This wasn't supposed to be his job. What was the point of hiring the register kid in the first place if he wasn't going to finish the work. Restocking the shelves should be nothing. Well, not for him, but he had an old back to blame. The man waited for his knees to unlock before he grunted back up to the counter and used his elbow to pull the rest of him upright. That was enough. If people wanted gum they could just pull it directly from the box. That wasn't why people showed up here anyway.

He adjusted the twisted badge that read 'Ed' and pulled his undershorts which were trying to go sideways as well. Ed hobbled back behind the plastic divider. A sign above alerted people the register was emptied at night and also had a prominent NRA sticker above in case anyone didn't believe it.

Ed just prepared to call the register kid directly and let him know if he wasn't there in five minutes he shouldn't bother to come at all when the door squeaked open. The smell of wet brine air scented with cold weather blew under the plastic divider and he sighed at the incoming rainstorm. Not unusual here but with the summer approaching it should be less frequent. No wonder his back was killing him.

"Where the hell have you-"

It turned out it wasn't his missing worker but a pair of kids. College he'd guess. Neither of them had very clean clothes and had he cared more he might have noticed the glassy-eyed look the boy had. But he was too annoyed watching the boy wrinkle his nose at the missing tiles on the floor. In fact, the kid sort of had a permanent haughty expression on his scruffy face.

"Connor, you should get something to eat." The girl told him with a nervous expression. She simply looked tired. Her eyes were unusually blue-green and had Ed been a younger man he would have made sure to compare them to the sea when she approached the counter.

"Which pump?"

"We don't need gas." The boy answered hoarsely, dumping what seemed like the entire rack of beef jerky onto the counter. His hands were crossed over his chest. "But we would like directions." Pause. "Please."

Ed decided he didn't like this kid so he turned his attention to the girl instead. "Where are ya looking to go?"

She smiled brightly despite the circles under her eyes. "Port Angeles."

"Well you can buy a map. You're almost there."

The boy grimaced and turned to examine the shelves. Ed heard him cough and frowned. It sounded wet.

The girl leaned forward so her chest rested on the counter and he quickly turned his attention there instead of her face. "If you could please help- we got a little turned around. We were looking for a bar in particular so a map only helps so much."

He cleared his throat and pulled out the old map he kept stashed.

"What bar?"

The girl handed him a flyer and he grunted. "I know the place. All you gotta do is-"

Before he could even get a finger onto the spot, the door squeaked open again. In stumbled his late register boy.

"Sorry- sorry Ed but I have to tell you-"

"Can't you see I'm with a customer?" Ed snapped. "Getcha uniform on-"

"Ed I gotta talk to you first-"

"Ronnie I swear-"

"It's about-"

"-the gas?" Ed tried not to look panicked as he interrupted quickly but this Connor kid still raised his eyebrows. Ronnie, the numb-nuts, was about to say it out loud. The smile wilted on the girl's face and the boy now had his arrogant eyes on the idiot teenager. "'scuse me missy- I think we may have a leak- let me just circle it for you- where's a pen where's a pen-" he cursed up a storm in his head. He needed them out. Now.

"Oh, should we be worried?" The girl blinked, stepping away.

Her friend sighed and shook his head. For some reason that seemed to relieve the girl as though he could possibly know.

"No- should be an easy fix nothing dangerous. Gimme just a minute."

The back door swung shut and the pair were left alone in the Oil Gas 'n Bait shop.

"What do you suppose ol' Ed and Ronnie are really talking about back there?" Connor picked up a package of jerky from the counter and tore into it. He seemed to be doing his best to chew instead of gulp. "I'm guessing drugs. Given the look of this place... meth."

"Connor why do you have to be such an ass all the time. I don't understand how you got as far as you did before."

"I didn't stop at creepy gas stations, Izzy. This one looks like it's a front for a human trafficking group."

Izzy put a tentative finger on the map and spun it to face her, tracing along one of the thicker blue lines. He moved the jerky bag away from his mouth to look over her shoulder, swallowing before he spoke again. "We should be there by this evening."

She cast him an anxious look. "If it takes us another day, its fine." Her eyes went to his chest and back to his face. "Don't push yourself."

"I'm fine." He promised. "I'll be better as soon as we have a more permanent roof."

"If we do. Are you sure you will be able to tell-?"

He closed his eyes, tilting his chin up and to one side, thinking. "I'll recognize it. The letter only gave out a few days ago and-" he opened his eyes and glanced towards the door. He lifted a hand to her shoulder and she jumped. A pained expression crossed his face but he took a step back and she followed quickly, not meeting his eyes now.

"False alarm?"

"I really don't care for dogs."

The door squeaked open again and a group of men all pushed their way inside, two of them nearly knocking into each other trying to enter first. They didn't seem to notice the pair near the register at first since they were all arguing loudly.

"I'm not using my barn again."

"Well he's not gonna bring it then. If he can't go where he trusts th-"

"He's got to come. It's been advertised. Do you know how much money-"

"Shut up." A lanky guy with a greased moustache knocked into the shorter man talking about money. His trucker hat had a line of yellow near the brim. Together the four men turned to stare at the boy and girl as though they were the ones who had burst in to interrupt them.

"Where's Ed."

