END OF ALL THINGS - An Apocalyptic Fairy Tale & Love Story

Chapter 5

Once the moment of terror has passed, Ariel releases me and scoots away further down the aisle. In the seconds that follow, her countenance falls, and she appears stricken and downcast, as if the thought of depending on another person for survival makes her weak. Or maybe there's another emotion she's fighting, but I can't be sure.

She slides back farther from me and sits back on her haunches, hugging herself, exposed in the open beyond the end of the store shelves. She's silent, bathed in the ghostly light of a partial moon that hangs in the sky above the gas station, shining through the large front window.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

She doesn't reply, but she glances up at me.

"You can trust me." With my backpack on the floor, I remain motionless. I don't want to spook her. She's the first human soul I've encountered recently that hasn't tried to steal from me or kill me.

"Are you sure you didn't look at it?" Her gaze hardens and she exhales a slow breath that sputters from her lips. "Because if you did..."

"I didn't."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely."

"Okay." She inhales through her nose. I can tell she's trying to calm herself.

With the danger passed, all the sudden the pain in my side makes itself known with a vengeance. Still sitting back on my feet, I groan and lift my shirt to reveal a four-inch gash, oozing blood, the bandage falling to the floor.

"You're hurt?" Ariel pushes up to her knees. "What happened?"

I tell her about the guy who tried to steal her can of Vienna sausages. Her cheeks turn soft, and her gaze shows concern as she draws near to me.

"Let me take a look at that." We're both down on our knees, having not risen since the rider had passed. Gingerly, she touches my abs just above the wound, making me flinch. My stomach muscles tighten from the pain, and because of that, a fresh stream of blood flows from the center of the gash. Ariel stands and casts her eyes around the interior of the gas station. "You don't happen to have a flashlight in your bag, do ya?"

I don't reply but reach inside my backpack and slap a small Maglite in her palm. "It works. The batteries are low, but it should help."

She switches it on and plays the dim beam over the shelves. She wanders around, in a hurry, knocking items on the floor she's not interested in. A moment later, she returns with a wad of napkins and tells me to press them against the wound. I do, and the bleeding slows, having already turned the beltloops of my jeans dark red. Ariel continues her search and comes back with some Superglue and several small bandages. Once I have the bleeding under control from the napkins, she takes a few more, and wetting them with water from my canteen, she daps the surrounding skin as clean as she can. With a few more napkins, she dries the wound and the area around it, then applies the Superglue. Since the gash runs horizontal, she dispenses the glue in vertical waves from top to bottom, spanning the length of my side. The entire time, she keeps the gash pinched closed with the fingers of her other hand. It's not perfect, but the glue dries quickly enough to hold, at least temporarily until she gets three wide bandages taped across it.

"I wish I could have found peroxide or rubbing alcohol," she says. "But I couldn't."

I groan and grind my teeth, willing the fresh pain to subside. "Maybe we can find something later."

Ariel leads me to the back of the gas station and helps me to sit, leaning against the wall. "Mind if I take a look in your bag?" she says.

"I'd rather you not." I take it from her with a grunt.

"You said I could trust you. Don't you think you should trust me too? If you expect me to do the same?"

I nod, biting my lower lip. "You're right. Help yourself. I actually have an ibuprofen bottle with a few pills in there. I could use a few right now."

She finds the bottle and gives me three. When she closes the top and shakes it, I hear a rattle that tells me there are a few more left for another dose if needed.

"You need to eat before you take those," she says, handing me a can of Vienna sausages with a sly grin. "Those things are good when you're down to nothing."

"Ain't that the truth." I peel open the can and swallow more than chew the five links inside, draining the juice at the end. Following that, I chase the pills with water from my canteen. I'll have to fill it soon, but I'm not worried about that just yet.

"I don't feel any book in here." Ariel glances at me with her hand inside my backpack. She pulls out a piece of paper. "What's this?"

"I said I found a book, but I didn't say I was able to take it with me. I was in a hurry, so I tore the page out and ran."

Ariel shines the weakened beam of my flashlight over the page and says, "Revelation chapter six. The caption says The Four Horsemen." She sighs and sits next to me. "You really think that's what we're dealing with?"

"I know you've heard the rumors about it ever since all this began." I glance at her sidelong. "Read it for yourself. See what you think."