized it to himself as saving its batteries in case things turned dire, but deep down inside he knew it why he was really keeping it off. Just in case, on the very slim chance that Mackenzie returned to her room again, she'd likely be able to see the light and know he was there. What was the harm in simply sticking to the flashlight for now anyway?

The final item sitting on his desk was a bit harder to rationalize away, but Alex tried nonetheless. A pair of night vision goggles. They were only for use in the worst case scenario, he had decided. If the power outage stretched on into the night, and every other backup lighting device failed... well, it was good to have them on hand! That was the only reason they were there!