Chapter 10

Very long chapter. Grab your popcorn.

That night we ate well. We polished off 2 of our 10 energy bars, ate one of our 5 bags of chips, and we each got our own water bottle. Nathan was almost sick after one bite of food. The poor kid hadn't eaten since the incident, as we now called it.

The sleeping situation was much more safe, but much less comfortable. Nathan slept in the way back, Natasha slept in the back seat, I laid on the floor in the back seat, and Pierce was reclining in the front on the passenger's side. Chuck had the gun (which we trusted him completely with now) on the roof of the car, guarding us from any possible hostile passer-bys.

For the third night in a row, I could not sleep. It was 12:27 by then. I sat up straight, and a voice came from beside me. "You're awake too?" It was Natasha's. "Yeah, all this terrible stuff is sinking in." I said.

Pierce rolled over on his stomach to see us. "I think Nathan's the only one asleep." Me and Natasha were sitting properly on the seats now, side by side. "Natasha, we know you, but we don't know your story. I still have barely any idea who you are." Said Pierce. It was true. I knew a piece of it, with her and her little sister, but she was still so mysterious to me. Not in any weird kind of way, but it was hard to be so close to her and know so little.

"Where to start?" She asked uncomfortably. "Let's go with… first grade." Said Pierce. "Okay, so, I started first grade in Long Beach, but my parents were young, and they were still trying to find a place to settle down. So after about 3 months, we moved to Los Angeles. I was just starting to make friends at my old school, and the kids at my new school were plain brutal. They teased and hurt me, and it left a scar so deep that I-" she choked up. I put my arm around her. "It's okay Natasha, we know exactly how it feels. Before we met, it was hell for us. After that though, it was pretty much hell for everybody else." I said.

"But that's the thing," she continued. "Every time I tried to reach out, they abused me. So I was alone. That was just about the time that my baby sister was born. The day she could talk to me, I could tell she was some kind of sign. She was everything I could want her to be. She made friends like it was a second nature and she-" Natasha was blubbering now. "She somehow changed them- and they would even be nice to me after that. She was my only light for fi- five years." "And you know what happened after that? You know what f*****g happened after that! She died! A stupid explosion somehow covered the entire motherfucking city, and she f*****g died!"

She cried and cried, and she couldn't say another word. Eventually she fell asleep in my arms. Again. Pierce was still looking at me. "You guys are a thing." He said. "That doesn't matter anymore." I said. "But it does." He said. "When you love her, you'll need her like a drug. In a good way."

"And where did you get your PH.D in love again?" I asked.

"Well ting-tang-walla-walla-bang-bang, Garry. You know, I don't share everything with you." He looked grimly at the floor. "Who." I demanded. "Alicia." He said. Alicia was in Pierce's band. After practice and we were all hanging out, we would talk, but nobody in the band were really friends, just members. I guess I was mistaken.

"Your drummer? Did the rest of your band know?" I said. "We were secret. Not a single person knew. I fell in absolute love. No doubt in my mind that she was the person I wanted to die with." Tears started to well up in his eyes.

"Pierce, jesus, I'm so- aw f**k, man." I said.

"It's okay, Garry, but- you're lucky, okay? You might not know it yet but- but you're going to find that it means something to have love. No matter what situation you are in, love is like a powerhouse, pushing you to limits you didn't know were there."

"You mean that Pierce?" I said. He turned over on his back again. "More than anything, Garry."

"Thanks. Good night, man." I said "Mmph, good night Garry." Said Pierce. When I woke up, it was 10:30 and Chuck had already started driving. It looked like we were on the highway. "The explosion was this far out?" I asked.

Chuck looked in the rear view mirror at me. "Hey, look who's up." He said. "But, as for the explosion, I have a bad feeling that Fourtree wasn't the last of it." "What do yo-" I stopped. What did that guy say? Oregon. He came from Oregon.

"Oh f**k. Oh f**k! You don't- oh f**k! What do we do?" I rambled.

"We don't stop. We keep running until we find a place that we can stay until what's left of the government gets itself together and sorts all this out."

"How long is that?" I asked, panicking.

"I could say- a week maybe?" Said Chuck "I've almost died twice in two days!" I said. "How long do you think it will be before they get to smaller towns like Fourtree?"

"They won't. That's why we need to get to the big ones. Sacramento." Said Chuck. Before I could say anything, he said "So how did all of you end up together? Is she your girlfriend?" He nodded to Natasha, who was asleep.

"I, uhh- she is now, but we didn't know each other before the incident. Pierce and I, we've been friends for years, but on the day of the incident, we were stuffed into lockers by some reckless bully, and we were protected in there. After that, we searched the school for survivors, and found Natasha, who was just lucky." I said.

"How did you get through all this?" I asked.

"It was the first day of 2nd grade for Nathan, but he was home sick with a fever. He was playing in the laundry room, that was a relatively small space, but just when I went in to tell him to stop, it happened. And I guess that small room saved our lives." I didn't know much about how that would work, but I decided to let it slide.

