Outbreak

The small weapon gave off an impressive roar in the darkened store, even Earl was surprised at what he was seeing since he hadn't thought the kid had it in him. Not that he objected, after all it had to be considered a mercy under the circumstances but still. Looking his friend in the eye with a new level of respect, Mike simply told him with a growl "Let's get'em!"

Before they moved though, Earl couldn't resist shouting out their intentions to their prey as well. "You hear me, you fucker! We're coming to get you and that little bitch too!"

By this time Kevin had moved into the clothing department hoping all the racks and displays would give him more cover. He still hadn't had any luck in finding the girl, and wasn't sure what to do about that. How could he find her and get out of here with out giving himself away to the other two who quite obviously wanted them both dead now? Considering all this, Kevin began to think he might have to kill both of the other men just to save their lives, that was certainly one thing he didn't want to do. Gripping the cool plastic grip of the shotgun in his sweaty hands, Kevin began to really regret not bringing one of the assault rifles that John had stashed away since at the moment he found himself outmanned and outgunned. A situation he really didn't like very much.

In a brief moment of introspection Kevin once again thought that humans were their own worst enemies. With so few survivors of the plague that had swept the world, what were the survivors doing? Were they working together trying to rebuild their world? No, they were to busy going for each others throats to worry about anything like that. The image of a pack of scavengers turning on each other while they were in the process of picking clean a carcass came to mind.

Knowing that the two surviving men would be coming, Kevin shook himself out of his pointless musings and made his choice. He had to find the girl and get them both out of here one way or another, after that he'd see what would happen then.

Kelly had heard both the gun shot and the threatening shout as well from her hiding place elsewhere in the clothing department. She couldn't honestly say if anyone would have asked her at that moment if she had ever been more scared than she was right then.

When the last round of shooting started she had lost the man who had been protecting her. He had been there one second and was gone the next it seemed. She didn't know if he was alive or dead, what she did know was that she was trapped in a Wal-Mart of all places with her hands cuffed behind her back, with armed men now trying to kill her or worse. She didn't know what to do; she was 22 year old nurse for God sake, not a soldier.

Taking a moment to catch her breath and pull herself together after her sprint from the scene of her last near death experience. Think she told herself think, think, think, what do I do? I want to live! Ok how do I do that? I have to get out of here! So how do I do that?

There has to be some kind of back door to this place she realized at once. Even with her hands cuffed she needed to find it and escape.

She'd seen her share of war movies so she knew enough to stay down low and hopefully out of sight. Moving at a crouch as best she could, Kelly kept moving through the racks and displays of clothing without really paying much attention 'til she found herself at a main aisle.

Kneeling down she looked around for a moment. From her hiding place she could see a row of blankets and sheets to her front, but the more open area ahead again didn't give her a lot of places to hide.

Struck now by indecision, what in a normal world would have been so easy, just the act of walking across an aisle in a store like she or anyone would have done a million times without even thinking about it now was a life and death decision.

Kelly was faced with a real conundrum: if she left the relative safety of the clothing department and tried to get out of the store she was risking her life, if she stayed where she was she was risking her life too. What to do?

But knowing that if she was going to get out of here she was going to have to risk it Kelly made her decision and braced herself for what she had to do now.

After his own close call with whoever had the AK, Kevin had made sure his shotgun was reloaded and as carefully as he could made his way through the clothing department having decided prudently it would be best if he was somewhere else other than were he was at that moment.

He was still hoping that he could find the girl before the bad guys did, though he wasn't sure how he was going to do that... not with two armed men looking for them both, he certainly couldn't call out for her that was for sure. He just hoped she was either smart enough or scared enough not to do anything that stupid either.

Carefully moving forward once again Kevin stopped when he found himself on a wide aisle that separated the clothing department from the next area of the store. He hadn't seen or heard anything for a few minutes that seemed like an eternity now. Looking across the open space at a row of pots and pans, he couldn't help but think again about the surreal nature of his current situation. But bracing himself for the sprint across the open area he took one last look around before he made his move and that's when he saw movement off to his right.

He instinctively froze, hoping he hadn't been seen himself, it took a few seconds for him to recognize it was the girl poking her head out that had caught his eye, before he could try to get her attention though she made her move and darted across the aisle and disappeared again.

Knowing he'd been lucky to stumble across her once, Kevin didn't what to risk losing her now. Wanting to get ahead of her, he got across the aisle too and moved as quickly as he could down to the far end of row and waited hoping to catch her here before she jump to the next aisle.

With a sigh of relief he saw her poke her head out to take a look around and Kevin started waving his free hand frantically trying to get her attention. It seemed to work since her head quickly disappeared. Now all he had to worry about, with a certain amount of chagrin was whether he had spooked her or not.

Crouching down next to a display of cheap bed sheets Kelly could feel her heart leap back into its current home in her throat. When she had looked out to see if it was safe to move again she had seen something a couple of rows down from her.

Her first instinct was to run the other way. But as she turned to do just that she thought, why wasn't whoever it was over there shooting at her or at least running after her? Could it be the other guy, the one that had tried to help her? She didn't know his story but he didn't seem to be trying to kill her at the present time, which was more than she could say for the other two.

