Wrong Place, Right Time

In the gun store, shopping around, I bumped into a guy by accident. The guy snapped around with a knife partially concealed by his hand and glared at me. Though I initially thought to reach for my own blade I thought I recognized him. The previous night there was a murder, followed by one of the responding police officers having his throat slashed by the escaping killer. There was a police sketch shared with all the networks, and I swore this was the guy. Offering a passive and apologetic “sorry dude, my bad” and pretending to have never seen the knife I simply walked away.

Good, he didn’t move. Just stood there watching me before eventually turning and walking the other way down the aisle. Now I didn’t feel I had enough to call the police, but I also wasn’t prepared to take the guy in a knife fight if something went south. Dave, the store owner, was behind the counter talking with a group of customers. I knew he was always armed. Making my way to the door I glanced about to see if the guy with the knife was still watching me. He was at the other end of the store, so I quietly stepped out into the street.

I walked quickly to my car, unlocked the passenger door and took a seat. Reaching into the glove box I pulled out my snub nosed 642 revolver in it’s pocket holster. Eased it out of the holster to verify it was loaded, then tucked it and the holster into my waist band, allowing for a faster draw if needed. Next I pulled out a speed loader and released the rounds into my hand. Didn’t have pockets to easily carry it, but wanted the extra rounds just in case. Closing the glove box I stepped out of the car and dumped the loose rounds into my pocket.

It was a warm spring day, like so very few around here. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, as were most of the people out on the streets today. I knew the 642 caused a bit of a bulge at my waist, but no worse than a cell phone. I walked briskly back to the store, but not so fast as to draw attention. I eased my way back in, hoping my absence was not noticed. If it was this guy may get suspicious.

Seemed like I was good, the guy was still at the other end of the store.. I strolled down the aisle pretending to be browsing, while keeping an eye out. Rounding the corner I almost fell over Todd. He was sort of sitting, sort of squatting, peering through the rack. Todd was on the local police department and I knew him well. Off duty, he was dressed in shorts with an un-tucked shirt. Despite my almost bowling him over he simply glanced up and said “Hey”. His trained eye quickly fell on the slight bulge at my waist, to which he glanced up at me and said “Good idea” and gave me a wink. He then glanced back through the shelving.

“That the guy from last night?” I asked quietly.

“Yeah, I think so. He and his buddy.” Replied Todd.

“His buddy?” I asked puzzled.
“Yeah, there were 2 last night. We never released it to the news though.” He said as standing back up and facing me. “Not sure its him though. I wasn’t there. Just been watching him. I lost his buddy though. Went towards the back of the store and never came out.

“There is a door back there that goes to a storage room and a large unused space. If they are looking to hide till the store closes, that would be the place. Plenty of places to get lost.”

Todd looked at me with a raised eye-brow, “you know this place well…”

“I’ve helped Dave out with some stuff. Moving things and such. Been about everywhere in this place.” I informed him.

“Good, you’re hired. Lets see if we can figure out what these goblins are up to, or at least if they are up to anything. Don’t go too far.” Todd instructed.

“Already had a run in with that guy, and he’s a got a knife, a quick draw, and a short temper.

“Good thing we have guns then” said Todd as he turned and walked out in the main area of the store.

I took a slightly different route. Keeping Todd in sight, I went around the other end of the aisle, trying to avoid it looking like we were together. As I rounded the corner I caught a glimpse of the guy with the knife. He was standing with his back to me, in front of a table of shotgun shells. As I eased closer I saw that he actually had a shotgun from the used gun rack and was opening a box of shells. I glanced over towards Todd, but he wasn’t looking my way. No way to get his attention without getting shot. So taking my chances I threw caution to the wind, drew my 642 while stepping into the guys view I aimed it him and yelled “FREEZE! DROP IT NOW!”.

