Final Hours

Chapter Fourteen

"Hey...Jenny, wake up." Chris said quietly, shaking my leg softly. I opened my eyes slowly covering the sun with my hand. "Where are we?" I asked looking out the window, all I knew was this wasn't our neighborhood. "A hardware store, we need wood and seeds...I'm quite fond of your plan." Eric said with a smile as he got out of the car. I rubbed my eyes and got out of the car, I pulled my backpack over my shoulder and pulled my knife out of its sheath. I looked up at the hardware store, 'Bittermans'. We used to know the couple who owned it, they were an older couple and their sons helped run it when they were home during the summer. I always like one of their sons, Calvin, he was a smart guy and was a year above me. We walked in, the lights weren't working so power must have finally been shut off. It had mildly worked before, I remember buildings feeling cool with AC, but now the inside was just as blazing hot as the Georgian weather outside. The generator in the back was the only reason I even tried the lights, but to no avail. I reached into my backpack to pull out a flashlight. "You get seeds, we'll cover wood and tools." Eric whispered as Chris led him to the back where they kept wood. I nodded and walked over to the gardening section. It was dark and quiet, I was growing to hate both the dark and the quiet the longer I endured the apocalypse. I held the light on the seeds and pushed through the boxes. I grabbed some essentials; potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and wheat if we were lucky. But I also grabbed some others like apple trees, lettuce, and cucumbers. I found a bag of fertilizer and quietly walked out of the store to put it in the car, I didn't feel like just holding the forty something pound bag the entire time. It was scarily quiet outside, I couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not. I placed the bag in the car and closed the door quietly walking back into the store, flashlight in hand. I opened the door and closed it slowly so it didn't slam or make a noise in the doorframe. "Chris...Eric?" I whispered walking through the store. "Guys?" I asked looking around, it was so quiet I could hear a pin drop two miles away. "Chris?" I whispered again looking around. "Eri-." I started as a hand shot out covering my mouth and pulling me backwards. I fought and squirmed, shooting my knife backwards. The arms finally pulled me backwards into a dark area behind the shelving near the animal feed. I fought with the hand covering my mouth until It pushed me away, over to a little corner. I looked back at the man that had grabbed me and in the light of the windows that showed through the shelving could see who it was. "Eric?" I whispered as he shot a finger up in a quieting position over his mouth. I looked down at his side that had my hunting knife stuck in it. "I'm sorry." I mouthed looking at him. He didn't respond, he put out his hand for me to take. I placed my hand in his and he pulled me over in front of him. We were both on our knees against the ground and he held me tight against him as we watched the area in front of us. He pointed in front of me and I looked at the shelving across from us, I could see Chris peeking through the buckets and mops. And just as I noticed Chris I also noticed the other man that was walking around. The other man that was armed with a shotgun.

"Come on where are ya...Y'know I know you're here." The man said, his voice was rough, almost likely from heavy smoking. "Cmon I know you're still in here, and you're tryna steal my stuff." He added angrily. The man began poking and shoving buckets around that were near Chris. I could feel a pit in my stomach as I watched Chris duck and moved behind the shadows of the buckets. Why can't nothing ever go right, why can't it ever be easy. And this isn't his stuff, I don't know who this man is but he wasn't the owner's or even related to them. Eric still held tight to my arms while I watched him getting closer to Chris. I dropped my backpack off my shoulder quietly and unzipped it. Luckily the noise was masked by him shoving buckets around. I fished around and pulled out the handgun. "Jen no." Eric whispered, I looked back at him in confusion. "I have to...it's my brother." I said standing up quietly and resting my arms on the shelving aiming the gun. I had it all aimed perfectly, I pulled the safety off and readied myself. All I could think was if I didn't shoot first he'd kill Chris, and that's all I needed to blow his brains in without any fear. "Jennifer stop." Eric whispered standing up. "Too late." I said pulling the trigger.

The gun went off and rang through the room. "Damn it Jennifer." Eric whispered loudly, pulling me backwards and taking the gun from my hands. I would have hit him perfectly if the man hadn't ducked to hit another bucket and pull mops back right as I pulled the trigger. Eric pulled me close to him and scooted behind the shelves to get to the other side. He held his arm against my collar bone tightly and held my gun even tighter in his other hand. He made it clear he wasn't going to let me go this time. I looked down at my backpack that was still behind the one shelf. I could see the man walk over and blindly shoot the shelving. He continued walking, reloading his gun, and shooting without looking. We kept shuffling until we hit a brick wall stopping us from escaping. The man moved in front of us and cocked the shotgun pointing it at our chest. I felt Eric's heartbeat speed up as he flipped me behind him and stood in front of me. It felt like time itself slowed down, I wrapped my arms around Eric's chest and felt his hand move up to mine holding onto them tightly. But what we waited for never came, only the loud thud of a body hitting the ground. "Jen...we're, we're ok." Eric whispered, helping me out from behind him. "Go grab your bag." He whispered while Chris helped him out from behind the shelving. I shuffled over and grabbed it and climbed out on that side. When I got out I could see the man laying on the ground a knife in his neck. "Man...what happened?" Chris asked looking at the knife sticking out of his side. "A misunderstanding...I'll take care of it." He responded, taking the knife into his grasp and pulling it out. He let out a small gasping noise but regained his composure as he clasped his hand over the wound. He held the knife in his hand as I walked over. "Wait, that's Jens?" Chris said as I walked over. "I've already apologized." I responded bending down to grab the gauze that was on the shelf beside me. I looked around and grabbed a flannel that was hanging up and used the knife to cut off a sleeve and tie around the gauze keeping it tight against his wound. "That should hold you up till we get back to the camp." I said with a smile. I really felt awful, I wiped the knife off in the flannel and put it back in it's sheath. Chris bent down and grabbed his and we headed towards the door. "Any walkers in a sixty mile radius are on their way here right now." Eric said, dropping slowly into the car seat. "We didn't get any wood." Chris added off topic. "We can cut some trees, we've got enough." Eric laughed. "How are you so high in spirits?" Chris asked sarcastically. "What do you mean?" Eric responded with a question. "You just got stabbed by my sister and nearly killed by a crazed shotgun bearing stranger." Chris added. "I guess I'm just going with the flow...not many other options are there." Eric answered. He seemed so calm, yet I remember the feeling of his heart racing in my hands. I leaned back and looked back out the window. It was gonna be a long day, and I hoped to god what waited before us in our childhood home wasn't as bad as this. But in the end, we must fear the living more than we fear the dead.