Rolly | The Broken Mind Sagas

Chapter 5

We need to hide the body, Rolly said.

After, check the boy first, Molly said.

Pampers isn’t going anywhere, Rolly argued.

The body isn’t going anywhere Rolly.

Rolly sighed. She took another disgusted looked into the broken mirror, quietly opened and closed the door, and returned to where she’d left Ewan in the shoe department.

Two things became apparent quickly. There was no boy in the corner, and there were footsteps on the level below her. Footsteps, trying and failing, to be quiet on the cement floors. Blue lights moved over surfaces like spotlights. Rolly counted four of them. 

We waited too long, Molly said, her voice already giving into defeat. 

Homeschool, Rolly said. Keep it shut. I know where the boy went. Now let me focus.

***

Rolly stepped to the railing, chancing a glance down at what she was dealing with. One of the intruders stepped into another’s light. 

The man wore gear, not clothing. He looked like a damn navy seal. 

No, she realized, watching him move. He looked like he was trying to dress the part. A seal, if trained military specialists of that kind still existed, wouldn’t walk into his buddy’s lamp light and expose himself. He wouldn’t be crunching broken glass under his boot so it could echo through the building. He may have the outfit: black pants and shirt, a plethora of straps holding gear and extra ammunition to his body, rifle with mounted blue light, but he hadn’t earned the stuff. This crew had likely raided a swat van at some point. Still, there were four of them, or at least four lights.

Without a sound, she picked up her bag and slipped back into the stockroom behind the shoe department. Quietly, she pulled open the door to the bathroom where the mother’s body laid.  She didn’t go in, just turned the pin and tumbler lock on the other side and pulled it shut. She tried the handle, making sure it was secure, before heading further back into the stockroom. 

It was a large area, filled with equipment never taken out of the box. Mountain bikes never assembled, clothing never placed on the rack, various piles of empty shoe boxes. She didn’t have much time, but knew the boy was in here. She knew this, because it was exactly what Molly would have done. When the kid saw the lights, he’d have gone looking to find his shit shield, his mother. The last time Ewan had seen his Mom, she had gone with the stranger who had donated her dinner to him. 

Rolly heard the sound of boxes accidentally brushed; a piece of cardboard lightly scraping against another. It was up in the storage racks, toward the back wall, and she homed in on the disturbance.

At least Pampers was smart enough to hide, Rolly said. 

The boy had climbed onto the metal shelving on the second level in the furthest back corner. The racks were large, big enough to store full pallets. The boy had brushed against some loose boxes, on a rack next to where two kayaks rested. She slipped onto the rack with the boxes, careful not to make the same noise, just as a blue light swept into the room.

She froze behind the cardboard, waiting for the light to pass before daring a glance. There was Ewan, tucked into the hull of the Kayak closest to the wall. He’d pushed himself as far down into the thing as he could manage, but his head remained visible. The boy’s eyes still shined, his cheeks briefly betrayed a tremor when he knew she’d seen him.

Rolly brought her finger to lips. It wasn’t to tell the kid to be quiet, he clearly understood that, but to tell him they were being quiet together.