Braving The Risk Read online

  “Not a sports fan, or just not a baseball fan?” Tara, lying right beside him, asked.

  The two of them had taken their positions inside this gaudy clothing store. Unlike the place they just had searched, this had remained untouched. Judging from the wide-legged jeans that hung by their faces, Carl couldn’t blame looters from turning up their noses at this establishment. Another pair of jeans possessed so many zippers that Carl almost laughed at the sight of it. Still, the store was situated in just the right place from the food court, giving the two of them a place to observe, while also providing cover.

  “I like the New England Patriots, but I never was a regular watcher. Andy, my brother, he’s a different ball of wax. He hates football. Thinks it’s too boring for him. He’s a baseball and mixed martial arts fan.”

  “Oh God, I loved martial arts. I trained in kickboxing since I was fifteen,” Tara said.

  Carl turned back to Tara. He hated to ask this next question, but the situation called for it. “Hey. About your rifle. I know it’s yours, and you have every right to turn me down, but I do have experience as a sniper.” He pushed his bat toward her while smiling awkwardly. “Could we just…trade? At least for now?”

  Tara frowned for a moment, reacting as Carl had predicted. But then she chuckled. “Alright. I guess between us you got a mountain of experience with picking off bad guys from under cover.” She handed him her rifle. “Have at it.” Then she snatched the bat.

  “Thanks.” He took a quick look at the rifle. It wasn’t the automatic model that he was used to in the military, but it would serve him fine. He still felt he had the advantage. He wasn’t dealing with armed insurgents who were militarily trained. These were just brutes from off the street.

  Don’t write them off, Carl warned himself. Getting cocky would be foolish. He had very limited ammunition, plus he had no idea if their pursuers were sporting guns of their own. It didn’t take much more than a jackass with a gun to cause a lot of trouble, even for a well-trained military man like himself.

  The two suddenly quieted down. Footsteps cut across the mall corridor. Four men and one woman marched into view, approaching the edge of the food court. Three of the men were not very big. One of them was a giant, overshadowing all in the group, and with his bald head and slight goatee, he appeared even more fearsome. However, all of the men possessed wild countenances. None of these men appeared “normal,” as civilized human beings off the street would appear. It was as though a savage fire had been lit within their souls. As for the woman, she looked around with disdain mixed with amusement. She seemed young, probably mid-twenties, and was dressed in jeans, black leather boots, and a dingy white top that was unbuttoned at the very top. The men appeared hastily dressed. If they were among the nude or semi-nude men Carl and his companions spotted in the grass, they must have tossed on their clothes for a hasty pursuit.

  Carl gazed into the rifle’s scope. The magnification provided through the scope’s crosshairs allowed the former Marine to gaze more closely at their activities. The men were strolling up and down the food court’s aisles, looking into the restaurants, but not sticking around inside any of them. They seemed mildly disappointed at the array of slumbering or near slumbering human beings gathered around in there.

  “What are they doing?” Tara asked.

  “This place is a meat locker to these guys. They want to taste fresh meat, but first they want to hunt. I guess those people in the food court aren’t providing much of a challenge.” Carl recognized he, Tara, Preston and Shyanne were the real targets. They were mobile. They could be chased.

  Carl bit his lip. Should he take a shot? If he opened fire, that surely would draw them over here and away from the people, and if his shot felled just one of them, that would be one less intruder to deal with. But the moment the pack was alert, they would not be easy targets. They would run, perhaps hide. They might even hide in the food court. Carl would have to go in there to take them out. The surviving members of the pack might even take their anger out on those poor people.

  No, Carl thought. He would wait. His first task was to wait for them to leave the food court. He didn’t want those people to be in the sights of those five. Still, he couldn’t just wait for the pack to find them inside this store. He wasn’t even sure this store had a back entrance to escape out of, though he had discovered a back office when he quickly scoped out the place with Tara. If he drew the fight in here, he might corner himself and Tara.

