Red Dawn-The Beginning

"Rooftop sounds good. Can't crash on a rooftop unless the building collapses. How much ammo you got? We could take turns picking 'em off from up here..." Mila agreed. She wasn't exactly eager to get back into something capable of flight so soon after having almost spiraled to her death.

For now, she took a seat by the edge of the rooftop and thought about their current predicament. Her gaze shifted from the mass of writhing, angry heathens below and up to the sky. There were still a few gray clouds floating about, but the rain had subsided. Drawing her knees to her chest, she wrapped her arms around them and sighed.

Rufers Office Building, outside Sanford Orlando International Airport, FL
2:41 p.m. EST

The Guardsmen take into account Mila's wise words and exchange nervous looks. "You're right," one says after a minute after reaching the roof. One starts to look for a service ladder, and one nervously reports he hears clanging in the elevator shafts. The remaining Guardsmen take up positions near the stairwell, many of them quaking. The other Guardsmen shouts in victory and produces a folded up service ladder, which he promptly begins to extend towards the other building, about ten feet across. The ladder is long enough, barely, and the Guardsmen yells for Sam to help him out as he slams the feet of the ladder through glass to a room across the other building. The ladder is level, but as soon as they enter the other building, they will have to find stairs and travel three floors to the roof.

"Well, who's going first?" the Guardsmen asks.

Outskirts of Oklahoma City, OK
1:41 p.m. CST

"Two hours? Hmmm," the sergeant says, clearly reconsidering. A pilot nearby hears and yells out. "Hey man, I gotta take a squad of Guardsmen for a hunting ride, I can take you guys. Our route will take us pretty far out. Where do you need to go?" The pilot leads the way to his UH-60, which is being fueled. Two gunners and about 8 National Guardsmen stand around, and seem eager to get out of the base at the sight of the pilot.

The Sergeant disappears and reappears with three other men, and the pilot yells for everyone to strap in as he starts the rotors, and yells again at Daniel to tell him where to go as his copilot lifts the Blackhawk off the ground.

Watching the soldiers put the ladder over into the next building, Mila had looked down and considered just how far a fall it would be if one of them didn't quite make it to the other side. She hoped it would be enough to kill someone, as falling from that height and surviving didn't have very good prospects. Paralysis or being eaten alive by zombies or both. None of them sounded very appealing.

"I'll go first..." she said dryly, though she'd sounded more confident in her head when she'd imagined herself speaking up than when she actually did. She walked to the edge of the ladder and then thought of something. Turning around, she found a metallic sign hanging from the door they'd just come out of. It had a list of the floors and their functions on it, or something like that, but she pulled it off of its attachments before bothering to read it fully. Moving back to the ladder, she sat the sign down over top the rungs and found it fit in between almost perfectly. "There. A dog slide."

If she could keep York from jumping around or moving too quickly, she could push him along in front of her while she climbed across the gap. It would be dangerous as hell, but it was the only way to get a dog as large as York across a horizontal ladder. Dog feet just weren't made for climbing rungs, no matter what direction they were in.

Once she'd settled herself and her pet in place, she gripped either side of the ladder and looked back once, catching Sam's eyes. She couldn't tell what he was thinking, but he looked a little worried and understandably so. Either he'd lose a companion to this crazy idea or he'd be forced to do the same difficult task as her shortly after. Finally, Mila told herself it was the only way, and made her slow crawl between the buildings.

Each slide of the board seemed to take forever, and her hands were almost instantly slick with sweat, just like they always got when she played video games. York was mostly behaving, though he whimpered every time he looked down and tucked his tail between his legs as if trying to make himself smaller. A few minutes into the ordeal, Mila chanced a glance backwards once more, and realized that she'd hardly gotten anywhere. To make matters worse, a wind blew persistently between the buildings at this altitude, causing her to pause more often than she would have liked.

Orange County, California
10:41 PST

In the living room of his small apartment Andric Johnson or AJ to his friends watched the President as the man outlined the situation unfolding.

After the president's message was finished AJ immediately put down the remote and double checked the locks on his apartment. His brother Tim and Tim's girlfriend Claire had been coming in an out of the place a lot over the past week and sometimes Tim forgot to lock up. Finding his home secure AJ had found his breathing rate a bit elevated.

'No reason to worry. You're just being careful. Nothing wrong with getting prepared.' His mind did, however, review the signs leading up to this day as he located his laptop, his laptop bag, his wallet and his keys before he went to his room and began searching through his drawer. Easily enough he found 2 pocket knives and the knife he'd taken from his dad's drawer about three years ago before leaving for college.

