Kingdom of tears

Chapter Two

Hello. Just a quick A/N. I've just noticed that my italics didn't stick when I copy and pasted these from my Google doc. 😅 So please just use your imagination. If you feel like the word should have emphases it probably should. Just pretend it's there

When Zillah awoke, the sun was just starting to send its yellow light over the horizon. The clouded, dusty twilight sky turning to pink. She groaned. She buried her face in her makeshift pillow and closed her eyes again. Begrudgingly, she trudged out of her tent and got ready, not wanting to miss her 'free' breakfast.

The sky was overcast and quite dark for the time of morning. The humidity in the air clung to her skin. Still she walked down the street until she got to the closed downtown market. She walked over to one of the food stalls and picked the lock on the door. She unlocked it, and rummaged around, picking up a couple of garlic bread slices, a plate of spaghetti, and a slice of chocolate cake for good measure. Most of the time it was the only chance she got to eat in the day, so she made the most of it.

"Hmm, looks like Italian food today. Not too bad," she murmured.

On the way out Zillah grabbed a soda, and locked the door back. She sat down at an outdoor table from a cafe to eat her food. She was finishing her cold spaghetti when something caught her eye. It was a gun shop.

Once she finished the last couple of crumbs and buried her meal evidence deep in a nearby trash can, she walked over to the shop, peering inside. Her eyes caught glance at a glint of a particular gun. Man, the things I could do with that, she admired. She looked down at the price. "Oh, HECK NO!" she audibly exclaimed.

There was absolutely no way of her paying eight hundred dollars for it. But it would be useful. An idea struck her. She glanced into the shop again. Empty. Of course it was, it was six in the morning. Carefully she jiggled the handle. Unlocked?! "Idiots," she scoffed.
Zillah quietly tiptoed into the store, careful to not set off any alarms. She made her way to the display case and grabbed the gun. Now where's the ammo?she wondered. Eventually she found a box of it, and grabbed as much as she could before sprinting out the door.

As Zillah headed back to her tent with her new treasures she came across an unattended bank. Zillah thought for a moment. "You know what.....why not!" Her luck was already going great that morning.
The door was locked that time, but she picked it with relative ease. Not paying much attention she waltzed inside-right into a potted plant! She stumbled over it, falling to the ground, shattered glass everywhere. "Crud!"

Footsteps approached from upstairs. "What in the world was that!" a voice called. A guy around Zillah's age approached from down the steps. He had dark auburn hair with a mole on the left side of his jaw. He appeared to have just woken up, in a blue sleep shirt with a gray tabby cat on it and blue sweatpants. Eye crusties were in the corners of his sleepy ocean blue eyes, they flicked to Zillah. "Umm...who are you?" he squinted at her in the dark room.

"STAY BACK!" Zillah held up the gun, scrambling to her feet.

The guy held up his hands. "You're pointing a gun at me, and I need to stay back," he asked, amusement lit up his eyes.

He was either very brave or very foolish-maybe both. "I'M WARNING YOU!" Zillah yelled as the guy took a step towards her.
But just as she pulled the trigger, she slipped on some broken glass and fell back to the ground. The shards dug into her bare heels. The boy ducked as the bullet flew over his head, missing by meer inches. The gun tumbled out of her hand. They both sat there for a minute, trying to process what just happened. The boy looked down at her, "You're bleeding."

Zillah looked down, there were pieces of glass stuck in her feet. Slowly oozing red, viscous liquid. It ran down the soles and heels of her feet. She looked at her hands and at the glass digging into her palms and calluses. "I...guess so."