Sunday: The Hold-Up Who: Jake, Jane, Ava, Mark Peal and Leroy Holland (NPCs) Where: the Quik-Stop in Darkwater When: 7:30 p.m.
Leroy had walked into the Quik-Stop about ten minutes previously and headed directly for the restrooms in the back hallway of the store. He'd opened the rear door for his accomplice and then promptly locked it with the open padlock that hung on the metal bar waiting for closing time. Next to the bathrooms was a closet that contained a dirty rolling bucket and mop and a massive amount of other clutter, and he'd found a length of twine on one of the shelves that would do nicely for what he had in mind.
Trying to look unassuming, he meandered up to the counter and said to the clerk, "Man, someone heaved in the bat'room back there. Dat's some gross shit."
The teenage clerk made a face and stepped out from behind the counter, well-accustomed to having to clean up disgusting messes as a part of his job. He headed for the back hallway, which wasn't visible from the main part of the store, and after a casual look around, Leroy followed him. The plan was to subdue the clerk as quietly as possible and stuff him in the closet; he figured that if Mark hadn't taken care of that by the time he got back there, he could do it, and then they'd be ready to roll.
Mark was, indeed, on point. This plan would work just perfectly as far as Mark was concerned because he fit the bill of the role he had to play like a movie star. His eyes were always sunken and bruised looking, his skin sallow from years of incarceration and institutionalization. He'd doused himself with water in the bathroom and when the clerk entered the hallway, Mark was leaning against the wall, clutching his stomach. "I'm sorry, man. I'm sorry, I'm s-s-s-uugh."
Once the clerk had approached the door to the bathroom, Mark swung upright again and, grabbing the clerk's outstretched arm and slapping one hand on the back of the clerk's neck, he bashed the kid's face straight into the wall with all of the might he could muster. The poor clerk actually indented the drywall and came away bloody, stunned and without a chance in hell. Mark crouched on the kid's narrow chest and socked him a couple of good ones in the temples just to keep him nice and docile. Mark looked up, liquidy eyes a little bit wild, as Leroy joined him in the hall. Oh right, his partner.
He reluctantly climbed off the kid and held out the twine to Leroy. "You tie him," he said sotto voce. "I'd probably hurt him or something." His face looked concerned. The fact that he'd already hurt the kid was apparently not really dawning on him.
"Keep watch," Leroy hissed, taking the twine and shoving Mark in the direction of the hallway's end. All they'd need would be someone coming back to use the restroom before they were finished here. He made short work of tying up the dazed teenage clerk and placing him in the closet. Once he was done with that, he went to join the other man, one hand on his gun as he waited for just the right moment for them to advance.
Ava happened to already be in the convenience store, mulling over what kind of soda to buy for her ferry ride back to the island. Her interview at the deli had gone well, she thought, and if she was lucky, she'd have a job by the end of the week. If the sidewalk cafe on Eldritch didn't call her soon, she'd just have to suck it up and accept the probability of having to commute to the mainland to work. It'd be worth it just to have some cash for the summer. She couldn't depend on her mom to keep giving her money, and she certainly didn't want Cian paying for everything either. Grabbing a root beer from the cooler, Ava turned and started up to the front of the convenience store. She took her time, moseying along through the aisles, since her ferry didn't leave for another thirty minutes.
When she passed the large display of condoms and lubricants, Ava felt her cheeks starting to burn fiercely, and yet despite that, she actually slowed down to look. Not that she'd be needing condoms anytime soon but... she was seventeen and curious. So sue her! Curiosity quickly turned to embarrassment as another customer came around the corner, and Ava hightailed it out of the aisle, feeling as though everyone in the store knew she was now thinking about having sex with her boyfriend. Man, she was seriously paranoid as of late, especially since there didn't seem to be many people in the store at all as it was.
Finding herself in the candy aisle, Ava overheard some guy at the front counter mention someone vomiting in the back and she wrinkled her nose, thankful she didn't have the kind of job where she'd have to clean up bodily fluids. Nasty. Through the cheesy overhead music of Barry Manilow, Ava could make out the kid's annoyed thoughts about cleaning up someone else's puke as he walked by several aisles down toward the back bathroom... apparently the clerk was ready to just say eff it and quit. No job was worth cleaning up vomit and Ava had to agree on that one. Gross.
Jake smiled secretly to herself as she watched the little brunette skitter away and around the corner. Busted at the condom display, Girl Next Door. That aside, she kept on going, headed toward the back coolers. She had got a text from the Monks asking her to pick up coffee cream on her way into work. Apparently they had short ordered, once again. Four quarts ought to do it. She yanked open the cooler door and pulled out the cartons, stacking the chilly boxes on her arm as though she were cradling a baby. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a rat-faced looking guy lingering around the hallway toward the bathrooms. She wondered what the hell went on in the Quik-Stop bathrooms but quickly put it out of her mind. She had a half hour before they were expecting her. With her armload of purchases, Jake headed for the empty cash counter. Where was the clerk?
