Mississippi Bob Mouledoux dove to his right as the young FBI agent in front of him took several rounds. The fed, a kid right out of Quantico named Girard, had been running full force, gun in the air as he shouted out, identifying himself. The woman he’d seen from the backseat of the SUV, who’d obviously misdirected them, shot without hesitation, her gunshots ringing throughout the store. If he’d’ve been a flash of a second slower diving into an aisle of garden supplies, Mississippi Bob would’ve suffered the same fate as the dead fed.
“ You okay, Peeps?” Mouledoux shouted. Hoping his partner hadn’t been hit.
“ Yeah, Bobby, I see you.”
Mouledoux pulled his face from the floor, turned, saw that Peeps had made it to the aisle opposite, had apparently charged into a garden hose display in his dash for cover. He was on top of pile of green and black hoses, but safely out of the line of fire.
“ We got two down, both feds bought it!” Peeps shouted.
Jesus Christ, Mouledoux grabbed for his thirty-eight. The other agent, one with years of experience named Cornwall, was a nice guy. Mouledoux had instinctively liked him. How could this have happened?
Someone was shouting.
A woman.
“ Get out, get out, get out!” she wailed, then three kids and the woman, still shrieking, ran past, scurrying between the aisles he and Peeps were seeking cover in. They were dashing down the center aisle toward the garden exit. They must have jumped over the dead FBI agents.
More shouts, then all of a sudden the cacophony in the store sounded like the aviary at the San Diego Zoo during feeding time. Surround sound screaming.
“ They’ve got guns!” someone shouted.
“ Get down!” someone else shouted.
Mouledoux, on the ground, crept along the aisle, moving toward the center aisle that led from the garden section toward the middle of the store. Before he reached the end of it, he stopped. He was breathing like he’d run a marathon, in and out, like a steam engine out of control on a downhill run, sucking air, hyperventilating. If he didn’t watch it, he was going to pass out.
He looked up at a plethora of weed killers, everything from Round Up to Ortho. And above the rack of weed killers, on the overhead ceiling, he saw a video monitor with a sign under it stating that for the store’s customer’s protection, “Closed circuit video is used in this location. These videos enable us to prosecute criminal offenses which may occur.”
Criminal offenses were occurring right now and Mouledoux hoped they were being captured. Then he thought of his own cowardly self, cringing on the floor. Was he being captured, too? Probably.
Shit, shit, shit, motherfuck. Much as he wanted to lay here, not move till help arrived, he couldn’t. He’d be branded a chicken shit. Which is exactly what he felt like. Hero or coward, however he wanted to be thought of, his choice was now. He had to choose.
He chose hero.
He got up, shouted out at the top of his lungs.
“ Quiet down! You are in no danger.” He felt that was true, but didn’t know for sure.
The shouting, crying, confusion didn’t abate.
“ Listen up! Nobody wants to hurt you!” He shouted loud, booming the words from deep in his belly.
“ Everybody leave the store. Move to the exits now. You are in no danger. The woman with the gun will let you go.” He hoped to fuck he knew what he was doing. “Move out now. Do not panic. Do not run.”
Nobody moved.
He couldn’t blame them, he probably wouldn’t have either. But somebody had to move. He cursed the overhead cameras as he made his way to the end of the aisle.
“ You crazy?” Peeps hissed.
“ Yeah,” he muttered under his breath. He was crazy. He was also a police officer, sworn to protect and serve and right now a whole bunch of people needed protecting, even if they were out of his jurisdiction.
At the end of the aisle, he poked his head around a container of Miracle Grow. The aisle was empty, save for the two dead feds. Girard had half his head blow away. Cornwall did too. They’d been wearing vests, but they hadn’t done them any good. Their blood was spattered over all manner of garden paraphernalia from gloves to sheers.
He looked toward the deli. The woman shooter was nowhere to be seen. He pretty much expected that. She could be anywhere, outside the store even, but he didn’t think so. She was inside. His cop sense told him that was true.
“ Get down!” Peeps said.