'Ok let's not get crazy here man. This isn't some movie, this is real.' He thought as he held the holster sheath equipped weapon in his hand before sighing and putting the blades in his bag.

'Better to have them and not need them, than need them and not have them.' He mused, remembering a line from some action movie he'd seen years ago. 'Just get yourself to a hospital you nut.' After stowing the stuff and grabbing a pair of water bottles from the fridge, AJ stopped at his closet as he saw the stock of one of his airsoft weapons and the combat vest he'd purchased for airsofting a few years ago. Grinning a bit over the memory of the fun times he focused his mind back on the present and grabbed the combat vest and a hoodie from his closet before he made it to the main door.

Remembering vaguely the last time he'd seen the signs for a hospital, AJ remembered a street.

'Bastanchury, just take it all the way to the hospital. You'll be fine everyone will be fine.' When the President's messaged played over again and mentioned the activation of National Guard units, AJ recalled all the times that things turned out fine in the movies whenever the NG were activated.

'Ok, first one stop, then the hospital. Plus maybe I'll get better reception there anyhow.' He thought as he checked his phone again to find that the bars were still at zilch, just as they'd been after the phone call from his dad had dropped. Grabbing his keys and slinging the laptop bag's strap over his shoulder, he grabbed the vest and left his apartment. The door closed and the locks whirred as AJ locked up his home and headed out to where his car was parked.

Bill's Sports Mart
Fullerton, California 11:00 PST

AJ pulled up to the sporting goods store in his 318ic BMW. The light blue car was in dire need of a wash but as the 25 year old moved quickly out of his car, it was pretty removed from his mind. The President's announcement was professional and comforting, but it didn't change the fact that AJ had watched too many flicks where the government told you that everything was fine when it actually wasn't. As he looked up at the store and the people milling around the entrance, he nodded curtly.

'Yeah things are fine. I'm just taking precautions like all these other people.' As he climbed the stairs leading to the store, he put on a brave and serious look not to startle anyone but it looked like they were all concentrated on the store and doing exactly what AJ was planning.

'Screw this polite stuff. Not going to matter if they're all out.' The college student thought as he increased his speed and moved into the store, immediately setting off for the hunting section. 'Please don't let them be out.'

Daniel wasn't sure why they would take time and resources out for him but he wasn't going to argue. Maybe the guardsman had a family of his own he was worried about. Who knew? Either way he climbed into the helicopter and strapped in even as it began to lift off from the ground.

“I live to the east in a little house in a city called Claremore just northeast of Tulsa.” He said yelling over the wind and the rotors.

His second time in a helicopter today both times under bad situations he had begun to hate the sound of the rotors. As the land passed quickly below he marveled at the destruction. Cars were overturned, people were being dragged out of their vehicles by those things and the world around him seemed to be a combination of loud shrieks and the ever present whipping sound of the blades of the helicopter above him.

Sam approached the ladder and grasped it simply, trying to keep it steady for the gap. He grimaced at seeing Mila move out on the gap so slowly, she glanced back at him and he tried not to state the obvious about the insanity of it all.

"Hey, Mila? Think of a Tank behind you. You can make it anywhere if a tank is chasing you!" He glanced over the edge and wished he hadn't. "You're going to be fine, just fine."

There was another clang from the elevator shaft.

"Just fine!"

Mike sighed with relief as they got up into the air, safe from the prying hands of those things down below. For how long he had no idea but any amount of time was good. With the danger past, he found his mind wondering back to the events that had happen. It was only now when the adrenaline rush leaving him did he realize the horror that the situation was becoming. The world was ending, the world was going into chaos and anarchy and he would be around to see it. At first it had seemed so surreal, like a dream but now truly thinking about it he realized how serious this was. Everything he knew would be gone, the average life of the average American was over, and what would happen when the fuel and the ammo is used up by the army? It seemed futile, it was over, and just imagine what those other cook nations with their nuclear powers would do. If they launched there weapons in a futile attempt to stop this plague then the fallout could be massive. Nuclear disaster coupled with the end from plague made the word seem doomed. War? Pestilence? All they needed was to wait until the crops dried up and the farmers were dead for famine. Seemed liek a genuine apocolypse.

