Times A Ticking

9

I drop my jaw open as I stare at him in shock. I quickly close my mouth before pulling him into a hug. "Oh my gosh I'm so happy! You finally get a sibling." He sighs and pushes me away.

"In a world like this? That's no life for a baby." Andre says as he looks down at the ground. "I'm really hoping that what you say is true, that they'll find a vaccine or something like that. Mom is so stressed over this. I don't think Dad would be too happy about this either. Especially not right now. So please, don't tell anyone."

"You have my word." I hold up my pinky as Andre breaks out a small smile before interlocking his pinky with mine. We kiss our thumbs then press them together before letting our pinkies go from each other.

"Also, I just realized, our parents have been gone for a while now. What do you think they are up to?" He whispers out as we begin to head back towards the lobby.

"There's only one way to find out." I smirk slightly before grabbing his hand and dragging him towards the hallway our parents had disappeared into about 30 minutes ago.

"Gabby." He whines out as he reluctantly follows behind me. "You're gonna get us in trouble." I turn around pressing my finger to his lips.

"If you stop talking we won't get caught." I whisper before turning around and walking down the hall way. I look around as the lights slightly flash, I let go of Andre's hand as he moves up beside of me. "Creepy."

"Yeah it is can we go now?" He says as he points behind him. I shake my head and he sighs in disappointment. "For you to get straight A's in school you're pretty dumb street wise."

"What does that even mean?" I ask as I give him a side look. He slaps his hand to his forehead gently and shakes his head before lowering his hand down.

"Nothing white girl. Keep walking." He says as he smiles to himself. I roll my eyes and continue to walk before I hear my Dad speaking behind one of the doors, I stop and press my ear to the door and motion Andre to do the same.

He shakes his head and keeps his distance as I try to make out the conversation happening on the other side of the door. I grunt and lean back up shaking my head before peering over at Andre.

"It's just muffled voices." I say as I sigh. "They are basically whispering so I can't hear them." I complain as he presses his ear to the door and nods his head.

"Yeah. Oh well, let's head back." I grab his arm yanking him back towards me as he begins to walk away. "Gabby. Come on I don't want to be down here any longer. It's dark, and the lights flickering aren't really helping. You white people I swear."

"Can you shut up." I giggle slightly as he smiles and shakes his head. "I just want to go a little further. They won't catch us if they are in there." I say as I yank him closer to me before I begin to walk down the hallway.

"For some reason I always find myself in messed up situations like this, but only when I'm with you." He says as he lets go of my hand. I roll my eyes and look at him over my shoulder giving him a small smile.

"I have that effect on people." He rolls his eyes and flips me off making my gasp in pretend shock, "How dare you?" I say before he laughs quietly and ushers me on down the hallway.

After a few minutes of walking we stop in front of two grey metal double doors. I look at him and he quickly shakes his head knowing exactly what I was thinking. I smirk and grab the handle of the right door before looking back at him.

"Come on Andre. A small peak never hurt anyone." I say as he looks down at his feet before looking back up at a me with a disapproving look.

"Well that was before people were trying to eat our faces off, your dad already had one of those things in here. Maybe there's more behind those doors." He explains and I roll my eyes and playfully punch his shoulder.

"Don't be such a puss." I say as I yank the handle down and attempt to yank the door open. "What? It's not opening." I say as I continue to jerk on the door handle.

"Good that's a sign we don't need to be in there, let's just head back." He suggests but I just shake my head ignoring him. "Gabby come on." He groans in frustration.

"I did not come all this way to just to turn back now, I want to know what's behind these doors now help me." I say and he sighs heavily before moving over towards me and gripping the handle along with me.

"This thing isn't gonna budge Gabs." He says before I roll my eyes and yank harder only for us to fall backwards and hit the ground with a hard thud. "Told ya." He says.

I gulp and look back at him as I hold up the handle in my hands. "Oops?" I let out a fake laugh as he widens his eyes.

"We are so dead." He says as he grabs the handle from me and gets off the ground and tries to put it back on the door. "Our dads are gonna kill us Gabby!" He argues as he fumbles around.

I stand up and dust myself off before walking over to him and attempting to help him but he shakes me off.

"Don't take this out on me Andre. You helped me too." I complain as I cross my arms over my chest and look at him with pure rage. I watch as he continues to try and push the handle back onto the small piece sticking out of the door.

"Yeah you basically forced me to." He says as he rolls his eyes and then stops trying. "I give up this is ridiculous, let's just go tell them."

"What no! Are you insane? I don't want to get in trouble, you know how my mom is." I say as I grab the handle from him and try to put it back on. After a while of fumbling with the handle a certain sound makes me stop in my tracks and I gulp.

"What is it? Figured out that I was right?" He laughs and slightly turn to face him and press a finger to my lips to shush him before motioning him towards me. I press my ear up against the door and close my eyes listening closely.

"Oh shit." I mumble as I open my eyes and grab Andre forcing him to listen to it as well. "Hear that?" I ask and he shakes his head making me groan.

"I'm serious Gabby there's nothing there, you're just paranoid." He clicks his tongue as he pulls away from the door and looks back down the hallway. "Come on let's just get out of here before someone catches us and we get into more trouble than we already are."

"No. Just.. Just wait." I say as I stay pressed against the door and close my eyes once more just focusing on my hearing. There it was again. I open my eyes quickly and jerk Andre back against the doors. "I told you."

"Fuck."