Tanya watched Olena disappear within the shop, closely flanked by Mrs Eceer. Olena's cannon arm was up and buzzing, and Mrs Eceer's arms were both raised with splayed fingers, ready to create a barrier at any moment. The group's eyes followed them. Outside, Tanya peered in through the Kebab store's broken window, watching her friends as they searched the kitchen.
"Heading into the back!" said Mrs Eceer.
"Keep talking if you need anythin'," Tanya yelled back, stepping around the car so she didn't have to yell as loud. "It may count it for our Enemy of my Enemy Achievement thing."
The crushed car was diagonal, half across the street and half inside the kebab shop. Large shards of glass near the frame were all that remained of the window, with the glass in the door shattered and barely still there. Tanya knew there was at least one person in the back of the car, but she couldn't see them from there because of the dark windows.
I hate just waiting…
She bounced on her toes, trying to rid her body of the energy coiled up under her skin. The silence stretched long enough for Tanya to itch for her sword, but then—
"Clear so far!" Olena's voice rang out from inside. "No movement. Smell like old meat and burnt oil, but nothing want to bite us yet."
Mrs Eceer's voice followed. "Come in but stay downstairs."
"Hello?" Olena called as they climbed up the staircase at the back of the shop. Her boots clomped on each stair. "Anyone left? Alive? Undead? We bring snacks!"
"Don't joke," Mrs Eceer said. "If there's something nesting in that flat—"
"I have cannon…"
Tanya took a breath and looked at the others behind her, checking if they were all ready to enter. Ishita was watching the entrance, the makeshift bat still resting against her shoulder. Fahad had edged up closer, squinting inside past the busted counter. Boris was leaning against the trunk of the car. A loud crunch signalled Fifi jumping atop it. The alarm started up, a wail that filled the street and her body with tension.
Her eyes darted both ways as if some new threat had appeared since she'd looked seconds earlier.
There's nothin' now but there's gonna be.
Fahad clamped his hands over his ears.
Tanya ran into the shop and yanked the passenger side door. It didn't move. She saw Boris do the same thing, moments behind on the driver's side.
Of course, the alarm means it's locked. Idiot.
Ishita ran around her, closer to the doorway. She poised the wooden pole in line with the glass and hit it with her full weight. It shattered. Tanya felt a rush of pride in her chest beneath the panic.
Two bodies lay across the dashboard and she gulped, her mouth suddenly completely dry. Tanya and Ishita made eye contact. They'd both seen it. Tanya's angle was better with the rubble shifting around Ishita so she took the fence post off her and whacked the rest of the glass out of the way. Each shove had a quieter crunch until she could reach her arm in and open the door from the inside. As soon as she did, the alarm stopped.
In the silence, Tanya could hear her own panting, and Ishita's.
The damage to the shop was easier to see from here. Glass and paint chips littered the floor from where the car had crashed through the shopfront. One of its side mirrors hung by a wire, swinging gently from whatever wind could make its way in. It was easier to look at the wreckage than the profile of the two bodies—faces buried in airbags and hair sticky with blood.
Clomping echoed down the stairs and Tanya looked over the car's roof.
Mrs Eceer was first, eyes wide and fingers spread. Light emanated from her hands, the magical beginnings of some barrier. Olena lined up the cannon on Mrs Eceer's shoulder like a rest to angle it on. Tanya was once again staring down the barrel, but this time she knew her well enough not to fear it.
Mrs Eceer lowered their hands and shifted the cannon off her shoulder. "What was that racket?"
"This car still have batteries!" Olena exclaimed. She ran over, heaving open the hood and rubbing her arms together like it was something far more beautiful than a lightly smoking engine.
"I am so very sorry," Boris cut in, staggering over the glass and squeezing through the window frame on the other side of the vehicle. "Fifi set off the alarm. I was completely unaware it still had an alarm. I've not seen a vehicle with a battery since the electricity went out."
Mrs Eceer held out a hand. "It's okay." She looked to the others. "Are you all alright?"
Tanya walked around to meet Mrs Eceer and Olena further in the shop. Ishita followed, Fahad on her tail.
"Upstairs?" Tanya asked.
That set off Olena. "No one up there, not even one of those dog things," she moaned. She slammed down the bonnet again with a disgruntled "Ugh."
Tanya glanced around more, her eyes adjusting to the gloom.
A counter covered the back wall to the right of it with garish plastic menu designs hanging from the ceiling above it. A small gap in the back wall for passing food through revealed a kitchen. It was well-lit, so she assumed they must have a garden like on Tanya's side of the road.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Olena huffed again. "Ugh, I thought we could get things for tattoo shop and also get fight. I want to see what little boy's new thing will do and maybe even blow something up. Buuut, maybe I get battery." She clapped her hands together.
"You're more of a child than Fahad is," Mrs Eceer quipped with sly eyes. She let out a breath and her attention turned back to the car.
Tanya followed her eyes and once again, seeing the bodies took her breath away. She struggled to conceptualise the idea that they were once alive. It was a man in the driver's seat and a woman beside him. His hair was straight and black, just long enough to flop over the steering wheel, past the sunken airbag. She was crumpled sideways, her afro touching his shoulder with even tighter coils than Mrs Eceer. She had one beautiful dangling earring. The other earring lay amidst the rubble on the bonnet, either having been ripped out or flown out without a backing.
Were they married? Did they have children? She noticed the car. She glanced at the car, a battered Nissan. Asad used to defend Nissans—said his was a hand-me-down from his father-in-law, that his wife loved it.
She froze.
"No… no, no, no," Tanya whispered.
