The Explosion

Chapter 17

"Ughhh," Zoe moaned as she clutched her stomach. "I'm so hungry!"

"Maybe we should have some food," Max suggested. They had been putting eating off for what felt like hours – but what had probably only been around twenty to thirty minutes – in order to find the others faster, albeit it was not working.

"Yeah. We won't help anything by starving to death."

Too wary to have any other reaction, Max slumped down to the floor and swung his backpack out in front of him and rummaged through his collection. Zoe mirrored his actions and then brought out a cheese sandwich and started unpackaging it. The two sat in silence as they ate their sandwiches other than the small passage of:

"I don't like ham," from Zoe after she had read the label on Max's sandwich packaging, and the:

"Oh. I do," from Max as he took another bite.

Neither knew what the other was thinking about but they had their guesses and they didn't really want to talk about it so they continued staring into blank space as they ate. The floor was white tiled and Zoe kept half-subconsciously running her finger along the thin lines. Rather than being engraved lines that sank deeper than the squares themselves they were probably the paste that kept the squares together or something – Zoe wasn't sure and, in all honesty, it wasn't exactly one of her top priorities to figure out at that moment. She hoped that Lily had found Mia.

Max rolled his sandwich packaging around in his hands, reading some of the small writing and looking at the picture. Stop thinking, stop thinking. But the images of his parents were imprinted in his mind and they weren't going away – no matter how hard he tried to clear his mind or focus intently on something else. The clear, blank stare in his dad's eyes; the red, all too realistic pool of blood slowly creeping from his mum's head. It was all real. All of it. All the parents were dead and something very wrong was happening to the children. And here he was, sitting on a hospital floor eating a ham sandwich with a girl she had just met, what- a few hours ago? How long had it even been since this all started? It felt like hours and minutes at the same time. All the events blending into one, yet every moment was so incredibly clear and individual. Too clear.

*

"No way. I've said it plenty of times before and I'll say it again now. No!" Sam tried protesting against the grinning Gary and his newly found stretcher. "I'd rather walk with blinding pain that take a ride in that thing."

"Please?" Gary insisted, attempting puppy eyes and pushing the stretcher very slightly more towards her.

"My preference still stands," Sam said stubbornly.

"I did save your life," Gary argued.

"And I'll take yours in return if you force me onto that thing."

"Okay," Gary agreed with a sigh, "Get up then," He said, turning around with a hint of a knowing smile.

Sam, gritting her teeth in suspense, lifted herself off her bed and lightly touched the ground with her legs, letting out a pained whine. "Gary?"

"You've changed your mind?"

Sam nodded meekly and readied herself for Gary to hoist her up.

"You may be the strongest woman I know, Samantha Hartbridge, but I don't think a lot of people could walk on that, and you already have, carrying half my weight along with you. You've done enough for today."

With a grateful and slightly surprised smile, Sam allowed Gary to lay her down gently on the stretcher and wheel her out of the room.

Gary seemed to massively enjoy wheeling Sam down the hallways of the quiet hospital, laughing as – at some points, in short bursts – he ran. Sam smiled as she glided down the white corridors and closed her eyes, allowing herself to feel as if she were flying. She listened to the sound of the wheels rolling along the floor and looked quickly into rooms as they slid past. She was worried that they had gone past the group when she saw a glimpse of colour in a corridor to her left. "Gary, stop!" She yelled, indicating for him to move back. And, looking back at her were the mournful and confused faces of a boy and a girl.