He stumbled on a box of candy, causing him to hit the shelves on his left, rocking them a little before they settled back down with a bang.
Sofia’s face wrinkled in pain. She’d taken the brunt of that blow.
“Sorry,” he said.
She said nothing.
Cooper kept moving. The fluorescent lights created the strange sensation that — aside from the bodies, of course — this place was still open for business, that the horrors outside had passed it by.
He reached the pharmacy counter. Instead of looking for the door, he set Sofia on the counter, then hopped over. When his feet hit the floor, his exhausted legs gave out beneath him. He fell in a heap on the tile, banging the top of his head against the corner of a rack that held hundreds of little plastic pull-out bins.
“Owww.” Cooper rolled to his back, hands pressed to his new injury.
“Graceful,” Sofia said. “Just… let me catch my breath, then I’ll… start carrying you.”
He lifted his head to look at her. She’d pushed herself up on one elbow to stare down at him. Jeff’s big coat made her seem so small, so feminine. She looked like death warmed over — face gaunt, black hair stringy and frozen in clumps, eyes half lidded — but the left corner of her mouth curled into a shit-eating grin.
Back flat on the floor, muscles burning, chest heaving and head stinging, Cooper started laughing.
“Sofia, you’re kind of a dick.”
She nodded weakly. “I’ve been told that once or twice in my day. You mind getting me down from here?”
The brief moment of humor vanished. He fought his aching body and stood, gently lifted her from the counter, then set her down with her butt on the floor and her back against the inside of the counter. If anyone else came in the store, Cooper and Sofia wouldn’t be seen unless the intruder came all the way to the rear.
She reached up and caressed his face. “Thanks, Cooper. I mean it. I’d be dead already if it weren’t for you.”
He didn’t know what to say, so he just nodded. He turned to the pull-out bins, started filing through the paper envelopes inside of them.
“Amoxicillin, maybe? You allergic to that?”
“No idea,” Sofia said. “I guess we’ll find out.”
He nodded. “I guess we will.” He dug through the envelopes.
“Hey, Cooper… you feel okay?”
“You mean other than cold and exhaustion? Sure, I guess. Why?”
“You got some kind of big blister on the back of your neck.”
He stopped flipping through the envelopes. He remembered the puffy, air-filled spot he’d seen on his shoulder.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “It’s some kind of allergic reaction, I think. Hives or something. I haven’t checked in a while, but I had them all over my body.”
He reached to his neck, felt what she was talking about: a puffy blister the size of a small marble. He pressed on it, heard a soft pop, saw a tiny mist of slowly floating white. Sofia’s breath scattered it away.
“Gross,” she said. “Like a puffball.”
Cooper nodded. “Yeah. That is kind of gross.”
She gave a halfhearted shrug. “The least of my worries right now. Can you get me some water? I’m really thirsty.”
He noticed her breath crystallizing when she talked. The store gave them shelter, but he’d have to find a way to get heat, fast.
He pulled out six of the plastic bins, slid them over to her.
“Look through those envelopes,” he said. “We want amoxicillin, penicillin, shit like that. I’ll get you that water.”
He stood, looked over the counter and out into the store — still empty. The pharmacy door was off to his left. It opened into store’s horizontal rear aisle. Most of the end-cap displays were untouched. If he’d needed a new mop head or a four-for-three bargain on Tampax, it would have been his lucky day.
He saw the refrigerators off to the left, still lit from within. He skipped the soft drinks, grabbed three bottles of water and an orange juice instead. One refrigerator contained sandwiches. He grabbed three.
The lights are on… the refrigerators are working.
In all the apocalyptic movies, the power was one of the first things to go. But not here in Chicago. With the city all but destroyed, wouldn’t the psychos have hit a power plant? A transformer? Power lines, maybe? Apparently not.
He looked up and down the line of refrigerators. There was enough food and water to last him and Sofia for several days. And if they ate through all that, the shelves were still filled with dry goods, canned tuna, crackers… enough to last them weeks.
Long enough for the National Guard to arrive, to take control of the city.
An idea struck him. He jogged through the aisles, careful not to step on anything, looking for small appliances. In Aisle Six, he found what he wanted: an electric heater.
He juggled his loot as he walked back to the pharmacy door. If he could find a way to board up that front entrance, maybe board up whatever rear entrance the place had, they could stay here at least long enough for Sofia to get better.
Just to the right of the pharmacy door he found a waist-high wall of bandages and disinfectants.
He walked into the pharmacy and set the food and water next to her. She held up a white paper bag: amoxicillin.
“Good girl,” he said. He opened a bottle for her and put it in her hands. He then opened the medicine, put two pills in her mouth. She lifted the water bottle — weakly, but on her own — and took a drink. Her eyes closed in relief.
“Oh my God,” she said. “Thank you. I never thought water could taste so good.”
He grabbed the box with the heater, slid it in front of her. “Unless you object, I’ll just go ahead and plug this in for you.”
Her eyes widened. She shivered. “Heat? Oh, Coop, if I wasn’t so messed up, you’d totally get a blow job.”
“Yeah? Well, then get ready for your panties to evaporate.”
Cooper walked out, gathered an armful of peroxide, cotton balls and gauze wrap. He walked back to her and set the pile of medical supplies next to the pile of food.
She weakly lifted her water bottle, took another drink. “I’ve had better dates, but not many,” she said. “Turn the heater on before I change my mind about fucking the living hell out of you.”
“Yeah, all your bleeding and shivering is such a turn-on.” Cooper ripped open the heater box. He looked at the cash register on the counter, followed the power cord down to an outlet. He plugged in the heater, turned it as high as it would go and pointed it at her.
The heater’s fan spun up. The air came out, warm at first, then it quickly turned hot.
Sofia closed her eyes, leaned her head against the wall. “Oh, hell yes. Thank you.”
Cooper gently opened Jeff’s coat and pulled up Sofia’s shirt to look at the wound. The edges were gray, almost black. It looked horrible. He had no idea what to do next.
He opened the bottle of peroxide, then a box of gauze strips. He poured peroxide onto the wound. Sofia hissed as the liquid fizzed into whiteness. He used the gauze to dab at the wound. He cleaned as gently as he could, wiping away blood both dry and wet. He used more gauze to cover the wound, then ran tape around her stomach and back.
“That’s all I know to do,” he said.
He smiled at her. She took a drink of water, smiled back.
Swishhhh.
They froze: the front door had just turned.
They heard footsteps.
A man’s voice called out, and it was all Cooper could do to not piss his pants for the second time.
“Where are you, motherfucker? Are you in there?”