Apocalyptic

Page 11 - I promise.

4 long hours

Is what it was. 4 hours of uncomfortable silence. The trip felt like an eternity. An eternity of being judged by my brother , momentarily strongly disliked by my father , drooled on by my sister and being watched like a hawk by Parker.

I huff as our car comes to a quiet stop.

"This is it." My Dad announced as we pulled up to a large science building. The appeared to a complete mess , but it wasn't literally bombed , like the one my mother worked in.

"Aurora." My Dad started , causing me to roll my eyes at the use of my name properly. "I want you to stay in here with Juniper."

This request made my blood boil. "What ?" I spat. "Are you kidding ?"

"No." He retorts.

"I'm the one who asked you , begged you , to take us with you , and you're gonna leave me to sit in the car ?" I argue.

"Well , what are am I going to do with Juni --" He tries to reason , but I'm not taking a bar of it.

"You make her come "shopping" with us all the goddamn time , she's nearly died doing that shit , and you're worried now ?" I growl.

"That's not the point." He says.

"I can carry her , piggyback her , whatever !" I state. "Just let me go in. I asked for this."

I was so angry that I didn't realise that hot salty tears ran down my cheeks.

"How are you going to fend off those things for the both of you ?" He starts. "You're only a small girl. And you won't be able to do it with that leg injury of yours."

I take a deep breath and inform him that "it's nearly healed."

"Ok , but you're still a short girl." He tells me.

"My height doesn't define my strength." I defend.

"I don't think you can take them on your own." He tells me and I bite my lip to stop it from quivering. It was in this moment that I realised that my father has no faith in me. No faith in neither my ability to fight nor my strength and drive.

I look up into the rear view mirror to get a glance at his still cold eyes. Eyes filled with disbelief. I move my glance from his eyes to meet my twin brothers , pleading eyes. As I looked into his eyes he shook his head. He didn't want me to go either. What a bunch of cowards.

"Darling." My Dad coos. "Please stay in here --"

"Parker will come with me." I tell Dad and I turn to Parker and face him , his eyebrows are raised and his lips are slightly pouted as he nodded is head on agreement.

"He'll look after me." I tell Dad as I keep eye contact the very kind boy beside me.

"I'm sure Parker doesn't want to look after 2 girls while in there." My Dad argues again.

"No , no." Parker says. "I'd be more than happy to protect them , Mitchell."

My Dad raises an eyebrow , he wants more than anything to keep me in this car , but he has no other arguments to play. Parker has agreed to look after us. It's a done deal.

"Fine." My Dad puffs.

"Go get yourself killed than." He frets.

"Don't worry , I'll be back. I promise." I reassure as we all step out of the vehicle and slowly closed the door.

I start to walk towards the building , walking closely to Parker's side and holding Juniper's hand.

"We'll come back." Parker says reassuring me , even though I didn't need it.

"I know." I smile to him , feeling every need to touch his hand to reassure him back. But I wasn't sure if it was the right move. But in this moment of time , it had to be. 
So while I smiled up at him , I touched his hand and traced my thumb over the knuckle of his thumb and looked away as we continued to walk to the building.

I heard Parker take a sharp and short inhale but he didn't remove his hand from my touch , which made me not regret a thing. He had wanted my touch , I had guessed because as I moved my thumb from his to another of his knuckles , his posture seemed to become more confident and his face seemed to light up and his cheeks were flushes and a rosy pink.

I don't think I've ever felt happier to be in an almost awful situation.

***

We entered the building through a smashed glass door and moved as quietly as we could over the shattered glass mess which lay all over the floor. I looked up to roof , where multiple lights were flickering and some had burst , whereas some had simply just turns off or had remained on.

"Come here." I whispered to Juniper as I bent down and she held her arms out , making it easier for me to lift her up. I rise from the floor and sit her on my hip. I watch Parker venture further into the hall without me. And suddenly I was scared to be on my own for the first time in a long time.

I planted my feet to the one spot and watched him gingerly. He turned around to see me watching him. He jacked his chin up slightly , indicating for me to follow and I softly nod my head , making my way towards him. I caught up with him and we continued to walk together.

"Don't stray too far behind." He told me.

"Ok , yeah." I nodded. "Fair enough."

We walked quickly down the hallway , and came to a forked path. Small little white doors lines each side of the walls as we looked up and down the stretched out hall.

"Which way ?" I asked.

"I don't know." He answered , but I don't know what I expected him to answer with anyways.

"I don't wanna split up." I told him straight away.

He looked down the hall and back to me. "I wasn't planning on it."

I make an o shape with my lips as I say. "Good , I'm not getting lost in a place like this."

"You'll be fine." He nods as he furrows his brows together. "You're quite nervous."

"Wow , I didn't know." I reply sarcastically.

"You're pretty nervous for a girl who begged to come on here." He says cheekily with his brow now raised.

"I didn't want to get left out. And besides , I wasn't letting you come in here alone." I tell him.

"But I wouldn't have been alone." He digs deeper , still , a cheeky grin played on his face.

"Not the point , Parker." I say.

"Yes , the point , Rora." He chuckles.

I raise my eyebrow to my newly found nickname before snapping "Just pick a hall , Michelle."

"Ok , let's go this way." He says as he begins to walk down the left side of the stretched hall , and I follow.

I didn't know what I expected to find in such a place , but everything looked unusually normal. Which made me feel very uneasy.

"I don't like this." I inform.

"You'll never like this." He says as he glances through the little windows that sat in the top middle of the door.

"That's very true." I reply.

"Let's look in there." Juniper adds in , pointing to a door. Parker looks at her before shrugging.

"If you say so." Before opening one of the many sketchy looking doors.