Apocalypse

14

Liz

Kate was unconscious. She was actually sprawled on the floor and for one horrifying moment I thought that she was dead. I thought that I would have to leave without her, if I even got out. I felt my heart squeeze and my breathe get short at the thought. Kate being dead trumped all my other thoughts. But no. I could see her back rising and falling with her slow breaths. I felt more relief wash over me than I honestly expected and everything was okay for just a moment. 

It's all shattered again though when the men move in the corner of my vision and I can see that they mean to hurt me. I'm not even sure what we did wrong. Did we take something that was theirs? We didn't take much, and only what we find in abandoned stores, houses, other things like that. Never from other people. Not that everyone else showed us the same courtesy. Maybe that was it, they wanted our things. Whatever meager things we'd managed to come up with.  Even so, we didn't have enough to keep us fed for the next three days; never mind two grown men. I am so confused and thinking so much over why they were doing this that I forgot that there is a disease spreading through the country that's making people die and come back and eat other living people. I forget that people might not be thinking logically. That everyone is scared and that fear will bring out the worst in people. 

The tallest one reaches out and grabs my arm and drags me to my feet. His fingers dig into my arm hard enough to bruise. I struggle against his grip and try to get away even though I know it's useless. That little fact doesn't stop the man from smacking me harshly on the back of my head. Yelling for me to stay still. I struggle for a moment more before just giving up. It was no use.  

These men weren't actual law enforcement officers. That much was obvious now. They carried their guns awkwardly and  without any real practice. I'm pretty sure that the one had his weapons belt on backwards as well, if that was even possible. That must have just stolen the uniforms off of somebody else, most likely. I struggled to wrap my head around the fact that they may have taken it off of a dead body. I glanced up at the man standing over Kate and I feel my stomach drop when I see that he has his gun aimed at me.  

I cried out in pain as another shot was fired and it grazed my side. I felt the stinging pain and the blood well up and begin to soak my shirt. I instantly grabbed for the closest thing to me in an attempt to stay on my feet, and that happened to be the tall man who was still holding my arm. Not really my smartest move. He growled angrily and threw me into the wall closest to us, narrowly missing the edge of the counter. I hit it with enough force to crack the dry wall and pain shot up and down my side. My entire body was beginning to ache. My head was throbbing too, I must have hit it against the wall. The entire room was spinning and it was hard to think.  

"You fucking missed." He hissed the other man, who was standing over Kate. 

"She moved!" 

"Not much." He snaps and points at me as I try to stand back up again, and I freeze. "You stay right there or I will put a bullet through your skull." 

I slide slowly back down the wall again and sit there. I felt completely helpless. Unlike Kate, I didn't have a weapon or any fighting skills what-so-ever. I've seen her stand her ground against two other people at the same time and come out with nothing more than a couple bruises. Not just Kate either, I've seen other people do it too. I couldn't even take her knife, because she was across the room, out cold, and the knife was firmly strapped to her belt. Who was I kidding, anyways? I can't use a knife. Never mind against two grown men with guns. Despair settled over me as I tried looking for something else. But there was nothing that I could do. I was going to get us killed because I couldn't do anything but run away from trouble. That's all I've ever been able to do. Run away from the kids at school, from my parents, and from every other bad thing that I've experienced since I was a little kid.