Quarantine

Capture

After 30 minutes in the small closet, Kayla and Timothèe heard the two outsiders leave the bookstore.

As soon as she heard the door to the store closed Kayla leaned across Timmy to reach for the closet's door handle desperate for open air.

Timmy grabbed Kayla's arm during her reach and whispered, "Let's wait a few more minutes just to be safe, make sure they really left and aren't coming back."

Kayla's heart skipped a beat while he held her arm in his hand and waited in silence. They were so close that his one his messy curls was touching her face. Finally, he released her from his grasp realizing that he hadn't let go and nodded for her to open the door but slowly.

Seeing that the inside of the store, Kayla pushed past Timmy and breathed in and out deeply. Timmy stayed in the closet to grab their backpacks from inside one of the buckets he had thrown them into.

"How far is your place so we can go talk to your sister?" he asked as he rearranged the closet looking to see if there were any supplies he should take with him.

Kayla walked closer to the front of the store and grabbed her pocketknife off of the ground where she and the outsiders had slept.

"Only about 15 minutes north of here, the skies look clear it seems we will have time," she said peering out the dirty glass door at the sky.

She looked down at the floor and noticed a backpack that had not been there before. She leaned down to grab it, "It looks like one of the Outsiders left their backpack here on accident, idiots. There are a lot of good supplies in here we can use."

Timmy looked back startled, "Shit. Kayla- they are going to come back for that once they realize they left it- we have to get out of here before they come back."

Panic rushed through Kayla for what felt like the 50th time that day. Timmy was already rushing to her side and throwing Kayla her backpack. Kayla situated it and held the other one in her hand. Timmy was poking his head out the doors and looking around outside.

"North you said?" He said not looking back at Kayla,

"Yeah, a few blocks," Kayla said from behind him.

"OK- let's go."

They walked out of the store, looking at their surroundings and desired route as they started down the street. After only a few seconds of walking, they heard the sound of footsteps turning the corner in front of them and the sounds of the two outsiders. Panicked, Timmy hopped behind and mailbox and motioned Kayla over, but she knew they both wouldn't be concealed behind the small blue box. She hopped behind a pillar of a store on the opposite side of the sidewalk and willed her heart rate down as she heard the approaching outsiders.

"I can't believe you left your backpack you idiot, it's like you're asking to get us disciplined." Red was yelling at his partner.

"I'm sorry, alright? I know exactly where it is, it'll only take me two seconds it's not a big deal." Mag said clearly embarrassed.

"Alright, I'm going to stand watch while you go in and grab it, we can't risk any more screw ups today."

The couple walked right past Timmy's hiding place and he stuck his head out once they passed to see if he could spot Kayla. Once they walked past Kayla and to the book store, she felt a pit in her stomach grow.

They wouldn't find the backpack in the store, she looked down in her hand at the Outsider's backpack that she had grabbed. They would know somebody was close, it wouldn't take a lot of effort to find them. Their hiding spots only worked at concealing Timmy and Kayla because no one was looking for them, once they knew someone was around- it would only be a matter of minutes until they would both be found. She looked at Timmy from her spot and pointed to the stolen backpack in her hands, she saw his eyes widen with fear as the realization hit him too.