Connor looked irritated. "I don't know who that is."

Izzy sighed and gave him an annoyed look. "The guy who works here..." she said quietly and then louder for the group, "he just went in the back."

"Oh. From out of town." The man with the mustache eyed the jerky on the counter and the map. "We've got to close. Emergency. I'll ring you up."

The pair exchanged a look but the boy pulled out a handful of rolled bills and placed them on the counter.

"And he was going to show us where a bar was?"

Baseball cap scowled at them and knocking into the swinging door. Ed was shoved back out looking paler than before and stabbed a dirty fingernail onto the map, telling them they could keep it before running back to join the rest.

The two intruders were more than happy to leave.

Three trucks now sat idling next to the gas pumps. Two of them held a pair of dog crates but the animals were strangely silent as the pair walked by. The third truck held what appeared more to be a cage. A pair of yellow eyes watched them pass but neither of them slowed to get a better look. Whatever was going on here was the least of their worries. They picked up their packs from the ferns and examined the map they'd pulled off the counter while the men argued.

******

The uneven pavement caught the boy's foot and he stumbled for the forth time, grunting as he put a hand to the collar of his shirt and squeezed the material. For the forth time the girl shot him a frightened look. His eyes were glassier than before and his the color had faded from his face.

"We need to stop. Just for awhile. Please, give yourself a break."

"If the map is right the bar is less than three miles, so the shop should only be a block or two beyond that." He tried to smile at her but it came out more like a grimace. "If we ask nicely we may even get real beds."

"Then let me go on ahead." She insisted. Obviously this had been an argument before because he only shook his head.

"She sent me. We have no idea who her friends are- if you show up without me" but he couldn't finish. The cough made him double over and to her fright he actually turned away to spit. He almost looked more horrified by this then her.

"I'm sorry. That was disgusting."

An actual smile passed over her face briefly with something like affection when she pushed his hair back out of his copper eyes. But it dimmed quickly. "You're burning."

He gave her a wry smile. "Did you forget that's normal for me?"

"Stop it. Even for you, this is too hot. At least- at least sit down to eat." She scrambled to pull more jerky out of her pack and the offer of food did what her words couldn't. He collapsed on the side of the road and chewed through two packs. She nibbled at her own granola bar and chugged some water, surprised at her own thirst. It was impossible to tell what was sweat and what was vapor. It was beautiful here in a solemn sort of way. The sky seemed permanently silver with the mist creeping out of the green of the ferns and invasive blackberries. It was like a dreamscape except she knew that couldn't possibly be true because she was too fucking tired to be dreaming.

She put down her water bottle heavily and brushed the moisture from her skin. They were so fucking close. She understood why he wanted to make it tonight. He was deteriorating by the hour it seemed. For the last week he'd gone from his normal healing cough to something more sinister that he couldn't seem to shake. It didn't help they rarely had access to shelter and no where near enough food. She was barely better off. Where he was too warm, she was too cold. Always shivering. A chill that had been resting in her bones even when she had managed to take a burning hot shower. She was sick too, just not as bad as him. Before they had made it to the little gas station convenience store she knew he'd been hallucinating- mumbling a conversation as they walked. Food seemed to help, but for how long?

He stood back up on unsteady legs. "Let's go."

*****

A boy watched. He'd smelled something interesting coming down the street and even though he was supposed to be in bed he'd climbed off the couch, wrapped in a blanket to come sit by the door and watch it approach. He even opened the main door so that only the wicker one stood between him and the opaque sky. It smelled like seawater, the usual wind coming off the ocean and something else. He wrinkled his nose and turned to the racoon sitting next to him.

"I think someone is sick."

The racoon stared back at him with shiny black eyes, small hands clutching onto the door. The boy's eyes also were dark, like drops of black ink nearly identical to his sister's although he didn't know this. He only knew that he although he wasn't supposed to be sitting out here with the door open to the elements and the unknown, he was quite safe.

"There they are." He got onto his knees, fingers matching the racoon now as a pair of figures limped up the choppy road past each salt-speckled house until they came upon the one the boy sat inside. A welcome sign with an ocean wave read 'closed' as it swung in the night air.

"You better go wake our Lola too." The boy whispered to the racoon, knowing full well the man upstairs would have already been woken the moment the racoon came to join him in the little store front. The boy turned back to the visitors.

The male attempted the steps first. He got up the first four and then dropped to one knee and scrambled backward a step, hand over his chest. The little boy covered his mouth, trying not to giggle. It was mean to giggle but it was always so funny to watch someone try and pass through the ward for the first time.

The girl grabbed his arm, clearly confused and then tried herself. She did slightly better but also ended up backing away. There was a look of panic on her face as she looked between the boy panting on the ground next to her and the shop.

If the boy in the shop really wanted to, he could listen in to their conversation but so far they hadn't noticed him and he might give himself away.

"Benjamin, how long have you known we were going to have guests?"

The boy looked up at the man hovering over him. The racoon sat at his feet, head tilted.

The boy shrugged his shoulders. "Awhile."

"And are they the kind I should... greet?"

Ben stared at the pair and his black eyes shined bright yellow as he sniffed the air. He looked up at the man again, a sharp toothed smile. "Yes. Let's greet them."

********

You can look for book TWO beginning in May