Callie could feel the sun on her closed eyes and the warmth despite the cool morning air. She didn’t want to get up yet, so much had happened in such a short time that she felt the fatigue of the previous days still weighing heavily on her. Just as she debated pulling the covers over her head to try to get a couple more hours of sleep, she heard Kane next to her.

  “GOD DAMN ZEUS! GET OFF ME!” Kane screamed, flailing and pulling the covers off of Callie.

  “Hey!” Callie grumbled, rolling over to try to get the sheets back. Zeus proceeded to hop on her and start licking her face like he had just been doing to Kane.

  “MOMMY! I LIVE!!!!” Zeus was jubilantly crying, not even pausing in his furious licking.

  “Damn dog woke me up that way, too,” Stern laughed from the doorway.

  “GET OFF THE BED!” Kane yelled, pushing Zeus off the bed.

  Zeus whimpered, though they weren’t sure from pain at being pushed or because his feelings were hurt. Callie pulled the sheets up to her chin. She felt a little exposed in her nightgown in front of Stern. Kane, for his part, just got up and stretched after getting the dog off the bed.

  “Well, good to see you don’t sleep in the nude, but ranger panties? Really?” Stern joked.

  “I’m taking note, tonight I won’t put anything on. But I was trying to spare your feelings, comparing joysticks," Kane laughed, twirling his hips at Stern.

  “Fuck you, man, it’s girth, not length,” Stern joined in the laughter.

  “That would assume you have girth. Get out of my bedroom!” Callie yelled, throwing her pillow at Stern.

  “Damn, Callie!” Stern laughed and dodged the pillow. But he left the doorway still laughing as he went.

  “Play?” Zeus asked, wagging his tail while sitting in front of Kane.

  “Not right now,” Kane pet the dog on the head and headed for the bathroom.

  “Play?” Zeus asked as he went around the foot of the bed and laid his head next to Callie.

  “Maybe later, let me get dressed, then I will get you some food," Callie said as she stretched. “How are you feeling, Zeus?”

  “Good, play?” Zeus asked again, with clearly only one satisfying answer on his mind.

  “Not yet,” Callie said again, patting him on the head and getting out of bed to go to the bathroom herself.

  By the time Callie and Kane were done with their morning routines in the bathroom, the house was coming alive. Phillip was sitting at the kitchen table with Giana, attempting to feed her some yogurt. Stern was trying to gently play tug with Zeus, though Zeus wasn’t understanding ‘gentle’. Eliza was yawning as she hit the top of the stairs.

  “Morning,” Eliza said through her yawn.

  “Gurt!” Giana cheerfully yelled through a mouth full of yogurt, spitting most of what was in her mouth back out.

  Phillip had a tired expression on his face as he tried to shovel the food back into Giana’s mouth.

  “Morning, is Josie still sleeping?” Kane asked as he sat down next to Phillip, “You know the food doesn’t work if it isn’t in her mouth.”

  “You try then,” Phillip grumbled, scooping up some yogurt and trying again to get it in Giana’s mouth as the child kept turning to watch Zeus and Stern, then turning again to look at Eliza, and then turning again to look at Callie going to the fridge.

  “Nope, been there, done that, said we were done after two,” Kane laughed as his friend struggled.

  Phillip tried two more scoops before putting the spoon in the yogurt container and throwing up his hands. Callie was at the counter, grabbing ingredients for pancakes. She looked over her shoulder at the struggling Phillip and smiled. She grabbed a washcloth and tied it around Giana’s neck lightly. Then pushed the yogurt towards the child. Giana proceeded to get 75% of the yogurt everywhere but her mouth. When the container was empty, Callie had gotten a couple of pancakes going on the stove top and proceeded to grab the empty container. Quickly wiped down Giana with the washcloth and sent her on her way.

  “Thanks,” Phillip said as he examined the mess left on the table and chair from his daughter. Zeus happily obliged with cleaning up the table and chair a moment later.

  “Where is Carlie?” Callie asked over her shoulder, returning to the pancakes.

  “I let her keep sleeping,” Phillip said as he put his head down on the table, “Giana fussed most of the night.”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t miss those days,” Callie sighed, putting the first round of pancakes on the table. “Eliza, grab some plates, please.”

  By the time Callie had finished making all the pancakes, Josie had come upstairs and was eating. About the time Eliza was finished eating, Cosette came yawning up the stairs. Carlie followed shortly after, looking like she hadn’t gotten any sleep. As the kids finished eating, the adults dug into the remainder of the pancakes. A second pot of coffee had to be made, but it was a quiet moment for the adults.

  Josie asked if she could go see the cowklets, so Kane and Stern went out with the kids to do chores. Callie convinced Phillip and Carlie to go back to bed for a little bit. If they were going into town, they couldn’t afford for the two of them to be as tired as they were. The morning passed peacefully enough with Kane and Stern diligently watching the older girls play outside, and Callie cleaning inside with the ‘help’ of Giana.

  Just before noon, Carlie came up the stairs looking a heck of a lot better than she had earlier. She grabbed some of the remaining coffee in the pot and made a small third pot. She took a look at Giana and Callie and then smiled as she walked over to the living room window to see the rest of the group. The smell of the fresh coffee must have finally roused Phillip as he came up the stairs, yawning and stretching.

  “Well, what’s the plan?” Phillip asked through another yawn, grabbing coffee and sitting down at the table, looking at Callie.

