Heart of Fire- ON HOLD

VI

Chapter Six

"But we had days still!" I exclaim, dumbfounded.

"The warning periods have been getting shorter and shorter," Cade replies, looking thoughtfully at the green glow outside.

Beside me, I hear Emma start sniffling. She's looking across the hall at one of the dispatched Rotters, when she starts crying.

I kneel down beside her, "It'll be okay, Emma. There's lots of supplies here."

She keeps her eyes trained on the dead corpse, a steady stream of tears falling down her cheeks, "I just want to go home."

Sometimes I forget just how young Emma is, and how strong she's forced to be. She's just a child, and she's just been through a very traumatic experience, not counting her entire existence. She just wants to be somewhere familiar, somewhere she feels safe.

I draw her into me, trying to comfort her, "So do I, sweetheart, but it looks like we'll be stuck here for a while."

I hear movement behind me, and turn to see Cade grabbing the Rotter that Emma was staring at and rolling it onto a tarp he laid out on the floor. He kicks the detached head onto the tarp as well.

"What are you doing?" I call out.

"We're going to be here for a while, I figure it's best if we don't have to stare at these things the entire time," he replies, giving Emma a quick glance.

My heart can't help but do a summersault at his actions, even though my face doesn't betray my feelings. I give him a nod, an unspoken understanding passing between the two of us.

We're going to be here for who knows how long, it'd be best to work together.

He drags the tarp to the next couple of bodies, rolling them onto the tarp and kicking their heads onto it as well.

I start making my way over to help him, but Cade stops me.

"I got it. Why don't you see if you can clean yourself up a bit," he says to me while unconsciously glancing at Emma, who's gotten some Rotter blood on her from hugging me.

"You're starting to make Tyler nauseous from your smell, and he's all the way over here!" he jokes, sending me another charming smile.

Tyler shakes his head violently, disagreeing with his older brother's statement. Then he moves a Rotter head onto the tarp and smiles a big grin at me, as if to say "we got this."

He can hear perfectly fine, but he can't talk. I wonder if that's a biological thing or a psychological thing, and if it has anything to do with that huge scar running across his face.

I nod at Cade, grateful that he'll take care of the bodies so Emma doesn't have to be reminded of how close we came to dying today. She's still sniffling a bit, but she's not crying anymore.

I grab her hand and leave the boys to body removal duty. I'm pretty confident that our commotion drew all of the Rotters that would've been in here out, so I don't think we'll be ambushed, but I keep my free hand near my thigh for easy access to a gun, just in case.

There's a massive stockpile of water, much more than the four of us will need for the remainder of our time here in Walmart, so I grab a couple gallons of water. I also head though the aisles to grab a change of clothes for me and Emma, some towels, shampoo and body wash, bandages, and some baby wipes. I threw all of these items into a little plastic bin piled over another one the same size, and drag them to the washroom.