With such dark thoughts in his mind, Mike felt the shakes of a panic attack come on. His mind was abuzz with thoughts of destruction and havoc, and perhaps even the contemplation of suicide. He felt the urge to cry, scream, or anything to let this turmoil out. Instead he buried his head in his hands and silently shook, waiting for the shock to be over. Then what, he had no idea.

Rufers Office Building, FL
2:45 EST

The Guardsmen take careful aim as the elevator door blows open, and two Wreakers fly out, one screeching. One smashes a Guardsmen to the ground and begins whacking his head against the cement. His fellow Guardsmen open fire, cutting down the screeching Wreaker and assaulting it so it is closer to the elevator shaft, where one Guardsmen pushes the Wreaker back down where it came from.

The Guardsmen isn't moving, his head creating a pool of blood. The Wreaker screeches in defiance, his messy hair flying in the wind of an approaching storm, and his red eyes growing larger. The Guardsmen open fire, and the Wreaker hits the ground. A Guardsmen runs up, only to get tripped and getting his face smashed into the ground. A Guardsmen fires a whole clip into the Wreaker's head, turning it into pulp. The Guardsmen leave their dead comrade and begin following Sam and Mila, two of them covering the rear, watching the elevator shaft cautiously.

Somewhere near Richmond, VA
2:45 EST

The choppers descend a little, following a massive military convoy on the ground. Dozens of M1 Abrams tanks, Bradley IFVs, and Humvees are mowing down Wreakers who try to attack them. A massive truck is carrying a massive crate, and the vehicles are positioned to protect it.

Several Apaches fly by, and the passengers on the UH-60s see them coordinating with two F-22 Raptors on a bombing run in a suburb nearby.

Oklahoma City, OK
1:45 CT

The chopper circles over a large horde of Wreakers they find after a few minutes of travel, and after a few seconds a flight of F-18s zoom by, bombing the hell out of the horde, leaving behind only charred remains. The chopper continues, and after a minute begins to arrive at Daniel's neighborhood, which looks relatively normal excluding a few wrecked cars and the occasional dashing figure. There is also three destroyed Humvees in a main street.

"Where's your house, man?" the pilot calls out, descending and moving slower.

White House, Washington D.C.
2:45 EST

Jonathon sat quietly in the Situation Room, the Joint Chiefs as quiet as he is for once, all of them grimly watching updated screens that show locations of military units and Wreaker hordes. "They're rallying near Los Angeles and Phoenix. East Coast seems to be void of any large Wreaker hordes," a Joint Chief reports unnecessarily. Jonathon bit his lip, looking at the count. Fifty thousand estimated Wreakers in Phoenix. Eighty thousand near L.A. "They seem to be hitting the populated areas," Jonathon observed.

Just twenty minutes ago, he had authorized thick military convoys to evacuate nuclear devices. He was now contemplating using said devices. So far, they had lost communication with Amsterdam, Cairo, and Jerusalem. They were maintaining contact with London and Berlin, among other countries. They were all debating the use of nuclear weapons.

The logic was that nukes would destroy large amounts of Wreakers, and any civilian casualties would be acceptable on the grounds that civilians in those areas would face imminent death by the Wreakers or catch the virus. The current plan was to detonate the nukes in the air, to minimize radiation poisoning of the earth.

Jonathon's brother Kevin was frantically working on a cure, but it seemed elusive. Yet Jonathon waited, debating. Half of him wanted to be curled up in a bunker, but that wasn't an option. All in all, the governments of the world were facing the end of the world. And Jonathon was preparing a speech. The American people, he believed, should not be deceived. Yet he waited, hoping for a miracle, though he wasn't sure how much longer he could wait.

Mila heard the sounds of the doom and gloom duo as she was just about halfway across the ladder. At this point, even turning her head around to look would make her unsteady, as the ladder was rather thin and she had to make sure that York didn't try anything stupid. Gunshots rang out and she heard one guy yell before going quiet. She had no idea how many of the things had crawled onto the rooftop, or how many more might be coming, but she knew she needed to hurry it along if she didn't want to end up like a kebab that hadn't been skewered.

Narrowing her eyes, she slid her pooch along the ladder as quickly as possible but only made it roughly three-fourths of the way before she felt the end of it start to shake. Finally, she chanced a look behind her and saw Sam being ushered onto the ladder by a Guardsman who was yelling something that she couldn't hear over the shrieking of wreakers below.

Wreakers she hadn't noticed until now.