  There had to be another option, and Carl had to come up with it while the five intruders still were a fair distance away. Perhaps the mall would present a solution. He inched forward a little, enough for him to glance down the corridor to the left. He spotted something that inspired him.

  “Bingo!” he whispered. “It’s just crazy enough to work.”

  “What is?” Tara whispered back.

  Carl backed up. “Change of plans.” Then he handed her the rifle. “Gimme the bat.”

  Tara complied, though she asked, “Okay, but what are you going to do, home run them to death?”

  “It’ll be easier for me to run without that rifle. Besides, you’ll need it more than I will. Just stay here until the fireworks start.”

  Chapter Four

  Crouched down, Carl pressed himself against the side of the wall and any glass storefront window as he crept down the mall corridor. He dared not walk anywhere near the corridor’s center, where the light shone from the skylights above. He had spotted his prize close by, but it still resided about three stores down and across the corridor, too far for comfort. He couldn’t cross over until he was far enough away from the food court.

  The five intruders still confined their activities to the food court. Carl’s heart pounded as he thought of the people there. Every passing second increased the chance the pack of five might do something to an innocent person. He had to hurry.

  Control yourself, Carl thought. Haste only will ruin your plans. They could hear you and come over here, maybe even spot Tara. It was agonizing, but he kept silent and moved at a slow pace as he crossed the next two storefronts.

  He let out a small breath of relief. His goal was now much closer – a small hallway on the right side of the spacious mall corridor, which led to a small pair of doors, likely a janitorial closet. But the doors weren’t his goal. A fire extinguisher hung from the wall within the hall. He had spotted the extinguisher, just barely, from the clothing store.

  But getting to it would be a problem. He was at least five stores away from the food court by now, so anyone from the food court would not spot him easily unless they were looking right this way. Still, Carl didn’t want to take that chance. Even the wrong sound still could turn the intruders’ heads.

  He examined the corridor for possible cover. Unfortunately, he spotted nothing as tall as or taller than himself, only a water fountain that was now silent due to the loss of running water. The highest point in the fountain was a pair of statues, two cherubs each clutching an arrow fitted to a bow. Each cherub’s mouth gaped open, likely to pour out water onto the fountain, though naturally without running water the statues were nothing better than still sculptures. But the statues barely came up to Carl’s chin, and in any case they didn’t cover much space at all.

  Carl suddenly had an idea. The statues didn’t need to cover the entire space between Carl and the corridor. He just needed to make it behind the fountain, directly behind those two statues, wait, and then make a short dash the rest of the way.

  He drew in a long breath, waited until he felt ready, and with his head down, ran to the back of the fountain.

  Carl then covered his mouth and lay down on the floor. Nestled behind this fountain, there was no way anyone could see him from the food court. He waited to hear if his flight had provoked a reaction.

  Nothing. He heard no footsteps, no voices, not a single sound at all. Perfect.

  Carl climbed to his knees. Now for the second half. Crouched down, he positioned himself, mimicking
the stance of a jungle cat, right at the wall near the corridor. Then, he broke into a run.

  Unfortunately, his left shoe slid a little as he took off, producing a squeak on a tile that was very clean. But it was too late for Carl to stop now. He made it to the other wall, but his shoe had made a very audible sound.

  Damn! Carl turned to the store on his right. The storefront was covered with a black tarp. The store was closed down, with no glass windows, no doors, nothing but the hanging tarp. It would have to do.

  He ducked inside, diving under the loose tarp and rolling to a quick stop. Then he found a small gap in the bottom of the tarp and looked through it. The view was limited, but at least Carl could see about a couple of stores down.

  In a minute, Carl’s worst fears were confirmed. Footsteps were approaching. Someone from the food court had heard him. But the footsteps were not rapid. Whoever was coming did not approach with great urgency. Perhaps they had not actually seen him.

