King Eden

Chapter Four: Red Eye

We escaped their gunfire into a grocery store. Something small hit my calf before we slipped inside. I thought it was a pebble and paid it little mind at first.

The smell inside was devastating. Worms spilled from shelves of produce and meat. We stumbled over the empty crates that the thieves left in their raid, Eli covering his nose with his shirt, and I, careening into the racks as if I were drunk. My hunger, exhaustion, and injuries were beginning to drain the energy I had garnered from adrenaline alone. Soon, it was difficult to keep my head up. Eli led me behind a medicine counter where we took cover and caught our breath. I scraped a trail of blood across the floor.

I pressed my head against the shelves, closed my eyes, and listened to the ringing in my ears while spots exploded behind my eyelids. Once I gathered enough courage, I rolled my pant leg to see where I had been shot. There were two holes in the back of my calf. The bullet missed the femoral artery and the bleeding wasn't severe, nor was the pain until the cramping started which became increasingly unbearable. It was like a hornet sting that intensified until I could think of nothing except how much I needed morphine.

Eli saw the wound and gasped. "They hurt you!" He bloodied his hands trying to put pressure on it like he had seen "the other adults do in the infirmary–" that's how he defended his expertise, anyway. I told him to stop because it hurt enough to make me black out for a few seconds. He did and apologized. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight.

The Palladians were surrounding the grocery. They were quiet, but I could hear their boots and the clack of their weapons and the whine of a hundred suns warming in the bellies of their guns. I searched the drawers until I found gauze and antiseptic. Eli grabbed a bandage and started wrapping it around my leg, muttering through angry tears that they should pay for hurting me.

I caught his wrists. He dropped the bandage. It bounced over the mosaic of pills I had scattered in my search for pain relievers. "I'm okay," I said. "You have to stop and let me handle this."

"What are we going to do?" he asked.

"Be quiet and stay down."

He drew his knees to his chest while I undid the bandage and washed the wound with antiseptic. I had to bite my tongue to keep from crying out when the alcohol sizzled in the gash. I wrapped it in gauze, pinned it, then unclipped my knife and radio from my belt.

"Take these." I dropped them in his lap. "Take the rifle, too. You remember how to shoot it, yeah? It's just like the carbines you practiced on at home. You know what to do."

He held it as if he'd never seen one before, then looked at me with tears in his eyes. "You're going to make me go without you?"

"I'll catch up, I promise." I jabbed a finger at the storerooms. "You'll escape out the back. There's a safe house not far from here, just cross the beltline and it's on the other side. There are a lot of abandoned vehicles jammed on that highway so you'll have plenty of cover. Watch for the dead. There won't be many and they'll be weak; most should be decayed completely. When you have a clear path, make a break for the safe house. You'll radio Thief once you get there."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'll find a way to hold them off."

"They'll kill you!"

"They'll only try and arrest me. Titan's done enough to incite warfare with Cyrus today. If they catch me, they'll let me go as soon as they see my sunrays and realize what they've gotten themselves into. Titan's finally, finally gone too far."

I double-checked the safety of the rifle and hooked the sling around his shoulder. He studied his boots. I tucked a stray curl behind his ear. He didn't respond to any of my efforts to offer him comfort.