Natural Disaster

Chapter 20

Dropping his bags, Avi took off out of the store as fast as his legs could carry him. Launa hauled the four bags to the door, watching his coat flap behind him as he ran.

"Hey!" he shouted, catching a glimpse of a young man as he rounded a corner, "Hey!” The man didn’t stop, but only ran faster, twisting around the streets and over broken down fences.

Avi swore, severely slow in comparison- this guy clearly knew what he was doing. His boots thudded over the pavement, chasing after the stranger until, finally, after another bend in the street, he disappeared from view. He slowed to a stop, bracing his hands on his knees and panting. He glanced quickly around, listening intently for any noises that might give the stranger away, but he neither heard nor saw anything. Hide nor hair.

He clenched his fists, pissed that he’d failed in catching or making him stop. He ran a hand over his face, sighing heavily as he caught his breath, and started to trudge back to the store he’d left Launa in.

Grim realization and paranoia hit him like a ton of bricks: what if the guy had gone back to find her?

Pure fear fueled his momentum as he sprinted back.

______

Launa grumbled, slowly heaving the four bags of supplies up the street she’d seen Avi go down, the weight causing her normal, relatively quick pace to slow to a crawl. I’m a snail. And she was just the teeniest bit annoyed at Avi, though she couldn’t help but worry. What if he caught the guy?

What if the guy caught him?

She chewed her lip hard, freezing in place as the horrible mental image of Avi getting his throat slashed flooded her mind.

"Launa!"

She whipped her head up, sighing in relief to see Avi running toward her, looking stressed and flushed, but very much alive. She didn’t even get a word out as he barreled into her, clasping her tight to his chest.

Dropping the packs, she gripped him around his waist, returning the embrace just as enthusiastically. “Are you okay?” She asked, muffled by his shoulder.

"Yeah, I’m fine," he answered, a little breathless, rubbing her back and squeezing her one more time before sliding his hands to her shoulders, "just horribly out of shape. You’d think all of this walking would have helped me catch him. What about you?" He flickered his eyes up and down her, checking quickly for injuries.

"I’m fine," she said, shaking her head and resting her hands on his waist, “‘Him’? It was a guy?"

Avi nodded, swiping his hair from his eyes. “From what I could tell, yeah,” he said, dropping his hand back onto her shoulder, “slippery little bastard.”

She led him over to the side of the store, both leaning against it as he gulped down air and water. “So, there’s people out here,” she mused aloud, “But, they don’t seem keen on talking to strangers.”

"No," he agreed, "They do seem pretty damned keen on being creepy, though.”

Launa snorted, nodding. “Things just got a little scarier.”

"Just a bit, yeah."

______

More than a little wary of their surroundings, the fact that they were no

longer completely alone was unnerving and not at all comforting. They chose to settle in a house that had a vehicle out front that was made for off-road driving. That gave them a little hope that there would be some sort of weapons inside.