Two Bullets

Chapter Two

The moment Aiden rose, holding his gun, everything became quiet. The screaming of the starved predators, clawing at the windows was muffled, as if it weren't monsters trying to make their way inside, but rain. Only innocent water, the way of nature to start overnew. 
His mind was grateful for the second of silence, but soon it filled it up itself: the voices came back and blamed him for what had just happened:

"He's an idiot. He fled back to the place where he escaped from!" 
"He's so going to die. He's not even paying attention." 
"Oh dear, why so serious? That frown won't keep you alive." 

The boy shook his head in an attempt to get rid of the empty personalities, and started dragging himself through the complex. Ever since it all went down, it had become a true maze. Fortunately, he knew his way around, but some things had changed: more shops were barricaded and others were stripped to the bone. Especially the ones on the ground floor and in front. 
His feet carried him to the mechanical stairs, which must've malfunctioned pretty early in the breaking of the new era, but the debris ought to be more recent. He couldn't remember having to leap to mount the stairs to the first floor, but it didn't pose any problems. 
Swiftly, Aiden launched himself from the second step to what must have once been the eigth. With a grunt he pulled himself up onto the surface and mounted the rest. 

The moment he reached the first level, a small content smile appeared on his face. He turned his body back to the entrance and tilted his head back, slightly to the right. A spark popped into his iris, a proud and dominant moment: he owned this. He had survived this, and owned this moment, this place, this city. It was the dominator within him who showed its true self, just for a split second. 

An odd sound, yet familiar, snapped him out of the victorious moment. The stretching of an elastic strap, followed by a stern voice barking out at him: "Drop the weapon." 
Aiden lowered his head and glanced over his shoulder at the girl, aiming her bow at his chest.
"I said, drop the weapon. Don't make me say it again." 

The voices immediately chimed in the moment they heard her voice. They created a new chaos between his ears, causing him to take his time to follow up her order. 
"Drop the weapon? Pfft! Who does she think she is? Shoot her." 
"What is he waiting for? Drop the damn weapon!"
"She'll kill him. She'll kill us. Listen to her!" 
"Let me handle it." Finally, the strongest voice of them all spoke, but wasn't given a chance to be heard on the outside. Aiden winced, then stared the girl in the eyes and obediently placed his weapon on the floor. 

The girl approached him and kicked his weapon away, lowering her arrow. "Do you have any meds? Gauze? Pills? Alcohol?" She fired questions at him, staring him down as she did. 
Not being a real talker, the boy kept his mouth shut, but his eyes wide open, tracking her every move. The discussion within him raged on, slapping away the words he wanted to speak. 
"We don't have all day. Give me anything that you have that could suffice as a bloody painkiller." The longer he didn't react, the more nervous she became, and visibly paler. That's when he noticed her wounded shoulder.  

Aiden bit his lip, about to talk back, but an entity from inside stopped him. "Just give her what she wants." It whispered in his ear. So he did: he slowly knelt down and shakily zipped open his backpack. The cold metal scraped against the open scars on his hand, as he reached for a strip with half of its capacity still filled with pills. 
She snagged it out of his hand and watched it, then glanced up at the guy. "Where did you get this from?" Again, he didn't seem too eager to answer, but when she insisted with an aggressive gesture, he opened his mouth. 
"None of your business. Take it and go." 

She heard his raw and hoarse voice echo off the walls surrounding them and frowned. The sound grew, while the boy stopped speaking. The rain had stopped, just for a moment, but the buldering background noise did not. She immediately panicked, figuring a herd had made its way inside and was heading for them. "Shit, shit, shit! Follow me!" 
As if it was a reflex, she grabbed his wrist tightly and ran toward the shops. 
He yelped, threw his backpack over his shoulder and knelt down on the way to pick up the gun. Without hesitation, he followed the girl into a shop, seemingly to be rebuilt into a hide-out, or a nest. A home. 
She shoved Aiden inside and quickly started tugging on a heavy metal frame, but it didn't budge until he joined in. Together, they barricaded the door and dropped themselves on the other side of the room. 
Their laboured breaths found each other in the air, filling the room up with life. The hall filled itself with death, and pressed itself against the display windows, hungrily slamming itself against the glass but to no avail. For now, they were safe from the outside world.