Times A Ticking

13

"R-Ruby. Stay in there for me okay." I whisper to her as I stare at the man in front of me who had a gun pointed to my head. He takes a small step forward, I could see the fear in his eyes as he eyed me up and down.

"Are you a monster?" He asks and I quickly shake my head as my heartbeat found its way into my ears. "Who's in there?" He points the gun over to the bathroom stall.

"My baby sister. Please don't hurt us. We aren't monsters sir." I say as my voice squeaks I hear Ruby begin to roll the toilet paper off.

"Tell her to come out." He orders and I bite my lip and shake my head no. "Do I look like I'm joking? Tell her to come out now, or I will kill you."

"Ruby baby. Come on out slowly okay? Stay quiet." I say and listen as her shoes hit the ground before she pulls up her pants. I slowly open the door and watch her smile fade away as she notices the man.

"Do you have any bites? Scratches?" He asks as he takes another step closer. I eye the barrel of the gun as I shake my head once more.

"N-no sir." He takes a deep breath and lowers his gun as he stares at us, a look of concern wretched onto his face.

"I didn't mean to scare you guys, I'm just looking out for my family." He says as he sighs. "I work here, or well used to. Everybody left yesterday and I stayed. I'm Luis." He says as he reaches out his hand.

I hesitantly take it and shake his hand. "I'm Gabriella, this is Ruby." Ruby clutches onto my leg and waves softly at him. He shakes his head and looks down in disappointment.

"I'm really sorry for scaring you both. I didn't want to take any chances." He admits as he backs up and opens a stall. "Ven acá." He says into it.

A woman and two young children step out the little girl runs and hugs him. "Papá!" She yells out as she wraps her arms around his leg the same as Ruby was doing to me.

"We are Hispanic." He says as he looks at me, "My children know some English, my wife doesn't." He says as he smiles down at his little girl, "Do you have more people?"

"Yes." I say quickly without a thought. "My Dad is Dr. Hart. You must know him." I say and he smiles nodding his head before speaking to his wife in spanish.

"I was just telling her we are finally safe." He says as his little girl runs back to her mother, he stands close to me and points at his wife. "That's my wife, Angel. My son, Louie. Lastly my little girl, Isabella." He says.

"It's nice to meet you." I say before he translate my words to them. I watch Ruby make her way over to Isabella who was holding a stuffed frog close to her chest.

"May we come with you to meet the rest of your people?" He asks as he looks over at Ruby and Isabella. I tap his shoulder making him look at me before nodding my head.

"Yeah follow me. Just stay behind me they tend to be a bit jumpy." I laugh softly before all of them follow me out of the bathroom. I walk down the hallway and before entering the lobby I turn around and stop them.

"Let me tell them about you guys first." I say before I grab Ruby's hand. "Just wait for my signal." Luis nods before looking back at his family.

I pick up Ruby and run into the lobby and set her down. "Dad! Lee!" I yell immediately grabbing their attention as they run over along with everyone else I had just alarmed.

"What's wrong!" Dad says before he grabs my arms and jerks me left and right looking for any injuries. I shake him off quickly and flatten my shirt back out.

"I have some guest. You and Lee know him I'm sure of. He said he works here, he's with his family." I say and watch as Mom's face drops.

"There was other people here? We fell asleep while there were other people here?" She asks Dad as he gulps slightly. "William I was under the impression that you scoped this place out and it was abandoned. I let my children sleep in here and they could've killed us." She whispers.

"Our children." He corrects her before shaking his head. "Bring them out." He order, I nod my head and turn towards the hallway.

"Luis come out! Bring your family too!" I holler as I watch him emerge from the darkness and into the light of the lobby.

"Well I'll be damned." Lee says before he starts to laugh and nudge my Dad's side with his elbow. "If it isn't Luis Sánchez." He says as he walks over to him and wraps his arms around him tightly.

"Ah Dr. Lee." Luis replies hugging him back and patting him. I watch Dad walk over and hug him as well. "And Dr. Hart." Luis laughs out as they all break apart from the heartwarming hug.

"I'm glad to see you are still here Luis." Dad says as he pats his shoulder. "And your family is here with you, that's amazing." He says as he lowers his hands back down by his sides.

"They came with me to work yesterday, I wasn't supposed to stay long but something happened and everything just went crazy. People began to leave, but I stayed." Luis says as he looks down at his feet.

"Why?" Lee questions making Luis look back up with a small frown on his face.

"I had no other place to go my friend." Luis answers as he looks back at his family. "You both know how my living situation was. It wasn't getting any better, I figured it would be safer for my family to stay here instead of being on the streets. Especially after what I heard everyone yelling about."

"What was they yelling about?" Dad asks as Lee grabs a rolling chair and brings it to Luis. He sits down in it before Lee brings one more over for Luis's wife, Angel, to sit on.

"The dead rising. They were all over the place, some running out the doors so fast my head would spin." He looks at his wife before looking back at him. "Besides even if I wanted to leave I couldn't have. Someone stole my car." He laughs as if it were some joke.

"I'm sorry Luis." Lee says as he shakes his head. "The world is so cruel." He pays his shoulder before giving his wife a look of sympathy.

"The world is way more cruel now. But, don't apologize it was for the best. Now we have you all here. I'm guessing this is how it's supposed to play out." Luis reaches over and grabs his wife's hand. "I hate to ask, but do you have any food?"

"Yes." I say quickly before running over and grabbing random canned food and running back handing it to him. "It's not much, we didn't get to pack a lot we are running low." I whisper out as Luis thanks me. Dad sighs heavily before looking over at Lee.

"I guess we can go scavenge later today."