Shaking Jed’s hand revealed that he was still shaking from the endeavour, either fear or the chill across his body sent shivers up into my own hand. Looking at his legs didn’t reveal much to me, they looked blue but I wasn’t sure if he had frostbite at all. It looked like some liquid may have landed on him, though bruise marks around the knee area led me to believe the fridge was cutting off his circulation.

“Can you walk, Jed?” I ask my new companion in the dark.

“I still… can’t feel my legs, my thighs feel cold as hell but below that is all numb.”

Searching around the immediate area, I am able to find my torch that had slid from the rubble. Thankfully it still worked, if a bit caked in dirt and slightly cracked. Shining it over Jed I let him inspect himself, as well as take a closer look myself.

“Fuck, they’re blue as hell”, Jed shouted as he began to rub his legs to warm them up.

“Jed, have you been in this underground before? Know of any exits or maybe a pharmacy?”

“Huh? Y-yeah. Came here a few times for lunch breaks or clothes shopping. Not sure how many exits will be clear with this collapse, but a pharmacy is a few steps that way”, he responded as he pointed down the dark hallways.

“Ok, it might be best we find some medical supplies there, maybe some crutches if you can’t walk. I need some pain meds and bandages myself, my left arm got shanked by rock.”

As I speak I rotate myself so that Jed can look at my hastily scarf-bandaged arm, I can see a bit of disgust on his face as he imagines the wound underneath.

“Fuck, I see we both came away with our own scars. See if there isn’t a broom or something to aid me getting over there, I doubt you can carry me with just the one arm.”

Nodding to Jed I stand back up tall and investigate the remains of the food store. No brooms, but even better I find some busted up trolleys. Tearing them away from the familial grasp they find themselves in, I am able to rescue one mesh of metal to use for our own needs.

Pulling the trolley back to Jed, I wrap my right arm around him to pull him up onto a nearby shelf, allowing him better access to grab onto either side of the trolley and hold himself on its handle side.

“Alright, let me know if you need me to stop, and give directions if I get lost.”

“Will do, lead on.”

Gripping the end of the trolley I pull it along, Jed doing his best to hold his grip as he almost straddles the pushing side of it. It isn’t overly difficult, but it is an awkward stance to pull the trolley with someone on it. With the torch in the trolley, it becomes a makeshift vehicle, if a bit archaic.

I would reminisce about times of being a child and using the trolley to “fly” across the shop, but now wasn’t the time to think of doing anything for the fun of it. As time went on, the underground shopping centre looked more like that of a battlefield, the buildings the mortar fire and the clothing stores the enemy sides.

Jed is able to give good enough directions, though they obviously have changed as we need to circumvent larger rubble piles as the trolley isn’t going to make much headway on inclines. We both give out a yell here or there to see if any other survivors could be heard, the returning echoes felt less lonely with Jed’s added in with mine.

The last hurdle before reaching a “centre” of sorts within the underground is that of a sloped rise within a full line of a makeshift wall between our hallway and the centre. Debris had crashed in such a way that a large sign laid atop it, acting as a ramp and our exit out of our section.

“Hold on tight, Jed”, I called out as I line up the trolley with the sign.

“Been doing that so far, punch it!”

At his behest, I take a faster jogging pace to the sign, the wheels screech and twist around as they find purchase in the new ground beneath it. My heart rises and falls as my mind races against the chance of success and the outcome of failure.

It seemed that the sign wasn’t properly stuck, as when we got to the midway point it careened to the floor with such force I had to pull down the trolley, or it would have gone over my head. With a massive slam, we both were sent to the other end quickly as the trolley’s momentum almost picked me up with it.

Skidding across the floor on the other side, I was able to stop the trolley from taking us too far ahead. Stopping just in front of a large fountain, I saw it would have been lit up in a dazzling display, if not for being shut down for maintenance. No water could be seen or heard from the fountain, possibly having been drained to not waste electricity or something.

“Phew, that was a ride. We’re not too far now, just… Zeke?”

Jed’s words started to become more echoey and warbly in my head, the speed and rush to the centre had done a world of hurt to my head. Either that or my wound was catching up to me. My head was buzzing and my vision blurred, falling to the side of the fountain to stabilize myself. A rumbling in my stomach led to a rush of fluid to my throat.

Spewing onto the floor what little left I had inside of me, I almost passed out. My arm ached like fuck, and I could feel an itchy sensation all over. The pins and needles in my lower arm annoyed me as my inhibitions against anger washed away in my sick.

Jed took up the torch from the trolley and shone it at me, I could only guess at what I looked like at that point.

“Shit, Zeke, you look terrible. We need to get you out of here”, the man said to me.

I knew it all too well, a wound like mine and the possible hour I had spent down here didn’t spell any happy endings in my imagination. I was lucky if only my arm was lost when I got out, and that was if I made to an exit at this point.

“Tell me the pharmacy is near”, I asked faintly.

“Yeah. Hey, Zeke! Yeah! There, you can see it right now!” Jed shouted as if he was trying to keep me awake.

Looking to the side I was able to make out a spinning sign that was one part of a triplet, hugging each other in their fuzzy spiralling form. The word PharPharPharmacy was clear to see, at least clear enough to know my head was fucked.

Standing back up I weakly pulled at the trolley towards the pharmacy, Jed keeping the torch steady on the destination. If I had any luck left it was used at this location, as I did not need to hurl any chairs or bins into the windows, as one side had already collapsed into the store, allowing us to easily roll in through a fallen-in automatic door that gave us a lovely welcoming mat.

It was quite a large pharmacy, a large chain most likely, it even had some spare wheelchairs at the entrance, the cheap kind with blue canvas seats and backrests, without any motors. Pulling the trolley to the closest wheelchair, I picked it up from the floor and opened it out with my right arm and leg. Picking up Jed by wrapping my arm around his back and into his armpit, I essentially throw him down into the wheelchair.

Given a new mode of transportation, Jed sped off away from me, his arms circling like a big-league baseball player. I slowly follow, looking around for anything of use, but Jed took the light, so I see jack.

“Jed! You got the light… Jed”, I call out to the distance.

I hear the returning noise of cardboard boxes hitting the floor, bottles bouncing up and down, alongside the shuffling of a hastened Jed.

“Coming!”

Speeding towards me, I am sure Jed would have been told off by the guards if they were still working. In his lap is a pile of drugs, bandages, and bottles of water.

“C’mon, let’s get you patched up. Sit down.”