Eric lay on the ground, his eyes were shut and his skin was freezing. I knelt down next to him and checked his pulse. It was beating very slowly, but he was still alive.

"We should get him to your mother," Liesal said. "She is a nurse,".

"Yes,"I replied still facing Eric. "Do you know where they went?"

She nodded, "I've been there only once, but I can still remember the way. We can both carry him,". I bent down to grab his legs and accidentally moved my left arm. 

"Ahhh!" I screamed holding my arm in pain. It hurt so bad!

"What happened to your arm?" Liesal asked as she began to inspect it.

"Nothing!" I said ripping my arm away. "We've got to help Eric!"

"We will," she assured. "As soon as we fix your hand!"

"No!" I yelled as a tear trickled down. "Please, lets get Eric help first, then we can deal with my arm!" Liesal reluctantly agreed and grabbed Eric's right arm and hung it over her shoulder. I did the same with his left. We each took a leg and began to carry him out. "Which way?"

"Through the forest, there," she replied pointing to the left. I nodded as we started our journey. We walked through forest carefully, making sure that no one was following us. We walked for thirty minutes until finally we reached the big building. It was burnt severely but managed to still stand. The walls were peeling and it looked haunted. I hesitated but realized this was the only way. We walked inside the store slowly, my vision was getting fuzzier. Is that bad, I asked myself. Who cares! Just get Eric some help! Liesal and I shouted for our parents.'

"MOM!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. "MOM WHERE ARE YOU! ERIC AND LIESAL ARE IN NEED OF SOME MEDICAL ATTENTION!".

"MEREDITH?" mom replied from several isles over. "WAIT RIGHT THERE! WE'RE COMING!" In minutes Joanna, Henry and my mom came running towards us with backpacks full of food. "What happened?" mom asked as soon as she saw Eric.

"There was a saucer and an alien and then he grabbed Eric and then he went and..." Liesal said.

"Whoa, slow down. Alien?" Henry asked.

"Yes," I replied calmly as we put Eric down. "The alien did something to him,".

"Well he's still breathing," mom said. She started to perform CPR on him. My vision got blurry and I dropped. "Meredith!" mom yelled. I heard many more screams as they tried to wake me up. All I could hear were muffles. I could see only black, but soon that began clearing up. Now I could make out fuzzy figures, but there were more than four. About two dozen actually.

"Hand over the food lady," I heard a scratchy voice say.

"Why don't you get your own? There's plenty more in that isle!" Joanne replied.

"There isn't enough for all of us, we need your food! Hand it over now!" Scratchy yelled.

"Back off kid," Henry warned. "You don't know what you are doing!".

"I do!" Scratchy shouted. "I know what I'm doing old man! I'm going to count to three! If you don't hand over the bags before I finish counting you won't live!". My vision became more clear and I saw mom, Joanna, and Henry standing in front of me and Eric. But wait, where's Liesal?

"Think it over boy, do you really want to kill us?" mom asked softly.

"ONE," Scratchy counted.

"Come on leave with what you've got!" Henry pleaded.

"TWO," Scratchy continued.

"Fine!" Joanna exclaimed. "Take the damn food!" She took off her bag and tossed it to them. Henry and mom did the same. "Now just leave us alone, okay?"

Scratchy smiled an evil grin, "Oh I don't think so! What if we let you go and you tell people about us? We'll be exposed! No, I think our little encounter ends here! Don't worry, it won't be so bad,". And with that Scratchy walked away with two other people while the rest stayed. Their knives were raised and they slowly moved towards us. Mom, Henry and Joanna walked back fast and soon they began to run. The robbers chased them and I could hear crazy screams. One of them bent down and checked me and Eric. I quickly shut my eyes.

"Hey, Patch! What do we do with them?" the guy asked.

"Are they alive Ed?" Patch asked.

Ed bent down and got so close I could feel his stinky breath. "Nah, I don't think so!"

"Check if they have any valuables!" Patch said as he walked towards Ed. I opened my eyes a little so I could see. Ed looked Eric up and down, his eyes finally resting on Eric's neck.

"Bingo!" Ed said as he reached for the gold chain and ripped it out. It was a watch and used to belong to my father and mom decided to give it to Eric. Eric's worn it since he was two, he's never taken it off since then. Ed stuffed it in his pocket and moved to me. "Nothing on the girl though!"

"Check her pockets idiot!" Patch scolded. Ed reached into my pocket and pulled out the one thing I was holding on to. It was a picture of me, mom and dad at an amusement park. We all wore shorts and a t-shirt. Mom was holding her pregnant belly, we all looked so happy. The picture was taken before the world went haywire. It reminded me of the normal lives we once had and would probably never get back.

"Aww.. isn't that sweet, a family photo" Ed said as he smiled genuinely. Patch walked up behind him and smacked his head. "Get up idiot, we've got to go!" Ed's head snapped and his smile faded. He dropped the picture and walked away with his buddy. I slowly got up once the screaming stopped and I was sure that they were gone. I grabbed the photo and returned it to my pocket. I got to my feet slowly.

"Robber, robbers, robbers," I heard someone whisper repeatedly. I slowly walked toward the isle and there I saw Liesal hiding on the lowest rack with her hands around her knees. Her whole body was shaking rapidly and and sweat drenched her hair. Her eyes were focused on the floor and she was rocking herself back and forth.

"Hey, Liesal!" I said snapping her out of her trance. She looked up slowly.

"Mere?" she asked. I nodded and walked to her. "You are still alive?"

"Yes, so are you. Can you come out now?" I asked.

She nodded and slowly rose to her feet a little unstable at first but she soon found her balance.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Well you collapsed all of a sudden, we were all so scared. then we heard footsteps and mom told me to go hide, so I did. Then I heard them talking. The robbers wanted the food and our parents were trying to negotiate. Then I heard running, then screams then silence." she said weakly.

"Okay, lets try to find out parents," I said. "We can leave Eric where he is, he'll be safe,".

"Okay," Liesal said. We walked down the isles calling out to our parents. I stopped in my tracks when I saw a trail of blood.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for reading chapter six. If you liked the story please vote and comment below ,feedback would be much appreciated. I will be adding the next chapter in about a week.
-chihiro_07