Chapter
9
By Julie
“Um… Nick? Nick?”
Someone was saying
his name, but Nick chose to ignore it, keeping his eyes squeezed shut. His head was still throbbing with pain from
where Nate had hit him with his gun, and he wanted nothing more than to just go
to sleep and escape his misery.
“Nick??”
No such luck. The voice was growing more persistent. Nick forced his eyes open and looked up
irritably to find himself face to face with the young checker, Kim.
“What?” he asked,
his voice monotone.
“Sorry,” said Kim
timidly, “but I don’t think Brian’s doing so well. Look at him.”
Nick instantly
scooted over to where Brian was laying, forgetting his pain for the time
being. “Bri? Bri, you okay?” he asked in a panic. He received no response, and when he got a
good look at his friend, he realized what Kim meant. Brian’s eyes were closed, and his skin was
sheathed in cold sweat. The only sign
that he was still alive was the fact that his chest was rising and falling
rapidly with every breath he took. But
even his breathing was not good – he was practically panting, breathing very
shallowly, and his lips were tinged blue.
“We need Ella,” Nick
whispered. “I don’t know what to do.”
But Ella was hiding
in the storage room, and getting her to come out would mean putting her life in
danger again. Their whole scheme would
be exposed if Ella emerged, and Nate would be pissed. David would be even more so, once he regained
consciousness. What would they do?
Nick didn’t even want
to think of what the consequences of their actions might be if they were found
out. He would have to take care of Brian
on his own.
“Brian,” he said
more urgently, lightly nudging his friend’s shoulder. “Come on, buddy, wake up. You’ve got to stay awake, come on, Bri.”
“Is there a
problem?” a nasty voice asked.
Nick whipped around
to find Nate standing over them. He
hesitated, not sure what to say.
“Looks like you
could use some help from our little doctor-in-training, huh? Should I go find Ella for you?” Nate’s lips curled up in a sneer.
“No!” Nick said
quickly, knowing if Nate went back there and found David bound, gagged, and
unconscious, there would be hell to pay.
“No, we can manage.”
“Are you sure? I didn’t think you knew anything about first
aid. You wouldn’t want to be responsible
for your friend dying, now would you?
I’m sure Ella could help him.” He
smiled tauntingly down at Nick.
Nick glared up at
him and knew he had no choice. He needed
Ella for Brian’s sake, and he would have to let Nate go get her from the
storage room. He decided if there was
trouble, he would take the blame, say it was all his idea. He couldn’t let them hurt Ella like they had
hurt Brian and Trent; Ella seemed to be Brian’s only hope for now.
“Yeah,” he
mumbled. “Yeah, you’re right.”
“That’s what I
thought,” said Nate with a grin. “I’ll
just go fetch her from the back room then.
I’m sure David’s had enough fun with her for now.”
If only you knew,
Nick thought, glaring after Nate as he walked away.
Nate stopped and
glanced over his shoulder. “By the way,”
he called back to Nick. “I already know
all about your little escapade in the storage room. Guess you didn’t notice the security cameras
recording your every move. I know Ella
didn’t. She’s still hiding on the top of
a cooler.”
And he walked on,
leaving Nick’s mouth hanging open.
So he knew. He knew everything. They hadn’t been so clever after all. Security cameras… why hadn’t he thought of
that?
The good thing was
that Nate had obviously known about this for awhile and hadn’t done anything to
them yet, so maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe
they would get lucky.
Nick prayed that
would be the case. He couldn’t take much
more of this.
***
Ella lay silently on
top of the cooler, thinking. David was
still unconscious from when she had hit him with the tray, but she knew he
would be waking up again sooner or later.
And then what? She knew she
couldn’t keep knocking him out forever; Nate or Kelly would start to suspect
something eventually and come to check on them.
She had to find a way out. But
the only way out was through the blocked back door.
She was stuck.
Her situation seemed
pretty bad right then. But it was about
to get worse.
Suddenly, the storage
room door burst open, startling Ella.
She heard pounding footsteps and an angry voice cry out, “Ready or not,
here I come!”
It was Nate.
Oh no, oh no, oh no.
Ella lay perfectly
still, knowing he would find her there, yet praying he wouldn’t.
He did.
He came right to
her, a demented smile on his face.
“Game’s over, bitch!” he yelled up to her. “Get down from there right now, or I’ll bring
you down myself!” He held up his gun,
aiming it up at her.
“Alright!” Ella
cried, choking back a sob. “Please,
don’t… I’m coming down.”
“Good.”
