FicWad

The line in the chemist twisted and turned around the aisles blocking almost every shelf and grew longer by the second. Rachel grabbed some bottles of shampoo conditioner, moisturizer and body wash before the line extended to cover the shelves it sat on. The noise was growing as more and more people came in. She pushed past a woman and threw some bandages and paracetamol into her basket.
By the time she reached the end of the line it was almost out the door. Although it was moving quickly, Rachel felt incredibly anxious as she looked at the clock on the wall. Ten minutes must have passed already. The voice in her head was muttering.
‘Come on come on we don’t have all day we have to get out of here. Just steal the shit you have now.’ Rachel looked at the door and considered doing just that she’d already seen a few people do it, but she need to get Nicole’s asthma medicine and someone’s something or other. She turned her head back towards the counter. Wow the line was moving fast, she was now only about ten people away from being served. Her name was called out.
“Rachel! Are you done yet?” it was Ledgard and he was standing outside with a trolley full of shopping.
“I still need to get the medicine,” Ledgard shook his head and cupped his ear. She raised her voice a little.
“I said -,” her sentence was drowned out as a loud blast filled everyone’s ears.
Every set of eyes in the chemist was looking at the door where everyone outside had also turned their heads towards the sound. Her heart stopped beating and everyone and everything was deadly silent, even the voice in her head had stopped moaning. Then in a patronizing voice,
‘I told you we needed to leave.’
A warm breeze was the next thing Rachel felt. A flash caught in the corner of her left eye causing her head to turn to the counter. Her mind seemed to unfreeze as she saw several men walk up the aisles of drugs behind the counter towards the unsuspecting chemists. A scream sounded out from behind just as her legs took on a mind of their own and ran full pelt for the door. The people before her were a few steps behind some still staring at the door she was aiming for. More and more screams sounded out as other people took for the door. Two things then happened at once. Outside the chemist Ledgard had fallen to the ground while several blasts, that could only be gun shots, touched her ears. She was almost at the door when someone thumped her in the back, landing on top of her when she hit the ground hard. Still the gun blasts came as the stout man pinned her to the ground. Wriggling around underneath the man she tilted her head to look out the shop window. People were fleeing and screaming as they ran towards the supermarket and the exit. Ledgard was no where to be seen.
“Ledgard!” screaming out Rachel barely recognized her own voice. Her focus was forced to her left as a woman fell, sending spluttering blood from her mouth into Rachel’s face. Her body froze, her face wrinkled eyes shut like she had just eat something unbelievably bitter. The screaming coming from the depths of the chemist was slowly dying and she heard and other body fall to the right of her.
‘Get the hell up Rachel, you can’t die like this. Using all of her strength she rolled over, pushing the man to her right.
Frantically cleaning the blood from her eyes a shiver ran down her spine. A warm liquid was running down the side of her neck. Her heart started to pound faster as her body rushed to take care of the phantom wound. Rachel’s hand smeared the blood into her hair as it frantically searched for the wound she was sure she had. ‘Wait, there’s no pain. I’m not injured.’ Rachel spun on the spot and faced the woman who had fallen earlier, her eyes were almost popping out of her skull one of her hands still clutching at a wound in her neck. The blood was coming from her mouth as it tried to inhale the oxygen it vitally needed. Then it stopped, her hand dropping to the floor as she left this earth. Rachel was suddenly aware if the silence in the store. Laying there she didn’t know if she should move. Her eyes traveled to the counter and saw the balaclava men one of them was holding a bag while the other hurled drugs into the bag, a rifle dangling at his side. No moving now was not a good idea. The woman’s eyelids were slowly closing. The light had left her brown eyes and Rachel couldn’t take it anymore. Two voices cried out as she got to her feet and ran towards the door.
“Oi” come from one of the men behind her while the voice bellowed in her head.
Before anyone could do anything a blast that overloaded all her senses came from her left throwing her through the already shattered glass window. Her head was throbbing, screaming started out again and the skin in her arm felt like it was on fire. Rachel kept her eyes shut escaping was out of the question right now. A ringing filled her ears and her eyes were viewing a dazzling light show behind closed lids. Unwanted the voice spoke again.
‘You lucky bitch!’ the voice sounded amazed and amused.
“Shut the fuck up,” Rachel mumbled out loud.
‘Get up then don’t let your little stunt go wasted.’ Another blast sounded in the background, now was the time to get. Using her arms as bolsters Rachel steadied herself before opening her eyes. Either the knock to her head had caused her mind to see everything in orange or the shopping center was on fire.
Crap it was on fire. Timidly getting to her feet she looked around. There were bodies everywhere and she could see the road outside through a new hole in the wall where a butcher shop used to be. She struggled to hear but the ringing was still too prevalent.
Ledgard. Spinning on the spot her eyes scanned for any sign of him. A figure came running through the exit that looked a lot like Scutch. If it wasn’t she was in trouble. It was him. He stopped in front of Rachel, his mouth moving chaotically but Rachel had no idea what he was saying.
“What! What are you talking about! I can’t hear you.” Scutch grabbed her upper arm and jogged towards the exit, without another word. Tripping over the debris and bodies she stumbled along behind him.
The carnage was unbelievable. Rachel didn’t know where to look the whole center was flickering orange from the fires that where slowly starting to grow or crimson from all the blood. Men and women lay broken and battered on the ground impaled on usually harmless objects or split in two. The buzzing in her ears made it impossible to ignore her eyes. Her normally blank mind was now overloading with emotion.
They were almost at the door when a writhing body caught Rachel’s eye. She pulled her arm free from Scutch’s grip, with some trouble, and ran as fast as she could to the woman. Her mouth was moving her face scrunched in pain as she clutched at the metal pole that was protruding from her side. Rachel reached for the wound and pressed as hard as she could to stop the bleeding. Scutch showed up at her side just as she woman opened her mouth and eyes wide her throat vibrating slightly. Her ears weren’t working but she could almost hear the tormented pain filled scream the woman had made.
“We have to get her to a hospital,” Rachel shouted out unnecessarily loud. Scutch instantly reached down and scooped the woman up into his arms. Her left arm hung limply as her right started to shake, still trying to stem the flow of blood. Rachel followed at a much slower pace still scanning around for any sign of Ledgard. Reaching the doors she turned around and looked back on the war zone, the little voice voicing its unwanted opinion again.
‘It’s just going to get worse,’ Rachel turned away and ran, her head throbbing, after Scutch.