Brie pulled Adam to his feet. He swept Melissa off the floor, her golf club slipping and clunking on the floor loudly.
The man lunged at the noise, missing greatly as the group broke into a run towards the storage room. However far it was didn't matter as Adam led the way, trying each door he found in hopes it was unlocked.
Finally, they came across an unlocked door with lights blaring from inside. Adam burst into it desperately and slammed the door behind him. Brie fumbled for the lock and glanced around the room urgently, scanning for a chair or heavy object.
Her brother gripped onto a table on the other side of the room, tilting his head to motion Brie to help him. Together, they pushed it into the door just in time, scraping it across the floor as a loud slam came from the other side of the door.
As Brie had a second to focus, she looked around the room to realize it was the surveillance room. With their luck, there seemed to be electricity running. The lights were on and computers were showing what seemed to be live footage around the whole shop.
Brie decided to check that out later. For now, she needed a second.
In the corner, a radio sat, playing a song through the static. A bang came from the door, followed by yells. More growls came. It sounded like there was a mob behind the door.
Would it hold?
"Killing me softly with his song..."
The radio fuzzed as they all sat in silence, staring at each other in horror. Melissa studied at her hands with an expressionless face, eyeing the bloodstains on her clothes. Brie also realized she was soaked. Blood dripped from her. She looked like a monster herself.
The banging faded as they rested. A painful stillness lingered in the room.
Brie let herself dwell as the puddle of blood got bigger and bigger. It dripped, splashing onto the ground, and wobbling into its puddle of safety.
"Adam?" Melissa croaked. Brie zoned back into reality and looked up to see him. He was as pale as a ghost, unmoving.
A second passed before she noticed the pool of blood was still growing. It was odd.
"Adam?" She reached forward to shake his arm, but instead, his whole body fell limp and flopped onto the floor with a thud. He began to shake violently, his eyes rolling to the back of his skull.
Brie felt herself panicking. "No, no no no!" She cried out and held her hands over his chest, scared to touch him. Melissa gasped as she spotted something.
"He's been cut!" She pulled his top up to reveal a gash sliced deeply into his stomach. It dripped, the blood angrily fighting to be noticed.
"What do I do?!" Brie cried in frustration. She ripped off his top and used it to push against the wound. Melissa pulled out the first aid supplies gathered earlier in the day.
The banging started again, shaking the walls as panic filled the atmosphere.
Adam let out a gasp, then the shaking stopped.
"Use these!" Melissa tossed the bag of first aid towards Brie's direction and gave her a shaky smile. How an eleven-year-old could be so calm and comforting, Brie did not know. However, she appreciated every bit of it as she took a deep breath and proceeded to clean out Adam's wound.
Miraculously, the blood had stopped flowing after a few minutes. On the downside, he was unconscious.
She got to work as an untrained professional, trying to think back to her school days when they taught her basic first aid.
"Stop the bleeding, clean out the wound, and bandage it. That's what he'd tell me right now." Brie spoke to herself with a nod of confidence that lasted no longer than two seconds.
Melissa sat, shivering with emotions as Brie focused greatly on trying to bandage up the wound.
"I feel like we need to stitch this up, but I haven't got a clue how to. We need to wait until he wakes up." She spoke to Mel, having nobody else to confide in. She was young, but it comforted them both as the subject was worded lightly.
She leaned forward and held her hand near his nose. He was breathing fine.
"He's not dead, so let's hope for the best. Thank you, Mel." Brie smiled weakly, nodding gratefully at Melissa. Melissa returned the smile, tears beginning to well up slowly. It was obvious she was trying to stay strong.
"You're doing amazing right now, Melissa. I don't mind if you cry." Brie felt herself growing sad and forced a laugh as Melissa jumped forward into a hug. They embraced for a few moments, a somewhat touching moment as the world stilled around them
"You're so mature, I can't believe it," Brie told Mel with confidence as they pulled away.
Melissa turned and gazed around the room with a thoughtful expression.
"These clothes smell bad. Do you think we could find some different ones?" She questioned, feeling slightly safer now that the violent noises had disappeared. She went searching, opening drawers and looking under the desk until...
"Bingo!" Melissa let out a quiet whoop of success as she opened a door nobody had noticed before. It led to a connected room; a storage room, filled with employee equipment.
"Nice one. Let's find some comfier clothes." Brie patted her head like a proud mother. In a way, she was. Melissa had grown on her.
After a few minutes of searching, Melissa found the smallest size of clothing they had. They had small, white t-shirts, green cargo pants and boots. Brie managed to grab a bigger size for Adam and herself, raising her eyebrows.
"They wear these things?" She scoffed. There was a light green bodysuit, with big pockets and baggy sleeves. Brie sighed and returned the surveillance room, checking once again to make sure Adam was breathing okay. "Try and get some sleep, Mel." She turned to the small girl, who was checking herself out in the mirror beside the computers.
"Okay." She nodded and sat on the floor, back against the wall. Brie, on the other hand, wanted to do some more research on their new hideout. She sat at the office chair that was slowly spinning by itself and began to look at the computer screens.
They showed the whole circumference of the shop. The area was scouted out, and Brie could see that they were surrounded by people. She looked under the desk to find a PC connected to the monitors and tried to get it working.
"Aha!" She grinned as a blue screen flashed up, logging her into the computer.
"Now... let's have a look on the internet. I need to know what the world has gone to."