Journey

The Journey - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

 "Son..you awake?" Paul nudged him in the side gently, and waited for him to come around, he had parked in a seemingly derelict car park outside a supermarket, there wasn't a soul in sight as far as he could see, but it was still eerily quiet around and that's what made him feel progressively unsettled. Peter shuffled slightly in his seat and woke up now to see Paul standing against the car, leaning back onto the bonnet with his arms folded; observing the area before they made anymore movements.

"You're a sleepy head, you've been out of it forever..So, what's your name??" Emma childishly questioned from the backseat.

"Peter.." he cleared his throat quickly, he could feel it catching on him now and again, seeing her cute, innocent face was a picture after peering back at her for a few seconds after she questioned him.

"What's daddy doing?" Emma questioned again, but Peter didn't respond as he, himself didn't know either. After sitting still for a few more minutes, Emma jumped out of the car speedily and dashed out to her dad, who now decided to stroll around the other cars to see if there was any fuel to be taken, or pretty much anything that would keep them surviving through this. They could see him peering into one passenger window then quickly scurrying back, it must have been something sickening whatever he had seen through the misty glass at that moment. To his left was a beaten in car, it had been smashed in at the side, each window was broken and the seats torn at the seams, but no bodies at least; he thought to himself.

"I'm gonna see if some of these cars have fuel left..you two stay inside for now." he had walked back up to them both and opened the back door to grab one of the bags they had brought with them. First he picked up a long, fat tube and secondly a metal can to keep their fuel stored in, "I won't be long." He started walking off but Peter interrupted him and said,

"Why don't we check inside the shop..could be some good grabbing stuff in there, you know!" he felt like he had perked up slightly and wanted to just have some fun, if that at all was possible with Paul around.

"Not so sure about that, I certainly wouldn't let Emma go with you.." he gave them both a disconcerting look, but knew in the back of his mind that they had to go inside before they left, they hadn't enough supplies from the flat and certainly needed more food, more water, pretty much everything. "Give me a second, then..we'll all go in, okay?" he felt sick with fear, but couldn't show it to the two of them.

Emma jumped out of the car and stood by Peter, she put an arm around him quickly to feel safe and protected, then they both waited for her dad to finish siphoning the fuel out of the car, they heard a cough and a spit and Emma quickly turned away once she had seen that some of the petrol had gone into his mouth.

"Yuck dad, did you swallow it??" she looked back at him and he was already walking back with two full tanks of petrol, he quickly dumped them in the boot of the car and picked up a tire iron for himself and then a baseball bat for Peter.

"Just in case huh?" Peter muttered to himself.

"Emma, I want you staying as close as you can to us two...if I had it my way then you would have waited for us in the car, but that can't happen, too dangerous in these circumstances."

"Gotcha." she replied positively to her dad and continued to walk in between the two of them.

Luckily their car was parked directly outside of the supermarket, so a quick getaway was at hand if they needed it.

"Stay close you two." and Peter had spoke that to the two of them, and as much as he knew he couldn't become the hero, he knew he had to try and be now, it was a live or die situation and they had to help each other now, no matter how hard it was going to be.