Jane was just coming up to the counter, herself, as the clerk stalked off, and she actually hadn't heard why. All she knew was that she had to wait to pay for the soda, chips, and sour candies she'd picked up. Huffing to herself, she deposited her things on the counter, swung around, and thumped her rear end against the counter, crossing her arms across her chest and prepared to wait with a very impatient expression. One of her jacket pockets bulged out a little, where she had the warm, heavy little egg-- little being relative, since it filled most of the palm of her hand-- that she was fairly sure actually was an egg, now. With that realization, she hadn't been willing to leave it at home, not even while she ran to the corner store for a snack to go with what little dinner she had left in the fridge.
If they waited any longer to move in, people would begin getting impatient and either leave or come back here to try to discover the whereabouts of the clerk, Leroy thought. He might not be brilliant, but he knew that much. "Let's go," he muttered, one hand on the gun that was tucked into the waistband of his slacks. Moving quickly through the brightly lit store, he didn't stop until he'd reached the glass doors at the very front. He turned the lock to prevent anyone else from coming in and reached up to flip off the neon OPEN sign. Then he pulled out his gun and took the safety off, aiming and shooting out the fluorescent light bar closest to him; plastic and glass sprayed down like rain.
"Wallets and cellphones on the counter," he barked, trusting that Mark would back him up on that, with his gun.
Mark rushed up the center aisle from the back. Ava, the one who was unfortunately closest to him, found that she was going to be Mark's leverage. He had his own little silver handgun in his palm and while it might not pack the kind of punch that Leroy's did, it would still do the job. He wound his fist into all that silky dark hair and shoved Ava forward. "That's right!" Mark's voice squeaked like a pubescent boy which made his face burn with shame. It wasn't his fault that he had some development issues. That was his alkie bitch mother's fault. "You all better hurry cause we aren't patient guys." This was so awesome! He'd been dreaming about this sort of fun for ages!
Something was off, though Ava couldn't quite place what it was. At least not fast enough. She looked up from the candy she was inspecting, confused by the distorted thoughts racing through her mind. She couldn't really understand them but they didn't sound... normal. Her brows drew together in confusion and she was about to set the bag of candy back down and go inspect things when the gunshot jarred her. She dropped her root beer to the floor, immediately covering her hands over her ears at the obnoxiously loud sound. There was a male voice yelling and before she could even comprehend what was happening, a hand was in her hair, yanking it and pushing her forward. Ava cried out from the painful surprise, but she stumbled ahead, not about to resist the jerk and risk hurting herself. The guys had guns, which had her stomach dropping instantly with fear. She was able to glance around, despite wincing from pain, and noted two other people there - women, neither of which Ava really recognized.
The gunshot caused Jake to drop her armload of cream. One of the cartons split open and now she was standing in a puddle of the stuff. It took a second to realize what she had seen the guy do, out of the corner of her eye. He'd locked the door. Oh shit, they were locked in with these guys. Panic fluttered in her chest because she'd been in a situation like this before. That time in the cafe, they'd hurt her so badly. Broken bones and worse. And she'd destroyed the place. The last thing she could afford to do was to turn this place into a lightning room - there were other, good people here. She flinched when Ava cried out and she half turned toward the girl but froze. Instead, she very slowly reached into the pocket of her black cargo pants and set her small fold of twenty dollar bills and her phone on the counter. Her purse, thank god, was in the car.
Jane's hand immediately went for the gun which she kept in the holster in the small of her back.
Which wasn't there.
"Fuck," she hissed through gritted teeth, and swore to herself she wouldn't be taking it off even when she slept, after this. She wasn't close enough to anyone to do much good against the guns, without one of her own. So for the moment, after an angry pause, she pulled her wallet out of her pocket and dropped it on the counter next to the soda she'd been planning to buy. Just let one of them get close enough for her to get at one of those guns....
Leroy had actually considered shooting out the security camera but had then decided not to bother. It was too late; he'd been close enough to it to have several clear photos of himself taken. It wasn't as if it really mattered. He and Mark were actively being hunted anyway, considering the place they'd escaped from, and their stop here could be simply another piece of the puzzle for the authorities to put together. It was the perfect night for this, and in fact the two of them had decided to come here on the spur of the moment, when they'd found out that half the town seemed to be on fire. The police and firefighters were occupied, and they could potentially get away with just about anything.
The three women were the only customers in the store besides the helpless clerk, bound up and probably unconscious in the back. He moved closer to the counter, gun out and ready for action in case anyone got the wise idea to try to bolt for the front door. "Get her wallet and phone out," he instructed Mark, seeing that there were only two wallets and one phone on the counter, which meant Ava's must still be in her pockets.
"Yeah, take your phone out." Mark let go of Ava's hair, likely ripping out a few strands in the process. For good measure, he jabbed her hard in the back of the shoulder with his gun. She was young, snot nosed, almost. He hated young girls. They were so dumb. You had to tell them everything and still, they just stood there, shaking in their uggs or something. His eyes darted from Leroy to the girl in front of him, wondering if Leroy was maybe giving him the eye. The eye that said it was ok to do something that would possibly be messy.
