The Seventh Day by Tara Brown writing as A.E. Watson

He pulls up to the
warehouse, getting really close and screams, “GO!”
    I grab my gun and jump out as he speeds off
again. The biter chases him, leaving me alone. I run for the door. It opens
right way.
    I switch on my flashlight and close the
door behind me. The light bounces around in the dark from the shaking of my
hand. My stomach twists and I’m positive I’m going to throw up.
    My breathing and heartbeat are so loud I
can’t hear if one of them is sneaking up on me from the dark spots I can’t see.
    I keep shooting the flashlight all around,
trying to see all of the dark at once, as if they’d be smart enough to hide in
the dark places.
    I can’t make my feet walk so I stand there,
completely still. Part of me knows I need to open the garage door on the other
side—we talked about it but I can’t move.
    When I hear the tires screech outside, I
jump making the light bounce some more.
    “Be brave, Lou. Be brave. Don’t be Mom. Be
Dad!” I whisper to myself. Forcing myself to move—shuffling my feet along
the floor. They scrape on the cement, making noise reverberate in the dark. I
freeze and wait for the thing I imagine is there to come and get me.
    I hold my breath and stand perfectly still,
but nothing comes.
    With trembling hands and a rabbit’s
heartbeat, I shine the light around the massive shelves and walls. It’s cold,
so cold, inside. I can feel my breath making frost as it leaves my face. I can
almost hear my dad’s voice if I listen hard enough. He’s telling me to be
strong and trust my abilities.
    I don’t think I can but I have to try.
    In the silver light of the flashlight I can
see the door I’m supposed to open on the far side of the warehouse, through the
rows of shelves.
    Taking one large breath, I risk it and run
there with my hands out, feeling the breath of the biters on my neck.
    When my fingers meet the metal of the door,
I close my eyes and hold my ear to it, listening for him. In the bouncing light
I shine along the wall, I see the thing I seek and press the up arrow button,
just as I hear the truck coming. He is just about through the door when I press
the stop button and the down arrow. The door starts to lower as the back of his
truck gets through.
    I back away from the massive door as it
lowers, holding my flashlight on the gap as it gets smaller and smaller, hoping
nothing will follow him through. It closes just as loud banging starts on the
other side of the door, making me jump.
    I turn and hold the flashlight on the
truck. Mr. Milson gets out. “Nice job, kid.” He points. “Let’s get busy.” He
grabs a flashlight and a crowbar and hurries to the shelves. He doesn’t fear
the dark or that there might be something in here with us. He just works. I
feel less scared with him here but not much.
    He slices some plastic and grabs a flat of
canned food. “Peaches—take them all.”
    We grab a flat each and start hauling it,
in the light of the truck. I load the peaches as he moves on to find something
else. He drops a flat onto the bed of the truck and grins. “Beans—take
them all.”
    I almost wrinkle my nose at them, but then
I remember we are actually starving. We are like the early settlers right now.
There is no such thing as food I don’t like. There’s food and hunger.
    I load the beans flat by flat as he comes
over grinning. “I found chili! It’s the beefy one too.”
    I follow him over there after the beans but
he’s already moved on and found pasta and sauce. He’s excited like it’s
Christmas.
    I’m tired but I keep going. I’ve been
loading for long enough that my fingers are burning but the back of the truck
is only three-quarters full. I am skeptical that we will have enough to last
the winter from just this truckload.
    I’m halfway across the pasta sauce pallet
when I hear something coming from the other side of the warehouse. I freeze,
turning my flashlight off and hide in amongst the shelves. There are voices
whispering something.