Outbreak

So now tucked in behind the counter, Kevin did his best in the few seconds left to him to calm the pounding of his heart and steady his breathing while also staying as still as he could and waited and hoped his target would come to him.

Earl thinking that the guy with the pump shotgun was either dead or at least badly hurt had taken off after them, wanting to finish him off while he had the chance then with Mike's help they could find the girl and finish what they had come here for in the first place.

It was too bad about Ted he supposed but then casualties were really unavoidable and Earl knew there were other survivors out there, the two remaining men would find them and bring into the fold; it was after all what God wanted.

Wanting to get to something like safety but also not wanting to get too far away from her protector, Kelly headed down a row of toys until she stumbled across a gap in merchandise on the shelves she thought she could fit into. As quietly as she could Kelly slipped her small frame into its hiding place behind a display of some kind of Barbie doll or something and did her best not to make a sound.

Getting close to his destination Earl slowed his approach and started moving with much more caution he could see something was wrong. Getting to where he thought he'd seen the guy go down after he'd shot him, Earl now found the area empty. Not only that, there wasn't any blood on the floor like there had been with Ted; with him, there had been blood pouring out, but here nothing. The girl was also missing. wWhat the hell was going on, he wondered. He had been sure he'd hit him even in the piss poor lighting; he was certain that his aim had been true.

Suddenly feeling very exposed now out in the open Earl kept his rifle at the ready as he backed up to the counter that was behind him while looking all around for any sign of them.

It took a moment for Earl to realize that the space behind the counter he was leaning against would make a good hiding place. He turned and started to lean over the counter in question, wanting to take a quick peek just to make sure it was in fact empty.

Kevin, who was still hiding on the other side of the counter, used a glass display case of car stereos behind the counter as an impromptu mirror and saw his target standing just about where he wanted him and knowing he was out of time, he acted.

Rolling from his right side to his left took the best guess as to wear the guys legs were right then and started shooting. Putting his shots right through the cheap particle board siding of the counter and he fired, once, twice, and then a third time as fast as he could work the action of his Remington.

At the nearly point blank range he was at, the pellets easily punched through the counter. Unfortunately the first and third rounds missed there mark but the second one found its target, hitting Earl in the right knee. The striking buckshot completely disintegrated the knee joint Earl promptly gave out a shriek of pain and dropped to the floor.

Seizing the advantage Kevin appeared from his hiding place behind the now damaged counter. Even though he still had two shots left in the Remington he didn't want to waste any more of the ammo for it so keeping it in his left hand he pulled the 40-caliber glock he'd been wearing unused all this time on his hip, and calmly thumbed off the safety.

Now standing over the man who had been trying to kill him, for not much more than what had started as a misunderstanding he considered asking about it, but changed his mind when Earl looked up at him with pain filled eyes and cursed. "God will seek his justice against you! I am his solider and he will not let this go un-avenged."

Kevin replied with a snort, "Oh yea, well tell him I said hi," and fired a semi jacketed hollow point slug into Earl's chest. Then another into his head just to be sure.

Not taking time to savor his victory since there was still another one looking for them out there somewhere. Kevin quickly holstered his pistol, reloaded his shotgun and after thinking for a second he also grabbed Earl's now unneeded AK-47. After making sure that it was still loaded he also patted Earl's body down finding another full magazine to the rifle as well as a 9mm pistol with an extra magazine of its own.

Pleased with his haul of goodies from Earl, Kevin headed into the toy department looking for the girl. He risked whispering a call for Kelly, who had been too afraid to move a muscle with all the shooting and screaming in the last few moments, but now found the sudden quiet even more unnerving.

When she heard a voice whispering her name she almost didn't dare come out since she couldn't see at first who it was that was talking to her. But after the voice moved a little closer she saw it was indeed Kevin and with no small sigh of relief Kelly rolled out of her hiding place.