  “We need to go to town, but Stern and Kane are out with the kids,” Callie said simply as she grabbed Giana, who was crawling all over sleepy Olive.

  “Yeah,” Phillip sighed, getting up and putting on his shoes to go outside.

  Callie and Carlie watched from the window as Phillip walked up to Stern and Kane. It looked like they had a short but serious conversation, then the four kids and the three dads walked back to the house. Callie and Carlie heard the laughing girls before the front door opened. It brought a smile to both women’s faces. Despite the Rift shooting lighting, it was good to hear the laughter from their children.

  “What do you think about eating a quick lunch and then heading into town?” Kane asked as he came through the door.

  “If that is the plan,” Callie said, heading towards the kitchen.

  “Naw, screw a plan, let’s wing this shit,” Stern laughed as he headed for the kitchen table.

  Phillip and Kane both looked at their friend with skeptical eyes. Callie smacked Stern lightly across the back of his head on her way past. Carlie laughed as she put Giana on the couch and turned on a movie for the kids.

  While Callie rounded up some lunch for the group, the boys and Carlie discussed whether anyone should stay behind and what to do with the kids. By the time Callie was putting lunch on the table, it was begrudgingly decided that if they were going to go into town, they were ALL going to go into town. They had a rough plan of how they were going to get there from the previous night, and they knew what they needed to get. It was currently being discussed which vehicles they were going to take; they had already established they needed to take two, it was just which two.

  “I know you can fit more people into the van, but that’s not the issue,” Kane was arguing with Phillip.

  “Then what is?” Phillip was starting to sound a bit angry.

  “We need vehicles that can get through anything, and we need maximum cargo room,” Stern tried to explain, siding with Kane on the idea of taking the two trucks.

  “I have cargo space!” Phillip said, clearly frustrated.

  “Dude, we aren’t comparing dick sizes. I’m just saying our trucks have the capabilities of getting through damn near anything, and between the open bed on Kane’s truck and the hard-topper on mine, we have a lot more storage room. Yeah, we won’t have extra room for passengers, but we will be able to fit everyone,” Stern tried again to explain to Phillip.

  “And I get better gas mileage with my van than you do with your truck,” Phillip argued back at Stern.

  “Sorry to say, but the fact that both trucks are diesel so we can grab fuel for both at the same time, actually works against you here,” Kane tried to say delicately.

  “Fuck that! Are you saying we aren’t going to grab fuel for my vehicle!” Phillip said getting more frustrated and angry with each turn of the conversation.

  “That is not what I’m saying. We need to pick up gas for the generator, so we will be picking up fuel for your van too,” Kane said, throwing up his hands defensively.

  “Boys, calm down. I’m sorry to say, Phillip, but the two-truck idea makes more sense,” Carlie told her husband. “Hear me out, the van doesn’t have the best tires, so if we get into a hairy situation on the back roads, we run the risk of getting stuck. You know that we took a turn too fast on the way here and almost spun out. And we really don’t have as much room as Stern or Kane when we pop up the third row, which we would need in order to fit the people we need to.”

  Phillip sat back thinking, his face gradually turning less red from the anger he had drummed up during the discussion.

  “You are right,” Phillip finally sighed, “When do we leave?”

  “Finish your fucking food, you twat,” Stern said, clearly not over the argument.

  Both threw up some offensive gestures and settled in to eat their lunches.

  An hour later, the three families were done eating, had cleaned up their dishes and the cookware, and were organizing to head into town. The boys had decided that each of them would take a rifle and had sorted the remaining ammunition amongst the three of them; in case they got separated, they would all have some. Carlie was given the shotgun and a pistol. They had debated giving her the second pistol, but Stern didn’t want to give up his, and they didn’t want to leave Callie without a firearm. It was determined that Carlie would go with Stern, so Cosette, Dani, and Giana could all go in one vehicle. Giana made a fit when it was proposed that she wouldn’t be going with her sister. Also, worst case, Stern could give Carlie his pistol to take advantage of her dual pistol skill. Callie, Kane, and Phillip, with Eliza and Josie, would go in Kane’s truck.

  There was a lot of debate over going to different stores to limit the time in town, but when it came down to it, separation was determined to be a last resort. They needed each other. If they ran into more creatures like the badger or the snagon, they would need all the adults together to get out alive. Traveling as a pair did mean, however, that they had to be even more cautious to not be seen by not just the creatures but also the national guard, the news kept saying was patrolling. Ultimately, for the sake of the wives and the girls, the boys had agreed to stay together. But as the women were getting the kids ready to leave, Stern, Phillip, and Kane had made semi-secret plans for at the slightest hint of danger they would get the wives and kids away and head for home.

  As agreed upon, both trucks drove the frontage and side roads, getting into town. It was a long way, but ultimately it was the smarter way, they hoped. The first frontage road took them next to I-25 for a bit, and as they drove, they realized there was NO ONE on the interstate. Even when they travelled late at night, they would see SOMEONE, a trucker, a car, someone else would be traveling from the Springs to Pueblo or vice versa. This afternoon, nothing was moving.

  As they crossed over onto another side road, Callie spotted a car in the ditch.

  “Kane? Do you see that?” Callie pointed to the car.

  “Yeah, we aren’t stopping,” Kane said as they passed the car.

  “What if they need help?” Callie asked, looking back at the car.

