We pulled into the gun shop's parking lot and by parking lot I mean gravel pit. There was only one other vehicle in the parking lot; a small Mazda.
"Well at least this place doesn't look touched," Darren said as he peered out the window.
Ethan and Chloe hopped out and opened the cab doors to let us out as well.
"At least from the outside," Ethan said, the crowbar gleaming in the sunlight as he moved it. "I'll go in first and scout the place out. Make sure it's empty."
"But..." Chloe grabbed his arm.
Ethan kneeled down so he was talking to her face to face.
"It's gunna be fine. You stay here and keep an eye on these folks, ok?" He said calmly and she nodded in response.
"I'm going with you," Darren said but Ethan shook his head.
"I want you out here in case one of those things come roaming by," he stated.
"I'll go with you," I said and even I felt surprised at my words; I wasn't one to voluntarily put myself into danger.
Ethan nodded and started towards the front door. I looked at Zoe, who was giving me look that I had a hard time placing. I caught up to Ethan, who was already at the front doors.
"Do you think we should just go in the front doors?" I asked, peering into the dark store.
It looked like they weren't even open.
"Let's see if there is a back door," Ethan suggested.
Gravel crunched under our feet as we made our way around to the back. The grass was overgrown but a worn footpath led us straight to the back door. It was old but had a huge deadbolt right above the handle. Ethan raised his crowbar to wedge the door open but I grabbed his arm.
"What if this place has an alarm? We will attract everything within miles."
Ethan seemed to think it over then said,
"What if it doesn't?" I made a face at his comeback. "And if it does, let's just make sure we are gone before anything gets here."
"This is a gun store, they'd be stupid not to have an alarm," I pointed out.
"Exactly, this is a gun store. In the south. Who'd be stupid enough to rob 'em?" Ethan asked, proud of his reasoning.
"Fine, do what you want," I muttered and he jammed the crowbar in between the door and frame.
With a few moments of him grunting at the exertion, the door flew open and the door frame splintered into the air. The dead bolt was still sticking out of the door but now there was a giant whole in the frame where the bolt tore through. We held our breath as we waited for an alarm or infected to greet us but after counting to sixty, nothing happened.
"Well looks like there's no alarm," Ethan said, slightly smug and I just rolled my eyes at him.
Hesitantly we walked into the building, me right behind Ethan. The old wooden floor creaked under our weight making my heart jump into my mouth with every step. The air smelt of sulphur and bleach; this is what I assumed a cleaned up murder scene would smell like. The back entrance lead straight into the employee only area; as evident by the employee lounge and office we passed. Both rooms were empty of people. The hallway led to the sales floor which was covered, wall to wall in guns. Huge rifles and shotguns lined the walls and the display counters were packed with handguns, knives and ammo. Ethan shot me a huge grin and I could only imagine this was like his version of a candy shop.
"We got lots to choose from," Ethan whispered and I nodded as my eyes wandered back to the impressive displays.
There were oversized duffels hanging from a coat rack and I grabbed a couple, handing one to Ethan.
"Should we go grab the others?" I asked, "Or just grab what we can ourselves?"
"No, we can take more if we have more people to carry stuff," Ethan answered.
We summoned the others from outside, handing them each a duffel bag to fill as they entered the gun shop.
"This is like Christmas," Darren grinned as he took in the sight.
"Geez what kind of Christmas did you have at your house?" I commented.
Everyone else was "shopping" through the stock, even little Chloe but I had no idea what to look for. I had never even shot a gun before. I went over to the knife display case only to find it locked.
"We need the display keys," I announced.
"Yeah, we also need the keys for these guns on the wall," Darren said as he pulled one only to have it yank against the metal wire locking it in place.
He walked over to the knife display I was at and peered into the glass,
"Well you don't really need a key for this."
Darren raised his coat covered arm and I instinctively moved my arm to shield my eyes, knowing full well what he was about to do. With brute force, his elbow connected with the glass display and shards erupted everywhere. Everyone stopped what they were doing at the crashing noise and stared.
"There," Darren said while he stretched out the arm he used as a club.
I wasn't sure what to say to that so I just nodded, "Thanks, but unless you plan on sawing through the gun holding wires with your teeth Rambo, we still need a key."
Darren smiled at that, and I felt like I was looking into the maw of a lion. He was a little more dangerous than he let on. I would have to keep an eye on him.
