The bustling roar of the store, as loud as it was, could not be loud enough to mask the loud cries from its inhabitants. Strangers fought for simple cans of soup, pill bottles were torn from the shelves one by one until the masses of supplies were diminished to nearly nothing.

A man walked through an empty aisle, his hand wrapped around the wrist of a girl trailing behind him.

“Markus I want to go home, I don’t like it here.” The girl whispered, as not to draw attention from the fighting strangers in the distance.

“Well life just ain’t fair Vinessa, now you hush up and help me look for those bottles ‘a medication.” The man replied in a hushed tone.

The girl, Vinessa, let go of Markus’ hand and cautiously crept around the aisle into the pharmacy. It was nearly empty, open bottles and pills of nearly every colour lay scattered on the floor; Shelves only holding expired medicine vials and bags without labels. Vinessa sighed and squatted, picking up various bottles and reading their labels.

“Cocillin, Advil, Ibuprofen, nothing-“Vinessa hissed. “There is nothing in here worth-“ Vinessa paused, and looked down at her knees. Under the bottom shelf was a white bottle, appearing not to have been opened. She reached under the shelf and pulled out the bottle.

“Oxycontin?” she breathed. “Mar...!” Suddenly, Vinessa was thrown on the ground by some blur, and she heard a click next to the temple of her head.

“Now you listen here you little brat. What I’ve got here is an M4-Carbine, loaded and pointed at your head. If you even so much as breathe without my permission, Imma gonna blow your brains out through your nose, do you understand me?”

Vinessa stayed silent. Fighting to keep her tears of fear from escaping, she clamped her eyes shut.

“Girlie, you’d best be showing some sign that you understand me.” The attacker growled. Vinessa gasped in fear as the attacker pressed the barrel of his gun against her head.

“What do you have there, in your hand? What kindsa meds you got?”
Vinessa remained silent, fighting hard to keep her body from shaking in terror.


“Listen here you brat. If I ask you a question you’d sure as heck better answer it, hear?”
Vinessa muttered something softly under her breath, keeping herself from falling into crying with fear.


“What the hay’re you trynta pull you little brat?! I WILL KILL YOU, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!” The attacker screamed.


“It’s Oxycontin,” Vinessa whimpered, her voice shaking in terror. “I swear… that’s all I have.” Vinessa was kicked in the side, and rolled onto her back. She looked into the eyes of her attacker, or where they would be. Her attacker was wearing a mask, the Guy Fawkes one if she could remember correctly. He hadn’t been lying, there was a gun pointed at Vinessa’s forehead, and she couldn’t tell what the man was thinking behind that mask.


“Give me the meds right now, or I’ll kill you.” The attacker growled. Vinessa shook her head so subtly that it was barely noticeable.


“If you were going to kill me, why didn’t you do that first?” Vinessa asked, her voice wavering. The attacker raised his black boot on his foot and placed it on Vinessa’s collarbone, not hard enough to cut off her air flow, but just enough to make a point.


“Just give me the damn meds,” He snarled. “Now I’m going to count down from three, and if those meds aren’t in my hands by the time I reach one, I’m going to crush your ribcage with my foot and shoot you in the chest so you can bleed out while thinking about how you could have just given me the meds and walked away.” Vinessa shuddered, and began sweating nervously.

“Three.” The attacker spoke, pressing his foot a bit harder down onto Vinessa’s collarbone. Vinessa whimpered and looked around the pharmacy, for someone, anyone, to come and save her.

“Two.” The attacker spoke louder, his foot pressed down much harder onto Vinessa’s collarbone. Vinessa began writhing in pain, beginning to raise the bottle of medicine towards her attacker.

“One…!” The attacker was suddenly thrown off of Vinessa and on the floor beside her. Vinessa took her chance and rolled over, crawling away as fast as she could.

“Vinessa, get up we have to go.” A familiar voice spoke now. “Come on, we don’t have all day.” Vinessa looked up from the floor to see who was speaking to her.

“Well if it isn’t the knight in shining armor himself.” Vinessa chuckled weakly. “Markus where were you?” Markus leaned down and reached down to Vinessa.

“Grab my hand, we need to leave now.” Markus spoke. Vinessa looked at Markus’ hand, at the open wounds with blood welling up from them.

“What happened to you?” Vinessa asked, gently taking his hand as not to agitate the wounds. Markus pulled back, helping Vinessa to her feet.

“Your old man here fought his way through the store to find you.” Markus replied, looking behind Vinessa at her attacker. He lay motionless on the floor; his gun was nowhere to be seen.

“We should kill him, to make sure he won’t do this to anyone else.” Vinessa whispered to Markus.

“That’s not right, Vi. Everyone’s just going through a hard time right now, with the conditions and all. He probably learned a lesson from all this.” Markus replied sternly. Vinessa rolled her eyes, and began to march out of the pharmacy towards the exit.

“Vinessa?” Markus began.

“What, Markus?” Vinessa asked without turning around. Markus jogged towards Vinessa, catching up with her pace and walking with her.

“I didn’t hear anything of gratitude back there. A ‘Thank you daddy’ would be nice.” Markus finished. Vinessa stopped and looked Markus dead in the eyes. Her heterochromic green and brown eyes met his hazel eyes.

“Thank you, stepfather Markus.” Vinessa spoke coldly, and whirled around, walking towards the door. Even her ankle-length black hair swayed in a way that could only be described as cold and sarcastic. Markus sighed and followed her towards the door, and out to the city.





Back in their apartment now, Vinessa, Markus, and Vinessa’s mother, Samantha, were watching the news from the living room couch.

“‘Virus C3-18 spreads across the US and parts of Eurasia in terrifying speeds. The death toll in the United States of America has reached just over Forty-Two million in less than a month within the outbreak of the virus. The World Health Organization has yet to find a cure, and request that everyone stay indoors and maintain healthy habits.’” The reporter hesitated, and had a fit of wheezing coughs. After he’d finished, a look of panic spread across his face before continuing. “’God help us all.’” Markus hit the power button on the TV remote.

“Don’t worry; I know they’ll find a cure.” He spoke worriedly. Vinessa sighed.

“I’m going for a walk around the complex.” She spoke, and rose from the couch.

“Vinessa, is that a wise idea? Maybe you should just stay here.” Samantha asked; a pleading expression in her eyes. Even so, Vinessa coldly glared at her mother, nearly expressionless, not uttering a word.

“J-Just be safe, Vi. I love you.” Samantha spoke softly, knowing she’d lost this argument without Vinessa even uttering a word.

As Vinessa walked down the hallway leading to the lobby, she looked through a window of one of the apartments, one of her neighbor who hadn’t been seen outside his room in nearly four years now. She peered further into his room through the window, and froze. Her eyes widened, her breath quickened, and she began shaking.

There, on the floor of the apartment, was a white Guy Fawkes mask, if she could remember correctly.

The end