Giving the paper back

"Wh... what?" Clara stammered, perspiration beading on her forehead.

"Either buy it, or put it back." the cashier repeated, edging closer. "This isn't a library."

"She can't give it back," one of the pupils giggled, "She's got no clothes on underneath!"

"She doesn't?" the cashier raised an eyebrow.

"Of course I do!" Clara exclaimed.

"Prove it, Miss." a second pupil grinned. The four of them were leaning close to Clara now, so she had to clutch the newspaper tightly against her body to prevent it being seen.

"I... I..." Clara looked around desperately.

Suddenly, the lights above them flickered, blazed brightly then blacked out. The cashier and the students looked up quizzically. Clara seized her chance, throwing the newspaper away from her, the individual sheets separating in a cloud of paper as she turned and sprinted the other way.

She saw a door marked "employees only" and burst through it, thanking her lucky stars it was not locked. She was in a small stock room, but knew that she could not stay put as it would take seconds at most before they realised where she had gone.

Clara's brown hair had fallen over her eyes and she brushed it aside, which was when she spotted another door at the back. She ran at it, bounced off and landed on her chubby backside on the floor.

Scrambled to her feet and rubbing her aching posterior, Clara saw that although the door was locked, this side only had a catch, not a key or code. She turned the catch and went through the door, into an alleyway. The cashier followed her out.

"Miss, you can't be back here... wow, you are naked... wait, what's that?!"

In front of the two of them stood another one of the strange robots, its arm shoved into the fuse box of the shop.

"Get out of here." Clara said to the cashier, then looked at the robot, wondering what she was going to do about it in her current state. "Erm... stop there, you!" Clara shouted at the robot, trying to sound brave. "You... you are trespassing on this planet!"

"I don't think it much cares." Amy said, jogging up next to Clara. Her clothes were still hanging open over her white underwear. There was a distinct noise of powering down, and the shop went completely dark. The robot pulled its arm out of the fuse box, then turned away from the women as if they were not there, and trundled off up the alley.

"Let's get after it." Amy said, following. Clara planted her hands back over the most intimate parts of her body and reluctantly followed.

They reached the mouth of the alley and Amy ran into Rose again. Literally, as both of them tumbled to the floor.

Rose stood up, revealing herself to be still wearing her t-shirt and jacket, but below the waist she was lacking trousers, reduced to trainer, white socks and Union Jack panties.

"What happened to you?" Amy asked.

"A little accident on the way here." Rose replied sheepishly. "Come on, let's follow that robot."