Eli was barely staying afloat before the apocalypse. Working long shifts, taking care of his younger brother, and just trying to figure out what to do with his life.
When he finds his mom trying to take a chunk out of her youngest son though, Eli...
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I stayed hidden behind the shelf as Amelia stared in shock at the stranger. "Knees," She growled out pointing her arrow to the ground. "Get on the ground."
He held his arms up, still smiling. "Okay love, let's not do anything rash." He lowered himself to the ground, only then did I realize that her duffel was laid open on the ground.
Stupid girl, I shook my head. If we had to run it would have been left behind. Have I taught her nothing? Blowing out a breath through my nose, I watched as the man peered into the bag looking shocked, his smile dropping.
"Oh." He breathed, looking nervously to his left. "Uh,"
"Shut your trap." He obeyed this time, without a smile.
Coming around from behind him, I made sure to stick to the shadows. Not that he would notice, either way, his eyes were glued to the ground looking conflicted. Drawing my gun from its holster I place the barrel against the back of his head, causing him to tense.
Amelia released her pull on the string, lowering the bow to her side, shouldering it she dug through the bag on her back producing zip ties.
Putting them tightly around his wrists, I left Amelia to watch him as I went through the rest of the store, not finding anything else that would be of use I rounded the counter. Finding an open bag with cigarette packets piled up in it.
Raising an eyebrow, I lifted one of them up enough for Amelia to see as she snorted and shook her head. Zipping his bag up I shouldered it, grabbing a double-sided ax from the floor I paused, my fingertips touching the spine of a book pushed under the counter.
I held it firmly in my hands, staring at the cover of a wolf. Red had only brought the fairy tale book and children's stories. Placing the book in the duffel, I knew she would like it. Grasping the ax, I nodded to Amelia as she told the man to get up.
Zipping up her duffel, I understood why he reacted that way. On top of children's coats and long sleeve clothing for all of us that we found in a clothing shop we first passed by, were prenatal vitamins and pacifiers, along with a few reusable water bottles, the kind with the filtration system in it.
"Wait," The man's accent stopped us. "I have a bag, with food. If you're gonna drag me out, then at least bring my food. I don't need to look like the two of you." His words weren't meant to be hurtful, just truthful. We were thin.
"Where is it?" I questioned. Ready to go back to Red and make sure she was okay.
"I can show you, please." He cut off once I pointed the pistol at his head again. "It's in the back room."
Locating the back, I quickly found his things. Rolling the sleeping bag up I shoved it in the duffel. Opening his own large bag, I found multiple more weapons and bottles of water, only a few cans of food.
Pulling it over my other shoulder I followed the two who were waiting patiently, the man's arms bound behind his back.
"Where are we going?" He asked as we were walking back through town. "It'd be lovely to know who I am talking to." He continued as we reached the base of the hill. Amelia shoved his shoulder as he paused, not moving to make another step.
