Morning came quicker then they all expected, Doug being that he had the last watch was the first to be up. He was poking at the now small fire with a stick, making the embers glow and light ashes float up. They had nothing to eat, only water to last them the day and hopefully when they reached the gas station there they would find some food and if their luck would hold, a car.
The sun was rising higher and higher so Doug decided that it was time to wake the kids up. He walked over to them, Bobby first, he nudged his shoulder and the boy blinks his eyes slowly a few time and then once hard before sitting up.
"Morning already?" Bobby asked yawning.
"Yeah, go wake your sister up, we better get moving soon if we want to be there before dark." Doug said as he walked over to his daughter picker her up trying not to wake her.
Bobby crawled over to Brenda, he gave her a light shake on the arm and said her name softly. Her eyes shot open and she screamed as she began lashing out at him. "Brenda! Brenda! It's just me, it's just me, Bobby!" he said trying to get her under control.
She thrashed about for another minute or so as Bobby kept saying her name and trying to calm her down. Finally her breathing be came easy and she looked at Bobby with scared eyes. "Bobby?" She asked. "Oh God, oh I'm sorry, I guess... I – I was just having a bad dream... I guess." She said putting her hand to her head. "Oh God." She moaned.
Doug stayed by the fire rocking his now awake daughter in his arms. "You're not the only one." He said looking at Catherine.
The siblings came over and took a seat near the fire that was not almost completely out. He handed them a bottle of water. "Try not to drink too much; we don't have a lot left." He said and the two each took a couple sips out of the bottle.
"When should we start to leave?" Bobby asked.
"I don't know." He replied. "I guess now is a good as time as any."
But they didn't leave then, they sat staring at the fire for almost ten minutes until Doug finally stood up and called Beast. The dog came running over with his tongue hanging out, tail wagging and he was panting. At least someone was in a good mood.
The first twenty minutes of the walk was in pure dead silence, except for the soft beat of Brenda's ipod which she found still in the seat of the truck during the night. But she was dangerously low on batteries.
Every now and then they would see Doug flinch at nothing or turn his head around startling them. But it was always nothing, but you really couldn't blame him for being a little paranoid. But His paranoia certainly did not help anyone, whenever he flinched it caused one of the teens to flinch and when they flinched the other flinched. This chain reaction slowly them down immensely, because whenever they flinched they would almost come to a stop and look around and it would take a good few seconds for them to gain the proper speed once more.
They walked for the longest time, only stopping once when Catherine began crying and Doug had to try and get her to drink some of the water. He succeeded but it took a lot of coaxing from her father to calm her down again. But lucky for them that was the only stop they had to make and the rest of the way was thankfully uneventful.
The sun was getting low in the sky again after a while as they walked, Doug began to worry that they wouldn't make it to the gas station before it was gone and they couldn't walk at night. Nights in the desert were bone chilling cold; they wouldn't survive, not in the condition they were in. He also started to worry that they had walked in the wrong direction, but he also knew that wasn't possible, he had walked that way and it was a dead end. But around this place you never knew.
Finally after what seemed like an endless day of walking they spotted the gas station on the horizon, the small shop and gas pumps just peeking over the road. Doug gave a sigh of relief and Brenda was the first of the two to look up ahead of the, she cried out and smiled, long ago her ipod had run out of batteries and she was on the verge of a breakdown. Bobby then saw it and she laughed.
"Let's just hope they have a working car up there." He said.
"Don't jinx us." Brenda said and hit him lightly on the arm.
They walked up to it just as the horizon began turning a pink color with the setting sun.
"We should stop here for the night." Doug said, "get some food, God I hope they have some."
"I'm sure they do, that old guy lives here, right?" Brenda said as they approached the gas station.
"Yeah... Jesus, I hope we don't have the pleasure of running into him." Bobby said .
