My heart skipped a beat.
The silence that followed the scream thickened the atmosphere around us.
We stood in shock. The flashlights shining at each other.
Finally, someone broke the silence.
"What the fuck?!" whispered Jeff.
We stared back.
"Turn your lights off; turn your lights off!" he demanded.
We did as told.
Darkness took back its reign and flooded every space around us.
I could feel myself holding my breath again.
"What do we do now?" I asked in a hushed voice.
"We get out of here!; that's what we do," instructed Ben.
"But...," I started. "What if that girl is being attacked? What if she needs help?" I asked.
"Yeah, so what?" Jeff shot back. "Everyone needs help. We need help. We can't help everyone."
"What we need to do is get the fuck out of here," he said.
A crash booms from the same direction.
"Yeah, we should leave. For all you know it could be a trap, John," Ben said.
I knew they could be right. I knew it could be a trap that could kill me.
But I knew I had to go because someone could need my help.
"I'm gonna go see what happened," I said.
"Are you out of your mind?!" whispered and angry Jeff.
"Sorry," I said. " You can just stay here. I'll be right back."
"Jeff..." started Ben.
But I quickly turned down my flashlight to a lower setting and walked towards the broken windows we had climbed in through.
I get out and start trekking down the mall.
The sounds seemed to have come from four to five doors to the left of the store.
I started tiptoeing after passing two stores.
I completely turned off my light. I waited a few seconds to adjust to the darkness.
I opened my ears to catch any sort of noise that could be coming from the person that emitted the scream.
I kept moving straight for a few more meters when I heard it.
A muffled sound and what seemed to be really quite sobs coming from the inside of a shop.
I slowly moved to the front entrance. There were no doors. I walked in.
"Hello?" I whispered.
The noise stopped.
"Hello?" I called again. This time a bit louder. "Are you okay?; do you need help?"
After a few seconds, a quiet trembling female voice spoke from the left side corner of the room.
"Who are you? What do you want? Please leave me alone."
"Hi... I'm John. I just wanted to see if you were okay or if you needed help," I responded.
"Why?" she asked.
I didn't respond.
She shone a light on me. I couldn't see her. I thought about turning back and leaving.
"My dad just disappeared," she said in a low and sad voice. "We both came to find tools, and I went to the back of the store, but when I returned, he was gone."
She started sobbing again. The light shone away from me.
"I'm sorry," I said after a few seconds. "My brother and my mother also disappeared."
She kept crying.
After a few seconds, she spoke again.
"He's all I had. He's all I ever had."
We stayed in silence once more.
"I'm sorry for your loss," she said after a few seconds.
"Thank you," I said. "But, I still like to think they're out there somewhere. Same for your dad."
She made a noise that sounded like an assertion.
I got closer to her and turned on my flashlight. I was careful to not shine the light directly on her.
I could see her sitting on the ground with her head in between her knees. Her body was lightly shaking.
She looked up.
I offered my hand. She took it and stood up.
I couldn't really see her face. But her height was just below mine and I could tell she had curly hair.
"Hi," I said again with a half smile.
"Hi," she whispered. “I'm Bea, by the way."
Suddenly, we heard a set of running footsteps coming from right outside of the shop. They stopped right in front of us. I could see bright lights coming from them.
I quickly turned of my flashlight and Bea did the same.
We both stood in silence.
The whistles of our noses increasing with every acceleration of our heartbeats.
"Was it here?" asked a voice.
"Yeah," responded another. "I saw the light coming from in here. It's probably where the scream came from."
"Hey!" yelled the first voice. "We know you're in there."
"Come out!" the same voice demanded.
We stayed quiet.
I felt around and realized I had left my dad's blue ax back in the shoe store.
"I won't say it one more time," said the same voice.
"What do you want?" I asked.
"We just want to talk," said the second voice.
"How many of you are in there?" asked the first voice.
"It's just me," I said.
"Bullshit," said a third voice.
"Really. It's just me," I repeated.
"Bullshit," repeated the same voice. "We heard the scream."
"Did you kill someone?" the first voice asked.
I stayed in silence.
"Come on out with your hands up," said the first voice.
Knowing I had no choice, I walked to the front entrance with my hands held high. Bea stayed behind.
Three light beams shone on me. I could see guns being pointed on me as well.
"Check him," instructed the guy who had spoken first.
One of the guys walked over to me. He was bald and looked to be in his mid-30s. He was wearing a worn out dirty brown jacket and a pair of ripped jeans. He took my backpack and tossed it to them. He patted me down making sure I didn't have any weapons on me.
"He's clear," he yelled back to the first guy.
"Walk over here," the first guy told me.
I walked over to them.
I saw the first guy had long hair and a beard and was wearing a ripped t-shirt and pants. The third guy was wearing shorts and a tank top.
"Check the shop for others," the first guy instructed.
"Hey, man. There's no need," I said. "I told you I was alone."
The bald guy ignored me. He walked farther into the shop.
I felt myself tense.
I waited for him to drag Bea out. But after a couple minutes, he returned and said he hadn't found anyone.
I let out a small sigh of relief.
"What do we do with him?" the third guy asked the first guy.
"Well," the first guy responded in an icy voice. Fewer people does mean more supplies for us."
I felt my heart drop.
"Hey, no, no, no, no," I said. "You don't have to kill me. Please, guys. I won't cause any problems. I swear."
"Oh well we can't be sure about that, bud," he said in the same voice.
He raised his gun to my head.
"Please don't," I begged.
I heard the shot.
But instead of me dropping, I watched as he hit the floor.