Deciding to risk it, she turned and poked her head back out just far enough to take a look. She had to admit that her would be rescuer looked relieved to see her.

Kevin was indeed very relieved to see she had decided to trust him. If she had taken off on now him he doubted he could have found her again at least not before one of their pursuers did.

Looking around to make sure it was at least some what safe, Kevin moved down the two rows that had separated them. Kneeling down with her he quickly looked her over, "You ok?" he whispered to her in what sounded to her like a remarkable calm voice.

"Yea," she nodded in thanks for that at least.

"What's your name?"

"Kelly,"

"Hi Kelly, I'm Kevin, pleased to meet you." Seeing the hands cuffs she was still saddled with and considering the part of the store they were in, he got an inspiration. Checking to make sure the way was clear he said, "Let's go,"Not understanding what he was doing she asked, "Where are we going?"

"The hardware department," he told her. "Let's see if we can get those cuffs off you."

Leading her by the arm they headed down 'til they found the far wall, Kevin had decided it would be a good idea to put as much distance as possible between them and their pursuers. Hitting the wall Kevin turned the corner and led them at a crouch, dashing from the end of one row to another always looking first of course. They did this a few times before Kevin found the tools; unfortunately once there he couldn't remember which row had anything like bolt cutters.

Finally at the end of one row he took a long look and even with the crappy lighting he could see a lot tools of all kinds. Maybe this was the one, he thought and led them down the aisle, trying to look in every direction at the same time. Kevin reached the end of the row and came up empty, with a muffled curse to the world in general about why everything had to be so complicated.

But with Kelly still in tow he pulled them around the corner and checked the next row. About halfway down Kevin finally found what he was looking for: A nice shiny new pair of bolt cutters. One look at them and he knew they could easily snip the chain between the locked cuffs at Kelly's wrists.

But after taking them down Kevin was reminded once again as if he needed the repeated reminders that unfortunately like most things in his life this wasn't going to come easily.

The cutters jaws were locked closed with some kind of plastic band that kept them from being used 'til it was cut off.

So now they needed something to cut the restraining band on the cutters to then cut the cuffs off Kelly. Great, he muttered Just fucking great!

Continuing too mutter more unpleasant things under his breath, he started digging in his pockets for the folding knife he always carried, after putting his shotgun down for a moment Kevin found what he was looking for and following a couple of tries managed to cut the tough plastic tie that was holding the cutting jaws closed.

Quickly putting his knife away he turned the girl around and with one snip cut the chain restraining her hands. Figuring that would do for now, Kevin felt pleased with himself for a moment, but like all good feelings it didn't last, since the bad guys chose this moment to show up.

Earl and Mike hadn't been idle since what had happened with Ted. After putting Ted out of his misery the two of them had been moving across the store doing their best to keep each other in sight hoping to catch up to the guy they held responsible for what happened to their friend.

Earl was getting upset with the whole situation, not to mention it was hard going since the clothing department wasn't nearly as picked over as grocery section of the store. There were just too many places those two could hide like the dogs they were; he and Mike still did their best to cover the area as thoroughly as they could. But without seeing or hearing anything for so long, Earl was starting to wonder if maybe the two would escape the justice they so richly deserved, that is 'til he heard Mike give a shout followed quickly by the blast of the younger man's shotgun.

Mike just stepped out of the clothing department and there they were right in front of him, as if to make themselves even better targets the two of them were even standing up in the middle of the aisle.

Being so keyed up he didn't hesitate other than to give a shout to Earl that he had found them before Mike raised his 12 gauge to his shoulder and fired both barrels down the aisle, with every intention of bagging them both at once.

Mike's shout to Earl though had the unintentional effect of saving his target's lives. Caught in the middle of congratulating himself for getting the girl cut loose, Kevin was just starting to think about their next move when he was snapped out of his day dreams by an unexpected shout.

Looking up in time to see the source of the commotion standing there at the end of a long row of assorted crap after seeming to come out of nowhere, not only that, the guy was also raising his own gun to his shoulder.

With no time to do anything else Kevin just threw himself into the girl using his added bulk to knock them both to the ground. Just in time too since Kevin would have sworn he actually heard the buck shot passing over his head.

Looking up and seeing the guy trying to reload, he quickly rolled off his soft landing pad and snatched up his own shotgun. Yelling for Kelly to run he fired back down the aisle.

Kelly wasn't sure what was happening; one second she had finally gotten her hands free and was just about to thank the guy for that as well as rescuing her, then there was a shout and the next thing she knew she was knocked down on the hard dirty tile floor with him laying on top of her as well as a bunch of shooting.

But just as soon as they had landed in a heap he thankfully rolled off her and yelled for her to run and started shooting at them himself.

Kelly didn't know if one or both of the men after them had managed to catch up to them or not but she quickly decided that she really didn't care right then and would worry about what was happening later.