Nate stood, watching
her every move, as she carefully climbed down from the cooler. She could feel his eyes on her back, and her
legs shook as she struggled not to lose her balance.
“Thought you were
pretty smart, hiding up there, didn’t you?” Nate sneered when Ella was safely
on the ground. “Well, you weren’t. Never noticed that, huh?” He pointed up to the ceiling. Following his gaze, Ella’s heart sank. She saw the small, black sphere mounted to
the ceiling and knew what it was. A
camera. A camera that had filmed every
move she had made for Nate and Kelly to see.
Why didn’t I think
of that? Why didn’t I see it? I’m so stupid,
Ella thought disgustedly. Now she was
caught, and any hopes of an escape were ruined.
“Dave’s sure gonna
be pissed at you when he wakes up, you know that, right?” Nate muttered,
glancing over at his unconscious accomplice.
“Hope he doesn’t do something crazy.”
He flashed her a psychotic grin and twirled his gun around his finger. “Come on, let’s go, back up front.”
Grabbing Ella, he
pressed the barrel of his gun to her back and shoved her roughly across the
room to the door leading to the main store.
Pushing her through it, he walked her back to the front of the room, where
Kelly stood guard over the others. Nick
glanced up at her and met her eyes, offering her a grim, defeated sort of
smile.
“I’m sorry,” Ella
mouthed, her eyes filling with tears.
Her brain told her she had nothing to be sorry for – there was no way out
of that storage room anyway – but she felt otherwise. She had failed him, failed Brian, failed them
all. She had been their only chance of
escape, and she had blown it. There was
no way Nate, Kelly, or David would let any one of them out of their sight
again. They would hold them prisoner
there until… well, Ella didn’t really know what. Until they got what they wanted, she
supposed. Money, transportation,
whatever it was. And if they didn’t get
what they wanted, maybe Nate would just shoot them all, one by one. If he couldn’t win, why should they, right?
Then again, he might
shoot them all anyway.
***
“He’s going into
shock,” said Ella, minutes later, when she had regained her composure and gone
to check on Brian.
“Shock? What do we do?” Nick asked, his voice
wavering.
“We need to keep him
warm. I need jackets to cover him with,”
Ella replied. “Get mine, it’s over there
by that magazine rack.”
“Here!” Kim grabbed Ella’s coat from the floor and
tossed it over to Nick, who handed it to Ella.
“Anybody else have a
jacket?” Ella asked, gently placing her winter coat gently over Brian’s chest,
tucking it in around his shoulders.
“Mine’s under his
head,” said Nick, motioning to his coat, which he had folded up like a pillow
and placed under Brian’s head.
“H-here,” said
Jordan, speaking for the first time in quite a while. She was wearing a puffy, white parka. She quickly took it off and handed it to
Nick.
“Thanks,” said Nick,
patting her shoulder and giving her a gentle smile as he took her coat.
“Wait… I have
T-Trent’s, too.” Sniffling, Jordan
picked up a black Adidas jacket from the floor beside her and hesitantly gave
it to Nick.
“Thank you,” Nick
said again. “I’m sorry… about Trent.”
At the sound of his
name, Jordan’s eyes filled with tears, and she looked away. Swallowing hard, Nick handed the two coats to
Ella, who used them to cover the rest of Brian’s body.
“Is that enough?”
asked Kim. “My coat’s in the staff
room…”
“That’ll be enough,
thanks,” said Ella.
“Is Brian going to
be all right?” Nick asked, sinking to the ground beside Ella.
Ella bit her
lip. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “He’s still losing blood, and…” She sighed.
“I just don’t know.”
She half-expected
him to bite her head off and start complaining about her inexperience again,
but he did not. He just nodded, his jaw
set, and avoided her gaze.
“I’m sorry, Nick,”
Ella said softly. “I’m so sorry.”
Nick shook his
head. “It’s not your fault. It’s those bastards’” He clenched his teeth, glaring over at Nate
and David. David had emerged from the
storage room minutes earlier and now sat on one of the checkout counters,
doctoring his head, which had a nice-sized goose egg forming on it.
Hearing Nick’s
words, Nate and David both looked over at them.
David glared at Nick for a moment, then turned his gaze to Ella. His eyes narrowed menacingly at her, sending
chills down her spine.
Ella forced herself
to look away. “He’s going to kill me,”
she mumbled through gritted teeth.
Nick studied her for
a moment and saw that she had begun to tremble.
“Don’t worry,” he whispered, setting a hand on her quivering
shoulder. “I won’t let him hurt you. I won’t let any of them hurt you.”
***