  “The car door was ripped off. Something got to that car,” Kane said so nonchalantly that it startled Callie into silence.

  “I agree, we can’t stop, we don’t know what creatures or people are waiting for a good Samaritan to investigate,” Phillip agreed from the back seat.

  Callie sat in silence the rest of the way to the outskirts of Colorado Springs. They passed through Fountain on their way, seeing a few moving cars and a few people quickly walking from the meat market back to wherever they were going. They didn’t see any police or National Guard, though, which surprised them. Thankfully, that part of the trip was uneventful.

  “Call Stern,” Kane suddenly uttered over his shoulder.

  “Yup,” Phillip said as this was clearly something that the boys had arranged ahead of time and didn’t tell Callie.

  “Nothing to report back here, but did you see that twisted vehicle on that side road as we came into town, by the railroad tracks?” Stern asked as Phillip switched his phone to speaker phone.

  “Yeah, it had claw marks. I think the badger or something like it did the damage,” Kane called out from the front seat.

  “I agree, it is on the opposite side of the interstate, so either the badger crossed over someplace or this is a different one," Phillip contemplated out loud.

  “I’m going to keep following. Anything else?” Stern asked.

  “Nothing, sticking to the plan. We will take the outer road up and cross over. Keep your eye out for law enforcement. Didn’t see any on the way up, but they have to be here someplace,” Kane said, confirming the plan.

  “Will do. Hey, is someone keeping an eye on The Rift in your vehicle? I haven’t been able to watch, and Giana is fussing, so Carlie has her hands full,” Stern suddenly sounded concerned.

  “I’m watching, a bird flew out a little bit ago,” Josie muttered with her face almost touching the window glass.

  “Thanks, keep us updated,” Stern was almost giggling on the other end, “Leave it to the kid to remember what we forgot to account for.”

  “That’s my girl,” Kane said proudly.

  “Lights to our forward left,” Stern said and then hung up.

  Kane had seen the lights at the same time. He kept heading north; thankfully, that wasn’t the road they were planning on taking into town. As they got closer, it looked like the lights were fire engines, and there had seemed to be a path of destruction through the small housing community a mile from the outer loop road. Kane looked back at Phillip over his shoulder.

  Phillip shook his head, “Not our mission,” he said, pointing his finger to stay on the road.

  “Right,” Kane sighed and kept driving.

  They passed a few cars that looked loaded to the brim heading south as they headed north. Kane tried to get a look inside to see what all the stuff was, but all he could tell was that the drivers usually looked scared. Maybe they were fleeing the city, maybe they had looted and were running, maybe it was something else entirely; Kane didn’t know, but it sent spikes down his back, not knowing what they were driving into.

  The road started going into the more developed areas of the eastern edge of Colorado Springs. Kane kept his eyes out for anything that might be coming down the side streets. More cars were heading south and east. It was starting to look more like how it usually did, but the amount was off. For a random weekday afternoon, there should be at least twice, if not three times, as many cars on the road as they were seeing.

  Kane made the turn to go west into town after stopping at the stoplight, the first stoplight, surprisingly, that they had hit off the maybe dozen they had come across. Kane took the opportunity to look around more. He finally noticed the little bit of smoke coming from what would be the downtown area; it wasn’t much, but something had either been on fire or was on fire but being contained. That didn’t sit well with Kane. At least Mountain Man was north of downtown, and it didn’t look like there was any smoke from that area of town.

  *ring*

  *ring*

  “Yeah?” Kane spoke into the truck speakers as he answered his phone.

  “You seeing what I’m seeing?” Stern asked.

  “The smoke from something burning? Yeah, I see it, it looks like it is downtown,” Kane explained.

  “No, the flying creatures just past the smoke,” Stern said.

  Kane took his focus away from the smoke and started looking around. Sure enough, creatures were flying around, almost circling the smoke.

  “Yeah, I see them now,” Kane sighed with concern.

  “Please tell me we aren’t going towards them?” Stern sounded very concerned.

  “No, we are going further north than that. Seeing anything else? Looks like the light is about to change,” Kane said as he saw the lights turning yellow from the side lights.

  “Nothing yet, but did you see all those cars loaded up? Looks like they are fleeing,” Stern asked in wonder.

  “Yeah, fleeing or they stole a bunch of shit,” Phillip harumphed from the backseat.

  “Okay, lead on,” Stern said and then hung up as the light turned.

  Their little convoy hit very little traffic going west into town, but there was a light but steady stream of cars leaving going east. Kane asked Callie to keep her eye out for any of them who looked suspicious. Unfortunately, Kane wasn’t sure what suspicious would mean, so he didn’t have any answers to the follow-up questions his wife asked, getting more aggravated at him as she asked. Phillip’s chuckle from the backseat finally silenced her, but she crossed her legs as they drove, letting Kane know she was still unhappy with him.

  As the housing turned into businesses, they started seeing small, unusual creatures mixed amongst the houses. Some were Coyzards as Stern had described them. There were some deer-hybrids of some sort. They were twice the size of deer, but they had large floppy ears, almost like a rabbit, but they had the largest rack of antlers Kane had ever seen.

  “Did you see those deer?” Callie said in wonderment as they passed by.

  “Who wants to go hunting?” Phillip laughed from the backseat.

