Run. || Alex Gaskarth A.U.

Chapter 7: The Stolen Lace

On my right shoe, there are no laces. Instead, a red bandana is tied around where the laces should be. It connects the shoe to my foot so it can't fall off. My idea, of course, not yours, Alex. You may be clever, but sometimes, you just aren't smart (if that makes any sense).

To blame you for being the one who made my lace disappear--well--it would be would be a false accusation, for it was both of our faults this time. We were both starving though, and I have to admit, we can make a pretty good team when we have to.

We escaped those Mall thugs, remember? Or have the demons in your head made you forget about that moment we shared?

This actually isn't a bad memory, nor is it another reason to add to the list of 'Why I Hate Alex Gaskarth'. You don't expect me to waste the last few hours of my life looking back in anger, do you? Especially anger directed at a dick like you. No, I'm allowing this memory to be a happy one. I'm allowing myself to remember a time before we fell out, before everything went pear-shaped.

Before you ruined everything.

~

As if it wasn't already bad enough that we were lost, we had finally ran out of food too. It seemed, that every time we set off travelling on a brand new day, some sort of disaster occurred. First my ankle, then the rain, then the mutated forest, and now were were all out of food.

Fantastic. The whole situation was just fantastic.

Every time we took ten steps forward, we seemed to be taking twenty steps backward too. It was tough on both of us, and the only food that remained was a stale cracker and one square of chocolate from one of the last bars Alex had hidden in my backpack. Water was no problem, as we had plenty of purification tablets. But it just wasn't enough, and when I managed to collapse for ten seconds, we needed a solution to finding food; and fast.

But the answer was right in front of us.

Literally.

In the distance from where I collapsed, there stood an abandoned building that was--no doubt about it--a Mall.

Only the big cities where the Government worked had functioning Malls, and I had never had the luxury of being one of those people--not that I wanted to be anyway. I'd rather cut off my own arm than join the Government that runs our wasteland of a world. But moving on, my father had shown me pictures of Malls from his photo album, and as kids, Alex and I plotted to sneak into the Capital City to see one.

"Is that...?" Alex whispered, standing up and squinting into distance, his brown eyes excited.

"A Mall." I croaked out, a smile breaking out on my cracked lips. "Just like we imagined it, right? Minus the smashed windows and graffiti on the walls. I'm not complaining though." I laughed, a bubble of childish excitement growing in my chest.

"Let's go check it out."

He pulled me up and clutched my hand in his, dragging me along as we squealed excitedly. It wasn't as far as it looked, and soon enough we were standing at the entrance of the most dilapidated building I had ever laid eyes on.

And it was amazing.

"Do you think there's food inside?" I whispered, my mouth watering at the prospect of food in my empty Santa sack that was my stomach.

"There's only one way to find out." Alex said lowly, but his eyes were dark, and obviously he was as monstrously hungry as I was. We didn't even make eye contact, we just let go of each other's hand and sprinted towards the entrance, which was strangely unblocked. In fact, it looked like someone had removed the sliding glass door altogether.