By now it was 11:47, and Pierce was starting to stir. "Pierce, we've figured something out." I said. "And you're not going to like it." Chuck tried to break the news calmly, and Pierce took it well. "Alright, but what if the government is just gone?" "Do you think that the destruction just stopped at California? Who knows how far it went." He said. Chuck lowered his voice. "I know you have realistic opinons, but could you please try to keep them from Nathan? He's scared enough as it is."

With that, we stopped talking for a while, until Natasha woke up, and we told her what we knew.

"What makes you think that?" She said. "Look outside and you'll find out." The freeway was badly mangled. It was mostly cracked asphalt and we had to swerve to avoid the cars we didn't have to move, and we occasionally stopped to siphon a car or two for gas.

"How far out are we?" She said. "Pretty far out of Fourtree. If it were just supposed to be our town, then it wouldn't have gone this far." "Oh." She said.

Silence fell over us once again.

It was 1:22, and we were going by what looked to be a highway mall. "Do you think we should check it out?" Said Chuck. I looked at our group. We could use more food, maybe even find some ammo or another gun. "I think that would be a good idea." I said. As we walked closer, I could tell that no one could have lived around the area, because it was miles from Fourtree, and the next town was who-knows-how-far.

Despite all this, we brought the gun. Chuck decided to stay in the car with his son, and was armed with one of the removable roof rack beams as a kind of staff. Pierce was handling the gun, and I had the other roof rack-staff, which was the perfect weight for me, surprisingly. We were at the entrance of the strange mall, and it appeared abandoned. None of us were that stupid. "What exactly are we looking for?" Asked Natasha.

"Food, mostly, but ammo should be a top priority." I said. "Pierce, you know how to handle that thing?" Asked Natasha. "I know how to, I just never have." He said. There was a slight pause. "So basically, no, is what you're saying." She said. "Can't be more ready than we are."

I said. And with that, we walked in. The mall had two levels, but the 2nd level was just walkways and bridges connecting them, so people could look down on the 1st. We were trying to stay quiet, just to be safe.

"There!" Pierce whisper-shouted, pointing at a shop with a poorly made label reading: .Guns n' ammo!" How original.

"I didn't know they could have these in malls." Said Pierce. "Me neither." I said. Most can't. But we didn't know that.

Unfortunately, said gun shop was on the 2nd level of the mall, and none of us were too fond of stairs anymore. Turns out the stairs were broken, and we had to do some climbing, which made a lot of noise.

As we approached the shop, I noticed that the sign was freshly painted, and that was the first thing that tipped me off. I silently showed this to Pierce and Natasha, who both got my point. I decided to bash the door in with my roof beam. I held up my fingers. 3,2,1. The moment I smashed the door, I knew we were in over our heads. There had to be at least 7 of them, and two were guarding the entrance. One of them turned around just as I reacted, holding my beam up to block whatever might be coming towards me. Clang. He had tried to hit me with something metal. A broomstick? I didn't have time to see before Pierce grabbed the back of my shirt, dragging me away from the scene.

We were over by the stairs when they came running out of their nest. 9 in counting. We were dead for sure. Bang! Bang! Two men dropped dead. The barrel of Pierce's gun was smoking. Natasha, who had ran over with us, covered her eyes. "Natasha, we have to run!" I said. But she was hardly conscious, or even there.

She came back to reality just as the enemies were enraged by their loss. "You've f*****g done it now, kids! We're gonna tape you up!" The one in front yelled. "Tape? What are you talking about!?" I said, keeping them busy.

He laughed. "Well, you know how you only got two places you breathe out of, right?" He said. As he saw my brave expression melt, he smiled like a mad man. "We don't like strangers around here. But I'd like to make you a deal." He said. "What kind of deal?" I asked. "Take or die, kiddo." He said. "Let's hear it, a*****e."

"Don't push it, punk. Give us your gun… and the girl, then you can live." That pushed it too far. "Deal." I said. "Garry, you-” Natasha started. "Shut the f**k up, b***h. I know what I'm doing." I said, loud enough for the man to hear. Then Natasha understood what I was doing. Thank god. I took the gun from Pierce, handing him the staff-beam.

I walked up to Yosemite Sam slowly, my hand on the barrel of the gun. I was right in front of him when he said, "Girl first." I switched the gun's grip into my hand, pressed it up to his chin, and shot, all in one swift movement. I combat rolled backwards into Pierce, who switched weapons with me.

"Run to the car!" I said.

"You're coming with us!" Yelled Natasha. Just then, the attackers started to run the other way. "Where are they going?" I said. "The car!" Natasha said. We ran after them. But when we reached the door, it was too late. Even from the distance, I was able to see them savagely beating Chuck as well as Nathan, who had been torn from his father's protective arms. After that, I passed out.