The Raised

Chapter 2

We all stared at the paper for what seemed like an eternity. Thompson finally broke the silence by pointing out some things all of us had missed. Like, you know, the fact that this happened because a scientist didn't include a comma in his writing. A fucking comma, of all things! Damn, that's got to be the deadliest error anyone has ever made.

I balled the paper up and threw it a good three yards away from us.

"Come on, guys, let's get going." Heather said.

We all got into the car and the drive began again. Heather and I began rummaging through the junk in the backseat. We found a case full of water bottles. If we don't find some form of food soon, we'll all end up as one of those string bean bitches.

It was a while before we ran into actual people. They seemed pretty lost. Thompson stayed in the car while the rest of us got out.

"Oh my gosh, thank you, so much!" A woman said. She had definitely seen some better days. "We've been here for who knows how long, trying to find people to help us."

"What do you need help with?" Heather asked her.

"It's my brother," She said, gesturing to a young boy. He appeared to be no older than fourteen. He was lying on the ground with a group of people huddled around him. "He's collapsed because of thirst. If you have any water at all, we'd greatly appreciate it if you'd give some to us."

"Sure, we have quite a bit." I said.

I walked over the car and pulled out two of the water bottles. I handed them to the woman and the moment they rested in her hand she seemed to be overcome with joy.

"I can't thank you enough!" She said as she rushed over to the boy. "Look, Gabe, I've got water for you."

The boy could only let out a raspy cough in response. She handed him the water and he nearly finished the entire thing with one sip. Just drinking that seemed to have returned his strength. He looked at me, his eyes wide with what I believed to be fear.

"T-Thank you, so much." He said. "The last group that passed by here wasn't nearly as friendly. They completely ignored us."

"You're welcome," Marcus said. "Anything else we can help you with before we go?"

"Oh no, you've already helped so much. Although...." She looked at the building behind them and then back at us. "There is one last thing that we could use your help with."

She stood up and looked at what appeared to be a supermarket. She hadn't said anything, but we could see what her intentions were. They wanted to get into the building so they could get food.

"I promise, whatever we find will be split 50/50."

"That sounds good to me," I said. "Thompson, you stay in the car. Honk the horn if there's trouble."

He gave a curt nod and turned his attention back to the road in front of us.

The three of us walked over to the gate. I knelt down and looked at the padlock that was keeping us out. I could easily open it if I had a hairpin, paperclip anything of that nature.

"Heather, do you have a hairpin?"

"Of course I do." She said taking it out of her hair and handing it to me.

I spent a few seconds with the lock before that telltale clicking sound was heard. I took the lock off the gate and let the rest of them open it. I put the lock in my jacket pocket. You never know.

We walked into the market and immediately began searching for unspoiled food. I'd say we spent a good fifteen minutes in there before we finally pooled our findings together. It was a pretty impressive find. We had four whole carts of food between all of us. The woman stayed true to her promise and gave us two carts. I suddenly got a genius idea.