I put down the duffel bag and walked back to the area labeled 'employees only'. The keys had to be in the office we passed. Slowly I opened the door and peered inside. The room was small; a nondescript desk with papers scattered all over taking up most of the room. On the wall beside the door, there was a small metal cabinet and I bet that was where the keys were hanging. Inside was a bunch of keys, each labelled with a numbered tag and I groaned. We would have to test every one in every lock. I was about to grab them all when I noticed the last one was labelled 'master key'. Well that was lucky. I grinned and shut the cabinet, twirling the key and tag around my finger.
"You find the keys?" Ethan asked as I entered the sales floor.
"I found 'the' key."
I looked at the smashed knife cabinet, moving some of the larger glass shards off the merchandise. Ethan held his hand up for the key and I tossed it to him. I leaned down to inspect the contents of the display case. Grabbing the largest knife I could find, I pulled it out and unsheathed it. The blade was perfectly sharpened and curved slightly. It looked like a hunting blade. I re-sheathed the knife and threw it into the duffel. After grabbing a couple more, I moved onto the handgun display which had already been opened and some guns placed on the display counter top. I eyed a few and picked them up to see how heavy they were.
"You will probably want this one," Ethan said handing me a silver and black gun. "It's a Beretta 9mm. Nothing fancy but it's a police and military standard, a good long range pistol and easy to find attachments and ammo for."
"Thanks," I said taking the pistol from him and giving it a good heft."Seems like it's a good weight, not too heavy or light."
Ethan rummaged through the display and produced two matching metal tubes.
"And here are the silencers for them," He said, dropping them in my bag.
I grabbed the other matching Beretta and added it to the bag. I also added extra empty magazines and a holster belt.
"Well Mr. Guns and Ammo, what other guns do you recommend?" I grinned at Ethan.
He chuckled and led me over to the gun wall.
"This here is a Blaser R8 professional rifle, lighter than a regular hunting rifle and holds more rounds," He rattled off, handing me the sleek, black weapon.
"I have to say this feels weird," I said raising the gun's scope to eye level.
I could see the crossed lines and aimed my sight to the employee's only sign. Having never held a rifle before, I felt really awkward and out of sorts with one in my arms.
"You need to rest the butt against your collar bone or in where your arm meets your torso," Ethan pointed out as he moved the rifle butt from my arm to my collarbone.
It felt unnatural having it in that spot but I guess it was for a reason.
"Unless you want a broken arm, I suggest keeping it flush against that exact spot," He added.
"Alright," I said kneeling down to add to my highly illegal collection. "Now onto the ammo."
We walked over to the shelves, which were jam packed with small boxes, all marked with sizes and descriptions. I spotted the section that seemed to be labelled 9mm, remembering what Ethan had said about the Beretta's.
"See ya'll are learning." Chloe grinned as she threw a bunch of boxes into Ethan's duffel.
"Know-it-all." I grinned down at her.
Ethan showed me which ones to grab for my rifle and I added those to the mix. The bag was extremely heavy with all the ammo that was jingling around in there. By the time we were done and standing in the middle of the room, we had done some damage to the stock.
"Should we leave money or an I.O.U or something?" Zoe asked as she threw her own over-flowing bag onto her shoulders.
"We could but I'd bet they'd never collect," Darren replied. "Plus you got the thousands of dollars to pay for all this?"
"Why yes I do, right here," Zoe said making a motioned like she was reaching into her pocket but produced her middle finger instead of a wad of bills.
We all laughed and Chloe chided,
"I was told never to do that."
"You're still never to do that, ya hear?" Ethan pointing an index finger at her and she nodded.
"Man this is something straight out of a Rambo movie." Darren grinned as he motioned to all of our stocked duffels. Maybe we shouldn't have let the possibly unhinged guy gather such an arsenal. But that debate would have to wait.
"We should see what we can find in the back," I suggested.
Ethan and I started back towards the employee lounge, hopefully to find some food to pack with us. We opened all of the lockers and rummaged through. All I found were granola bars and an opened bag of chips. I shoved the granola bars into my duffel but left the no doubt stale bag of chips.
"You find anything good?" I asked.
"Case of water," Ethan said pointing to the 24 case of bottled water sitting in the corner by the fridge.
"Good find."
"Ya think we should take some of these paper plates and plastic utensils?" Ethan asked pointing to the bags sitting on top of the refrigerator.
"Couldn't hurt."
I walked over and grabbed the necks of the bags and Ethan leaned down to pick up the case when I heard the unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked right behind me.