I had acted quickly enough that he had not managed to get the first shell loaded. His knife did little good against a gun when there was a short rack of gun magazines between us. He had no choice but to freeze and drop the shell in his hand to the floor. Todd closed on him quickly and relieved him of the shotgun and his knife while I still had my gun trained on him. Dave was already calling 911 while calming the customers by implying that Todd and I were undercover security. Guess it was partially true, so undercover we didn’t even know it ourselves, till the time came.

After frisking the perp, Todd handcuffed him to a rack, told Dave to watch him till the Calvary showed up and yelled to me “Let’s go!” He then took off towards the back corner of the store. I headed after him and caught up with him at the door. “Stay behind me and don’t play hero, I’m the Cop here” he said with a wink and cautiously opened the door.

Though storage it was lit. The expanse of the storage area seemed to ramble on with stacks of boxes everywhere. As we slowly proceeded from stack to stack Todd yelled out “We know you are here, the building is surrounded, there is no escape. Your partner is already dead, surrender unless you want to join him!” There seemed to be a sound from a distance. Maybe Todd’s ploy had worked?

“That’s from beyond the store room. Unused area I told you about. It’s through there.” I whispered while pointing out a dimly lit large doorway halfway down the right wall. While still being mindful to check the stacks as we passed, Todd covering one side as I covered the other, we made to the large doors and looked down the maintenance hall. Some doors to other store in the building stood locked along the left side of the hallway. At the end there was ramp leading into darkness. “That’s it. Leads up and along the other side of the wall where we heard the noise.

Todd took off and I followed. Paranoia forced me to check the doors as we passed. Todd was almost to the top of the ramp when I found the last door to be unlocked. Figuring I would just peek inside and lock it I didn’t call to Todd, but let him continue on. What I saw as I eased open the door was not at all what I expected. Instead of a quiet store room this door opened right into a shoe store. Across from me stood a large bald man with a gun, looks like I found the partner. The gun was pointed at a young brunette girl who was running towards the front of the store. Bang, the sharp report from the guys Springfield XD-9 rang out ad he fired at her back, but missed. Not having time to think I threw open the door, screamed “Hey Ass!” and fired.

As if in a movie time slowed, the door slowly clearing from my path as I yelled. His head coming to bear on me as the bullet erupted from my barrel. As in The Matrix, I could see it travel along through my tunneled vision. I could see as he turned to fire on me that it narrowly missed over his right shoulder. And following the loud report of his XD-9 I could see the bullet now heading towards me.

Focusing on aiming my tiny 38 I again fired, and watched as the bullets passed each other. My shot stuck him, while I could see his was wide left. Knowing the point of aim I focused and fired 2 more times, while I watched an incoming bullet from his gun. This one grazed my left leg and there was already another. Though as in the Matrix I could see the bullets slowly spiraling towards me, I was unable to move out of the way. Even as I saw this bullet spiraling towards my heart, I could move barely an inch before impact. A numbing impact, which I was sure was a kill shot. Knowing I would soon bleed out and drop to the ground I focused all of my energy and adrenaline on firing my last bullet before dying. Focus, pull, bang! I did it. Not sure why, but I was still standing as the bullet struck him in the chest as he was already dropping towards the ground. 3 solid center mass shots was more than this psychotic brute could take, and he dropped in a pool of blood, which quickly spread across the floor.

I dumped the spent cases to the floor and reached into my pocket for my spare ammo. I knew there was blood running down my leg, but dared not look. The chest shot should have taken me out, or at least knocked me down. Maybe I was already dead? As I loaded the fresh rounds into my gun Todd rushed past me into the room. Running to the side of perp he kicked the gun from the pool of blood and checked the guy’s vitals. Though he said nothing, I knew he was dead as soon as Todd stood up and turned towards me, tucking his gun back into a holster under his shirt. As police rushed into the room, from all directions, my gun dropped from my hand and fell towards the floor. Seeing it fall, as though in slow motion, my vision grayed out and I numbness washed over my body as I crumbled to the ground.