The Explosion

Chapter 7

The bag of Chocolate Buttons called to Zoe from across the aisle, begging her to pick them up and eat them, but there was only one obstacle. A dead body. The woman was lying on the very right-hand side of the chocolate and sweets aisle; taking up a lot of space and almost directly in front of the Chocolate Buttons. To reach them Zoe would have to step over the woman and that somehow felt disrespectful and wrong. She turned her head left to see Lily at the other end at the aisle and (not surprisingly) grabbing a whole load of chocolate and some sweets. Lily caught Zoe looking her way and made a funny face, holding up her spectacular collection of bags, and then shoved them all into her backpack that they had picked up in the store and then skipped off. Zoe silently laughed at that little spectacle; Lily was back to herself again. For now. They could all suppress their feelings for a little while.

Zoe looked back at the inviting bag of Chocolate Buttons and then down at the woman. Back up at the Chocolate Buttons and back down at the woman. "Stuff it." She stated as she leant and reached over the dead body with a foot and an arm and swiftly grabbed the bag; pushing it into her backpack as she pulled herself back onto two feet. She gave herself a small nod of victory before walking back down the aisle and grabbing a Twix bar (her favourite). She then left the aisle and went over to join Max and Lily, who were now deciding who should take what supplies and what would be more sensible to take. Lily was definitely the best person to be talking about that with; it's not like she had a quarter of a school-sized backpack full of junk food or anything now, was it?

Lily, as if reading Zoe's mind, which the two could swear they actually did sometimes, gave Zoe a playful nudge and a face of pure innocence. Zoe's mouth widened into a grin and she nudged Lily back, returning the innocent look with a knowing one. They both then linked arms as they continued the conversation about what foods they should take and checked that they had big enough back packs. All three of them had a plain black rucksack that would usually have been bought for school children to store their stationary but they doubted that anyone was exactly going to arrest them for shoplifting. If only a police officer would arrest them – it would probably be the most relieving moment of all of their lives.

In the end, they grabbed as much as they could stuff into their backpacks – healthy and unhealthy; but mostly healthy – and ate until they weren't hungry anymore. It didn't take too much food to fill them up so they only actually had a couple of sandwiches and a cereal bar each although Lily ate a small pack of cold pasta as well. After they were all fed and ready to go, they were on the road again. The roads were eerily quiet and they had to avoid objects such as cars, prams, and of course; bodies. "Someone really has to clear this stuff up." Zoe stated, scrunching her nose up at the sight.

"You'd kind of expect people to be running around and doing whatever the hell they want." Max thought out loud. "But it's silent. Too silent."

"Shame they didn't just all disappear." Zoe said distractedly. When Max and Lily looked at her, she continued. "I mean; we wouldn't be seeing bodies everywhere we go for starters."

"And there would be hope." Lily added.

"Hope." Max echoed faintly. "That died when we realised that the adults were dead. And I feel like it's never coming back."

"We're getting out of here; it might just be our town. We can find our families. There is hope – there has to be." Zoe said desperately

"Yeah, I guess." Max said gruffly; wishing he could believe it. But there was more to this – he knew it. They wouldn't possibly be able to just walk out of there. Would they?

*

Her leg screamed at her with pain unlike anything she had felt before and her head felt too light and fuzzy than what could be anything like good for her. Sam tried to push away the ringing in her ears and opened her resistant eyes. At first all she could see was a blur but then, after a few seconds, everything came into focus. In front of her were the bodies of five boys. They were all sprawled across the road but one of them was face down, lifted up slightly by the sharp blade that had been meant for Sam in his stomach – his eyes were still open and his face was still twisted by the pain. Serves him right. Sam thought, but she couldn't bring herself to feel it. She hated him with a stone hard passion, but she couldn't wish for someone to be dead. She wasn't like them. She leant forward and grinded her teeth together hard to stop from crying out. She only now realised that her left leg was twisted unnaturally beneath her and that she could barely move it without being struck by searing pain. Sam didn't know what to do; should she try and escape before the others woke up even though the pain may be unbearable or should she stay and hope someone would find her before the gang woke up? Move. She thought to herself determinedly. She stuck her right leg out straight in front of her and started moving her left leg very, very carefully. She almost had her left leg out from underneath her when she saw someone in front of her move. She quickly slammed her eyes shut and practically held her breath in suspense.