The Sky Beneath Us (on hold)

ELEVEN

Day 4. 17:42.

___________

Avery rounded the corner at top speed, in pursuit of the scavenger. Wesley and Chad were behind him, trying to keep up.

"Can I just shoot him already?" Wesley called panting.

"No! You're not shooting anyone!" Avery shouted back without taking his eyes off their thief. Damn, this kid was fast.

It was the bag-laden ratty kid that had accompanied the butcher and the rifle nut. He had snuck up on them as they had a tinned dinner, taken some of their supplies - including Mark's painkillers - and ran.

Now the three of them had left the others behind to pursue.

The thief slid down into a hole, evidently the entrance to another tunnel of sorts. Avery caught himself just short of the fall, waiting for the others to catch up. All three of them caught their breath for a few seconds, doubled over with their hands on their knees.

"I need a drink" Chad spat.

"I'll second that" Avery responded exhausted. He only said it out of encouragement, to get the job done. Chad hadn't drank in three days, and he was already showing some symptoms of withdrawal. Even as Avery looked at him, his hand was shaking.

"You sure we'll be able to find our way back to the others?" Wesley expressed his concern aloud.

"Yeah, they'll be fine mate" Chad replied quietly, looking down the hole, "let's just catch this son of a bitch".

Avery went down first, then Chad, then a reluctant Wesley. The hole was semi-lit - one light from above, one from below.

The three dropped down in quick succession - into a large room. Avery instantly regretted the decision.

Four men, all armed, stood mere feet away - weapons raised. Wesley instinctively reached for his own gun, and was shot in the shoulder without a moment's hesitation from the gang.

A fifth person stood behind the men - the ratty kid.

"There! That was him, the man who shot Darryl!" he shouted pointing viciously towards Wesley's bunched up form.

Avery spoke up, fear slowly creeping up his back, beginning to consume him.

"Listen, I-".

"Shut your trap, meat!" a scrawny thug spat aggressively.

"The black one, he killed Darryl?" a bulky thug enquired, head cocked to address the thief. He wore a bandana over straggly grey hair and boasted a crooked nose, evidently broken at some point in the past.

"Yeah", came the short reply.

While the other three kept their guns trained on Avery and Chad, the bulky man left the firing squad and proceeded to beat Wesley repeatedly with the butt of his rifle.

"Kill my brother, did you? You piece of shit!" he roared, each word accompanying a hit. Wesley's twisted screams of pain echoed out around the room, and Avery could do nothing to stop it.

When the beating had finished, Wesley lay crippled on the ground, face busted and drenched in blood.

"Bring 'em around back, put 'em in the cages" he ordered to his cohorts.

The thief grabbed Wesley's unconscious body and proceeded to drag him across the room - leaving a trail of blood behind him. Chad's protests were silenced when the three others surrounded them. Avery and he locked eyes hoping for some sort of miracle, anything.

"C'mon, move your ass!" a thug shouted, pressing the cold barrel of his assault rifle against Chad's head.

Chad knocked the gun away, ploughing his fists into the man's face. Avery was knocked across his jaw by another rifle butt - sending him flying to the ground. All three proceeded to swarm Chad for a rough beating.

There was still hope, there had to be. Avery didn't get this far just to die like this. He tried to roll, looking up to see a barrel in his face.

"Get on your feet and start moving, now".

Avery's head fell back, and he blacked out.

***

Day 4. 22:14.

___________

The girl sat in the wheelchair, the forever black wheelchair. He was sorry, Avery wanted to tell her that beyond anything, but would she listen? Is it what she wanted to hear? It was an accident. An accident...

Wake up child.

Avery came to, head groggy. He was naked, save for his underwear. Across from him, Chad - dressed likewise - tended to a battered and bruised Wesley.

"So sleeping beauty finally awakes" Chad commented sarcastically, a hint of resentment permeating his voice.

Avery looked around him. They were caged behind torn metal - broken shopping trolleys welded into the wall. On the other side of their cell, overturned crates of food were packaged in bulk.

"Supermarket basement" Chad mumbled, noticing Avery's curiosity.

"We need to get out of here", Avery tried rising to his feet, and stumbled when he lost his balance. His head felt empty, but ached like knives had been driven through it.

"Good luck trying mate, they've got guns. Semi-autos, AR's. We'd be mowed down in seconds".

"There has to be some way. What do we have?"

"Nothing".

Avery swore, slamming his hands against the multiple-layered cage. How had they been so foolish? So impulsive? And for what, a few tins of corn and a couple of painkillers? This had been a setup since the start. A rat trap.

"Look Avery", Chad spoke quietly, "it's done. I'm done. We're done, we don't go any further than this".

Avery looked at him, then Wesley's broken form.

"We were never gonna survive The Flip anyway mate".

Pain and death, that was all Avery had felt for days, nothing more. Chad was right, what use was it resisting the inevitable?

And, finally losing his waning sense of hope, Avery fell to the floor and accepted his fate, whatever gruesome death that may be.