Her scalp hurt where the guy had been yanking her hair, and Ava grimaced painfully, lifting a hand to her head once he released her. The pain shifted from her scalp to the back of her shoulder when she felt the gun press sharply into her and it took all her willpower not to turn and bash the guy in the head with her purse and scream at him to stop. If he hadn't had a gun, she might have tried it.
Tears sprung to her eyes from the stinging she felt, which she was sort of ashamed of, because she knew she should be like the other two women, who seemed calm - at least on the outside - and strong. Ava was starting to shake and she pulled her purse off her shoulder, unzipping it quickly to pull her wallet and phone out. Her wallet was there, but not her phone, and after a second, she remembered it was on the passenger seat in her car parked outside. "Don't have my phone," she mumbled, wishing she could block out everyone's thoughts. They were crowding her head now, causing a throbbing to start in her temple. One of the girls thought she had a gun on her... but she didn't and it pissed her off. The other dark haired girl was scared... this was familiar to her somehow, but you couldn't tell it by looking at her. And the guy who wouldn't stop hurting her apparently thought Ava was dumb and was hoping he could do something violent. She heard something about the police being too preoccupied with the fires in town - fires? - and Ava looked at Leroy, swallowing hard. "They'll still... check... if the lights look dim, and the sign's turned off... it's early... if they drive by, they'll check." Darkwater was a small town, and if something looked amiss at the Quik-Stop, surely an officer driving by might be curious, right?
Jake felt tears sting and she wanted to tell the girl not to get upset, to just stay calm. Don't over-explain, don't make these guys worry. She cleared her throat gently and edged away from the growing puddle of cream, closer to the woman standing at the counter. "We'll cooperate," she said. "Just let her come over here and everything will just be fine." She tried to sound soothing without sounding patronizing. She glanced at the blonde quickly but then tried to catch the smaller, twitchier looking one. "We'll keep her quiet and you guys can, uh, get what you came for and go." She hoped she wouldn't eat those words. What the hell had they come for? If they wanted to get into the till, wouldn't they need the clerk? What had they done with the kid who worked here?
There wasn't much Jane could do but stand there, inching a little closer to the nearest guy, the one without the girl by the hair, trying not to look conspicuous. Her height didn't help much, but how plain and bland-looking she looked might have helped there. At least she had her baggy jacket on, that hid how well-defined the muscles of her arms and shoulders were, so nobody was going to guess she was as much of a threat as she actually might be. She didn't say a word, letting the dark-haired gal do the talking, lest someone actually pay her attention. It was the last thing she wanted.
"Maybe I should just go on and shoot ya, then," Leroy said to the dark-haired teenager who was trying to convince him that the police would intercede. "That'd speed this up." It wouldn't bother Leroy to kill one of these chicks, or all of them, except that he had his rituals he liked to go through. He liked to have his victim of choice alone, liked to have plenty of time to work on her, to do everything he needed to do to feel satisfied, and he couldn't do that here. Mark, though... He eyed his younger accomplice. He had the feeling that Mark was more easily satisfied than he was. He kept a tight grip on the gun as he moved closer to the counter, his free hand grabbing for first the loose money the older brunette had put down and then another of the wallets.
"Oh c'mon, you expect me to believe some little bitch like you hasn't got her iPhone super-glued to her hand?" Mark reached past Ava and snatched her purse from her. With the gun still pointed at the mid-point of the girl's bag, he overturned it and shook all of Ava's worldly possessions onto the linoleum tiles. Once they were there, he kicked through them, looking for anything that might be a cellphone. He sent girly bits and bobs scooting under the racking.
At Jake's plea, he narrowed his eyes at the women. He didn't like her. Sure, she was probably the oldest, but she was mouthy. He could think of better things for her to do with that mouth than blab. Still, he shoved Ava in Jake's direction. "Get over there, then. What is she, your girlfriend?" He let his eyes rove lewdly over the dark haired woman in the black clothes. What was she, anyways? Some sort of post gothic army drop out? He swung Ava's purse and tossed it right into the spreading puddle of cream. Bitches always liked their things right?
"It's not in there," she repeated numbly, watching as he dumped her purse over onto the floor. "It's in my car." Ava didn't have much in her purse that she couldn't replace if it got ruined. Her wallet was in there, but it only had a limited20just started 'guessing' what they were thinking... maybe they'd get weirded out and leave or something. Or maybe they'd just shoot her in the head for creeping them out. Ava paled at the thought. She stood next to Jake, not wanting to hide behind the older girl, because she didn't want to be that big of a coward. "Careful," she muttered in a whisper to Jake, lifting a hand to her cheek to try and distract away from the fact that she was talking. "He's a pervert and he's probably looking for any reason to show you that."