Mouledoux dashed across the center aisle, joined Peeps and the hoses. He offered a hand. Peeps took it and Mouledoux pulled him to his feet.
“ You okay?”
“ What’d ya see?” Peeps wanted to know.
“ Two dead Fibies.”
“ She just shot ’em down in cold blood.”
“ Yeah, she did.” And now they had two down, an unsub on the loose in a monster of a store, with who knew how many civilians hiding here, there and everywhere. Still, he had to admit if Girard hadn’t gone charging forward like Sir Lancelot on his charger, waving his Glock like a motherfucking sword, the bitch probably wouldn’t have started popping caps. The stupid fuck got both himself and his partner killed.
It could’ve been so easy. They could’ve simply walked up to her, grabbed her, cuffed her and been done with it. It should’ve been easy. What the fuck were they teaching those yahoos at Quantico?
“ You hear that?” Peeps said.
“ What?”
“ Someone’s crying.”
Mouledoux heard it, too.
“ It’s coming from the next aisle over.” Peeps said.
“ Yeah.” Mouledoux stepped out into the center aisle, quick stepped to the next aisle, passing a display of WD 40 as he turned into an aisle of auto repair garbage that probably nobody needed, save maybe the WD 40, everybody needed that. He saw a little girl on the floor, her mother had a gash on her forehead, but seemed lucid.
“ You okay, ma’am?”
“ I think so.”
“ I’m going to step out into the aisle. I want you and your girl to stand behind me and run for the exit. I’ll block the way.” He was about to do something very stupid, but he had no choice. To protect and serve, sometimes it was a bitch.
“ Are you sure?”
“ Do it now, ma’am.” He holstered his weapon and as he’d done with Peeps, he offered the woman a hand. She took it. He pulled her to her feet and she pulled up her child. “Okay, we need to be kinda quick about this.” He took the woman’s hand again. She was maybe twenty-five, twenty-six and looked like a scared rabbit. Blood was dripping down into her left eye. He brushed it away with the back of his free hand, wiped it off on his trousers.
“ I’m bleeding?”
“ It’s not serious, you’re going to be fine.” He led her to the center aisle. The little girl followed.
“ Are you ready?”
“ Yes,” the woman let go of his hand, picked up her daughter.
“ Are you nuts?” Peeps said.
Mouledoux looked at his partner, nodded his head. “Maybe a little.” He turned toward the young woman. “We’re going now.” He stepped into the center aisle with his hands in the air. The woman followed, stepped behind him, then ran for the exit with Mississippi Bob between her and the shooter or shooters.
“ She’s at the door,” Peeps said. “She’s outside, get back here.”
He was about to do just that when the woman in the brown duster stepped into the aisle with a Glock in hand. She had it pointed at his chest. He kept his hands in the air as Isadora Eisenhower joined the woman. She had a gun too. It looked like a forty-five auto and it too was pointed at his chest. If things didn’t go right here, he could be well and truly fucked.
He heard a siren in the background. If he’d’ve waited a few more seconds the cavalry would’ve been in time to save him. Maybe. But maybe not.
“ Think fast,” the woman in the duster shouted. But she needn’t have, because all of a sudden it was quiet in the store.
Always a fast thinker, Mouledoux shouted at the top of his lungs, “Everybody leave the store! Do not panic! Do not run! Proceed at an orderly pace toward the nearest exit!” He prayed he was doing the right thing. For a second he’d thought about diving for cover, but he knew sure as he knew his name, he’d’ve been cut down. Those women knew how to use their guns. He’d seen that first hand.
“ Now!” he shouted, trying to sound authoritarian. “Everybody leave now.”
A man with two children stepped into the aisle between him and the two women. He was looking at Mouledoux, unaware of the gun bearing women behind him.
“ That’s right,” Mouledoux lowered his hands, hoping the women wouldn’t interpret it as a threat. He kept his hands pointed forward, wanting them to see he wasn’t going for his shoulder holster.
“ Psst,” Peeps hissed. “I gotcha covered.”
Mouledoux resisted the urge to glance over at his partner. The last thing he wanted to do was to spook Eisenhower and her gun toting friend.