  Soon Carl spied one of the group’s four short men. This individual, maybe five feet and six inches tall, strolled in his direction. He bobbed his balding head back and forth. He didn’t seem to be aiming for this shuttered store in particular.

  Carl then placed his hand down on a sheet of paper. In this darkness, he couldn’t see anything on the floor. He quickly froze his limb in place. He wouldn’t risk so much as a crinkle of paper to draw in the invader.

  The man soon walked out of sight. Carl waited some more. Then, the lone man walked back again from the other side, shouting, “I don’t see shit! You sure you didn’t hear a stupid cat or something?”

  “Aw, forget it!” called another man’s voice from far away, likely from near the food court. “This damn place is turning into a snoozer!”

  “Why don’t we just bail and find someone else out there?” the man asked as he walked away.

  “No way. I saw those maggots flee in here and we’re going to tear this place apart to find them!” This voice sounded deeper and more threatening. Carl wondered if it belonged to the giant man.

  The two men engaged in a back and forth that convinced Carl the intruders had stopped focusing on this closed down store. Carl slid the page off his hand.

  In the dim light shining through the tarp gap, Carl glimpsed what the paper said. It was an employer announcement that the store had been closed due to the rise of internet retail sales, accompanied by well wishes for the employees’ futures. Carl imagined how weird it was that the internet, which had driven this store out of business, likely had ceased to exist itself in the aftermath of the EMP.

  Carl waited until he was sure the intruder was no longer within easy eyesight, then pulled the tarp back to peek outside. He was clear so long as he kept his head down. Now all he had to do was hope he could make it back to Tara with the fire extinguisher.

  Preston breathed loudly through his mouth. He wished he could breathe through his nose, but the hot, stuffy air of this changing room stall forced his lungs to gulp for increasing amounts of breath. He feared his breathing would be one more nail in their coffin.

  He lost track of how long they had been cooped up in here. Without a working watch to look at, he only could guess. He had expected the two men to have barged in here long ago, but he had stopped hearing their voices after a while. They might have given up and moved on.

  He hoped so, because Preston wasn’t just terrified of those two brutes finding himself and Shyanne. He feared what he might have to do to stop them. His thoughts turned to the gun in his belt. He never had used it to end another human being’s life. He never imagined he would have. Every event he had attended provided ample security. He had carried it only because his parents had insisted that he arm himself.

  But when the world turned upside down, Preston found, to his shame afterward, that he craved his gun. It was understandable. With society’s collapse, he needed it. But Preston was ashamed for different reasons. He felt bloodlust stirring within him. In his mind, society had betrayed him. His ideals lay strewn across streets with the bodies of many innocents.

  He first had cracked when he had encountered the dead in front of the drug store where he and Carl had found Shyanne. After they retrieved the girl from inside a shutdown refrigerator, Preston broke down outside. He still could hear his own screams rattling the air.

  What the hell is this? People dying all over the place and this kid lost her dad. Stupid animals! You can’t call yourself humans! He didn’t react well to Carl’s efforts to calm himself down either. Oh sorry, Sergeant Major Colonel General Commander, but in case, if you hadn’t noticed, I’m not exactly used to watching people murder each other all around me and leave little kids without their daddies!

  Carl finally had to lay down the law. Enough. I get that you’re torn up. But right now, we have a very traumatized little girl who needs adults who have their heads on straight. So, if you don’t can the outburst, I’m going to leave you behind and you can fend for yourself.

  It had been enough to straighten out Preston for the moment. But the anger still boiled. He had held on to it as they had reached the hotel. The building appeared to be on fire, but Preston didn’t care. He bolted for his guest room to find his weapon. He would not be denied. And in the process, he nearly was trapped when a piece of the hallway collapsed and cut off the route out of the hotel. Carl had to take the gun and shoot out the glass in the room to allow their escape. Carl’s actions left him with only two bullets in the gun.

  Two bullets. One for each man. Perversely, he possessed just enough to end Drake and Ron if he wished.

