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"Where’s your ride shit stain?" The gunny asked the cowering Hollister boy in the corner.

"Th…th..the Lexus, out at the pumps the yellow convertible." He stammered out staring down at his feet.

"Why yes of course it is, and did Mommy and Daddy pay for it? How about you ladies, either of you have a car here close by that will fit the lot of us?" He called out to the two older women in the back involving them for the first time in the planning. They shook their heads and sobbed silently but painfully staring out under the blinds at the remains of the Korean and the teenagers that were still visible out past the yellow convertible. "Mac you got this for a few? I’m gonna go sneak and peak in the office and storage area see what I see." The Gunny said.

"Ooh-Rah Gunny, watch your ass and call out if you need a hand." Came his reply from the other side of a rack occupied by chips followed by the rustle of a foil package. With that the former Gunnery Sergeant walked off down the aisle and entered the door to the office with his weapon raised and sweeping in a defensive arch. Finding the room clear aside from the door to the stock room hanging open he zeroed in on the door stepping quickly and quietly across the small room firmly shutting the door and shooting the bolt with a loud click. Lowering his weapon he began to methodically search the desk and lockers stopping when he came to a locked drawer he sat down in the desk chair and pulled a slim leather wallet from the cargo pocket of his pants. Opening the pouch and revealing the dozen spring steel picks he examined the lock and went to work, eleven seconds later the lock was picked and the drawer was open. Smiling at his luck he reached down and hefted the Ruger GP 101 .357 magnum, feeling the weight he sighted in down the barrel then dropped the cylinder checking the load there were six little brass eyeballs staring back at him. Counting the half a box in the desk he had thirty rounds then he made another surprising discovery, thirty-five two and three-quarter in double 00 buckshot shells and who was shells and not the weapon to put them in?

"Well, well, welly then. That was on naughty and felonious store owner." He said out loud to himself pulling the sawn off over under twelve gauge out from between the filing cabinet and the desk, sitting back in the chair he snapped the breach open and removed the two shells to look down the barrels placing it next to the wheel gun on the desk blotter he continued to search the desk and came up with a cleaning kit for each weapon and a hip holster and four empty quick loads in belt pouches. "Goddamn, Korean cowboy it seems to me." He said with a smirk lighting a fresh cigarette and putting the shotgun cleaning rods together, he went to work on the new toys making quick work of them reloading them and holstering the piece and the quick loads at his belt he filled his cargo pockets with the shot shells and took an old boot lace he found in a junk drawer tying it to the trigger guard of the double barrel he looped it over his right shoulder making an improvised tactical sling. Having gathered everything useful from the office including placing the large first aid kit next to the doorway back out into the showroom, walking back through the office he pulled the bolt on the storeroom door easing the door open he swept the room with the newly pilfered shotgun pausing briefly at the open bay door with a box truck backed into the loading dock with its rear doors open he could see all the way into the cab, including the blood spatter all over the floor of the cab. But more importantly he saw the keys in the ignition. The truck filled almost the whole door there would barely be enough room for a small teenage girl to squeeze through and only if they really tried, even so he did a complete sweep of the room then stepped quietly into the truck in a crouch and made his way forward to secure the doors and check for hostiles. Peaking around the cargo rack passed the passenger seat head rest and straight down into a view from hell.

The former owner of the truck being torn into handfuls and small bite sized bits by four of the town’s former inhabitants, two of them had been joggers a couple in matching track suits each with ragged holes in their necks where they had been bitten and infected. Lowering the slung shotgun he reached up and pulled his Glock sighting in on the crowd he tried to decide which would be the best target when that familiar cold feeling and tingle down the back of his neck. Dropping to one knee and swiveling to his left he brought up the weapon and squeezed off three rounds out of reflex into the heart of the dead man reaching over the driver’s seat at him. The impact of the trio of pistol rounds barely phased him but the movement of his prey made him move that much quicker, righting his mistake he raised the pistol even higher he put a round through the creatures skull just below the nose spraying its brains in a spurt dropping the reanimated corpse out the door onto the pavement of the loading dock. Hearing the scuff of rubber on steel he dropped his left shoulder and rolled down the floor of the cargo area just as the young woman in the warm up suit fell over the passenger seat essentially diving to the floor where he had been. The creature came up on its hands and knees moaning a low sound crawling towards the prone figure of her next potential meal scrambling his hands around searching for something. She rested her hand on something hard that slid making her lose her balance and fall; she righted herself and came back up on her hands and resumed her trek towards the meat but there was something different there was something metal and round in her way.

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