Kneeling down alone side some kids bikes Kevin called out again as loudly as he dared. Now normally he never would have done that but after all the noise of the last few minutes it seemed like an awful small risk. But still he kept his voice low, barely above a whisper since there was still one more of those assholes out there somewhere and with the way his day was going the two of them wouldn't get lucky enough to slip past him and get the hell out of here or better yet the guy to just give up and take off.

Moving to the next aisle up Kevin took up a position next to some kind of stuffed animals and tried calling for Kelly again. This time he got a response, seeing the boxes move she came rolling out from the bottom of one of the racks that were still more or less full of toys. Kevin found himself admiring the woman for a moment. It took some brains to hide down there she had been all but invisible and if she hadn't revealed herself he never would have found her.

Waving her over to him and asked her, "Are you alright?"

"Yea you?" she replied. He nodded after a sudden inspiration and hoping that it was a good idea Kevin pulled the recently acquired pistol out of his belt and tried to hand it to her.

"Take this," he simply informed her, but she didn't make an immediate move for the weapon.

"I don't want that," Kelly replied not at all excited about caring a gun, not for the least of reasons was that she had no idea what to do with it.

"I didn't ask you if you wanted it, take it," Kevin replied in a tone of voice telling her he wasn't going to take no for an answer. Still smelling the burned gun powder from all the shooting he had done on both of there behalves, she reached out and grasped the unfamiliar weapon. Seeing how she handled it Kevin could see she had no idea what she doing.

"Here," he said, "this pistol has 15 shots in the clip, the safety is here on the side you can flip it with your thumb, now it's ready to fire and now it's on safe you see?" he said both pointing the safety out and demonstrating what he was talking about. Nodding Kelly guessed she understood how the thing worked she had seen enough of them around the hospital in Lincoln; it at least looked similar to the guns the soldiers there carried.

"When the clip is empty the slid will lock to the rear like this," he said,pulling the slid back and with a click it locked in place. "You push here and the old clip will fall out and push the new one it like this and release the slid forward like this," and he demonstrated it for her with a loud click of metal on metal. "Do you understand?"

She really didn't but under the circumstances she didn't want to spend any more time messing with this thing than she had to so she just nodded.

"Good. Just don't shoot me he emphasized to her. Let's go" and he led them on.

In the few moments after trading shots with the people they were chasing and thankfully not getting killed Mike had just finally managed to get his hands to stop shaking enough to reload his shotgun and decided wisely to not follow directly after them but instead stayed in the amongst the clothing racks and used them for cover but he also kept on the move.

It seemed like he had only started out when he heard a bunch of shots from Earl's AK then some commotion off to his right somewhere then a few seconds of silence then a bunch of shooting from a shotgun this time followed by some screams and moans like a wounded animal would make. He then heard a voice he couldn't make out followed by two more pistol shots that seemed to make an effective exclamation point to the whole encounter.

This time the silence stretched on and whatever had happened, it was clearly over for the moment. He wondered for a second if Earl had gotten the two of them, but he didn't dare call out to him; even Mike wasn't that stupid. He did continue on his way toward the source of all the commotion hoping to catch sight of something. Making his way out of the clothing department, Mike headed through some place he didn't even know what to call it, some kind of home craft area. There were bolts of cloth on the selves and different clothing patterns for sale all that sort of thing.

Poking his head out to take a look Mike saw too different things in rapid succession. The first was what looked like Earl's very still looking body lying in the main aisle from where Mike was currently kneeling; the second was when he caught some movement out of the corner of his eye and turned just in time to see the two people they had been after moving down the far end of a row full of toys.

Seeing all this at once Mike wasn't sure what to do. With both of the others apparently dead, should he try to take those two on alone with just a double barrel shotgun? Or should he just get the hell out of here? If he did that where would he go? How would he survive out there alone? Earl had been the one with all the ideas, Mike had always found it easier to just go along with life rather than try to come up with anything himself.

