THEM

Chapter 10

While Cory was busy getting the supplies together the noise must've woken Danny from his sleep because he shifted in the sleeping bag he was sharing with Marie before sitting up slowly, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, and then looked between Cory and I with a confused expression on his face.

"Are you going somewhere?" He asked, sleep still heavy in his voice.

Cory slung the bag over his shoulder before turning to look down at Danny, giving him a small smile.

"We just need to run and pick up some medicine to help her dad." He answered, gesturing over to my dad whose hair was now plastered to his forehead entirely with sweat.

We needed to hurry.

Danny nodded, before yawning and then laying back down, snuggling close to his mother.

"Make sure you come back." His small sleepy voice muttered before the sound of his soft snores could be heard, letting us know that he was once again asleep.

For some reason his words made a cold shiver run down my spine.

Would we make it back?

Noticing my hesitation Cory spoke up. "You don't have to come with me you know? I can go alone."

Biting back the fear and apprehension I was suddenly feeling, I shook my head. It was my dad's life that he was going out there to risk his own for. If he was going then so was I.

"I'm coming."

Realizing there was no way he was going to talk me out of it, he sighed before nodding.

"Alright, let's go then."

Before heading up the stairs he bent and picked up what looked like a megaphone which sat at the bottom of the stairs.

"What's that for?" I asked frowning as he clipped the string dangling from the handle to the end of his bag.

"They don't like the sound." Was all he said by way of explanation before looking over his shoulder once, at Arden who was still soundly sleeping in her sleeping bag, before bounding up the stairs leaving me no choice but to follow, but not before I also threw one last look at my father.

I would make it back.

***

Being in the basement where the lighting was limited meant that even when the sun had barely begun its ascent into the sky, it was still too bright outside for my eyes and it took me several seconds of squinting and unsquinting before my eyes fully adjusted.

Taking a look around, the town looked even more deserted than it did last night. The abandoned cars still occupied the streets but there was also the fact that almost every store, shop, and restaurant had their doors shut tight with the blinds and curtains closed that made it feel like a ghost town.

If people were here, they had no intentions of letting anybody or anything in.

"Come on, it's this way." Cory gestured to his left and quickly started making his way down the street with me following right behind.

I didn't want to get left alone out here.

A we rounded the corner onto a different street I could've sworn I saw the blinds of the hardware store on the opposite side of the street quickly fall back into place, as if someone had just finished looking out of them.

Goosebumps broke out across my arms and I quickened my pace so that I was practically breathing down Cory's neck. I was so close to him in fact that when he suddenly stopped and held his hand up to signal for me to stop without looking back, I didn't have enough time to actually stop and ran straight into his back, smashing my nose right between his shoulder blades.