Great, Jake thought. I could use more violent perverts in my life. She had a moment of intense hatred for these two men, for further sullying the tiny town she'd come to, looking for a haven from ugliness like this. She supposed that things like this could happen to anyone, but man, she really hadn't wanted it to happen to her ever again. "Thank you," she said out of the corner of her mouth. "Just stay subservient as long as you can. We'll be ok." She had no idea if that was the case. The smaller one did seem awfully unstable. Jake wasn't sure if this was going to end well. She knew she could probably distract them, possibly even hurt them if she had to, but her gifts weren't subtle in that respect. They would likely know if had come from her. And some smart cop might draw lines between this incident and the one at the Keyboard Cowboy all those years ago. All of this started to race through Jake's head as she watched for any indication that things were escalating.
The older guy was right there, and not paying Jane the least bit of attention, it seemed like, more focused on the money on the counter. Awesome. And the other one had let go of the kid. Even better. She glanced from girl to girl, then without any sort of visual warning beyond that, she lunged at the older guy, trying to grab his gun arm and hoist it towards the ceiling, away from anyone it might hurt. If she could wrestle it away from him, she would, but right now she was just going for getting the source of danger away from the other girls, and maybe get the big guy between her and his partner. Human shields worked nice, when said shields were vicious gun-wielders.
Leroy had no inkling that one of these bitches would actually try to come after him. He wasn't a huge man, but he was six feet tall and had a reasonable amount of muscles... plus he had a gun. How crazy would an unarmed woman have to be to try to get the drop on him? The blonde was as tall as he was, but she'd been lurking around in the background, being unobtrusive, and he hadn't noticed her all that much until she drew his ire in such a spectacular fashion. He had the gun held securely in his hand, but he'd been focused on getting hold of some money to sustain himself and Mark and hopefully help them avoid recapture. He'd also noticed that the clerk had conveniently left his little key in the cash drawer of the register, so he planned on plundering that, too. He hadn't been paying enough attention, thus the blonde was able to knock his hand up in the air, gripping his forearm through his jacket with surprising strength. "You outta your mind?" he yelled, dropping the wallet he had in his other hand and balling up his fist to hit her.
"Hey!" Mark's face flushed in rage as Jane struggled with his partner. The silly bitch was hip enough to get Leroy between Mark's gun and her death-wishing self, which only pissed him off worse. He knew he wasn't such a great shot. He tended to rely on the volume-not-accuracy method when firing a gun. He just kept pulling the trigger until the bangs turned in to clicks. He couldn't do that now, though. He'd probably hurt Leroy, which he didn't want to do. He turned and dashed back a few feet to the end of the aisle and pulled a fast u-turn to come back down toward the front of the store. He jammed the gun carelessly into his belt even as he dropped his shoulder to try to ram Jane off balance.
Ava couldn't help but immediately think the blonde woman was insane. Two bigger guys with guns and she wanted to try and physically fight them? Ava was all for heroics, but this time it felt misplaced and ill advised, especially since neither she, nor the other woman as far as Ava knew, were armed with anything. Ava's mom always made her carry mace, but it was in her car, along with her cell phone. Not very convenient. With all the chaos, Ava grimaced and ran to the counter to drop down behind it, in case gun shots started. She wanted to help, but she was nothing but a telepath, and she knew she couldn't overpower anyone. The most she could do was chuck things at the guys and that likely wouldn't do much more than annoy them. She crawled along the back of the counter, hoping to pop up and grab one of the cell phones still sitting there. If she could call 911 or something, that would get help there, and that'd be safer than trying to be pretend she was Buffy or Wonder Woman, right?
Jake wasn't sure which way to go, to be honest. There were two guns in play and neither one was on her side. Not to mention, her gifts wouldn't save her from a bullet. She ended up following Ava around the counter, ducking down in a crouch beneath the cash register. Her gaze was pulled immediately to the wall socket not too far out of reach. Alright, so there was a power plug, a way in, right nearby. Jake practically mouthed, rather than whispered, to Ava. She didn't want to put the girl in danger, but she was closer. "Can you reach the phones?"
Leroy wasn't very successful at throwing her off-- not immediately, anyway; given a little more time he could probably have managed it-- but there was no way Jane could fight off the both of them, and the shoulder to her ribcage levered her off. But she was a fighter, and she wasn't givine behind the counter. He would have noticed them moving past him either to try to get to the padlocked rear door or to make a run for the front door and unlock it. He spotted the store's phone sitting next to the register and quickly yanked the phone wire out of it and knocked it off the counter, just in case anyone got the wise idea to try to use it. He stood ready to back Mark up if he needed it, thinking that maybe they'd best get on with this. That blonde was going to be trouble, he could tell, and while he didn't necessarily mind trouble, he had a strong need not to be recaptured. What he'd actually like to do was find her some other time and dish out a little trouble of his own.
Jane's fist connected solidly with Mark's jaw and his teeth sliced open the inside of his cheek. His mouth flooded with blood even as Jane's momentum and her grip on his arm pulled him down after her. He had enough forethought to spit that mouthful of blood directly into her troublemaking face before they hit the tile floor in a heap of squirming, punching, scratching, slapping limbs. He cursed and swore at her through his lacerated lips, trying to get a good grip on her but she just wouldn't stop moving and hitting him.