"Oh man... they're trying to climb on each other to get to me. That's...disgusting...." she thought. Far below, slack-jawed and slobbering zombies stared hungrily while clawing the air as if it would bring her down to them to feast upon. Some were screaming, others groaning, but as long as none of them had weapons, she would be able to keep moving unhindered. Probably.

Just then, the ladder began to sag a little, and Mila gasped. Behind her, Sam was still being prodded along while all three of the remaining Guardsmen tried to go along after. There was no way the tiny service ladder would hold all of their combined weight. "You guys have to wait! This thing is gonna snap!" she shouted over the din, unsure if they could hear her. Just in case they couldn't, she didn't want to be on the thin metal frame when they got toward the middle,; it was already bowing enough. She picked up the pace.

Rufers Office Building, FL
2:46 EST

The Guardsmen heed Mila's words and stop moving, letting Sam and Mila move forward with a less wobbly ladder. However, down below, about twelve Wreakers have leaped up and have started climbing the building, and another fifteen seem to have broken into the bottom level of the building and are rushing off to catch the five survivors as they try to reach the roof.

Bill's Sports Mart
Fullerton, California 11:00 PST

The doors are barricaded, but as AJ approaches, a man carefully opens it, carrying a rifle pointed right at him. "Yo man, why you here? We're not letting anyone with a good enough reason in." Inside, AJ can see about six other people moving around, the distinctive shapes of backpacks and weapons covering their bodies.

OOC: Sorry for short posts.

Sam placed the gun in his mouth and edged out onto the ladder slowly at the urging of the soldiers. If he looked forward he could see just how horribly far away the other building was, if he looked down he could see just how horribly far down the floor was. He chose to look forward.

I hate this, I hate this, I hate this...

Adrenaline moved him forward urgently and before he knew it he was right behind Mila, having failed to listen to her request for them to give her some space. "Mmff mfff mmmmmf," he said with the gun in between his teeth.

There was another scream from down below and Sam shut his eyes, sweating profusely. "Mmmffff."

Daniel looks down below a worried experssion carried on his face. He absently pointed to a small white house with a gray shingle roof. As they closed the difference he noticed the back door was opened leading to the small deck in back and his wife's car was gone. He almost felt relieved thinking this meant surely she had made it away from the house. His relief lasted only moments though because just a ways down the road from his house was her car smashed into a ditch.

Before the chopper had even fully touched down Daniel tore from his harness and leaped to the ground stumbling slightly before correcting himself and bursting into a run the short distance to the car. Pulling the door open he frantically searches inside his terror growing at seeing a small blood smear along the side of the car and on the steering wheel. His son's car seat seemed intact and there was no blood in the back.

He headed back towards the house even as the soldiers started exiting the helicopter. Throwing open the front door after fumbling with his keys in the lock he looked in and shakily reached to the left to the louisville slugger he kept near the door after hearing a scuttle coming from the back of the house.

"Mary? Logan? It's daddy are you here?" He said nervously as he strained to listen for the noise he had heard moments ago.

It took a while for Mike to calm down from the shock, partly thanks to the strange scene below them. It was one thing to watch a battle happening from far away in the safety of your own home but to be there was completely different. Even from where they were Mike could feel the heat from the blasts as the army strategically bombed a lost suburb, at least Mike told himself it was lost and didn't have any family held up. Still he couldn't convince himself and he began to think about his current situation.

" Hey, Army Officer!" He called over to the man that had guided him from before," Where we going?"

Mila didn't have to speak "gun-in-mouth" language to understand that "Mmph" meant MOVE. She didn't hesitate to comply either, as the Guardsmen were beginning to move again and unsettle the ladder. They aimed their rifles downward, with one watching the rear, then began firing away at the wreakers attempting to scale the walls.

Finally...finally Mila made it to the other building. York hesitated for a moment, but realized there was solid ground in front of him again and hopped into the window. Mila inched forward the rest of the way and shakily climbed off, then turned around to help Sam inside, holding out her hand. "Quickly, quickly," she urged, looking at something behind him that she did not want to see, but decided it would be better not to tell him about.

Far on the other rooftop, about a dozen wreakers had burst out of the door and were in the process of sprinting for the ladder. Not only that, but the Guardsmen were preoccupied with that building, while down below Mila and Sam, a handful of the undead were making a similar climb up. "We might be needing that rifle soon..."

The college student had only had a gun pointed at him in video games and he had not expected have one pointed at himself in real life ever. Willing himself along AJ ensured that his movements were slow and poised not wanting to make the man with the gun any more disturbed than he appeared to be.