  Callie turned to glare at Phillip when suddenly Kane had to swerve out of the way as something and someone following a bear-thing as it ran into the road. The screeching and screaming from the girls tuned out anything Kane was saying. Then they heard the screeching of Stern behind them. Callie, who was still partially turned backward, saw Stern swerve to the right as they swerved to the left. Stern missed getting hit by the creature by inches; the creature didn’t stop its forward momentum, and the person following it leveled his rifle and aimed at Stern’s truck. Stern thankfully picked up speed, and the fired bullet missed the truck. Callie watched as the guy put down his rifle, screaming at them as they sped away, then moved off in the direction that the creature had gone.

  Kane motioned for Stern, who was now parallel with him, to follow onto a side road. The two trucks safely turned onto the side street and then turned onto the first side street and stopped. Kane motioned for Stern to pull up next to him. The men knew it wasn’t safe to get out of their vehicles if they didn’t have to.

  Cosette and Giana were crying in the backseat, and Carlie was trying to comfort them as Stern rolled down the window.

  “I’m going to whip a U-ie so we can talk easier,” Stern had to shout over the crying. Kane nodded and then waited for his friend to pull back up next to them.

  “Did you see that thing?” Stern said in a still shocked voice.

  “Was that a bear?” Phillip asked from the backseat, leaning forward in-between the front seats.

  “No, I mean, maybe?” Stern contemplated.

  “It was like a bear, but did it have hooves like a buffalo? And it had a hump, do bears have humps?” Callie sounded like she was near tears herself as Carlie finally got her girls to stop crying.

  “No, bears don’t have humps," Kane said with so little emotion it shocked even Phillip and Stern, “I’m more concerned with the guy running after it. Was he hunting it or something else?”

  Stern looked shocked at first with his mouth open, but then he got a thoughtful look on his face, “You are right, it turned and shot at us. Why?”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  “He did what? How did I miss that?” Phillip asked, startled.

  “Yeah, he turned and shot at Stern. He missed, but he wasn’t happy about it,” Callie said after a moment.

  “Are you sure he missed? The kids were crying pretty loudly. I didn’t feel anything hit, but if it was a small enough caliper, I wouldn’t feel it," Stern asked.

  “No, I saw the ricotte past you; it missed you,” Callie reassured him.

  “Okay, well, now we have people as well as creatures to worry about,” Kane said, looking out the front window.

  “Yeah, does this change plans?” Stern asked.

  “No, we need food, and we need to be able to defend ourselves. Now more than ever,” Kane announced, “Let’s get going. We have been sitting for too long. The curtains are starting to move.”

  Kane rolled forward far enough to turn around and get in front of Stern again. Stern followed, and the small convoy got back on the main road heading west. Everyone had their heads on swivels as they came up to the Academy Blvd intersection. Callie could feel the tension as they got closer to the intersection, seeing that despite the very little traffic going north or south on Academy, their light was red. Callie could hear Phillip repositioning his rifle in the backseat, and she could see Kane checking the position of his pistol.

  As they came to a stop behind a much smaller car at the red light, Kane brought out his pistol and had it resting on his lap. He had one hand on the pistol and the other still on the steering wheel. Although it looked like he was looking straight ahead, Callie knew better. She knew he was looking around using his periphery to seem unsuspecting; she had seen him do it when they were in places that he wasn’t comfortable.

  “Caution, 10 o’clock,” Phillip suddenly said as Callie heard him shifting in the backseat.

  “Heard, caution left,” Kane said.

  Callie furiously looked in the two places the boys called out. At the 2 o’clock, across the intersection was a group of men openly holding pistols. They were pointing and talking energetically. Turning to her left to see what Kane saw, it was one of those bear-buffalo creatures. At the moment it was looking at the ground. Then she saw just behind it was someone with a rifle coming up on it.

  Callie couldn’t believe her eyes. Years of training with Kane and the kids, and hunting herself, she knew you had to be aware of what was behind your target just as much as your target itself. The guy had his rifle pointed in a way that he would hit them or Stern’s truck. She couldn’t tell if he was a bad aim, or if the guy was intentionally not aiming at the creatures.

  Thankfully the light turned green and with no warning Kane turned sharply to get around the car in front of them and sped through the intersection. As they did the group of men had their pistols in their hands and were shooting at Kane. Stern, seeing what had happened to Kane, took advantage of no oncoming traffic and passed the car in the oncoming lane missing the haphazard firing of the group. As Kane looked in his rearview to make sure Stern made it, he saw the car stop, whether from shock or it couldn’t go further. The group of men were pounding on the windows and doors of the car as the road in front of them turned to the right and they lost sight of the car and the group.

  Kane took a deep breath and slowed down just a touch. He looked at his fuel gauge. He needed to get fuel, they had planned for this thankfully and he knew the first of their fuel options was a few streets up and to the left. The two trucks made it to the rarely busy fuel station with no more issues. They were lucky; no other vehicles were at the station either.

  Kane pulled in and pulled forward so Stern could pull in behind him. Kane took another look around, put his pistol back in its holster.

  “All clear?” he asked, looking around again.

  “Clear, covering right,” Phillip said as he hopped out of the truck, holding his rifle at the ready and scanning.

  Kane took a breath and got out to start filling up. He looked to Stern, who was also hopping out of his vehicle and heading towards Kane. They had opted to put the empty fuel cans in the bed of Kane’s truck. There was a risk of them bouncing out while they were empty, but they didn’t want to have to go into the topper of Stern’s truck to get them in case the fill-up had to be quick. Stern and Kane quickly filled up their trucks and the fuel cans. Two people walked by while they were doing this. Phillip nodded a hello.