Struggling to her feet as fast as the young woman could move she took off in the opposite direction from where the bullets were coming from since that seemed like the safest direction. She rounded the corner and took a left and headed down two rows and stopped, not sure what to do now. Since after all just where could she go?

Kevin fired once then again. He really didn't aim so much as just point in the general direction of his target; all he wanted really was to keep the guys head down for a few seconds, just long enough for him to make his own exit. When he promptly did, after firing his second shot, Kevin got to his knees and half crawled half scuttled down the aisle following in the girl's wake.

Rounding the corner he found her waiting two rows down hiding behind a display of extension cords. He thanked his lucky stars she hadn't gone too far since the shit was really starting to get thick around here.

Deciding it was high time to put some distance between them and the guy shooting at them, not to mention wherever the other one was at that moment he just grabbed the girl and pulled her to her feet.

"You ok?" he hissed at her, wanting to be sure she was unhurt. Kelly took a quick inventory and nodded that she was and with that the two of them started to run once again for their lives.

Earl who had heard Mike's shout and looked over in time to see him shoot down the row he was facing and was just wondering if the kid had solved their little problem, when he saw the younger man duck back into the clothing racks and shots rang out from further in store. The returning shots tore into the clothing racks Mike had been standing next to but otherwise did no real damage he could see.

Well so much for that, Earl thought, as he moved to join his young companion. Catching motion out of the corner of his eye he saw the people they were gunning for running down the far wall of the store. He raised his rifle for a shot as fast as he could but wasn't able to get one off before they were out of sight past the next row.

Cursing under his breath, Earl knew if they kept going the way they were the two of them would end up in far corner of the building where automotive was. He'd been there many times himself and knew his way around and thought that if he hurried he just might be able to get the drop on them.

Forgetting about Mike for the moment he hustled down to the end of an aisle of light bulbs where Earl paused to listen, trying to hear over the pounding of his heart, peeking around the corner in time to see the two of them almost to the end of the long aisle down near the counter in automotive. Figuring that this was the best shot he was going to get he stepped out and with his rifle at his shoulder this time he started shooting.

This time Earl's aim was true. With the first shots, the wanna be religious leader could see the man stubble and fall, disappearing from view in the shadowy corner. The girl was suddenly gone from sight too but she was a minor problem by Earl's way of thinking with the armed guy out of the way he and Mike could still find her and have more than their share of fun with her especially after all the trouble she had put them through today.

Running as hard as he could with all his gear Kevin thought for a second that the two of them just might make it; if they could get to the far corner he figured he could get them the rest of the way out to his truck and they'd be gone. That is until he heard shots behind him and it felt like someone had come up and hit him in the back, with running so hard the unexpected push from behind knocked him off balance.

Falling flat on his face Kevin skidded down the poorly waxed floor on his belly, he did have the presence of mind to use his momentum to scramble around behind the counter in automotive. With one glance around Kevin knew just where they were, he'd been here before getting the oil changed in his car, but Kevin never expected to be here under these conditions.

Quickly putting together that he must have been shot in the back even though he didn't feel any pain at the moment, Kevin frantically began loosening the straps to his body armor to check for any wounds, but thankfully he couldn't feel any blood, sweat yes but no blood. Thankfully it seemed that his dragon scale body armor had lived up to its reputation. It was suppose to be the best on the market and at this moment he was damn glad John had gotten a hold of it.

Taking a deep breath at his good fortune, Kevin looked over and could see the girl across from him hiding next to some tires and it looked like she hadn't been hit either which was good news as well. The two of them had more than enough trouble to deal with and speaking of which he could hear someone coming, running hard down the row following the same path they had just taken. With no time to plan anything more elaborate Kevin quickly decided to set a very hasty ambush.

Gasping for breath after their hard sprint Kelly wasn't sure what had just happened. One second the two of them seemed to be running for their lives and the next shots rang out and the guy with her was down on the ground.

She watched as Kevin ran his hands over his body not sure what he was doing at first it took her a second to understand and realize he must have thought he'd been hit but after his brief inspection he seemed to be satisfied about what he found or hopefully didn't find and he started waving her to get out of the way.

She didn't understand what he was trying to tell her that is until she heard the sound of footsteps coming closer.

Quickly deciding that being out in the open wasn't the place to be right now Kelly frantically looked around for somewhere to hide and wasn't seeing much 'til she spotted the dark shadows in the toy department across from her. Figuring that was the best she could do with the time she had Kelly headed for those concealing shadows.

Seeing the girl disappear into a dark row of toys, Kevin also concluded it was the best they could do right then; with the sound of someone rapidly approaching they were out of time.

So easing as quickly and as quietly around behind the counter he had been leaning against as he could, Kevin mentally counted five shots left in his shotgun. He considered reloading but his target was now too close and he didn't want the sound to alert him to his presence so Kevin would just have to do it with what he had.

He did risk folding up the stock of the shotgun though deciding that the weapon would be too hard to handle in such close quarters with the stock extended. Now with the stock folded up the overall length of the weapon was cut by nearly half and made it into not much more than a really big pistol, which was exactly what he wanted at this moment he thought grimly.