  Please, don’t come in here, Preston thought, because I will have to kill you, and I don’t want to kill a human being.

  “Mister Preston?” Shyanne whispered, “I don’t hear the men anymore.”

  Preston nodded. “I don’t either.” He straightened up against the wall. He dared to hope that they would live, that they could escape from this store. However, he had to confirm the two men had departed. They still could be somewhere else in the store.

  What would Carl do? Preston actually envied the man’s military training, perhaps the first time he envied anything the military offered. Oh, for Pete’s sake, you don’t need military training. You just need a dose of common sense. You can’t take Shyanne out there blind. You’ve got to go out there and look for yourself.

  Then he slowly released Shyanne. “Hey, I’m going to take a look out there. Stay here. Don’t say anything. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  Shyanne suddenly grabbed his arm. “Please, don’t go! It’s too dark in here!”

  Preston froze. The little girl was scared. Leaving her in the dark all alone would only compound her anxiety. He cursed himself for having to do this.

  “I know, I know, this is really scary. But I have to check by myself. I don’t know if those two men are just around the corner.”

  Shyanne grabbed Preston’s arm harder. “Please!”

  “Ssssh!” Preston’s nerves flared. “Don’t scream. They might hear you. Look, don’t be scared. The dark isn’t going to hurt you. In fact, it’s your friend. Those bad men can’t see you.” He took Shyanne by each of her arms. “I won’t be long. I promise. But I have to do this. I have to do this so you can stay alive.”

  He waited for a short while before releasing Shyanne. She let him go. “Please,” she said with a whimper. “Please come back very soon.”

  Preston slid off the bench. “I will.” Then he stumbled. To his embarrassment, his left leg had fallen asleep. He quickly shook it as he opened the wooden door. Then he crept through and closed it as silently as he could.

  He took a deep breath. Okay, Preston Wilson, it’s time. You have got to do this. If you don’t pull through, you’re not worth a damn.

  With his left leg still tingling, he shuffled toward the swinging wooden doors of the changing room. After crouching down, he peeked under the doors. He heard nothing. No more cursing between the men, no more pushing over clothing racks, just dead silence.<
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  Are they lying in wait? Given how loud and boisterous Ron and Drake had acted, the idea that they would sit and wait for their prey to come out seemed absurd. Ron in particular sounded too impatient to sit anywhere quietly to wait for what he wanted.

  Preston felt brave enough to crawl out from underneath the door, back into the open area near the jeans section. There still was no sign of the two men. Keeping crouched down, Preston crept along the wall all the way to the window of the storefront. Then he gazed out the open door and down the mall corridor.

  Two male figures were far in the distance, but a quick look at their heights and actions told Preston they were the same men who raided the store. Ron was gesturing to Drake and seemed to be shouting, but mercifully, they were too far away for Preston to hear them. Then, after a few seconds, the pair turned down another corridor and were gone from sight.

  Preston clutched his chest. They were gone! His gambit had paid off after all. The two must have grown too impatient to continue their search. They probably decided finding Carl and Tara would be easier and more enjoyable.

  “Shyanne,” he whispered. He ran back to the changing room to get her, elated that he could give her good news.

  Chapter Five

  Preston looked at the same door Ron and Drake had emerged from. Shyanne was with him, her hand grasped in his “Okay.” He laughed nervously. “Preston and Shyanne exit the mall, take two.” He put his hand on the door handle, but apprehension gripped him. Would more of those barbarians be outside to greet them? It seemed silly for a mall door to have a peephole, but right now Preston wished this door sported one to look through.

  He looked down at Shyanne. “What do you think? Should we leave? Do you think Carl and Tara will be okay?”

  Shyanne just shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know,” she said.

  Preston then cursed under his breath. He was the adult here. Why the hell was he asking a child what to do? The past hour had terrified him down to his shoes. Shyanne might have been frightened about being left in the dark, but she composed herself well once Preston had retrieved her from the changing room.