  “Don’t go downtown, some bad reports down there," The gentleman said as he held the woman he was with’s hand a little tighter.

  “Thanks for the warning. Academy doesn’t seem safe either,” Phillip reciprocated the warning.

  “Just heading home from grabbing some medicine. Someone stole our gas,” the gentleman said, waving slightly with an open hand.

  “Take care,” Phillip nodded, but kept his eyes on the couple until they were well past, then returned to his scanning.

  Stern had watched as Kane put a couple of fuel containers in the back of Stern’s truck and then put the remaining in his own truck. Phillip shifted to the front of Kane’s truck as Stern and Kane had moved to the back of Stern’s truck, making sure as many angles as they could were covered.

  “Load up,” Kane softly called after loading the last of the gas cans into his truck bed.

  Phillip opened his door but waited until he heard Stern’s door shut before getting in and shutting his own door. They took off again, heading north and then turning west to avoid the main roads. About ten minutes later, they were at the back door of Mountain Man. Kane paused. He was looking for the homeless man. He didn’t see him.

  *ring*

  “Who are you calling?” Callie asked Kane.

  *ring*

  “Stern,” Kane said, still looking around.

  “Hello,” Stern said over the speaker.

  “Stay here and keep an eye out. I am going to swing around front. It is too quiet; the community knows Mountain Man is here and what we stock. I don’t like how quiet it is,” Kane said, trying not to let his concern show in his voice.

  “Got it," Stern said as he hung up.

  Kane slowly took off, still looking for the homeless man but also looking to see if the back door or loading dock was open, or if there were any marks of foul play. Not seeing any, Kane turned around the edge of the building, looking in his rear view before making the turn. Nothing looked unusual on the side of the building; the graffiti he had meant to paint over was still there, but he expected that. He continued his slow path to the front of the building and finally saw the shopping cart the homeless guy used on the far edge of the parking lot. Kane still didn’t see the guy, though.

  As Kane turned to the front of the building, he saw a few cars in the parking lot, not unusual normally, but Kane didn’t know how to take that with what was going on in the world at the moment. As Kane moved to the front doors, he saw caution tape up in the windows, and then he saw Connie, one of his regular cashiers at the front counter. Other than the caution tape, it looked like any other business day.

  “Phillip, you’re not going to like this,” Kane sighed.

  “Uh oh, what are you thinking?” Phillip asked.

  “Get in the driver's seat and go to the back with Stern. I’m going to go in and figure out what is going on,” Kane said, unbuckling.

  “Excuse me! You are going to do what?!” Callie cried.

  “I will be fine,” Kane said as he leaned over and kissed Callie on the cheek. Phillip was already out of the vehicle, moving around the front to get in the driver's seat.

  Kane switched places with Phillip.

  “Call if you see anything unusual as you go to the back. I will call when I am at the back door unlocking it,” Kane told Phillip before he shut the door and tapped the window signaling for his friend to drive off.

  Kane took a breath as he heard the truck drive off and headed for the front door. The doors slide open automatically like any other day. He walked through the doors and moved a little left towards the cashier counters, but paused, looking around.

  “Hi, Mr Gonthar,” Connie said, smiling while giving a small wave to Kane.

  “Hi, Connie, what is going on?” Kane was taken aback by an oddly normal greeting from one of his most reliable cashiers.

  “Steven had the idea of putting the caution tape up, and he asked us all before we left last night to only return if we had our concealed carry permits. I don’t know if Steven went home last night; he was here when I got here for the morning shift,” Connie tried to explain cheerfully.

  Kane was in shock that his general manager would even think of the caution tape or the permits.

  “Have you had any problems? We saw some interesting groups of people on our way into town,” Kane asked as he walked closer to Connie.

  “Only a few when we first opened, but as soon as we showed them we could defend ourselves, most left, a few continued into the store and purchased some ammo, and then left without concern. Steven had Miles and Anthony standing up front with their rifles most of the day. They are back helping customers at the moment; otherwise, they would be up here too," Connie shrugged as she continued, “It hasn’t been too bad. Steven did say someone tried to break the glass, but the anti-theft glass you installed last year after that homeless guy broke in seemed to have done its job.”

  “Okay,” Kane couldn’t hide the shock in his voice, “Where is Steven now?”

  “He was walking to the back to check on something, he said he would be back if it was nothing. He did say to keep my revolver close by, and he even gave me a box of .38 in case I needed it. Said he would take care of the cost if I needed to use it, I hope that is okay, and he won’t get in trouble,” Connie started to ramble in her usual way.

  Kane started smiling, “That is fine, I’ll let Steven know we will put it down as a business expense if employees need to use some of the stock to defend the store. Let me go check the inventory and talk to Steven. Thank you for being willing to defend the store.”

  “No, thank you for encouraging all of us to get our concealed carry last year. And helping cover the cost! I never thought I would have to use it, but it was scary last night!” Connie exclaimed.

  “Let me go talk to Steven, I want to hear what it was like in town the last couple of nights," Kane said and then quickly walked away so Connie couldn’t start up again.

