“I’m on it!” Christian said as he opened the door and jumped out, excited to do his part. He ran across the lot, headed for the glass door of the market. “Ok!” He yelled back to Alex’s request. The red headed boy ran around to the back of the counter and started clicking buttons on the register until it popped open with a ding. He spent most of his time playing with the money since he’d started staying in the market. He knew exactly how much money was in the drawer, $31.45. He shoved the bills into his right side pocket and the coins into the other. There was a grey door at the back of the market that Christian never walked through. There was a round glass window towards the top of the door that Christian was too short to look through, but it always looked dark. As much as he didn’t like thinking about going back there he knew that the gas cans would be past that door. Christian thought about lieing to Alex, saying that he couldn’t find any, but they really needed this. This is my job, I can’t go back with nothin.
Christian stepped to the grey door, which seemed to tower over him. He twisted the knob, hoping it was locked. He heard the latch click and he slowly pushed the door open. It made a loud creaking noise the further he pushed. There was a cold draft coming through that brought out a retched smell. Christian covered his mouth and nose, surprised by the smell. The door wouldn’t stay open by itself so Christian propped a gallon of milk in front of it to keep it open. It also helped a pool of light seep into the dark room.
Christian timidly stepped in the cold smelly room. His heart was beating fast again. Then he saw it, a metal rack that was strictly for holding all the red gas canisters. Each one had a yellow hose looking nozzle coming out of the top right corner. The light was just hitting the rack enough for Christian to feel comfortable walking over. He started grabbing the biggest ones. He held one in each hand by the handle and one cradled underneath his arm. As he turned around he noticed something out of the corner of his eye and gasped, causing him to drop the cans. Sticking out from behind the rack he saw a pair of legs lying there. He slowly moved around to the back of the rack to see if this person was still alive. The legs wore brown trousers and black shoes. The smell was getting stronger the closer Christian stepped. He peeked his head around the bend, preparing to run if the person started to growl. To his surprise the legs weren’t attached to the rest of a body. Entrails and rotted flesh took the place of the torso. This was the obvious source of the smell. Christian quickly realized that this must be the other half of the man that attacked him from under the car.
Christian shook away his shock and once again collected the canisters and ran them to the car, dropping one on the way and fumbling to pick it up. He ran them over to Alex on the driver’s side of the jeep and placed them at the pumps. “There’s some more back there that I can get but here’s some to get stahted.” He said between breaths then started for the building again.