Very impressed with the reasoning power, Arthur looked toward the driver and saw she was a young woman and noticed a boy not much older than Kirk get out of the back with a girl about the same age. “They can’t be far behind, we have to hide,” the boy said, closing his door and looking around.
As the steam from the car turned thicker, Arthur realized it was smoke and then he saw the car was riddled with bullet holes. At first, he thought the kids were lucky and then noticed the bullet holes were all over the front of the car like someone had aimed only at the engine.
When the oldest girl pulled a pistol from the back of her pants, Arthur gripped his AR tight and stepped around the column, giving Shawn and Kirk a heart attack inside the store. “Play nice,” Arthur said, stepping out and the four turned in shock.
“Little lady, don’t raise your gun and I won’t raise mine because if I do, you’re dead because I’ll win,” Arthur said casually. The girl kept her pistol aimed at the ground as she turned, glancing west down the road she’d just driven off of.
“You have to help us,” she cried out, turning back to Arthur. “These guys have been chasing us for the last few hours. Every time we think we’ve gotten away, they show up shooting at us and now my car won’t work.”
Glancing at the car, Arthur moved his eyes back to the one holding the gun. “I suggest you move away from your car because that’s smoke coming out now,” Arthur informed her and the four moved to the front, getting behind the oldest girl that held the gun.
The boy looked at Arthur and his eyes got wide. “He’s the one that was driving that big gray SUV with the kids,” the boy told the others.
Turning to the boy, “Just how the hell do you know that?” Arthur snapped.
The young woman let the pistol hang at her right side and took a step closer and watched Arthur move the AR in response. “We saw you driving out of a hardware store on the other side of town. We tried to follow, but you kept changing directions. Running through the neighborhoods, we would catch glimpses of you and even found a man pushing a shopping cart. He told us to hide, but said you had passed him,” the young woman said very fast, glancing back to the street.
A ‘whoosh’ sounded and they all jumped and turned to the car as flames erupted from underneath. “I take it, you don’t know the ones chasing you?” Arthur asked, lowering his AR.
“They are trying to kill us!” the young woman shouted with tears streaming down her face.
Watching the other three holding each other as they hid behind the young woman, Arthur took his left hand off the foregrip and motioned the young woman forward. When she was at arm’s length, Arthur held out his hand. “Give me your gun and get inside,” he said, staring at the young woman. She let out a gasp as Arthur continued.
“My kids are inside and they have weapons and two big ass dogs so if you try anything, you won’t live to see if it works. If you have other weapons, don’t pull them out. If your friends show up, I’ll have a chat with them and ask them to leave you alone.”
The four stared at Arthur with gaping mouths as he spoke calmly. “Mister, they are trying to kill us,” the young woman said slowly.
“Then I suggest you hand over that Glock and move inside. If your friends are rowdy, I’ll have to be firm with them,” Arthur told her, still holding out his hand.
Glancing back at the kids with her, the young woman reached down and grabbed the barrel with her left hand, then held the gun out to Arthur. “If you hurt us, I swear you’ll pay,” she said in a trembling voice.
Taking the gun, Arthur ejected the magazine and then racked the slide, catching the bullet in the air. “Little lady, I could’ve done that before you even got out of the car,” Arthur replied, putting the bullet back in the magazine. He slapped the magazine back in the gun and held it out to the young woman.
“Don’t you dare chamber a round in that store or you’ll be shot,” Arthur told her. Not believing Arthur was returning her pistol, the young woman reached out to take the pistol back and visibly relaxed. “Don’t wake the babies, now get inside,” Arthur instructed, hearing tires squealing from the west.
Shoving the Glock in the small of her back, the young woman led the others into the store and Arthur moved back behind the column. Leaning to the side so his left eye could see the road, Arthur tried to relax while hoping he hadn’t made a mistake.
After waiting for what seemed like a year, Arthur glanced at his watch and saw only ten minutes had passed since he’d heard the squealing tires. Dropping his left hand back to the AR, Arthur watched the road in front of the store.
A few minutes later, he heard the thumping of loud music and a small sports car drove along the road and stopped where the young woman had pulled over the curb. There was no entrance to the store off the main road. One had to turn onto the road on the west side to come into the parking lot.
The small sports car stayed stopped in the road and then backed up and pulled down the side road, then into the parking lot. It stopped twenty yards from the smoking car and both doors opened up. Two young men climbed out, both holding AKs. The driver was white and the passenger was black as another young white male climbed out
