Chapter 10

"You tried to kill Milo!" Elise's voice had become a shrill whip. She gathered the bundle of fluff that was Milo - who had hardly noticed the BB barely missing his head and imbedding itself into one of the shelves - and glared accusingly at Holden.

Holden, a tall thin man with dark hair an blue eyes, who looked to be about the same age as her and Meagan lowered his BB gun. "I'm sorry! I thought it was a giraffe!"

"Are you fucking blind!?!"

"You know what, it's been a pretty fucking crazy day! Their colouring's similar, I just reacted!" He looked towards Steve for help, but Steve shrugged in a manner that said: "I don't really know her - deal with this yourself." Elise looked at Meagan, also wanting someone to back her up, but Meagan was just gazing up at Steve with adoration, so Elise rolled her eyes and went back to glaring at Holden.

"You should be more careful with that thing."

"Why did you even bring your cat? Don't you know it's the apocalypse?"

"He followed me - and he's already taken out more of those damn giraffes today than you ever will with your crappy shot."

"Hey! My crappy shot saved your cat's life!"

Milo had begun to purr rather loudly and started licking Elise's face, which made arguing considerably difficult, so Elise decided to let the matter rest and walk away to pick a gun.

Holden still continued to mutter to himself as she walked away: "Like I ever fired a gun before - I'm a god damned artist."

Elise put Milo down and started stuffing her pockets full of ammo. The first gun she picked up was an uzi replica, but Meagan tsked behind her.

"Don't grab anything automatic, you need to conserve your ammo. Semi-automatic is the best," Meagan said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, looking up at Steve with a smile and Elise realized Meagan was just trying to show off all her insane survival knowledge.

Elise couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy as she put the uzi down and watched Steve and Meagan laughing together. After all the insanity they had just gone through to find each other, Meagan was completely ignoring her best friend for some guy.

And who was this Steve guy anyway? Meagan always went on and on about them, but how come they didn't just date? Was Meagan too nervous to ask? Was Steve too much of a jerk to notice her? Were they both just really socially awkward? Actually, that last theory sounded pretty sound.

Elise found a loaded Tommy gun replica and feeling a slight twinge of nostalgia for WWII movies - and never one to follow rules very well - she threw it in the bag Meagan had given her, then grabbed a hand gun to appease Meagan's insistence they only bring semi-automatics. Elise was pretty sure there would come a time when a mob of giraffes would be on them and a Tommy gun would come in pretty handy - even if it was only firing pellets.

Meagan and Steve were discussing their game plan and Elise noticed Milo had gone over to Holden who was petting him. "Traitor," she thought to herself.

"We have to go north," Meagan was still speaking in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Why?" Elise was beginning to feel annoyed and couldn't help but question her logic.

"Because giraffes are from Africa. The cold will kill them. So long as we survive the winter, we'll survive the apocalypse."

"... But it's August."

"Yes, well, winter will come eventually."

"And what do we do until then? Do you have any idea how hard it is to survive in the wild? Not to mention even if we did make it until winter we have no winter camping gear. You know, my sister and I-" Elise felt her stomach twist. "OH MY GOD!!! KRISTA!!!"

She had been so concerned with her own survival she had completely forgot to call her little sister. She had no idea if Krista was alive or dead, but she had to find out. She fished her phone of out her pocket, spilling BBs on the floor that Milo immediately started playing with and dialed her sister's number.

It rang one, twice, three times... Every time it rang Elise got closer and closer to bursting out in tears. Then, finally, miraculously, someone picked up and she heard the scared voice of a young woman answer.

"Hello?"

"Krista! Are you all right? Where are you? Who are you with? Do you have a weapon? You haven't been bitten, have you?"

"Elise? Calm down, I'm fine," she sounded like she was crying. "I'm at work, we're okay. We stopped the elevators and everyone up here is fine."

"Wait... you're still at the Tower?" Krista worked at the CN Tower. When she said she was upstairs she didn't mean on the second floor - she meant on the observation deck over 300 metres in the air. "Jesus Christ..."

"Is she okay?" Meagan asked, concerned that I suddenly look worried.

"Krista, it's okay. I have guns."

"You have guns?"

"Well, they're guns in principle. Look! I'm coming to get you." I hung up, turning it back off to conserve the battery and looked at Meagan. "We have to rescue Krista. She's in the CN Tower."

"Um..." Meagan started.

"Going downtown is not a good idea," Steve shook his head, but he wasn't saying no.

"I like the plan where we go north - away from the things trying to eat us," Holden walked over to them.

"No one invited you," Elise glared.

"Oh yeah, because I really want an invitation to the suicide run," but Holden still looked slightly disappointed.

"I can't leave Krista. She's all the family I have. None of you have to come with me, but that's where I'm going. That being said..." she looked back at Meagan, pleading with her eyes, "I don't suppose you wanna help me rescue my little sister and a bunch of tourists trapped in the Tower?"