  Kane had a lot of respect for and appreciated Connie’s dedication to her job, but after working together for three years, Kane also knew she was a talker. He knew when she started to get nervous, or just hadn’t had a customer for a couple of hours, she liked to banter and gossip. Kane normally tried to indulge her a little, but not today, at least not yet.

  Kane took the long way through the store, slowly looking down the aisles, checking not only stock but the condition of the store. The fishing area looked unchanged; it looked like some of the hiking boots were disheveled, like people had been trying them on, and no one had cleaned the area yet. Normally, that would have bothered Kane, but today, if Steven had limited staff and, more importantly, was using some of them to guard the store, Kane could let the disorder slide. The camping gear area looked like a few items had been sold. It looked like there was an open spot in the camping stove area, and a tent slot was open.

  Then, towards the back of the store was the area Kane wanted to focus more of his attention on, the hunting area. The way he was walking took him to the archery area first. It looked like a couple of bows had been sold or moved, some arrows, but not much else. The ammo aisles looked like a lot more had been sold, Kane had figured on that, but the aisles were still neat and orderly. That surprised him; he had expected a run on the ammo. But as he thought, he realized that if Steven had each customer being accompanied and stopping thefts, the chaos would be mitigated. That probably wouldn’t last, though, Kane thought sadly. If that group of men on Academy was any indication, people would start running out and begin getting desperate.

  Kane did a final look at the rest of the hunting gear and reloading areas; it didn’t seem like much had changed in those aisles. Then he headed towards the rifle counter. As he approached, he saw Steven coming from the backroom.

  “You can’t . . . Oh! Kane, you came in!?” Steven started to say something, but quickly his tone changed from anger to relief as he realized the man standing at the counter was his boss.

  “Steven, I just have one question to start,” Kane said, trying to be serious.

  “Uh oh, what do you want to know?” Steven asked as he walked over to Kane, keeping the counter between the two of them.

  “Did you seriously sleep here last night?” Kane continued, still trying to be serious.

  “Well, I, uh, yeah, yes, I did," Steven at first slumped, but then turned stiff as he finished.

  Kane couldn’t hold it; he started laughing, “Thank you.”

  Steven let out a big sigh and started to relax.

  “You should have seen the creatures going past the front doors last night after sunset. I wasn’t sure I should send the rest of the employees home. I was getting ready to leave, then I saw a group of people forming in the parking lot. I couldn’t leave the store to those assholes. It was that same group that used to come in and harass the cashiers after you put the anti-theft glass in,” Steven explained.

  “Did you have any trouble with them?” Kane asked.

  “No, well, they shouted and tried breaking the glass. They screamed all sorts of profanity at me for not letting them in.” Steven leaned against the glass counter slightly.

  “What did you do?”

  “I grabbed the rifle I knew you had stashed in your office, made sure the back door and the loading dock were locked, then went and sat on the cashier counter watching them. Once they saw the rifle, it seemed to give them some pause.”

  “That was good thinking, I’m glad it wasn’t anything worse.”

  “Naw, I remembered your office wasn’t included in the security system because you used to sleep there during inventory, and when we had those break-ins a couple of years ago. So I decided to take advantage of the couch. I set the alarm, ran as fast as I could to your office, and stayed there watching the cameras most of the night. Thanks for leaving your phone charger by the way, I took advantage of it. The homeless guy tried to break in this morning, but the alarm seemed to scare him away. When Miles and Anthony showed up for their shifts, I thought it would be a good idea to have ‘armed’ security, so to speak. Miles had a rough night at his apartment. His wife and kid are hanging out in the shoe loft area. He didn’t want to leave them there alone," Steven finally finished.

  Kane just stood there, amazed. He knew his general manager was dedicated and hoped to take over the business one day, but he didn’t expect this.

  “How were the previous nights?” Kane asked.

  “Not bad, Anthony and I made sure everything got locked up and secured. I didn’t see anything strange on the security cameras, so we continued like it was any other day. Last night was the first night it got bad,” Steven explained.

  Kane nodded, thinking, “Is Miles okay? And after what we went through down on the homestead, I can’t imagine what town was like. Let the kid and wife use the stock office; she can put on a movie for the kid, and it has more room.”

  “Will do, thanks, boss,” Steven smiled as he started heading around the edge of the counter.

  “I’m going to let Phillip and Stern and the wives and kids in through the back door. Anything I should know about?” Kane asked, patting Steven on the shoulder as he passed.

  “You’re going to need to move a couple of pallets with the pallet jack. That was Anthony’s idea.” Steven smiled again and then turned to go to the front.

  Kane just looked at the retreating figure of Steven with awe. They were determined to keep the points of entry to a minimum. Kane couldn’t tell if that was for love of their jobs or if things had been really amping up over the last couple of days and nights.

  As Kane turned to go to the backroom, he saw Anthony turn a corner with a customer. Anthony locked eyes with Kane, nodded, then went back to paying attention to the customer. Kane could see that Anthony had his new hunting rifle slung across his shoulder. Kane had helped him pick it out the previous month so he could get ready for hunting season. It would have been Anthony’s first hunting season. Kane had originally hired him because of his fishing expertise, but quickly found out that Anthony had a love for the outdoors in general; he just didn’t have anyone in his family who hunted. Both he and Steven had tags to hunt deer in the coming October. That was months from now. What will the world even be like then?

  Kane had to shake his head to get out of his own thoughts, remembering that he had people waiting on him outside. As Kane opened the door to the backroom, he pulled out his phone and called Stern first.