The image swam in front of her. It couldn't be. His wife always had braids. He'd talked about getting a haircut. But still—
She leaned in, heart pounding.
It can't be. It can't be…
Some faraway conversation stopped. Mrs Eceer said something to her but she couldn't hear. It felt like she was underwater.
Her hands were clammy
It isn't him…
The door clunked open and she stared at the mottled body.
With shaking hands, she bent under the door frame and took the man's shoulders, struggling to lift him upright against gravity's firm hands. She lugged his body but his head still dangled. Tears pricked Tanya's eyes. This wasn't dignified enough but she needed to know. With one arm pressed against his chest, she steadied his forehead with her other hand. Blood dripped from his head down her arm.
The moment she saw his face, she knew. A sob ripped through her and she stumbled backwards. His head thumped into the airbag again and she cried harder. She reached her hand out to cradle it, willing for it to have been placed down gently.
I didn't mean to drop him.
His skin is so cold.
He's dead.
He's really dead.
His hair was tacky against her hand as she straightened his neck. What else could she do?
Tanya looked up and the shop was distorted through her tears like a fish lens. She nodded. Her voice broke. "It's them."
Ishita's hands were clutched to her mouth, her eyes wide.
Fahad was stiff as he stared. His mouth was open slightly. "I thought they'd be gone," he said, so quiet Tanya almost didn't hear him. "I thought they'd already left…"
Mrs Eceer was a different level, her lips pursed together and eyebrows furrowed. Tanya could tell she hadn't known them but she could see that she was shaken anyway.
"I didn't even know them that well," Tanya stammered. She raked her hands through her hair, then looked down at the smudged blood across her hands. It was all in her hair now. Her stomach heaved and she spun away, leaning against what remained of the window frame.
He's just like me.
That could've been me.
"We just here to scavenge," Olena said, quietly. "We could go. Do people want go?"
Tanya stared at the chipped paint and remaining shards of glass, trying to calm her breathing.
That could've been me.
"I don't want to scavenge them," Fahad whispered.
"We won't," Ishita said. She babbled words like she was trying to make sense of her own thoughts. "We'll leave them. Or bury them. They were—good. Asad gave you that mango soda once, remember? You said it reminded you of having segments in the park."
"He let me keep the whole pack," Fahad said, hollow.
"They died fast," Mrs Eceer said, voice softened but not sorrowful. "Lucky, in the scheme of things."
"We should bury them," Ishita said again, standing.
Mrs Eceer opened her mouth then closed it, attempting tact. "It doesn't help us or them."
"They're ours. I'm not leaving them to rot in a car."
"They're dead, Ishita." Mrs Eceer insisted. Her eyes flickered to Fahad but she continued, her voice softer. "It doesn't help them. And burying them takes time we could use more efficiently."
Ishita's whole body shook. "They deserve time!" she hissed.
The two women squared off, voices rising in the stale air.
For all of her confidence, Olena backed away.
Fahad tugged on Tanya's arm. "Do you think they're in Jannah or they've been reborn into babies?"
Both Ishita and Mrs Eceer turned towards him, snapping out of their anger.
"Uhh," Tanya started. She searched Ishita's face for something to say. Her breath was still catching, tears streaming down her face but too shocked to sob.
Fahad's voice wavered slightly, getting quieter and quieter. "Dad said people go to paradise but Mum says they become babies. I don't think I'd want to become a baby because I'd have to forget everything first."
Everyone stood in silence. The only sound was Fifi's claws scratching against the concrete outside and the low rumbling growl that seemed to appear every time Boris stood still with her for too long. Boris seemed to realise and pace again, crossing in front of the shop and politely pretending he couldn't hear what was going on inside.
"Lots of people believe in lots of different places. My faith calls it heaven," Mrs Eceer said, diplomatically.
"Wherever they are babu, it's somewhere good," Ishita said. She sobbed and held him. It seemed to be just as much for her benefit as his.
Tanya turned away, not by decision but by instinct, as if her body was trying to shield her from something her mind hadn't caught up to. The world had taken on a muted, distant quality like she was walking through someone else's dream.
Further inside, the kebab shop was mostly intact, though everything smelled of old oil and burnt spice. The floor under Tanya's boots was gritty with dried sauce and glass dust, and her footsteps made a sticky sound as she walked. The smell got worse the deeper she moved—cumin, grease, and time baked into every surface. Tanya peered into the kitchen on the way past. The fryers were blackened and dry. Sauce bottles had congealed into weird marbled sludge. Dust clung to every surface, thickest around the serving hatch and prep benches. On the far counter, someone had once tried to scrub off a notice written in felt-tip—CLOSED MONDAY/TUESDAY—but only managed to smudge it into a ghost of itself. She stopped there, hands planted on the counter and eyes unable to look away from the menus. The last time they spoke, a few weeks ago, she'd promised him new menu designs when it got quieter after Christmas. Now she never would.
"Yeah," Tanya said. Her voice sounded wrong in the silence. She turned to face the group's eyes. "Let's go."
"We should take them too," Ishita said, but her voice wavered.
Olena walked around them toward the exit, looking between the group and Boris. Tanya knew neither of them would weigh in on something like this.
Mrs Eceer just pursed her lips again, avoiding further tension.
"We can come back for them—soon even. Just… let's sit in the parlour," Tanya said.
Ishita nodded.
Mrs Eceer's head whipped to the right. Fifi began a low rumbling growl.
Mrs Eceer shook her head, wiping her hands down her face. "Heaven help us." She turned back to the group. "Something's coming. I can hear it."
Boris clutched Fifi's metal leash in both hands, holding her back. She prowled and spat, lurching down the street. He looked up, his eyes wide. "Fifi can too."
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