Young Writers Society

Chapter 4 is up! If you haven't read Chapters 1, 2 or 3, I recommend you read them. If you're too lazy, here's a quick summary of what happened:

Chapter 4: Antonio

“Three!” I yelled, kicking the door open. I jumped down the small flight of stairs to the asphalt. Then I sprinted full-force through the parking lot into the middle of the street. I surveyed the devastated neighborhood around me. I couldn't believe how much had changed since just two weeks ago, when I had first arrived at the church.

In front of me was a movie theater. At least I thought it was. The sign had fallen over, and was dangling by only a few wires. Hardly any of the letters that used to spell out the name were still there. Behind the suspended sign were broken windows and splinters of wood. I slowly walked around to the side and saw that pieces of the wall had caved in. The inside of the theater was equally destroyed. Counters that used to sell tickets had burn marks, and some even had gun holes through them. Judging by the size, and space between the bullet holes, it looked like some maniac with an AK-47 tried to loot this place. I shuddered, starting to doubt that we would find anything at the weapon store.

"Antonio, are you ready?" I turned around and saw Zebah staring at me. He had a slender body and short, curly hair. His eyes were a strange, almost hypnotizing orange-red. He had noticeable cuts and bruises all over him. I tried to think of anything he'd done while in the church, but nothing came to mind.

"Oh, sure," I walked past the theater and towards the weapons shop. Three blocks. It shouldn't have taken longer than a few minutes if under normal circumstances, but this was definitely not normal. Every few feet there was something that got in my way. A telephone pole that had fallen over. A truck that was upside down and issuing smoke. Even a dead body. I tried not to notice that its head was missing. I stepped carefully, sick to my stomach, but not saying a word. After about thirty minutes I stopped. We were in an intersection, hopefully, three blocks away from the church. I looked around and saw about five shops, and each looked the same. Crumbling, vandalized and broken.

"Well here we are." I said. "Where do you want to start?" I waited for a minute and saw Zebah staring at me, transfixed. He pivoted around, carefully examining each building until he pointed to one on the right of me. I looked over at it. It seemed about the same as the other, maybe even more ruined. "Why did he pick this one...?” I thought for a second. Then I looked at the ground near what should have been the entrance. There was black dust all over the ground, no not dust..."

"Gunpowder," I said to Zebah. “I can't believe I didn't see that before, I feel like an idiot."

"Yes" he said to me. I couldn't tell if he was saying yes to that being gunpowder, or yes to me being an idiot. His face was blank from emotion. He could have made a hell of a poker player before this, I could tell that much.

"Well Zebah, let’s go get ourselves some guns." I said with a smile. I handed him my flashlight and walked into the store. Once inside I waited for Zebah to flick the flashlight on. After he had I slowly walked through the store. The walls were completely empty, not even the shelves remained. I started to walk down the middle of an isle towards the back of the store. The flashlight beam illuminated only about ten feet in front of me. It felt like I was traveling into an endless abyss.

"See anything Zebah?" I called behind me.

"No."

I kept wandering, looking left and right. As I was about to give up hope I saw a glint of light reflected off Zebah’s beam. I pushed some shelves that had been knocked over out of the way and called to Zebah.

"Wait, I think I found something!" I yelled excitedly. Zebah pointed the flashlight down the aisle I saw the glint, but instead of guns I saw.... a women. She was holding a sub-machine gun right at me, about to fire. She was Mexican, with beautiful, dark, long hair. Even though her clothes were tattered and her hair was all over her face she seemed to radiate. She looked right at me. The whole world was quiet for a moment. Then she spoke.

"Antonio?" she asked me.

“Rosa,” I say to her, pulling back her fantastic hair. She looks up at me and puts her arm around my head. I stare into her crystal blue eyes for a moment, and then kiss her.

“I love you,” she whispers into my ear.

“I love you too,” I whisper back. I roll over and stare up at the ceiling. I wish I could give her everything she will ever want, but I can’t. Somehow, fate has cursed us, giving me a minimum wage job, with no money to pay for her college tuition. Fate has forced her to be a maid for rich white family. It has caused us to barely be with each other. So I have to treasure every moment it gives us.

“Antonio, I know things will get better.” I don’t know how, but she always seems to know when I am down.

“Yes. And we’ll have each other until then. Nothing can tear us apart,”

“Rosa!” I yelled. I ran towards her, arms wide open. We embraced, hugging and kissing each other. After a few moments I pulled away and looked into her eyes, brilliantly sparkling.

“I…I thought you were dead!” I said, my eyes filled with tears of joy.

“I thought you were too. I was so alone, so scared…”

“It’s okay, you’re with me now. I’ll take care of you, it’s okay.” I held her in my arms for a few moments, blocking out the rest of the world. “Finally, fate is giving me a break,” I thought. Then I heard something that caused that peaceful moment to shatter.

“Mhm…MHM! Ahh!”

“What?!” I snapped around to see Zebah struggling against something. The flashlight he held in his hand was bouncing around the shelves so frantically; I couldn’t see what he was fighting against. Instinctively, I quickly placed one had over Rosa, and the other to draw my gun.

“Zebah, stop moving, I can’t shoot if you keep thrashing!” I yelled at him, desperately. If it was a zombie that was attacking him, it could be too late. He could be bitten already and then it’d be all over.

“Damn it Zebah, stop moving!” He was still grappling with the mysterious foe, sending the light everywhere. I couldn’t get a clear aim at anything, I couldn’t see anything, the light was blinding me, the darkness was suffocating me…

“Ahhhh!” I hollered, running straight at Zebah. I grabbed the flashlight from his hand and pull it out from him. Then I pointed it at him, preparing for the worst. To my horror, it was worse than I could have ever imagined.