More people came into the aisles, employees and customers alike. A giant of a black man appeared behind the women. Eisenhower had gotten herself some serious friends in a very short time.
People were leaving the aisles, coming into the center aisle, heading toward him and the exit beyond. A young couple came up behind the two women and the black man, passed them as if they weren’t holding guns. Then Mouledoux saw they had their eyes on him and the exit beyond. They hadn’t seen the guns.
And as if they’d heard his thoughts, the women hid their guns in their coats and started toward him and all of a sudden Mouledoux knew what they were up to. They were going to walk out with the crowd and disappear. He couldn’t let that happen.
With his right hand he made a downward motion and out of the corner of his eye he saw Peeps drop to the floor. He made a motion with his thumb, pointing to the women and black man heading toward him. Peeps slithered up to the center aisle, poked his head out a few inches, eyeballed the trio, then ducked back, giving Mouledoux the thumbs up sign.
The sirens were getting closer and the group heading toward him picked up their pace. As they got closer Mouledoux looked into their eyes. The black man looked confident, like he didn’t give a shit. Eisenhower looked scared, but the other woman, she had eyes like death. Black as the bottom of a desert mine on a starless night. Killer’s eyes. He didn’t want to fuck with her. He didn’t want to do that. For a second he regretted signaling Peeps, because the way this woman was locking eyes with him, Mouledoux knew if Peeps made a move, Mississippi Bob Mouledoux was going down.
Then they were abreast of him and the woman with black eyes slid the gun from her coat, pointed it at Peeps in the aisle. She’d had the Glock in her hand the whole while, arm hanging loose, weapon pointed to the ground, hidden by the coat. But it wasn’t hidden now. She’d seen him signal Peeps, knew someone was on the floor there.
“ I don’t want to kill you,” she said to Peeps, who had his thirty-eight pointed at her, “but I will,” she said, not the least bit afraid of his weapon. “Slide your piece down the aisle. Make it go far.”
For a second, Mouledoux thought Peeps might cap her, but then Eisenhower showed her forty-five and Peeps, apparently realizing he was a dead man if he fired, slid his gun down the aisle.
“ Your mama didn’t raise a stupid child,” the woman in the duster said as she turned. She began walking backwards, keeping her eyes on Mouledoux as the trio made for the exit. They were going to get away.
As soon as they’d passed the aisle Peeps was in, he got up and charged down it for his thirty-eight. He grabbed for the gun, fumbled it, grabbed it off the floor a second time and ran back to the center aisle.
Mouledoux, with his hands still at his sides, made a stopping motion with an open palm, toward Peeps. Their foolishness, his and Peeps’, was going to get Mississippi Bob Mouledoux killed and he didn’t want that. And all the while that woman in the long coat was back stepping as if she had eyes in the back of her head, while her real eyes, those bottomless blacks, were drilling into him.
Her gun was behind her coat again, but he knew it was in her hand and he knew she hit what she shot at. He was more frightened than all those times he’d been scared shitless during the first Gulf War.
“ Stay back!” he said through clenched teeth, but either Peeps didn’t hear or didn’t want to. He was going to do something very stupid.
Izzy’s heart was thumping in her chest when Lila Booth stepped into the aisle and faced down that policeman. When she was younger she’d had a deathly fear of heights, which she’d conquered by spending a horrible, fearful day climbing Mt. Shasta with her psychiatrist, so she knew fear, but this was much worse. However, terrified as she was, she somehow fought her fear like she did back then and not knowing where her own courage had come from or how she’d summoned it up, she’d joined Lila Booth, pointing her gun at the police officer.
People had listened to him and they’d started filing out of the store without panic and when Lila had started toward the policeman, she went along, staying by her side and when Lila hid her Glock in her long coat, Izzy did the same, hiding her gun inside the thrift store denim jacket.
“ Right behind you,” Black said and she felt the big man’s presence as they made their way toward the policeman and hopefully the exit beyond. Could they really get lost in the crowd? It seemed impossible, but what else could they do? She heard the sirens getting closer. In minutes, probably sooner, the store was going to be crawling with cops, probably SWAT teams.