  *ring*

  “Did you forget about us? What the fuck, man, I was about to break down the door," Stern quietly screamed at Kane.

  “No, sorry, got sidetracked checking with my GM, sounds like they had an interesting night," Kane tried to explain.

  “Whatever, man, you going to let us in? One of the kids has to pee,” Stern grumbled.

  “Yeah, give me a minute, though, I have to move some stuff blocking the door.”

  “Well, hurry, damn it,” Stern said.

  “Set a timer for 1 minute, I should have it clear by then,” Kane said, seeing the 10-stack of pallets in front of the back door. Luckily, the pallet jack was still close to the stack.

  “Fine, I’ll give Phillip the heads up,” Stern said as he hung up.

  A minute later, the stack was moved, and Kane had the door open. As he opened the door, the kids piled in, followed by the wives. Phillip and Stern took up the rear with their rifles up and were scanning for danger. Cosette and Josie were clearly doing potty dances as they raced inside. Josie, knowing where the bathrooms were, took off at a run. Cosette first looked to her mom, then took off after Josie without a word. Kane couldn’t help but smirk at the two girls.

  “Doors of the trucks locked?” Kane asked before he shut the door.

  “What do you think, ass wipe?” Stern grumbled, clearly unhappy with having to wait.

  Phillip just nodded his head, smirking. Kane grumbled to himself and shut the back door, locking it. He made sure to put the pallets back before he turned to look at the group. Josie and Cosette hadn’t returned yet.

  “Anything unusual out there?” Kane asked as he scanned the group.

  “Nope, saw the homeless man, he came out of the creek area in the trees," Phillip said.

  “He likes to sleep down there during the middle of the day," Kane explained with a shrug.

  “So what was so important that you left us waiting in the trucks?” Stern grumbled.

  Kane, “Steven, the GM, slept here last night. And three of my employees still came into work.”

  Stern, shocked, “Wait, what? The store is open?!”

  Kane, “Yup, they have been opening and closing like normal, just with a few less staff, and they made their own armed security.”

  Stern, “Okay, that is, um, unexpected?”

  Kane, “Yeah, Steven had a rough night last night, though. Sounds like everyone in town had a rough night.”

  Phillip, “What happened?”

  Kane described the stories he had gotten so far from Connie and Steven. As he was wrapping up, Steven came through the store doors, escorting Miles' wife and his three-year-old son. Steven hesitated, but then caught himself and continued to the stocking office.

  “Who was that?” Stern asked.

  “That is Steven and Mile’s wife and son," Kane answered.

  Stern just nodded. They waited for a minute, and then Steven came out of the office, shutting the door behind him.

  “They settled in?” Kane asked, ushering Steven over.

  “Yeah, Maria is pretty freaked out, but Mani thinks this is just an adventure,” Steven sighed, looking back towards the closed office door.

  “Maria, why can I never remember that?” Kane whispered.

  “All the names are M’s, that is the only way I remember,” Steven smiled at his boss.

  “Let’s go into my office and talk. Is everything okay in front for us to take thirty or so minutes?” Kane asked, ushering the group towards his office.

  “Let me check on Connie and Miles quickly. Anthony was still with a customer. The kid he is helping is terrified and doesn’t know what he is doing. Apparently, his mom sent him down here to get something to ‘defend the family’ with. The kid is barely 18, we had to check his license when he said he wanted a weapon,” Steven said sadly, shaking his head.

  “Where the fuck is the dad then?” Phillip was visibly upset, “If the kid is that scared and unsure of himself, he isn’t going to be able to defend shit.”

  “I don’t ask those kinds of questions. I told Anthony to be cautious with what he sells him. I don’t need a scared kid shooting good people because he is scared," Steven sighed, heading towards the door.

  “Thanks, Steven. Tell Anthony to steer the kid towards a bow, worst case, he can use the arrows to stab a creature, but won’t put everyone in the neighborhood at risk. Tell him he will be cool like. . . like ‘Hunger Games,” Kane called after Steven.

  Steven looked over his shoulder and nodded before going through the door into the store. Kane shook his head and then ushered the group into the office. He left the door open so Steven knew he could come in when he returned.

  “What the fuck is wrong with people? The mom could have come down if she felt they needed something to defend themselves that badly. Instead she sends a scared kid?” Phillip was definitely angry.

  He had a deadbeat dad for most of his childhood but his mom was a strong woman. The extra five years he had spent in the military after Kane got out had nearly broken Phillip. Seeing fresh 18 year olds had nearly broken him. There were the ones who were either too confident for their own good, or the kids that were pushed into joining the military because they had no other prospects and were scared shitless the first time they got into a hard training cycle. Kane wasn’t surprised when he heard his friend was done, it took years for Phillip to not be so angry at life. But it still crept up when he was put into situations like this.

  “Let it go, we can’t save the world,” Stern grumbled as he moved the sleeping bag off the couch and sat down.

  Phillip continued to grumble as he grabbed a folding chair that was leaning against the wall and sat down. It wasn’t long before Josie and Cosette came into the office having followed their parents' voices from the bathroom. Eliza had already grabbed the uno cards from the cabinet drawer where Kane kept some random games and coloring books for when the kids came to work with him. All the kids, even Giana, sat down in the middle of the floor and Eliza started handing out cards for a game.