Now crouching down in the dark surrounded by loose cloth and all sorts or sewing paraphernalia, Mike didn't know what to do; he found himself stuck in indecision.

Kevin though inadvertently solved Mike's problem for him by spotting the other man as he and Kelly made their way along the back wall of the store dashing from the end of one row to the next all the way to the end of the toy department. He had been hoping that the other guy would just take off since he for one have had more than enough excitement for one day.

All Kevin wanted was to get back to his truck which he hoped was still parked where he had left it at the loading dock load the coolers he had stashed there and get the hell out of here. He'd figure out what to do with the girl if and or when they got that far.

Unfortunately, fate that fickle bitch wasn't going to let any of them off the hook that easy today. Ironically enough Mike had indeed finally decided to just go and take his chances on his own. After all above all else he wanted to live and in a very short time he'd seen both of his partners get killed which was something he certainly didn't want to happen to him.

But at about the same moment he was just going to turn and go disappear, Kevin with Kelly close behind him had peeked around the corner to take a look to see if it was safe to keep moving and had spotted Mike.

Quickly ducking back behind some board games Kevin, now gripping the newly acquired AK-47, made sure the safety was off on the unfamiliar weapon and in one motion raised it to his shoulder and leaned out into the aisle to get a clean shot and opened fire. Unfortunately Kevin had some trouble with seeing through the sites in the dark and his first group of shots went high, though he did punch some holes in the rolls of cloth sitting on the shelves behind Mike. Before he could correct his aim and try again, Mike and slipped into hiding around the corner. That is just for a second 'til he poked his shotgun back around the corner and fired both barrels back in the general direction of his attacker.

Kevin though had already ducked back as soon as he realized that he had missed and once again cursed his luck today with the last of the three men who had been after them right there and he'd missed.

Now what to do? With the last of the three of them so close should they go back the way they had come and try to find another way out? But Kevin didn't really want to go back, not with the exit they needed just up ahead. So after considering their options for a second he decided to risk it, they would keep going and hope for the best.

Turning now to Kelly to see her nervously holding the pistol he had given her Kevin decided under the present circumstances he could use her help since two sets of eyes are better than one.

"Ok I missed him so he's close by; we are going to keep going and try to reach the big double doors up ahead on the right," he told her pointing out their destination.

"I need you to watch our backs, make sure he doesn't try to sneak up behind us, can you do that?"

With her mouth feeling like a parched desert, Kelly didn't trust herself to speak so she only nodded. That seemed to satisfy him though.

"Ok stay with me," he told her and turned back to the task at hand. He poked his head around the corner hoping he wasn't about to get shot, but nothing happened. He took a look but couldn't see anything, not that really meant much, there were just too many places to hide out there.

Taking one last look at Kelly to make sure she was ready he told her, "Ok lets go," and leaned out to fire off a couple of shots to keep the other guys head down while they moved. Ducking from one row to the next the two did this a couple of times 'til the exit to the back of the store he had used earlier came within reach.

After all this there was the finish line, all they had to do was make it. It was so close.

After getting shot at again Mike had changed his mind about leaving. If this guy wanted to play rough then he could too. Mike had seen what the two of them were doing and knew the lay out of the store well enough to guess where they were going so he just leapfrogged ahead and waited for them to come to him. He found a good spot lying behind a display of flat screen TV's that seemed pretty solid and decided to make his stand here.

With the exit in site Kevin was starting to really wonder what was going on. The guy was still out there; he'd been close by but now he seemed to have disappeared, what could it mean? Did he take off? Kevin sure hoped so, but he doubted it. There was just no way he could catch that kind of break.

Kevin was about to shoot and move again when he looked around the corner and spotted his target, behind a display of TV's, seeming to be waiting in ambush. In a blink it all became clear, from where he was hiding the guy would have a good shot at them as they made the dash to the next isle and the odds where good that if Kevin hadn't seen him first it would have worked and they'd be both dead very soon. But since he did see the other guy first, he had the advantage. Taking a look around he could see the shadows were fairly dark back here so using that Kevin shifted over to the far wall and leaned out to get a better angle.

