There was a gun shot.
Then a second.
And a third.
I knew what just happened even though I was turned and running away. The image of the freckled face girl, the red headed man, and the elder woman was burned into my mind.
I could hear screams. The terror was tangible and infecting. My heart was racing and I couldn’t even control my footsteps, as I raced around the corner. I had seen people die before, but never like that. Everyone who I witnessed die, died of plague, not gunned down in the streets. The soldiers were here to protect. The government may have been weakened by the infection, but it still survived to keep us safe. Those people must have done something terrible to deserve being shot. Why was I even running? I didn’t do anything wrong. I needed to calm down. I was past the library now and up around the street corner. I jerked myself to a stop and looked down the road to the intersection I had just cut around.
It happened faster than I could register. A man about my father’s age ran through the intersection, he had been standing beside me in the street just a few seconds ago. Just as he began to turn toward my direction we made eye contact. A gun fired. He went down, smacked the concrete, and just laid there. “My God” I murmured.
He was dead. They shot him. He was dead right in front of me. I didn’t see him attack anyone back at the house. What was happening? Why? Why did they shoot him?
Then another shot fired. Then more, many more. They kept coming. By now I could barely hear them though because my heart was pounding so hard I couldn’t even concentrate. I was about to pass out.
“Mare!?!” I shouted. “Nova! Ireland!” I didn’t know where they were. Didn’t they follow me? Oh my God, did they shot them? “Mare! Nova! Ireland! Where are you?” I shrieked. Then something flew right past my head and hit the corner of the building just past me. They were shooting at me. They were going to kill me.
I ran again. I ran up the hill till I got to the business district. There were people here standing on the street. They all looked confused. I didn’t know what to say, so I just ran past them, around them, through them. I had to make it to my dad who was somewhere in town running errands with my sister. I had run about twelve blocks and made it past a vacant Dollar General before I made it to the spot where I had left them. But the car wasn’t there. I looked across the parking lot at all the shops and houses and I didn’t see any sign of my father or sister’s presence. The sound of a gun firing not too far behind me sent me into a run again.
I ran a few blocks farther down and made it to a small trading lodge that had been set up in the remnants of an old Pizza Hut. I saw our car towards the far end of the lot. I was almost there. I just needed to find them now. I ran inside and franticly looked around the tables for them. Everyone here seemed to be oblivious to the event outside. They continued walking from table to table, trading food for other objects. I ducked in and out of them, trying to catch a glimpse of my family from the crowd. I finally just stood up on one of the merchant’s tables and looked over everyone and it was only then that I got a glimpse of my sister’s lime green barrette at one of the tables straight ahead of me.
I was in such a panic that when I jumped down from the table I tripped on a woman’s foot and slammed my shoulder into the table in front of me. I got up in a scramble, barely managing to stand and squeezed through the crowd until I made it to my sister. I grabbed her arm from behind, which gave her a scare, and then turned to my dad. “We got to go” I whispered to him.
“What?” my sister asked.
“We need to go now” my voice breaking at the end of the sentence. It felt like I was choking on something, maybe it was my own tongue.
My dad was still turned from me and looking at the tools lying on the blanketed table. “just one second, I need to-”
“No! We need to go now Dad! Or I’m taking Sydney and I’m leaving!”
He then turned to me and I knew he could read the panic on my face, because he instantly set down the hammer he was holding “okay, let’s go”.
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