She had been surprised when they came abreast of the policeman and Lila pointed her gun at the other one hiding on the ground in the garden supply aisle. How she’d known he was there was beyond Izzy. Had she not seen him, they’d’ve been captured for sure.
At the exit, the sirens were piercing. Squad cars pulled up as people started to pick up their pace, as if they sensed something was about to go wrong and they wanted to be out of harm’s way.
Izzy crossed her fingers. They were so close. Maybe they’d get away after all.
Frightened as he was, Mouledoux was furious, too. These women were armed, dangerous and would certainly kill again. He couldn’t let them get away. But that’s what he was doing. They were at the exit and in an instant they were going to fade into the crowd outside and they’d be in the wind.
“ Take the shot!” he said to Peeps.
“ You got it.” Peeps dropped to the floor again, peeked around the Miracle Glow, aimed at the back of the blonde’s head, was about to fire when something heavy landed on his back, causing his shot to go wild.
“ What the fuck-” Mouledoux said as a wolf like animal shot past him. He pulled his weapon as the animal skidded around the end of the aisle and got lost among the patio furniture.
“ Got one of ’em,” Peeps shouted as the black man crashed into Isadora Eisenhower.
Izzy was at the door, then through it, relief flooding through her, they were going to make it, she thought as a shot rang out and Black lurched forward, slamming into her, knocking her to the ground and knocking her wind away as she skinned her hands on the pavement.
“ What?” she gasped the word, barely getting it out.
“ Black’s been hit,” Lila said. “You have to get up. We have to get him out of here.” She offered her hand.
“ Okay.” Izzy grabbed it.
“ Where’s the car?” Lila pulled Izzy to her feet.
“ There.” Izzy was still gasping as she pointed.
“ Shit,” Lila said as a blue and white police car pulled up and the officer riding shotgun jumped out.
“ What happened here?”
“ This man’s been shot.” Lila dropped to her knees, looped an arm under Black’s right shoulder. “We’ve got to get him out of the line of fire.” She turned to the store, pointed to the man with a gun. “There’s a couple crazies in there shooting up the place.”
The officer went for his gun and the man in the store dove for cover.
“ Help me here,” Lila said to the other officer, who was out of the blue and white now.
“ Okay.” He helped her drag Black away from the entrance.
“ Get the car!” Lila said to Izzy.
“ For him?” the officer said.
“ I’m a doctor,” Izzy said, able to breathe now. “We can have in him the emergency room at Rogue Valley before you can have them roll an ambulance.”
“ We shouldn’t move him,” the officer said.
“ He’ll bleed out if we don’t,” Izzy said.
“ We should wait,” the officer said as two more blue and whites careened into the parking lot.
“ Now, officer!” Izzy fished into Black’s pocket, pulled out the keys. “The car’s there. Get it.”
Lila grabbed the keys, took off at a run.
“ Too late,” Black said, looking up at her.
“ It’s not too late.” A crazy thought struck Izzy. She looked at her skinned hands, remembering what happened to her the last time she’d skinned them. She turned Black onto his side, ran a bloody palm into his wound.
“ Hurts,” Black said.
“ What are you doing?” the cop said.
“ Checking the wound.”
“ Let’s go,” Lila shouted.
Izzy turned. Lila had pulled up behind the blue and white. To the cop she said, “Okay, help me get him into the car.”
“ I don’t think so,” he said.
“ What’s going on here?” It was an older cop from one of the other blue and whites.
“ She’s a doctor and wants to take him to Rogue Valley Emergency, but I don’t think we should move him.”
“ You trying to think for yourself?” the older cop said, “trying to second guess the doctor?” He looked pained. “Get him in the car!”
“ Alright, alright,” he said and the two cops got Black into the backseat as Izzy ran round to the passenger’s side. She pulled open the door, was about to get in, when Hunter thundered past her, taking the middle of the front seat.
“ Get in,” Lila shouted and Izzy did.
Lila hit the gas and they shot out of there.