"Woah man easy. No need for the gun. I uh wait a second what the heck are you guys doing in there?" AJ asked trying to get the focus on them and not on him. He had just wanted to acquire a firearm as a precaution for whatever was really going on but these guys seemed to be acting even more erratic than he. AJ ringed his fingers a bit just a tad nervously.

"Oh my god..." Sam said as he got off the ladder and turned around. He fiddled with the gun desperately, his hands shaking. One of the wreakers took a step on to the ladder and began to charge towards the guards. Sam raised the gun and fired; it was a complete and total failure. He fired twice more to no effect, although he did manage to bullseye a random pigeon sat atop the rooftop. The wreaker was getting close. In fact it was on the guardsmen now, two more wreakers moving past them and towards Sam and Mila.

"Please let me forgive myself for this," he muttered and pushed the ladder away from the window frame. Without support on the other side it fell to the ground far below, the wreakers and men screeching as they went down with it. The lone guardsmen left on the other side of the roof looked up at Sam, a questioning look on his face. Sam shut his eyes and refused to watch the wreaker leap on the man's back. Sam turned around quickly and began to limp forward. They were in a office somewhere.

"We...we..got to find the staircase..the roof. Yeah."

AIIIIEEEE!!!!

AHHHHH!!!!

CRASH!!!!!!!!

Mila felt like things were moving in slow motion as the wreakers' footing slid away from them, sending them tumbling to the horde below with the Guardsmen not far behind, like some kind of twisted carnival slide. Sam turned away but Mila watched the swarm overtake the soldiers, dragging them down until she couldn't see what had become of them, not that she needed to see to know. As she lifted her gaze, she found the remaining Guardsman slumped over the edge of the roof, a wreaker sucking greedily at his entrails.

As if it knew it was being watched, the monster lifted its head, a length of intestine between its teeth, and stared straight at Mila with shining red eyes. The soldier's blood dripped down what was left of the zombie's chin and neck, which had evidently been partially blown away at some point in the battle to little effect.

Going back to its meal, the wreaker tore a purple organ of some sort from the dead man's abdomen, and Mila felt her stomach churn barely in time to brace herself at the window sill and vomit.

There seemed to be no electricity around and Sam was finding it hard to see what was what. He opened a few of the drawers of the office cubicles and a small smile crept onto his face when he found a torch. Turning it on he had another glance around, only to hear the sound of Mila vomiting. He moved back towards her slowly and placed a hand on her arm. "Mila, please, let's go. Don't think about it, just let's go?"

He shined the torch around the office again and froze when he heard a clang. There was a clang at the door opposite them, on the far side of the office complex. Sam turned off the torch and knelt down. The clang rang out again and the door opened, a wreaker stumbling through. A wreaker in office clothes, looking bleary eyed. It swung it's head around and did not see Sam and Mila, instead moaning softly it began to stumble around.

"Mila, we really have to go," Sam whispered urgently. "Kill me later, okay? Just keep quiet. We can get past this thing without it knowing we are here."

The wreaker continued to wander from cubicle to cubicle, occasionally lashing out at the weak wall dividers.

"The staircase is just there," Sam said pointing about fifty meters away. "Lets just keep low."

Sam had frozen too. He could hear it shuffling, mumbling to itself. It's breathing was ragged but still very human. Sam gripped the gun tightly, wishing it offered him some sort of real protection. It was lucky York walked into him and continued to try and push forward slightly. It woke Sam from his terror. Looking up Sam realised that he couldn't go forward without the wreaker seeing them.

There had to be some way....he stuck his hands in his pockets and saw what he managed to find. One zippo lighter. Sam pressed his back to the cubicle and threw the lighter away from him and Mila and to the wreaker's back. It landed in another cubicle with a thump and the wreaker gave a roar, charging towards it. It continued to rip apart the cubicle, trying to find what had caused the noise, as Sam finally crept forward now happy the wreaker was distracted.

He reached the doorway and crept through it, using it to shield him from the wreaker's vision. He glanced at Mila and waved her forward urgently. Who knew when the thing might turn around again....

Sanford, FL
2:50 p.m. EST

As Sam throws the ladder down, the Wreakers and Guardsmen become one mass, falling a few dozen stories before slamming into the ground, some bodies exploding into a red mass, while others slam into the pavement with loud cracks before they are overcome by the horde. The Wreakers on the roof screech at Sam and Mila before setting upon the remains of the last Guardsmen, who's dead hand clutches the smoke that was going to be used to signal the pickup chopper.

