On The Run

Chapter 6

"How long will this food last us do you suppose?" Caroline asked, turning on the matress to look at me. "At least a month" I answered "maybe even more." I added looking around the store. We had laid the two matresses from the house at the back of the store, away from prying eyes. I slid my hand into a bag of popcorn that I had taken from one of the shelves and laid it beside my makeshift bed; it was almoast gone and I was still starving. I lay down on the matress, trying to ignore my hunger and closed my eyes.

I'm woken by my sister, I don't know how long I slept, maybe and hour or two? "Your shift" Caroline said in the middle of a yawn. I nodded. My sister and I had decided to switch off and take watch since now we had something other than ourselves to protect. I sat up and scooted to the end of my bed and looked into the darkness, desperately wanting to crawl back under the warm covers and sleep. I stood up, if I sat there any longer I knew would fall asleep; I walked around the shelves around our beds, not willing to be far from my sister. My eyes had just barely adjusted to the dark but I still bumped into a shelf and knocked down a few cans I winced as they smashed against the polished tile flooring. I looked around the shelf at my sister, she was sitting straight up looking around frantically in the darkness. "Sorry" I wispered "I bumped into one of the shelves." I picked up a can and waved it around in the blackness. I just barely saw her small nod and her body shuffle back under the sheets and lay still once again.

We had gone through one more shift that night and I woke up late the next morning to my stomach grumbling. My sister already had a half open can of soup beside her that she slurped between pages of an old magazine she was reading. I sat up and ran my fingers through my tangled mop of hair; I had a slight headach from a lack of sleep and dehydration good thing we're in a drugstore I thought and stood up. I hoped the counter that cut off the pharmacy from the rest of the store and began searching they gotta have Advil or something, unless it's all been taken I thought as I turned over a pill bottle.

Fifteen minutes and all I had found were antidepressants, weird prescriptions and creams. I sighed as I flopped down on the matress beside my sister, she looked up from her magazine and at me. "What are you upset about now?" She asked sounding pretty upset. "I can't find anything to help with this damn headach." I mumbled into the dirty pillow I had shoved my head into. "Your very forgetful" She answered me and I felt something hit my back. I lifted my head up and looked beside me were the Tylenol bottle had landed "oh" I grabbed the bottle, Caroline rolled her eyes and went back to reading. If it weren't for her hight you would think she was the older one I sat up laughing silently to myself and went to and old cooler to look for water.

My sister had agreed to take first shift again that night and let me sleep but when it came to my turn it was agony to sit there; the floor felt like it was turning beneath me. I never dared to stand up, I wasn't in the mood to smash my head against the ground so I sat and I starred at the darkness that surrounded me. Minutes felt like hours that night and hours felt like days. By the time the end of my shift came along I had collapsed on the bed and was about to fall into the deep abiss of sleep when the sound of a door closing came from outside and a light shone into my eyes.