Chapter 45 Empty Racks

"Li, Mona! Are you still here!? We"re all back!"
Still, no one answers.
"Timothy—"
Timothy didn"t have to hear my next words because he had already moved. He made me lean on the concrete wall to check on Li and Mona inside the building.
"I"ll be back to check on them, Harriet. Just wait for me here."
He went inside hysterically, calling their names while checking if they are just unconscious between the aisles. He looked back at me and shook his head, the fear in my chest rising as I pushed myself to take a step but was too weak to even get away from where I am leaning.
Despair slowly emerged in me when we both heard a noise from the comfort room. Someone is kicking the wooden door open with muffled screams which made Timothy move in perplexity, rushing towards the comfort room. I can already picture that Melvin"s men had also tied the two while they were looting all the goods in this place. Well, it"s way better than them being killed. We are still lucky enough that these people let us get away from them, alive and breathing.
When I lifted my face to look at what was happening, I saw Li and Mona walking out of the comfort room, both caressing their wrists looking red from the ropes that were used to tie them up. Their faces are both veiled in terror as Timothy walked behind them.
"Harriet?"
I smiled at both of them, tears wetting the corner of my eyes as sobs emerged from my dry throat which made it more painful. But it doesn"t matter. I am just so happy we are all safe. I moved to take a few steps as my vision became steady and the dizziness is getting a little bit bearable now. Mona must have noticed my injury because her eyes stayed on my bleeding head and moved his fingers which Li translated for me, "She said she has to look at your head, Harriet. That kind of bleeding might need stitching."
Being so relieved that all of us are all safe, still whole, and breathing, I mouthed Mona thank you. Jayson suddenly appeared from behind me, looking happy to see that the two were safe.
"What happened?" Li and Timothy blurted at the same time which made me and Jayson chuckle silently, Mona smiling despite the ache of her wrist.
"You first", Timothy asks Li, curious as he watches the whole place being so empty. His eyes widened, remembering something. When Li was ready to talk about what happened, Timothy had perplexingly moved towards our tent, checking our stuff in there. Alarmed, we followed him and saw him shaking his head.
"Sh*t, they took everything, even our stuff!" Jayson cursed under his breath, looking disappointed at what is happening to us right now.
All of us look down on the floor, feeling miserable that we have to deal with having nothing for the coming day. But I pat Jayson on the shoulder and smiled at him weakly, "Hey, at least we still have the car. There would be a chance we might find something along the way to the borders of this zone. Just don"t give up yet. I think being here with you, alive and kicking is already a miracle for me. We will be ok," I gently said, looking at each of their faces.
Mona stepped closer to me and wrapped her one arm on my back, leaning her hand against my shoulder. I rub her arm, soothing her and the three boys finally just smiled with hope on their faces.
"So what happened, Li?" Jayson asked, both of his hands on his hips, looking suddenly upset, remembering how Melvin betrayed us.
Li cleared his throat, reminiscing the awful and terrible things he and Mona had seen while we were away. I suddenly feel bad that they had to deal with these people without us but I know Li would never let these people lay a single hand on Mona. I am just thankful that somehow, these people are not yet savage to think of doing horrible things, especially when seeing women. I think they respect women like how they respect their women in their tribe or whatever they call their company.
"Before these scary men came into this place, I had already heard them coming since they were all on a jeep when they came here. They didn"t make so much noise of course but they had seen us and before I could even stop them from entering this place, they had already smashed the windows and the glass doors so it was hopeless for me. I just grabbed Mona and thought of running away from this place and from them but they had caught us, saying that you guys are in their place, trying to hypnotize their leader with your nonsense opinions. They kept on repeating how they despise all the people that came from bunkers and that we are both lucky because their boss never wanted us to get hurt because you made a deal with him." Li explained, almost breathless after he talked.
Li looked at us, confused about what was going on but I don"t know how to start explaining everything to him. "Seriously guys, what had happened to you in that place? You are all gone the whole night and then suddenly, out of nowhere, those men appeared taking everything in this place. I was so scared I almost peed on my pants!"
Timothy bit his lower lip, feeling guilty, "I am so sorry guys, it shouldn"t have happened if I was careful. I let my guard down. I was trying to explore this place using binoculars. Then something hit my head. Before I knew it, I was already in that old building surrounded by Melvin"s men.
"Melvin? Who"s Melvin?" Li asks, his frown is getting deeper and his eyes are almost just a slit for being too chinky. He looks upset but he knows that no one has to blame for what has happened because we are aware that enemies are everywhere in this place. It"s just unfortunate that we have nothing now. No food, clothing, and especially the worst part of all, no weapon to fend ourselves if ever there are Creepers that might come here or anywhere we go.
"Fine. Let"s talk about it in the car. We must go before those men change their mind and come back here to kill us," Jayson said and we all gathered the things we think are still useful to us.