They heard Doug gasp from a few yards away. "Um... I – I don't think we really have to worry about that." he stuttered pointing to the outhouse, there was no body, but there was blood all over the walls and a pool at the bottom with obvious drag marks leading out.
"Oh my God." Brenda said looking over and covering her mouth.
"Shit..."
Doug and Brenda turned form the outhouse where they eyes were transfixed and looked to Bobby who walked away from the gruesome sight only to run into another. "What is it?" Doug asked.
"Looks like Big Bob made it here after all." He said his voice betraying him as tremors racked trough his body.
They looked at one of the cars, it had blood stains on the seat and the front windshield was broken and like the seats covered in blood. Brenda began to cry as she saw the blood all over the car.
"How do we know its Big Bob's?" Doug asked in a quiet voice.
"Well the old guy died over there, there's no way he could have git hurt here and made his way over there... not with that much blood gone..." Bobby said and they all stared at the car for another minute, Doug keeping Catherine's face in his shirt to prevent more horrors entering her mind.
Doug couldn't take the sight any longer and walked away, it was just to horrible for him too see. Over the past couple days he had seen too much for an entire lifetime, and entire lifetime of ten people. Bobby and Brenda noticed his absence and saw him walking to the store and they followed him, when they walked in the small jingle noise from the door was the only sound and then their tired heavy footsteps on the hollow wooden floor.
They all smiled at the sight of the supplies that they now hard, now all they had to do was pray that one of the cars was working. Because, if it didn't then they were trapped out here with absolutely no way out. They just happen to be lucky that they ran into this gas station, they hadn't seen any other civilization for several hours of driving.
"Okay, so here we have some food, some water, we're good." Doug said. "Here, Brenda, can you hold her." He asked handing Catherine off to his sister-in-law.
He walked out to the first car, avoiding the one covered in blood and opened the door. He sat down inside and first looked around for a set of keys. There were none. "Damn, he said to himself and looked over to Bobby. "Bobby checked the other car for keys." Bobby checked real quick around the inside of the car. "None?"
Bobby shook his head. "No..." He moved the hood and opened it, "this one won't work either, looks like he used it just for parts, batteries gone... no oil... no nothing... looks like... how about that one?"
"I dunno." Dou said from the inside. "I can't find any keys."
"What about everything else?" He asked walking over.
"C'mon, man," Doug sighed as he moved out of the car. "You know me..."
"Okay fine," Bobby moved to the hood and popped it. He looked around for about five minutes all the while Doug praying that it was suitable to drive. Finally after making a few circles around the car Bobby came back and nodded. "This one looks like it's been driven, its old I wouldn't buy it even for parts, but by all rights it should start."
"But we have no key."
"What about that crossing wires thing." Brenda said and the boys turned. "You know, you always see some guy crossing wires."
"Yeah," Bobby nodded. "Yeah, I know how to cross wires, Big Bob showed me once."
"Okay... good... c'mon guys, its late, the suns down we should get inside." Doug said taking Catherine back and walking toward the store.
Brenda winced and held her stomach. "Can we eat something first, I'm really, really, hungry."
Doug nodded. "Uh huh."
They walked inside and Brenda found something to satisfy her hunger and took it back to the others, Bobby enjoyed eating the bag of chips with her. He hadn't realized just hoe hungry he was, and Doug too, they all hadn't realized how hungry they really were until they saw the bag of food. Lucky for Catherine too, in the back there was a refrigerator he found a half filled gallon of milk, he was so thankful for his young daughter to get something other then water.
After their sorry excuse for dinner they used some of the thin blankets in the store and made a small bed for themselves. Since they were able to lock the door and they were inside they decided they did not need a watchmen for the night. They wee all asleep within minutes, all of the together.
AN: This was short and uneventful, sorry. I don't know if this story is gonna last much longer. It depends, three more chapters' tops. But thanks for reviewing; this little I didn't think this little nagging thought would actually get reviews. Well thanks for the reviews and I'll get the next chapter up ASAP.