The office Wreaker seems to be different than others, shuffling erratically and making low, ultrasound noises. His suit is ripped in some places, and they can see a few oozing bullet holes. As he sets upon destroying the office space where Sam had made the diversion, he does with a rage so complete he doesn't seem to care that Sam and Mila are so close by.

Suddenly, Mila and Sam hear loud thumps as three Wreakers leap across from the Rufers office building roof into the room. They savagely attack the office Wreaker, tearing him to pieces before their gaze shifts to Sam and Mila. They charge forward, screeching, and they can hear answering shrieks from a few stories below and just outside.

Bill's Sports Mart, CA
11:05 a.m. PST

"It's the end of the world man. We're preparing to go up in the mountains. Sierras. You can join us if you're not crazy," he says in a swift, urgent voice, the rifle not wavering at all. Behind him, AJ can hear voices arguing, and one yelling at the young man holding the rifle, though the college kid doesn't respond, waiting for an answer.

AJ kept his hands raised and decided to go along with the guy's idea of what was going on around him. "I hear you man but I still have things to handle here before I can even think about leaving. I just wanted to get some help to make sure I can keep my family safe for till the end of the day. They're not ready to leave yet and they think this will all blow over."AJ tried to put a little worry into his voice when he talked about his family. It was important to him that he keep them safe but they weren't really close by that he could easily reach them. But they were still on his mind especially if the situation had

"Now I'm a regular here. I know they have at least around 50 shotguns and rifles give or take and that's probably more than you guys can drag all the way to the mountains. Let me just have one and a box or two of ammo and I'll leave. Please, I need your help." AJ said in all honesty.

The ice thawed instantly, and Mila became unfrozen as she jumped to her feet, pushing forward like a professional runner at the starting line. York beat her to the door, but she wasn't far behind. Grabbing the handle, she slid inside and slammed it shut just as the sound of fingers clawing on metal reverberated from the other side.

Mila ran up the stairway next to Sam, hearing the sound of the door handle rattling behind them and shrieks and groans below them. Even as they reached the roof of this building, her fear got the best of her. Sam tried to prop an air conditioning unit against the door, and Mila began to pace back and forth.

"We're going to die. We're going to fucking die like those fucking soldiers. Like our families. Like fucking everyone..."

There was a wild look in her eyes, like she was struggling to keep ahold of herself. Eventually, she stopped talking to herself and paused, turning to Sam with a much more lucid expression as if she'd just come out of a trance. "I want you to promise me something. If those things get up here before we can get away, I want you to shoot me. Right between the eyes. If you can't do it, then give me the gun. I.. I don't want to be alive when they eat me..."

Bill's Sports Mart, CA
11:06 a.m. PST

The college kid considers, and then nods. "Come in man. And hurry. My buddies are getting antsy." He opens the door and lets AJ in, and there are about eight men and women staring at him warily, weapons ready. The shelves have been rifled through, but there is plenty for AJ to go through. AJ also notices the safe has been opened and emptied. The group of people seem about college age, and seems to be that they are just finishing packing for their trip.

Sanford, FL
2:52 p.m. EST

Just as Mila's hope is running out, they hear a chopper's rotors begin filling the sky. A UH-60 Blackhawk is flying around, and flies over towards the roof, but seems to be waiting for a signal. However, the door of the stairwell is becoming increasingly strained under the attack of the Wreakers, and the chopper doesn't seem to be able to tell if Mila and Sam are Wreakers are not.

AJ nods appreciatively to the fellow student and moves quickly. He passes the security board seperating the store from the gun area and immediately picks out a 12 gauge Remmington 870 shotgun from the assortment of weapons still arrayed on the wall. Quickly checking through the weapon he remembered the operating procedure for loading one from his trip to a range in Wyoming. 'Man that was a long time ago.' He thought as he found the right ammo type and then moved away from the hunting section and picked up a duffel bag to carry the shotgun and shells and then headed off to the entrance grabbing some trail mix and jerky from the a rack near the exit and within ten minutes he was out past the barricade giving the student a mock salute with two fingers before he tossed the bag in his trunk and then looked back at the guy.

"Thanks. Good luck getting to the mountains." AJ said as he got into this car and turned on the ignition. Pulling out and away from the sporting goods store he drove out back onto the highway and then headed off to connect with Bastanchury so that he might find the hospital near to his home.