Dead Dreams

Four

I ran through the forest for a long time. The others were behind me, I could tell by their footsteps. I don't know where I was leading us, but I knew that we had to get away. I didn't pay close attention to our surroundings. That was until I noticed that we weren't in the forest anymore. We were on the street. Then a parking lot. Then a building. The doors slid open for us, welcoming us inside. I fell onto my knees and arms, panting heavily. I could hear everyone else in the same shape just behind me. I looked up and saw that we seemed to be in a grocery store. There were isles of food, drinks, and other items all around. All of the items were in full stock. Looking over at the registers and all around the store, there was not a single person in sight. This store was completely devoid of life. For some reason, I wasn't surprised. Jenny started sobbing.

"What are we going to do? There's no one here to help us and Eli is dead!"

She was wiping her tears with the sleeves of her jacket, but more would replace the tears she wiped. Her voice was small, and several times she had choked getting her words out. Ashlyn had teared up as well, but she didn't say anything. I looked over to Shiloh, who seemed to be in bad shape as well. His right arm tightly grabbed his left while he looked down to the floor. I looked over to Ashlyn, and we made eye contact. I motioned for her to follow me. We needed to get away from the door. She followed me with Jenny, who had tightly clung to her. Shiloh followed mindlessly behind. I found an aisle near the back of the store and sat down. Ashlyn and Jenny sat across from me while Shiloh sat next to me, a little ways away. There was a long while where we just sat there. No one said anything. The only sound in the building coming from Jenny's sniffles. I had long since brought my knees to my chest and put my head down.

I thought about what had happened. I could have warned him sooner. I knew that string was coming. Somehow I was familiar with that thing. I knew what weapon it would use. But he still died. I had left him in the snow to die. He probably suffered. What if he was somehow still alive? What if he was being tortured to death? No. No. No. NO. I abruptly stood up, walking in a direction that I wasn't sure of. I had walked about three steps when I felt a small tug on my shirt. I turned around to face Shiloh.

"Where are you going?" His voice was small, weak.

I turned around to face the area I was walking in.

"I'm going to get food. We are going to need it." I kept my voice even.

"I'll come with you."

"Okay."

Just as we were going to walk away, I heard Ashlyn say something.

"Wait."

We both turned around to look at her.

"I'm coming too."

She got up and walked behind us, Jenny at her side. We all made our way to the canned food aisle. It would be best, in case we needed to leave in a hurry with no warning. Once we got there, I grabbed what I could: Beans, Vegetables, Soup, and Fruits. I started filling my bag, making sure to put enough in there to last a while, but not putting too much so that it wouldn't weigh me down. Shiloh mirrored me, putting cans into his bag as well. Ashlyn didn't have a bag, so she just went through her options along with Jenny who had yet to leave her side.

Ashlyn narrowed her eyes at the food. "This looks like shit."

I looked over to her, surprised that she still had this kind of attitude after all that had happened, but I still answered her calmly.

"You can go look for something else to eat then."

She whipped around and looked me straight in the eye. She huffed, then answered me.