Ava nodded toward Jake, her eyes wide. She could barely breathe, she was so scared, and her heart was surely about to come up and out of her throat at any second, she knew it. And then she was crawling toward the part of the counter with the cell phones again, but suddenly the store phone was being yanked and thrown and she nearly shrieked from surprise. Her hand came up to clamp over her mouth, though she was pretty sure the two men both knew she and Jake had gone behind the counter. Ava just prayed they were too preoccupied to give the girls any more attention. Ava was just underneath where the cell phones had been set, and from the sounds coming from the other side of the counter, Ava had to guess both men were busy with the blonde woman - who Ava could only hope was okay, or at least holding her own. Ava pushed up on her knees, quickly but cautiously trying to reach up over the counter to grab one of the cell phones. She didn't care whose she grabbed, as long as it worked.
Ok, now was the time to do something. When Leroy disposed of the phone, she flinched and dove toward the wall, seemingly to get out of the way of the phone, which clattered across the floor not far from where she'd been. As it was, she was able to slap her hand right over the plug in the wall, shocking for some, but just right for Jake. Just a distraction.
Jane's fist connected solidly with Mark's jaw and his teeth sliced open the inside of his cheek. His mouth flooded with blood even as Jane's momentum and her grip on his arm pulled him down after her. He had enough forethought to spit that mouthful of blood directly into her troublemaking face before they hit the tile floor in a heap of squirming, punching, scratching, slapping limbs. He cursed and swore at her through his lacerated lips, trying to get a good grip on her but she just wouldn't stop moving and hitting him.
Ava nodded toward Jake, her eyes wide. She could barely breathe, she was so scared, and her heart was surely about to come up and out of her throat at any second, she knew it. And then she was crawling toward the part of the counter with the cell phones again, but suddenly the store phone was being yanked and thrown and she nearly shrieked from surprise. Her hand came up to clamp over her mouth, though she was pretty sure the two men both knew she and Jake had gone behind the counter. Ava just prayed they were too preoccupied to give the girls any more attention. Ava was just underneath where the cell phones had been set, and from the sounds coming from the other side of the counter, Ava had to guess both men were busy with the blonde woman - who Ava could only hope was okay, or at least holding her own. Ava pushed up on her knees, quickly but cautiously trying to reach up over the counter to grab one of the cell phones. She didn't care whose she grabbed, as long as it worked.
Ok, now was the time to do something. When Leroy disposed of the phone, she flinched and dove toward the wall, seemingly to get out of the way of the phone, which clattered across the floor not far from where she'd been. As it was, she was able to slap her hand right over the plug in the wall, shocking for some, but just right for Jake. Just a distraction, she thought to herself, trying to measure an appropriate response. Just enough to let the kid grab the phone. She could feel the pulse of energy and felt it draw at it, felt it pulse rhythmically. It fought to lull her and she wrestled to keep her sharp wits about her. In the end, the idea came to her. It would have to be a surge. A hefty one. The refrigerators, she told herself decisively. Jake began to gather up the reality-bending will to send a massive pulse of energy racing through the circuits with enough force to blow out of the bulbs and hopefully the glass of the line of coolers along the back wall. Hopefully it would turn some heads in the right direction.
"Arg!" Bloody spit in the face. Ew shit yuck. It made it pretty hard to see, even if she'd managed to half-turn her face away to get some of it on her cheekbone instead of in her eyes. Between trying to pound the man's face in, squinting through bloody spit, trying not to get caught, and trying not to smash the egg in her pocket-- she wasn't at all sure she was managing the last one-- she barely had a drop of attention for the exploding light bulbs. The fact that it suddenly got dimmer in there was hard to miss, though, and she heaved a knee at the fucker, aiming for groin or solar plexus, but she'd take ribs or thigh if she could. He had one of her hands, her stronger one, and was scratching at her face with his other one, plus he was practically on top of her, so her knee was really the best she had at the moment.
The two brunettes hadn't obeyed his instructions to come out, but Leroy lost sight of that when the lights blew in the refrigerators and several of the glass doors shattered. What the hell--? Leroy's nerves already weren't at their best given how difficult this was becoming and how scrappy the blonde with whom Mark was fighting was. This could go south very quickly, and instead of just taking the money from the two wallets that were on the counter, he grabbed them and stuffed them into his pockets to deal with later. To add to the confusion, there came a loud thudding sound from the back of the store, possibly the sound of someone kicking their bound feet repeatedly against a wall. The clerk, having regained enough consciousness to try to summon help? He started around the counter, kicking at Mark's thigh as he went and snarling, "You gonna let a chick beat you up?" His purpose was to invade the register and then get the hell out of here while the getting was good.
Mark was feeling a little worse for wear. Jane had knocked his marbles loose or something. He thought he could feel them rolling back and forth between his ears. He'd been leading a fairly sedentary, sedated life for the past few years. Oh sure, there had been a couple of fights but with heavy doses of medication pumping through your veins, they were abandoned early on due to the sheer effort required.
