Life After: Episode 4 (A Serial Novel) Read Free

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avoid being hit by the man’s body. He looked up and saw Rebecca standing over
him, baseball bat in hand. “Now we’re even,” she said.
    Rebecca reached down and grabbed Clark’s
hand, helping him up. He stood over the soldier and saw a small stream of blood
move slowly across the ground.
    “Nice work,” he said to Rebecca. He bent down and picked up the
rifle. Hesitantly, he placed his hand on the man’s neck to check for a pulse,
but none could be felt.
    He searched the body and found over a dozen food bars, a straw
water filtration device, and a few more rounds for the rifle. He rose and
scanned his surroundings. The utter silence in the store was enough to convince
him that they were alone. Still, he listened intently for footsteps, but none
could be heard.
    “Let’s get back to the others,” Rebecca said.
    Clark nodded and took his first
steps towards the back of the store. They reached the door to the stock room in
less than a minute. Clark opened the door and
whispered to the group, “Let’s go.” He pointed to the bay door. “We need to get
out of here before they come looking for their buddy.”
    He heard rustling in the darkness and in a few seconds, saw
Charles emerge.
    “Did they find another way into the store?” Charles asked.
    “Yeah,” Clark said.
    “And?”
    Rebecca smiled. “I took care of him.”

 
 
    * * *

 
    Ten minutes of searching revealed many useful supplies.
Clark found a backpack in one of the isles and
began filling it with items he found along the way. The most urgent were first
aid supplies for Tyler’s
wound. They also found a striker along with several packages of flint, a
flashlight and several packages of batteries, a hunting knife in a leather
sheath, and several earth tone ponchos were found in the sporting goods
section. They also found a compound bow and a few packages of arrows. Clark knew most people would overlook such items, as
guns, ammunition, food, and water were of the greatest concern. They checked
the front of the store but all of the candy displays were picked clean. No
other food could be found.
    Clark stepped to the front of
the store and looked out through the glass. The parking lot was still empty,
though he knew they couldn’t wait around too long. Whoever was standing guard
at the other side of the store was likely to check things out soon enough.
    “Wait,” Rebecca said. “I should work on Tyler’s wound before we leave.”
    “There’s no time,” Clark said.
“We need to get to the woods. It will be dark soon.”
    Rebecca gave a hesitant look. “Fine,” she said. “But once we get
to the woods…”
    Clark walked towards the broken
store window at the front of the building. He stepped through a gaping hole in
the glass and turned around. “Careful,” he said.
    Clark surveyed the parking lot.
Nobody was in sight. One at a time, they stepped through with Clark
leading the way.
    Clark continued to check all
around them as they walked. Rebecca walked behind him, helping Tyler along. Charles and Thomas followed
behind Rebecca, and kept an eye out behind them, in case any Imperials
attempted to launch a surprise attack.
    In less than five minutes, they found the entrance to a wooded
trail. They walked up a steep incline to return to the relative safety of the
forest. The sun had nearly set by the time they walked a half mile off the
trail to clear a place to camp for the night. Before complete darkness overtook
them, Clark and Rebecca worked on Tyler’s
wound. They found that the bullet had not penetrated his leg, but merely grazed
him. Rebecca dressed the wound to the best of her ability with the aid of the
flashlight.
    Darkness set in quickly and summoned the creatures of the night.
Insects chirped their rhythmic tune, echoing back and forth before joining in a
chorus of a thousand noises clustered as one.
    “I’ll stand guard first,” Charles said to Clark.
“You need your rest.”
    “Thanks,” Clark said, turning
off