Broken Dreams(119)

“Sleep,” I murmured, and drifted back off.



***



“Now what?” Claire asked in a mild panic.

“Let’s get her into the truck. We can fold the seats down and try to keep her comfortable while we medically attend to her.” Henry reached down and scooped Elaina up.

Just as he took one step toward the door, they heard the unmistakable sound of a shotgun pump. They all stopped dead in their tracks. Henry turned his head, still holding Elaina firmly in front of him, only to see the little punk ass kid pointing a shotgun at everyone. “No one is goin’ nowhere!”

“Listen, kid…” Henry started. He realized he must have had some shells stashed away in his pockets. He cursed at himself for not checking. After he had tied him up in the back room, the kid showed him that his gun was empty and laughed. Henry wasn’t amused.

“I ain’t no, kid!”

“Okay, mate. Listen, we need to get her in a safe zone so we can clean her up and stitch her if need be.”

“I ain’t lettin’ you undeads, or whatever the fuck you are, leave!”

“We need to tend to her medically. Let us at least take her to the truck.” Sophie started to maneuver her way around behind him, while Henry held his attention. They worked well together because they were so in sync.

“What about my deal? I was supposed to get some supplies in exchange for not shootin’ you.” Sophie grabbed his neck from behind, and shoved him onto the cold hard floor with her knee jammed in his back.

“ARRRG! Get off of me, you whore!” She jammed her knee into him further. His protruding spine began to sway beneath her weight.

“Now it’s my turn,” she growled. The kid continued to struggle underneath her. “You listen to me, and you listen carefully. Understand?” There was no response except a little struggle from him.

Henry, Nick, and Claire had taken off to head to the truck. Before she left the store, Claire turned around when she heard all the commotion. “She has got him handled. Let’s go. We need to get Elaina fixed up.” They hurried out the door.

“Do you understand me?!” Sophie screamed in his ear.

“Yes! Yes!” The kid choked out.

“We are in charge. You will do as we say, or you’ll end up like us because I surely could go for a fix right about now. You got that?! I said, do you have it?!”

“Yes!” The kid coughed and squirmed as much as he could. “Please, please get off me.” He coughed again. Sophie searched him all over. He had a couple shanks in his back pocket, and bullets in his front. She also found what looked to be a school ID.

“Oh, what’s this?”

“Please!” She still had her knee crammed into his back.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Oh, you really aren’t photogenic are you, Thomas Anderson.” Sophie giggled. She couldn’t help herself. “Is that your name, Thomas?”

“Yes!” he yelled in pain.

“Alright, Thomas. I’m Sophie, and I will be your worst fucking nightmare if you do not follow orders. Now, I’ll be taking this, thank you very much.” She grabbed the shotgun from his hand. “When I let you up, you will walk calmly outside those doors, and wait patiently for your supplies and further instructions. You will not argue, fuss, or threaten any one of us, or you will find yourself true dead. Hmm…maybe we could tap you first. What are you? B positive? O negative?”

The taunting broke Thomas. “Alrigh’, alrigh’! I will do wha’ever you say, just don’ eat me, please!” He was so scared that he whimpered the whole way out to the truck. Sophie kept pushing him with the business end of the shotgun to spur him to move faster.

“Claire, gather up some food for little Thomas here so we can go. And, for the love of god, shut the hell up!” She was tired of his whimpering so she swatted him in the back of the head. Thomas recoiled and held up his thin arms around his head, hoping she wasn’t going to bite him. Not that he could have stopped her if she wanted to. Claire was a little taken aback when Sophie swatted Thomas.

“What do you want me to give him?”

“Hmm… What are you worth?” Sophie stepped back and looked Thomas up and down.

“Alright, Sophie. Enough! Think about this as if he was Samuel.” Henry spoke sternly from the cargo area of the truck. He was looking at the situation while he was stitching up Elaina’s head.

That hit Sophie hard. She had forgotten about Anna and Samuel. She needed to stay in check over it. She didn’t want to give anything away.

“He is just a boy. You remember what it was like for us when we were that age?” Sophie backed off some. She looked humiliated. “Claire, grab him a few packages of food and about six bottles of water.”