Mark shoved his way away from Jane and scuttled back, his chest heaving in emotional upset as much as exertion. "You stupid fucking bitch. I'm going to kill you." He didn't scream it, though he looked like he wanted to. He said it nice and conversationally, as he pulled his revolver out of his waistband and leveled it at her.
Sucking in a harsh breath when Ava looked up to see the other guy rounding the counter for the register, Ava then heard the jerk guy threaten to kill the blonde woman. This had all gone downhill really fast, and while she blamed the blonde woman for making everything chaotic, Ava didn't want to witness anyone getting hurt. She dialed 911 with shaky fingers, hit send, and then pushed up on her feet to chuck the cell phone like a grenade over the counter at the other guy's head who was aiming the gun. If she got lucky, an operator would pick up, hear the problem and track down where they were. Could cell phones even do that? Ava had no idea. Everything she was doing was stupid, probably, but it wasn't like Ava was really thinking about what to do rationally. She was just reacting to her situation.
"Good job," Jake managed to breathe out in approval for Ava's decision to throw the phone. Her chest felt incredibly tight and the words were barely a whisper. All she could hope was that the phone had a soft landing, maybe amongst the bags of chips, and didn't lose its battery when it fell. She reached up and pulled Ava back toward her with a hand in her elbow. She raised the other one to display surrender. "We're sorry," she told Leroy without looking directly up at him. "Everything has gotten so crazy, maybe you guys should just take the money and go." Clearly he was heading for the till anyway. Jake just tried to get the two of them out of his way.
Since Jane had fully intended to go down fighting to protect someone else, she wasn't exactly afraid of the gun. She dabbed at her lip with the back of her hand, which had gotten split at some point during the scuffle and was bleeding down her face, and slowly picked herself up from the floor. "Oh, you don't wanna fuckin' do that, bucko," she told him, almost as conversationally, though she didn't quite manage it. "You shoot me, you'd better be a damn good shot, cuz if I'm not dead first shot, then I take you down, with me. Better do what the gal says, take the money and get out of here." She looked him over scornfully. "Isn't like I hurt you that bad, anyway. You're fine."
Leroy had come to the conclusion that the blonde bitch was crazy or had a death wish, maybe both. That was okay, though. He had her wallet, which should have her name and address inside, and he could find her again, he felt sure. Right now, with three people-- four if they counted the clerk, tied up in back-- to keep under control, he was aware that this wasn't going to end very satisfactorily unless they just shot them all in the head, and he wasn't really in the mood for a bloodbath tonight. He'd seen one of the cellphones go flying, but he didn't want to take time to find out what that had been about. "Shut the fuck up," he said to the brunette who'd spoken, then pushed his way to the register, unlocked it and grabbed the bills out as quickly as he could, stuffing them into the interior pocket of his jacket.
He was edgy now, jumpy and displeased that they seemed to be losing their grip on this situation. He had the money, he had the wallets of the two women who'd brought wallets in... and he was beginning to hear a distant siren, which might or might not be headed for them. He moved back out onto the main floor and snapped, "Shoot her or not, but we need to get movin'."
Mark's face seemed to twist into even deeper lines of rage. His face almost seemed like a mask, it was so startling. Finally, he stood up, still keeping the gun on the blonde bitch. "You got her wallet, right?" He didn't look at Leroy to see if he'd nod. "Shooting's too good for a cunt like you. You better never go home." He then grinned toothily at her, a promise of pain on his face as he headed for Leroy's side. It'd be nuts to go out the front door. The would have to be the back, which would mean taking his eyes off these girls, particularly the one he was dubbing Trouble in his head.
Ava was terrified. She just wanted people to be able to walk out of here tonight unhurt but it seemed like the blonde girl was more or less daring these crazies to hurt her, or shoot, or something. Maybe they'd have left by now if the girl hadn't attacked the slightly more loony one. All of their thoughts were jumbled in her head, and that along with her fright, was very quickly bringing on a migraine. She was wincing, feeling nauseous and praying they'd just leave.
Jake was in the same boat as Ava. If she could have gagged that blonde girl, she would have. Instead, she just had to feel good that her gambit had bought Ava enough time to call for help and toss the phone. She kept her mouth shut this time and just pressed back against the wall of cigarettes to let Leroy get at the register. The sooner they had the money, the sooner they'd get away from here.
Maybe she was alone in here who felt that way, but Jane didn't have a whole lot of fear. She kept her hands in sight, still holding one to her lip in an attempt to staunch the blood a little, and kept her eyes on Mark, ready to leave aside if he changed his mind and decided to shoot her, after all. It sounded like she'd better get some things from the house and get a hotel room for the next few days... as nice a thought as it was to booby-trap the house and lie in wait, she knew she couldn't stay awake and alert forever. She said nothing more, letting them make their decisions-- and hopefully leave.
