Eden's Promise by MJ Fredrick

pack and joining Aaron at the door.
    The rest of the block wasn’t as well-preserved. The grocery store and another drug store had been looted and nearly emptied. Aaron pointed to a red cross on a building. A hospital? Her heart pounded—they could find so many supplies in there. She started to lead the way, but he held her back, drawing his pistol and motioning for her to do the same. Right. Just because they hadn’t seen anyone didn’t mean no one was around. And where better to hide than a hospital?
    It wasn’t a hospital, exactly, more of a clinic, two stories. When they opened the door, the scent wasn’t of decay but of disuse. She found that reassuring.  
    Now her pulse thundered for a different reason as she kept her gaze on Aaron, watching his body language as he crept through the halls.  
    The place had been completely trashed, windows broken, computers turned over, papers scattered everywhere. Her hopes sank like a rock. Other people had come to find medicine, more than likely, and had taken their frustration in finding none out on the place.  
    When they emerged from the clinic, she heard the growling of animals as they fought over something, and realized with dismay it was the remains of the woman in the first store. Nausea welled once again, but she battled it and followed Aaron down the street. He drew her through the shattered windows of a gas station and headed to the coolers. The beer was gone, but some sodas remained in the dark refrigerator. He pulled out a root beer and motioned for her to get what she wanted. She chose a warm diet drink with a smile.  
    “This reminds me of going on road trips with my dad. He’d always stop at the gas station and get us a drink and a snack.”
    Aaron drained half his bottle before replying, then used the neck of it to point at the decimated snack aisle. “Help yourself.”
    She found a crushed bag of chips with an expiration date that had passed, but she ignored it and ripped it open. She poured some of the powdery remnants in her palm and funneled them into her mouth. She held the bag to him but he shook his head, making her wonder if he hadn’t lived on supplies like this as he made his way across the country.  
    “Are we getting close?” he asked, leaning against the wall and watching her.
    “Not far.” They’d mapped it out, and thankfully she knew Tacoma well enough to know the general area where her sister had lived, though she had never visited.  
    “Let’s get going, then.”
    She wasn’t used to walking such a distance—the disadvantage to living on an island. She wouldn’t show that weakness to Aaron though, not after she’d convinced him to bring her. So she worked hard to hide how bad her feet and knees hurt as she kept up with him.
    Birds stirring, chirping, singing as they woke in the trees above them, signaling dawn’s approach as they moved into her sister’s neighborhoods, one of those with cookie cutter houses and streets with themed names. She was grateful it wasn’t in one of the rougher areas of the city, or Aaron would never have allowed them to get close. As it was, he was alert to their surroundings, gun drawn, though he had been very clear they weren’t to fire unless they had no other choice.  
    Her heart thudded as they crept down the quiet street, keeping to the shadows. Some of the houses had been vandalized, some had been burned. Her gut twisted as she counted down the numbers, getting closer to the address.
    Kelly’s house looked untouched, dark and quiet, as one would expect a house to look at five in the morning, except for the wild vegetation taking over the yard. Would they find her sister’s body inside? It was a question she hadn’t allowed herself to ask until now.  
    Aaron glanced over at her and took her hand, leading her up the cracked sidewalk, up to the stoop. Eden thought he would kick the door down. Instead, he finessed the lock and led the way, gun drawn. She pulled her own, just before the