Tejada walked back and checked on Rudy and Amanda. They were ready.
He heard his men firing off rounds in the dark store; he saw the brief flare of muzzle flashes, and he knew that they needed to speed things up. "Let's go, you two."
Rudy and Amanda fell in behind him, and they moved quickly to the kitchen section of the superstore, stepping over the Annies his men had already killed. He marched down an aisle that looked to have what he was looking for. He scanned the rack and pulled a set of silverware free from its packaging. He shoved a handful of spoons and forks in his own bag and said, "You two see if you can find the can openers. It's gonna be a bitch if we got all that food and can't eat it."
They scampered off, and Tejada stared at the items on the racks, trying to remember if he had forgotten anything. Then he thought of Amanda and how unprepared she was. A canteen, some sort of water bottle. All of the soldiers had them. You didn't go out in the field and not take your canteen. Dehydration was the number two enemy of the soldier. Of course, the number one enemy of the soldier was anything that wanted to intentionally kill you.
He spotted a rack full of metal water bottles; he picked one that had a strap that would allow it to hang from a belt or a backpack, and then he met up with Rudy and Amanda. He shoved the canteen at Amanda. "Here. You're gonna need this."
She grabbed it from him and muttered a word of thanks.
"We got these," Rudy said. He held out a couple of can openers. One was larger, with plastic handles. It looked like something one would find in any kitchen in America. The other was a small model, classic, like something you'd find in an abandoned camper from the 1950s.
He pointed at the second can opener, the smaller one, and said, "Get me a bunch of these. We're gonna need more than one in case we get separated, and the smaller the better."
Rudy hustled off, as pops of light and sound exploded in the area of the store where they needed to go. "Hurry up, Rudy. We gotta get out of here."
The kid hustled back, his hands full of basic can openers. Tejada turned around and let Rudy stuff them in his backpack. He watched as Epps and Walt hustled by, their arms loaded down with sleeping bags. Day tagged along, running in front of them and his flashlight tracking the movement of his gun barrel. He was doing a fine job of protecting them.
"Hold up!" Tejada said, and then he lightened Walt and Epps' burden by grabbing three of the sleeping bags. He tossed one to Rudy, one to Amanda, and kept one for himself. "Alright, you two get to the rendezvous, spread those things out. I have a feeling we're gonna be doing some running. Day, where the fuck is Allen?"
"I was guarding those two," he said, indicating Walt and Epps.
Tejada nodded. "Alright, keep up with 'em." He patted Day on the shoulder and dismissed him. Day jogged to catch up with Epps and Walt. He turned to Rudy and Amanda. "You two come with me. We're gonna check on Allen. Amanda, while we're headed back that way, find yourself a baseball bat or something. I have a feeling you're going to need it. I'd get you a gun, but this place doesn't look like it sells any, and we don't have the time for it anyway. Come on."
He turned, and the two followed after him. As they reached the end of the aisle, they dove to the side as Allen came barreling around the corner with a shopping cart full of tents, small, compact, and sealed in nylon bags.
"They're coming!" Allen yelled as he pushed the cart past them.
Tejada turned to Rudy and Amanda. "Alright, forget the baseball bat. We gotta go."
They spun on their heels and escorted Allen to the rendezvous. Everyone was there, loaded down with gear.
"Alright, tents are here. Everyone grab one. Get yourself a sleeping bag. Spread your shit out. We need to be able to move. Hey, Allen, what the fuck is this? We're one tent short."
"Oh, I figured Rudy and Amanda could share one."
"You don't get paid to figure, Allen. Next time I tell you to do something, you do it fucking right." Allen's head dropped for a second, but it was what it was. This was a critical time, and if he let people just go off and do their own thing, that could lead to some very bad consequences down the road. He wasn't mad at the man; he just had to make the point, and in front of everyone else was the perfect place to do it. They had to know they weren't on the Nike campus anymore. They were in the shit, and the shit was trying to get into them. "We're not going to worry about it for now. We don't got the time for it. Everyone get your gear situated. We gotta move. We got about two minutes before our tail catches up to us."
For the next minute or so,