Leroy was done. He wasn't overloaded with brains by any means, but he had an animal sort of cunning about him, and his instincts told him that it was time to flee the scene and regroup. Above all else, he wanted to avoid recapture, and that was the main thing that had him moving away from the women and half-turning to keep an eye on the front doors as well as their hostages. "C'mon," he said, tired of waiting for Mark to make up his mind. In about fifteen seconds, he was leaving with or without him.
Mark wasn't about to get left. He backed down the aisle on Leroy's heels, eyes on the stupid blonde. Just let her try anything else heroic. Please. Please! It would be all the excuse he needed. However, she seemed to be all out of fight, if not defiance. "I'm comin'. Right behind ya." His stolen sneakers crunched over the broken glass from the freezers, milk and soda slicking the floor. "All clear at the back door?"
They were leaving... thank god. Ava stayed exactly where she was, not wanting to move or say anything. She could pick up the thoughts of the crazier one, wanting to have some excuse to start shooting, and instinctively, she lifted her hands to her ears, just in case he did. Later she would realize what a big coward she had been, but everything had happened so quickly that she hadn't been able to really comprehend anything. Opening her eyes, Ava looked over at Jake, her eyes inquiring whether or not the two men were actually leaving or if they were screwing around to mess with their minds.
If Ava had mentioned her lack of bravery out loud, Jake would have disagreed. It had taken some guts to make the call and then throw the phone away. Jake herself hadn't been gutsy enough to try it. It was what she was kicking herself for. If she weren't so terrified of revealing herself to anyone, let alone strangers, she could have ended this. Make those crazies "ride the lightning." She hadn't been able to make herself do it, though. So she stayed crouched behind the counter and gave Ava a faint shake of her head. They weren't gone yet, but the sirens were getting awfully close.
Without a gun-- which was what she was kicking herself for not having-- Jane couldn't do much else heroic beyond what she'd already done. These thugs would remember her, not the other two and whatever they might've done, and she'd kept anyone from getting hurt. That was all that mattered. She desperately wanted to check on the egg in her pocket-- though the lack of anything wet, soggy, and smooshy-feeling in said pocket suggested it was intact, somehow-- but didn't dare reach into it until the bastards were out of sight. Her eyes stayed on them, though her ears were pricked in the direction of the other two girls, listening to see if they were all right, beyond probably scared out of their minds, or something. She really hadn't paid them much attention beyond the internal mantra "keep them safe" until now, honestly.
Leroy didn't answer Mark's question. He was going to make it clear. As he hurried down the grimy back hall, he lifted his gun and shot the chain where the lock with which he'd padlocked the back door was connected; he didn't have the key, of course, and he hadn't thought that they might need to leave through the back way. It took two bullets and a vigorous thrashing with the barrel of the pistol, but he got it open. He jerked his head toward the door, his unspoken invitation for Mark to follow him, and he kicked it free, slipping out into the siren-filled darkness like a shadow, paying no mind to the clerk he'd left tied up in the closet, who was still kicking the wall in hopes of freedom.
Mark's feet slipped on the mixed milk, juice and glass but he kept his balance as he turned and jogged down the hall after Leroy. He paused for a moment, thinking he'd fire a few into the door of the supply closet just for fun. He'd aim high, just enough to cause that grimey clerk to shit his pants a little. In the end, he knew if he dawdled, he'd never find Leroy out in the dark. Instead, he stuffed the revolver into his pants again, fluffed his shirt over it to conceal it, and headed out into the night after his partner.
Ava realized they were heading to the back to leave and she lowered her hands, her eyes still on Jake. She was starting to push herself up, hoping that she was hearing sirens in the distance and it wasn't just her desperate wish for it. Then she heard the gunshots in the back and she jumped, her hands lifted immediately for her ears again, her face scrunched up in a wince. She thought for a second they were shooting at them but the men were nowhere to be seen and she didn't see anyone falling to the ground. "Holy shit," she said, attempting not to shriek like a little girl.
Jake thought she was going to choke on her heart when the gun went off but it took her only a few seconds to figure out that it was happening at the back of the store. She had a couple of moments of worry for the clerk but it was all over fast. Straining, she heard the two crazies bang their way out of the damaged back door. Despite the fact that her knees felt like jelly, she stood up, leaning on the counter. She peered over the lip of it to get a look at Jane on the floor. "Are you alright?"
"They're just trying to scare us," Jane assured the younger girl sourly, pushing herself to her feet at last and finally feeling in her pocket. The egg, somehow, was intact. "I'm fine. Just a little bruised up. Wasn't hardly much of a fight, anyway." The guy was only human, after all, and she had gone up against other, less normal monsters. "Wish I'd had my fucking gun, then none of this would've had to happen this way." Frustrated with herself, she kicked the nearest shelf, and ignored the pain in her toe that resulted. "You guys okay?"
"Yeah, well they did a good job," Ava told Jane, still feeling shaky. The pain in her temple was intensifying and she was seriously considering finding the medicine aisle and swiping some migraine medicine. She straightened and clenched her eyes shut tightly before opening them to focus on the two women. "I don't know if the cops would come or not... we should call them. And find the clerk, I don't know what happened to him..."
