The Sheriff and The Archer

Chapter Five: Walmart

After walking for a day and a half we came across a place that I hadn't seen in years: Walmart. When we walked inside the leader who I heard was Rick - at least I think that's who it was - silently put us in pairs (except for one trio) and whispered what we needed to find. I was paired with the woman with brown hair and a ponytail, but not the Koreans girlfriend... maybe they were married. I don't know.

We were supposed to find water, but nothing was here. I cursed under my breath when the woman tapped my shoulder and pointed above our heads. Top shelf, maybe thirty feet up, was around fifty gallons of water. We both grinned ear to ear and looked at each other. Score! This would last us a week!

"How are we going to get it?" She whispered.

I pointed to myself, "You catch them as they fall." She rapidly shook her head right to left with wide eyes. I smiled wider and made a move to start climbing, but she took my wrist and pulled me back. "I'll be fine."

She sighed and let go. Fifteen feet left. Ten feet left. Five- oh shit. I heard a loud crack and snapped my head to the left to see one of the bolts loosening. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Please God, if you're real and care about what's left of the human race, please don't let me fall.

I made an audible sigh when I reached the water and sat on the shelf. I stuck a thumb up in the air for the woman to see and checked to see if she was reciprocating. Her arms were in the air and she looked as ready as ever to catch the water. I picked up the first gallon and lined it up with her hands. I dropped the gallon and it made it into her hands. Thank you, Jesus!

Around gallon number twenty the woman left for about twenty seconds to go get one of those carts that you put really big boxes on, it was a great coincidence that one of them was lying vacant in the aisle. She started putting them on there so - I'm assuming - that when we were done we could leave quickly.

When we only had six more gallons left I heard another snap and then a few more and I had no ideas what that meant until I started falling... still sitting on the metal shelf. This was a bad idea. It sorta felt like I was on a really fast elevator since I was literally going straight down. Every time I hit a new shelf it was like I fell on my butt. Finally I stopped moving. I opened my eyes to see that the very last shelf actually held up. I hopped off and just as my converse hit the ground the shelf gave out and hit the floor as well. I looked at the horrified woman who shakily whispered, "We are never doing that again." I laughed and grabbed two of the remains five... I have no idea where the sixth went. Oh well. The woman grabbed all three and set them on the cart. We both wheeled it back to the entrance where the rest of our group was waiting.

"What happened?" Rick asked quietly.

"We had a little... water fall accident," The woman joked. Everyone looked utterly confused thinking she meant a water fall, but I got the pun. She was talking about how water fell thirty feet... of course I also fell thirty feet, but that's beside the point. I started laughing so hard at the joke I choked. She pat my back as she snorted from her laughter. After a minute we finished, receiving freaked out looks from the group. I blushed and looked down before gaining my composure and patting her back.

"I'll explain later. For right now we need to find a car," I told them. Just at that time an African-American woman and the red haired man walked in.