  The adults sat in silence, watching the kids as they waited for Steven to come back. Thankfully, it wasn’t long. Steven shut the door behind himself and then sat down next to Callie on the couch with Stern.

  “What do you want to ask? Or what do you want to know?” Steven sighed as he looked around the room.

  “Start with what happened last night that made you feel you needed to stay?” Kane asked.

  Steven launched into a semi-detailed story about the group of thug kids who had been harassing the business on and off for years, congregating in the parking lot. What he had left out earlier was that it wasn’t just Steven sitting on the counter with the rifle in his lap that had made the thugs leave. The group, having made so much noise, attracted a flock of lizawks and what they assumed were batzls. The batzls had come first just merely swooping down and clawing the boys with their elongated cat claws. The screams of the boys, however, had attracted the lizawks.

  The batzls had scattered at the first swoop of the lizawks. The thugs tried to throw rocks and whatever they could at the lizawks, but the creatures had used their tongues to paralyze the thugs’ arms and some of their legs. One or two guys made it back to their vehicles and attempted to drive up to get their comrades. A few made it into the vehicles, but the lizawks were relentless and kept attacking. The vehicles drove off, leaving two guys. One was lying on the ground, and the other attempted to pull him away from the front of the building to the side of the building.

  Steven paused and started to tear up. Carlie must have sensed what was about to come and encouraged the girls to go play in the backroom outside the office. Once the kids were gone and the door was shut behind them, Kane encouraged Steven to continue.

  “The guy dragged his buddy almost to the treeline. But the lizawks were too many. The guy fell and didn’t get back up.” Steven stopped again, tears now coming out of his eyes, “I should have opened the doors when it was just the two of them. I should have helped.”

  “No, you did what you needed to do. With that many, you wouldn’t have been able to help,” Stern tried to reassure him, “Believe me, being in my truck saved me; those creatures aren’t anything to mess with.”

  Steven nodded, choked back the tears, and continued, “The lizawks started pecking and ripping those boys apart. It didn’t take them long; the entire herd, flock, whatever, descended and just started ripping. I could hear one of them screaming and crying. It didn’t last long, though. Then these coyote-like things came and scared the lizawks away. The pack of them dragged the bodies into the woods. I saw the homeless man come running up from the trees and run to the back creek area. He didn’t make a noise, which is probably what saved him.”

  Steven stopped and put his head in his hands, sobbing. Kane, Stern, and Phillip looked at each other. Kane took a big sigh.

  “Steven, we need to know what happened the rest of the night,” Kane said calmly, patting Steven gently on the arm.

  “Okay,” Steven said, sitting up, but he looked exhausted.

  Steven described the bear-buffalo creature that had sauntered through the parking lot. A couple more coyzards that wandered through. Lots of circling batzls. He had seen a couple of people quietly walk by on the street with rifles slung over their shoulders, but didn’t see where they were headed. A couple of military vehicles drove past with their lights on, the batzls didn’t like that and tried to attack the vehicles. Thankfully, the driver didn’t honk his horn or scream, and the small convoy continued its path. Steven told them that he had gotten so tired that he decided to set the alarm and try to go to sleep.

  He had been woken by some guys in military uniforms banging on the front door just after daybreak. Steven had watched them on the cameras, but didn’t go to the door. They had knocked a few more times. Made some hushed comments to each other, then went back to their trucks and drove away towards downtown. Shortly after that was when the homeless guy tried to break the glass with a bone. Steven had scared him off by doing what he had done to the thugs, sitting on the counter with his rifle. He waited like that until Miles and Anthony showed up. Connie came in a half hour later.

  “If you want to know what their nights were like, you are going to have to ask them. It’s not my place," Steven said, getting up from the couch like it was an interview and he was done.

  “Thanks, Steven, this was helpful. What are you going to do tonight?” Kane asked, standing up for himself.

  “I don’t know. After hearing from Miles, I don’t know if I should go back to my apartment. The outer locks of the building were shitty before this," Steven said, looking down.

  “Stay here, you know how to defend this place. The staff kitchen has what you need other than a standard oven. But you don’t bake, so the toaster oven should be good enough,” Kane said thoughtfully.

  “Thanks, boss, I need to get groceries though, I am almost out of what I brought. Silly me thought I would only be eating lunches here," Steven half-smiled.

  “Make a list of what you need, we will get it for you and bring it back,” Callie offered.

  “Thanks, Callie, you’ve always been good to me,” Steven said as he turned and walked out of the office.

  “Hey, random question, why don’t you pay your GM enough to have his own house?” Phillip said, trying to break the tension in the room.

  “I do, Steven went through a messy divorce a couple years ago and didn’t want to disrupt his kids, so he let her keep the house and he moved out,” Kane said solemnly, “Unfortunately, he didn’t know that wench of a woman had already made plans to move herself and his kids out of state to go live with her new boyfriend. Steven gets to see his kids three times a year, and she makes him pay for the plane tickets each time. He has been saving up for a house. I think he finally has a down payment.”

  “Shit luck that, the world is ending right as he gets enough to start over. Fuck,” Phillip looked sad for Steven.

  “Yeah, he just had the kids, too; he had them come out early so that he wouldn’t have them while I was on vacation.” Kane was looking out the open door at the giggling kids playing Uno.

  “Who do we talk to next?” Stern asked from the couch.

  “Miles,” Kane said, broken from his thoughts.