He still had to estimate where the man's body was since he could only see a small portion of his head and the gun barrel poking out but he figured that with the stopping power of the AK-47 in his hands it didn't matter. Now with that thought in mind he raised the weapon and started shooting.

Mike like a lot of other people had seen too many bad action movies where someone could hide behind some flimsy obstacle and not get hit when someone else was shooting at them with a high power weapon. Well in real life it didn't work that way.

The rounds from Kevin's AK-47 moving at 2,330 feet per second could and did easily punch right through not only the plastic and glass of the TV's on display but the rack they were sitting on as well, and even after that the copper jacketed lead still had more than enough energy left to be equally lethal too soft unforgiving human flesh.

Mike never even knew what hit him; one second he had been waiting to take his shot and the last thing he saw was a muzzle flash from the shadows at the end of the aisle and then nothing.

Kevin consciously deciding not to take any chances this time had kept firing 'til he ran the clip out of ammo, at first he wasn't even sure that he had actually hit anything other than the TV's. He had seen pieces of them flying around from the force of the bullets impacting but the person he had wanted to hit was out of sight.

His ears ringing with the sudden quiet, he reloaded with his last captured magazine, and told Kelly to stay put for the moment.

Now with the smell of burnt gun powder hanging think in the air, Kevin with his rifle at the ready carefully started forward down the aisle of cheerful looking children's toys in what use to be a cheerful world 'til he reached the now shot up TV display.

With his heart in his throat, Kevin rounded the corner to take a look behind the display and found what he was looking for, the kid was laying face down with neat red hole just above his right eye. Blood and brain matter were rapidly pooling beneath him in fact his body was still twitching a little bit in a creepy way.

Looking him over Kevin immediately knew he was dead. Giving a deep sigh of regret and more than a little relief that the confrontation was finally over and he was still alive.

Kevin picked up the dropped shotgun to find it loaded and ready to fire, patting down Mike's body he found a pocket full of shotgun shells as well as a pistol which he also took, since under the circumstances it was a matter of waste not what not.

It was only then that he felt his hands start to shake. It started with a slight tremble at first but within a moment or two the shaking got so bad he was afraid that he'd drop the rifle he had just recently used to deadly effect. Slinging it over his shoulder instead where it rested with the shotgun he started the day with he tried to pull himself together.

"Its ok you can come out," he called back to Kelly as he looked the kid over for anything else that might be useful. When he didn't find anything he straightened up to find Kelly standing next to him. With one look she knew that this man or boy really since he looked even younger than she did was dead as well, she'd seen plenty of violent death over the last few weeks she knew what it looked like.

That thought reminded her of something else, something she would have rather forgotten. Many of the people at the hospital when confronted with the horror of the unfolding situation just seemed to shut down, being not much more then an automaton. But she hoped privately that she wouldn't ever get use to it that she never got like that.

If Kelly noticed Kevin's hands shaking she gave no sign of it but just took a moment to stand over the body of the young man that had wanted to kill them.

"Come on let's go," Kevin said at last seeming to have expended all the effort he was intending to on this man. Heading passed what used to be the lay away counter they went out a side door and into the rear warehouse section of the store with Kelly following quietly behind.

It was only then seeing the bright light that at last Kelly broke into a run and plunged into that light basking in the warmth of the sun and the fresh air of the outside world.

Following her outside Kevin could see that everything was right where he had left it, for which he was thankful since after everything they had been through he really didn't want to have to deal with another problem right now. He did take a moment to enjoy the fresh air as much as she seemed to be.

Taking a look at his watch he was startled but not too surprised when he found that less than an hour had passed since he had entered the store that had turned into a battlefield.