The Day Before

Ruth and Cove started to leave, taking the West Wing. Eli and Charlotte took the East Wing, and Benji and I had nowhere to go.

“I h-have my inner tube on the roof, we can go get it…” I said, trying to not get nervous being around Benji, but failing miserably.

“You never told me you had an inner tube. So that’s where the idea came from.” He said, turning to look at me. He pointed his index finger at my temple, tapping it lightly. I instantly froze and backed away, touching the spot where he tapped me. He kept on walking and talking, oblivious to me standing behind.

I jogged up beside him, while he went up the steps to Macy’s second floor, then third floor. The white paint, looked gray and most of the mannequins were half-nude and fallen over. We passed by an ‘EMPLOYEES ONLY’ door, which led to…more stairs. Finally, when we were nearing the top, he opened the metal door, it’s hinges making the familiar creaking sound from before.

Benji held the door for me, I thanked him and pointed to the unmistakable pink inner tube. “It’s over there.”

He nodded his head and walked over to it, holding it at arms length.

“You came in…this?” He said in disbelief. I nodded my head, “Yeah…” I trailed off, not wanting to give him more reasons to fuel his disgust for the inner tube. I gently plucked it from out of his grip, putting it under my arm and opening the white metal door. “Let’s go.” I said, holding the door for him. He grabbed the inner tube from under my arm, “I’ll get this.”

He ushered me inside, letting the door bang shut. “Go on, I’ll be right behind you.” I nodded my head and began to descend the stairs. After a while of hearing only my feet make noise, I decided to turn around. I expected to be bumped by Benji, but no one was in back of me.

“Benji?” I called out, timidly.

“…Benji?”I called out a bit more loudly.

I took three steps up, trying to look up at the darkness. I squinted my eyes, ducking my head and trying to hear a response. When none came, I began to panic. I bit my lip, staying rigid on the third step of the stairs. I took two more steps, my feet making light thumping noises.

“Violet?” I heard somebody say. I looked down, easily spotting Cove’s confused face. “Ben-” I started to say, but he ran up, pulling me down the stairs. “Let’s go, we where looking everywhere for you!” he exclaimed. I ran down the steps, easily noting the difference between two people going down the stairs than one.

We passed by the dark Macy’s, my mouth sealed shut about the non-present Benji. After we got out of Macy’s and passed the little fountain of water Cove checked behind me.

“Where’s Benji?”

“I-I don’t know, he was up on the roof, getting my inner tube. He said he was going to right behind me though…” I said, all the while wringing my hands together. Cove nodded his head, “He’ll catch up eventually.” he mumbled.

He led me into the Food Court where Ruth was looking at the space in front of her with bored eyes. Charlotte was talking animatedly with a very bored-looking Eli. When Ruth saw Cave her eyes lit up. When Charlotte saw me, her talk died down. Eli looked the other way, not caring that I was there.

“We found a raft in this store. It’s kind of roomy, but not too heavy.” Cove said to me, pointing to a box.

I bent down, looking at the instructions. I picked up the box and turned it over and over.

“I don’t think inner tubes are good enough, so I thought, you know, what the heck.” Ruth said quickly, a slight blush in her cheeks.

I nodded my head in approval, Cove gave her an awkward smile and then everything went silent.

Ruth looked around then set her gaze on me, “Where’s Benji?” she asked curiously, earning a deflated look from Cove.

“He went to get my inner tube…” I trailed off, looking at the skylight above.

Where was he? He sure knew how to make a girl worried, but then again, I always was a worrywart.

“Maybe I should go find him…” I pondered off, taking a step or two in the opposite direction.

“He’ll come…eventually.” I heard Eli call out, stopping me from returning to Macy’s.

“So don’t go.” he continued.

Everybody was silent for awhile. All I heard was the scuffling of shoes and someone tapping their fingers on the table.

I let out a long sigh, letting my eyes roam the Food Court. I saw a quick flash of pink that quickly disappeared by the direction of the cracked glass. I clumsily stood up, making the chair fall down with a loud sound echoing in the area. Everybody’s head snapped in my direction and I opened my mouth ready to make an excuse, but then I saw my pink inner tube rolling my way.

I grabbed it before it could fall to it’s side. “Where’s Benji?” I asked to no one in particular. I saw Eli get up, making his way over to me. Before he could say anything I saw Dash wandering over to us, his ears perked up when he saw me. He was far away, but quickly becoming closer as he ran towards me. Everybody looked at him, but no one said anything. “Dash-” I said cutting off my sentence when he collided with my legs.

I looked up, Eli’s face was blank and expressionless. When it dawned on him, he opened his mouth to yell at me, but I heard Dash chewing something. Sure enough, there he was munching away on fist-sized box object. I took it out of his mouth, there was a much smaller red square in it, it had a light inside and it was blinking.

Eli’s eyes widened when he saw the object in my hand. “Fuck!” he yelled, grabbing it from out of my grip. He ran over to the cracked window, disappearing from sight. “Let’s go!” Charlotte yelled, eyeing Dash wearily. Ruth grudgingly followed not before petting Dash between his ears. Cove was long gone, having followed Eli when he first ran. Dash followed them, easily curious has to why they were running. I followed behind, much slower, looking around to see any signs of Benji. When I didn’t see anything, I ran after them. I was just in time to see Eli throw the black square in the water, where it exploded, making water splash out everywhere. Ruth screamed, clutching onto Dash. Charlotte hid behind Eli, gripping his arms. Cove looked dream-like at the area where it exploded.

“Where did that dog get that thing?” Eli roared. I knew he wasn’t talking to Ruth, Charlotte or Cove, because he was sauntering over to me.

I stood there, shell-shocked, not knowing what to say. His eyes were filled with fury and all the fear that I once had for him, came flooding back. I inched away, trying to get away from him. I heard Charlotte and Ruth trying to calm him down.

“A dog?” he questioned loudly, “A fucking dog? We don’t have enough resources for that thing!” he proclaimed, pointing at everyone. “And worse, he brought a bomb. A bomb!” he yelled. Charlotte took his hand and held it, entwining her fingers with his. “Shh, Eli, she didn’t mean to…” she looked over at me, pain in her eyes.

“Eli, the dog’s a good boy, see?” Ruth said, letting Dash jump from out of her grip. He walked over to Eli, his head low. Eli’s eye twitched and I looked away shamefully. He was fueled with anger, and it looked like he could strangle Dash for endangering everybody.

Then suddenly, Dash’s ears perked up and he ran over to the Food Court. I turned my head in his direction, “Dash!” I called out, following him. We were in the deserted Food Court. Dash was heading straight for my inner tube. I saw that he bit the inner tube with his mouth, running over the cracked window, with it. He was kind of slow, so I picked it up gingerly. Dash barked, running ahead. I turned it over to it’s backside, noticing the same black square attached to the inner tube. It’s red light blinking. And then it dawned on me.