Shock

-38-

Two more hours passed, in which my feet nearly froze off, I endured Nathan's terrible iteration of 500 miles and, as if to taunt us, it started raining.

"Are you kidding me?" I yelled at the clouds that obscured what little light had been there in the first place. Morning seemed to take longer than usual to arrive, though I couldn't really say since I had never walked the streets at four thirty in the morning before.

Nathan snickered.

"You know, I'm pretty sure that convenience store we passed earlier sells umbrellas."

"I'm not going to steal an umbrella." I said.

"We could leave some money on the counter for when the owner comes back. I've got cash."

"And how were you planning to get in?"

He twisted his mouth, then looked at the crown of my head.

"You've got hairpins?"

Confused, I took a pin out of my curls and offered it to him.

"Thanks," he said. Then he changed courses, walking towards the store a few yards back.

"what are you-" I started, before realizing what his plan was. I ambled after him, too tired to run.

"Nathan Stratford, you are not picking that lock."

He barely looked up. "I won't break it. I think. I've never done this before."

"Nathan."

"Just let me try it. Please? We still have to walk for at least an hour and we don't know when and if the rain is going to stop. We really need an umbrella."

He was right about that. If we had to walk another twenty feet in this weather, we would get soaked and we'd get hypothermia before we even reached our destination.

"Fine, just be careful."

"'Course."

He started picking the lock, and after about five minutes, just as I started to wonder if he had any idea what he was doing, the door swung open, revealing a dark, smallish room.

On the walls stood racks with what I assumed was food, though I couldn't see in the dark. Moonlight shone through the windows, reflecting off of a glass counter on the far wall. I scanned the storage units for umbrellas, found a bunch sitting in a basket to the right of the counter. Bingo.

"Let's grab one and get out," I told Nathan. I beelined for the basket, but stopped halfway when I heard a strange noise.

"Did you hear that?"

The sound originated from the back room, like a box falling. I took three more steps, and another sound reached my ears. This time, though, it sounded more like scratching. I looked back at Nathan, who had started inching towards the back room door.

"Hello?" he called.

The response he got was not a box falling or a scratching sound. It was unmistakably a dog's bark.

"What the-" Nathan crossed the remaining five feet to the door and knocked on it.

Again, a bark sounded. He opened the door, and there, in the room behind it sat a beautiful, black lab.

When it saw us, it got exited, barking again and wagging its tail. It sat up a little straighter and tried to walk over to us, but something was holding it back. After carefully moving a bit closer, I saw what. A big, metal rack had fallen over onto the dogs right hind leg. The items the shelves had been holding were scattered all around the dog, that kept stirring and pulling on the leg, likely making its situation worse. I rushed forward, trying to stop the dog from moving.