Navaphodo Incident, Ch 2

         "What about at the grocery store?  That has food, water, and a small degree of medical supplies for him."  Laura motioned to the human with her head.
         Carrying the human and bobbing through the debris proved quite difficult, and soon became a hassle.  Since the human couldn't move his feet out of the way, the trio constantly hit obstacles.  Finally, Jack just took the human and threw him over his shoulders.
         "It'll be easier this way, because now we're not stopping every few seconds.  Time is of the essence, and night is coming fast."  His pace began to get a little faster.
         "We need to get to that grocery store.  C'mon Laura."  She acknowledged, and caught up to him.  The light from the sun was becoming blocked by all the buildings that still stood.
         "Jack, look, it's just ahead, less than a block!  We're almost there!"  There was a smile on Laura's face, making her spotted cheeks much bigger than normal.  Jack smiled a bit too.  They made their way through the remaining debris, and finally reached the door.
         "He-elllo?  Anyone here?"  Jack's voice bounced off the walls and empty aisles.  He shrugged the human back up onto his shoulders, and stepped inside the grocery store.
         The grocery store had an eerie feel to it, since both Jack and Laura had always known it to be a busy place.  Now that it was dead quiet, it sent shivers up their spines.
         "Alright, let's find a safe place away from the windows, that we can spend the night at.  I don't want to be too visible from the windows."  The grocery store had been constructed so that a passerby's view of the interior was unaltered as they walked by.  But to protect customer's eyes, the windows were tinted.  Jack and Laura immediately went to the back of the store and walked along the back walkway, looking down the aisles.  Amazingly, the windows hadn't been blown out by the blast, so they offered some protection from whatever was attacking. 
         "Jack, come look!  Here's a good place to spend the night."  Laura motioned the two over.  Jack had taken a slow stroll, whilst Laura had sped from aisle to aisle, looking for a spot for the night.  What she found was a great point of interest.  Jack jogged over, and instantly saw how great Laura's find was.
         "This is great; we are totally protected from the windows."  In front of them was the back store room.  Any supplies that had yet to be put out on the shelves were contained in here, as well as some little surprises.  Laura had looked over from the swinging doors, and noticed that there was a pair of keys hanging on a rack.  The keys were most likely left by an employee, no doubt, but what good were they to that employee now?  The cheetah gingerly plucked the keys off the rack, and dangled them in front of Jack.
         "This place is definitely a treasure trove.  Now that we're here, could you raid the medicine aisle?  I think our friend here could use some help."  Jack motioned to the human on his shoulder.
         "Sure thing."  She dropped the keys in Jack's hand, and disappeared out the door.  She later reemerged carrying gauze packets and tape, along with a mound of blankets.
         "Ok, how're we gonna do this.  I have no clue how to bandage him up, and I have no clue if you can either.  But what we can do is lay out the blankets.  That way I don't have to carry him any longer."  Laura nodded, and laid the blankets down.  She backed away, and watched as Jack laid the human down on the blankets.  Now that they actually had time to see the human, they saw the severity of his injuries.  Jack's guesses were correct; the human had sustained injuries to the head and ribs.  The head seemed like it had been oozing blood since he had been picked up, and a red splotch had appeared on his right abdomen.
         "We really need to fix this."  Forcibly pulling her eyes away, Laura opened a package of gauze and a package of tape.  She set them aside and removed the blood soaked shirt from the human.  If his arms had looked white, they were nothing compared to his chest.  His torso looked like snow, and the red viscous liquid oozing from the few lacerations made a stark contrast to the surrounding skin.
         "This is so gross!"  Jack nodded, and just sat down.  Laura made an attempt to wrap the wound, but the dressings got too bloody too fast.  She asked Jack to go and get some napkins.  He was more than happy to oblige, anything to get away from the bloody mess in the store room.  Outside of the room Jack regained his stomach.  He then made his way to the aisle that contained the napkins.  As he grabbed a pack, he heard scuffling.  Scared, he ducked down, and snuck over to the window.
         Outside, there was a gecko, hiding behind a wrecked car.  His back was to the car, and his eyes darted from here to there.  Jack knew he was scared because his chest rose and fell rapidly.  The gecko inched his way towards the edge of the upturned car, peaked his head around the corner, and made a leap for a piece of large concrete on the ground.  Jack was amused by the gecko's behavior, and began to consider calling him over, but something happened before he had the chance.
         The gecko was taking another leap, when in mid-jump, a blue beam shot out from a distance.  The beam collided with the gecko's shoulder, and stopped him in mid-air.  Then, in a split second, the gecko's form exploded into a dust cloud of ash; blanketing the surrounding street.
         Jack's jaw dropped in horror.  This was fake, he must be dreaming.  He needed to wake up.  There was a full grown gecko out in the street one second, and now it was a pile of ash.  Finally, some things clicked in Jack's brain: whatever shot him was not human, and would be coming this way.
         He picked up the napkins and ran as fast as he could to the store room.  Laura was a bit surprised when he came in heaving.
         "What took you so long, and why the heavy breathing.  I gave you a simple task, not too strenuous.  Why are you so out of breath?"  She waited for him to catch his breath.
         "Remember how we thought it could have been Earth who attacked us?"  He received a nod from Laura.  "Well, it isn't.  Humans don't shoot bullets that turn people into piles of dust."  The look on Laura's face was one of disgust.
         "No, you're lying, you're trying to scare me, no, you're totally lying."  Jack shook his head.  He explained exactly what he saw, and Laura just listened.  After Jack finished, she sat silent for a second.  She then just took the napkins and finished cleaning and dressing the human's wounds.  Jack sat and watched, the scene on the street playing through his mind, again and again.
         "What does it all mean?"  She looked distressed as she put the finishing touches on the dressings.  The human looked partly like a mummy, since half his head and torso was all bandaged now.
         "All it means now is that we need to get guns.  We need protection from whatever it was that killed that gecko.  But it is night time, so we do need to get some rest."  Laura nodded.  But both of them knew that it'd be hard to sleep tonight.  Especially knowing that something evil was lurking out on the city streets, waiting to get them.

End          ch2  -