Merman - Romance

Chapter 36

“Let’s go.”  She was out of the door in a flash dragging Ridec behind her.  They didn’t look back to see if Kyle had followed Jessell’s instruction and secured the door behind them, there just wasn’t time, there were three of those things still loitering around the door and two of them immediately took off behind them.

“Don’t you dare slow down Ridec,” Jessell yelled.  The option wasn’t really there because her hand clung so tightly to his that even if Ridec had thought to reduce his speed she would have dragged him along with her.

“Where are we headed?”  Ridec managed to gasp.

“This way, footprints.”

Ridec glanced down at the earth beneath his feet and for the first time he noticed that the hardened partially concreted service which was covered with dirt and dust accumulated over the years had a few fresh footprints in it.

“How do we know it’s Rea?”

“In here,” Jessell yelled.  Ridec could hear the breathlessness in her voice.

They slipped through a door to a building with a few letters on top marked ‘p…r…cy’.

“It was probably a pharmacy in the days humans ruled the earth,” Ridec said as Jessell slammed the door shut behind them and leaned against it.  “You think Rea would have come in here looking for medicine?”

“I doubt it,  this place doesn’t have any show windows with drugs in it.  Haven’t you noticed that these humans can’t read to save their lives?”

“These humans are us,” Ridec said.

“No, they’re not.  They’ve lived for generations just running from zombies and eking out an existence.  They don’t have schools, hospitals, old people’s homes, hell – they don’t have fast food.  They are nothing like us and haven’t been like us for centuries.  Rea can’t read Ridec and the chances of her finding this place is like a million to one.  She’ll have to go pushing on every  door to find a pharmacy.”

“Then we can go pushing on every door until we find her,” Ridec said and regretted it as soon as the words left his mouth.  Jessell was only searching for Rea because of him.

“For how long Ridec?  For the balance of the day, until tomorrow, for how long?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Just collect some medicines we might need, we can leave them with the humans.  At least it gives them a fighting chance until we come back with the cure.”

Ridec obediently started pulling some items from the shelves and scrunching up his face as he tossed them into a bag he found on the floor.

“I’m not sure how much use these items are going to be now after all this time, still it’s better than nothing.”

“Wait…”

“You don’t think we should bother with these?”

“I think I saw Rea, she just slipped into the building across the road.”

“Are you serious?”

“Come on let’s go before any of those things notice her.”

“I knew she was a smart kid,” Ridec said smiling.

“Hurry, it doesn’t look as if she closed the door behind her.”

Jessell was already hurrying towards a small window at the side of the store.

“We can’t go through the front door, we don’t want to draw those things to her.”

“It’s high.”