Torrie & Kevin
Walker’s was in chaos. Half the crowd seemed to be moving in one great flow toward the exit, shoving slower shoppers out of the way and stomping over merchandise that lay abandoned on the floor. Another part seemed to be pressing to get in, away from whatever was happening outside. It made for a huge fucking mess of a traffic jam right in front of the door. Kevin pushed his way through all of it, searching half-desperately for Torrie. The panic has happened so fast that he still wasn't sure how they'd gotten separated. What he did know was that now he really was going to have to find a way to track down some Thin Mints, just to make up for what a crappy lookout he’d ended up being.
No point in shouting for her, since she'd never hear him above this din. Instead he just scanned the crowd for any sign of the familiar brunette and cursing whenever someone rammed into him. Then, suddenly, a man clutching what looked like an ice cream maker moved aside and there in his wake was Torrie. Worried that she’d be swept away by the crush before he could get there, Kevin wasted no time in elbowing his way over to her. Relief was evident in his face as he finally reached the spot where she stood.
“Alright?” he asked, trying to position himself to shield her from the worst of it.
Torrie hadn’t been alright. She’d been panicked. People were pushing and shoving, and she fucking knew it was because someone somewhere in the fucking store had gone geek. Even without proof, she just knew it. Then she’d lost KC, and well, she’d been thinking that her card was finally going to be punched.
She offered Kevin a pained smile and nodded. “Just some bumps and bruises,” she replied, her eyes darting around them as she said it, because even though KC was here, and he was doing a pretty fucking decent impression of a human wall, the crowd was steadily becoming more manic.
“We need to get the fuck out of here.” And if she had her way, never come back. Walker’s track record with her wasn’t looking good.
“Yeah, we do,” Kevin agreed. He lifted his head to take a look at the way things lay, gaze sweeping over the panicked crowd. “Some of them are in here, I think, and I'd rather not get cornered.”
With the benefit of the few inches he had on Torrie, Kevin could see their options for escape were rapidly dwindling. A bottleneck was forming near the exit as more people tried to get out than could fit at once. “Front’s a mess. Honestly, the back ain't much better, but I still think we’re better off going that way.”
Turning his attention back to Torrie, he flashed her what was supposed to be a reassuring grin, but worry lay too close beneath it. This was a bad situation, they both knew it. Nevertheless, he held out his hand to her and said, “Stay with me. I'll get you out if I have to plow down half the crowd to do it.”
Torrie grabbed his hand and ignored the anxiety that KC had only partially masked. She’d rather just concentrate on the fact that he sounded confident they’d make it out safe. It helped make her feel more confident. “I’m stuck like fucking glue,” she replied, squeezing his hand tightly before she glanced back around at the people that were headed the same way they were. Was the crowd getting thicker? It felt like it.
Taking a few steps back into the aisle, Torrie swore when almost immediately someone barreled into them. It wasn’t worth more of a confrontation, since she thought they’d probably have to deal with more of that before they got out. Too many people were focused on their own ass and no one else’s.
There were a few more screams that sounded closer than they had only minutes before.