Jake glanced down on the table. "It was my phone that you tossed. Can you try to find it? I'll go and investigate the back. Maybe the clerk's alright. He's not banging any more though." Apparently the gunfire back there had either killed him, injured him or scared him into silence. Jake ducked around the counter and headed on down the main aisle. She didn't honestly think that the creeps might come back, but she didn't know if she'd be able to handle a serious gunshot wound on the clerk.
Though Jane didn't really like having someone else going off to do the dangerous thing, and she scowled after Jake, she couldn't very well leave the younger girl alone. Not when she looked like she might pass out. "Guess it's phone-hunting duty, for us, then." She stepped closer to where she... thought it'd been thrown. "Uh, which way did it go?" she asked, glancing to the younger girl. "I was kinda busy when you threw it."
Ava motioned impatiently toward the rack of gift cards by the magazine aisle. That was where she'd aimed it anyway, who knew where it landed. The lights, despite many of them being out, were too bright now and Jane's voice was grating on her brain. It wasn't anything personal, but her headache was growing more acutely painful. The majority of the voices were gone now, but she could hear a male voice in her head, scared and panicked, which told her the clerk was likely okay. "You should... call the police," Ava managed, clenching her eyes shut again. "In case they didn't understand... what was going on when I called..."
Jake found the supply closet easily enough and she was quick to reassure the poor kid that the robbers were gone and everyone was ok. It took her a few minutes to get him untied and then she had to support him as they walked back out into the shop. He groaned over the broken coolers and the mess and Jake felt a pang of regret about that. She'd have to figure out a way to help pay back the owner for the damage. "He's ok," she called up the aisle to the girls. "Anyt sign of the cops?"
When Jane finally found the cell phone, she stood back up with it and eyed Ava a little warily. Kid looked like she was about to break down, or something, and Jane didn't really think she could deal very well with that. Crying girls just weren't her thing. "Whatever cops we heard, weren't coming here. 911 isn't that fast, anyway...." She held the phone to her ear, and heard a dial tone. "Fucking bureaucrats... I'll call and tell them what happened." She dialed the number, eyes back on Ava. "Maybe you oughta sit down," she suggested.
Sitting sounded good, but medicine sounded better. "I need to find my things," Ava said, making her way around the counter to search for her purse contents that had been kicked around by Jerk number Two. She felt dizzy though, so she sat down and leaned back against the front of the counter. She saw Jake and the clerk coming up the aisle. The clerk was bloody but thankfully he looked okay. Ava decided it would be best just to stay there until the cops came. If she stood up, she'd likely vomit and that would be just gross.
Jake picked up two pocket packs of tissues and handed one to the clerk with a quiet assurance that she would pay for them, not to worry. Once she got the clerk settled onto the ground near Ava, Jake went and unlocked the front door. They were all in plain sight now for when the cops showed up. She didn't really think those guys would circle around and come at them again. Not with all of the sirens going outside. She had a moment of worry, thinking maybe there was something major going on in town. Where had those two come from, anyway. They sure hadn't been local. Jane had blood on her face as well but Jake wasn't sure that the blood actually belonged to the girl. She handed Jane the second pack of tissues. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm good," Jane said, moving her mouth away from the phone to answer. There was blood on the mouthpiece. She'd have to clean that.... "Or, well, not good, but okay. Just a split lip, and a couple bruises here and there. Nothing big." She did take the tissues, though, and gratefully, pulling one out to hold to her mouth. "You and the kid? And the clerk?" She glanced back at Ava, who had indeed sat down, and at the clerk, sitting with her.
Then the person on the other end came back, and she focused back on the conversation, explaining what'd happened and where they were, a little slurred now around the tissue.
"I'm fine," Jake said, which wasn't entirely true but she sounded steady enough. More than anything she just wanted to go home, crawl into bed and not come out for a long while. Why did things like this keep happening to her?
She crouched down in front of the clerk who was sniffling and leaking tears. "Hey, it's ok. We're all okay and I don't think those guys are coming back here."
The poor kid groaned. "I'm not cut out for this. I didn't think I'd ever get robbed in Darkwater." He dropped his head onto his arms which were folded across his bony knees. Jake patted him on the shoulder before turning her attention to Ava. Who looked like she was going to puke any second. "What about you? In one piece?"
Ava nodded at Jake's question, keeping her knees drawn up to her chest. Her stomach churned but she pushed through it and pried her eyes open to look at Jake. "I'm okay... headache," she explained. "Guy kicked all my stuff around... don't know where my medicine went." Breathing in slowly to try and ease the nausea, she managed a weak smile. "Could be worse, I guess." She felt bad for the clerk, because really, who did get robbed in Darkwater like this? It had been unexpected and scary and right now she just wanted to go home and have her mom hug her for awhile. Childish, yes, but whatever, Ava didn't care. Tonight could have gone very, very badly, but it hadn't, so she couldn't sit there and sob like a baby over it.