Thursday 8 AM
The sound of running feet in the hall bolted Ryan out of his fitful sleep. Seizing the pistol from the night stand, he peered into the hall. His heart was racing as horrible images were conjured in his mind- only to leave him with a sick feeling when Kinsey and Christina exited their room, Christina being dragged by the hand by Saniah.
I could have shot a six year old. Ryan chided himself, ducking back into the room to find his shirt and pistol holster.
"- dating about three months." Christina's voice drifted in as Ryan shook out his spare shirt, feebly pressing out the worse of the wrinkles. "How about you and Ryan?"
"Oh no." Kinsey's laugh drifted in. "We're crew, not dating."
"Sure about that?" Cristina's voice sounded sly to Burke's ears as his face burned. "Wouldn't know that from-"
"Trust me. There's nothing there."
Downstairs, Kitchen
"Gawd it's early." Burke grumbled as he surveyed the fridge. "We haven't got up this early- uh, let me check. Ever."
"Kids get up early." Ryan replied with a distracted air, glancing towards around. "Where's everybody?"
"Tietz and the guys went across the street." Burke started to lineup ingredients for scrambled eggs. "To that big ol' house with the porch so they'd have a better vantage point. Most of the kids are getting up, Carmen's making a grocery list- I'm not kidding, should have seen the size of this thing. She's going to send us down to the corner store or something." Burke laughed, although it died when he turned and took in Ryan's expression.
"Then we're going to hit the hospital and get a refill on your meds."
"What? I don't have 'meds'."
"Yeah? So why do you look like the only guy whose figured out the worlds gone to hell?"
Ryan didn't answer crossing over to peer out of the barricades.
"Yeah, that wasn't a bad dream, man." Burke continued on, undeterred by Ryan's lack of attitude. "Hell, we're having Burke's Special Eggs! With uh- bacon."
"Great." Ryan replied flatly, with no enthusiasm. He certainly didn't feel like caring about breakfast choices, but stated he'd have cereal instead just to be contrary. Something about Kinsey's flippant attitude had pissed him off. Just what was so God awful about him? He tuned back into Burke, staring back across the dining room at Burke who now resembled an actual cook- apron and all.
"-so how about you pull your head out of your ass before you scare the small fry."
"Yeah, I'll get right on that." Ryan muttered as he left the kitchen, heading back upstairs where he could presumably avoid social interaction for awhile.
Thursday 8:49 AM
"You're all bad moody."
Jolted out of his musing, he realized Kinsey- and her ever present companion, Christina, he noted with irritation- had come up beside him. Everyone was out on the road again, heading to the nearest store. He played it cool, quickly thinking up a reason to walk up ahead with Tietz.
Tietz thankfully wasn't prone to any personal commentary and they seemed to reach the store in record time. 'Sears' wasn't where he'd normally shop and he sure hoed the kids weren't choosy.
He joined Tietz and the MPD in entering the store first to ensure that it was safe. After a quick cleanup to spare the kids the worst of it, everyone else flowed in. Ryan noticed that Kinsey and Carol were leading the kids downstairs to the kids department. He headed into the power tools area, joining most of the men there.
"No one's hit here yet?" Horst, an officer with reddish brown mustache and a pack being readily filled with boxes of nails, questioned.
"Doesn't look like it." Linc rattled a locked cage below the power tools. "You see the keys at the register?"
"Nope." Ryan replied after walking over to check. Not mentioning the blood stains he saw, he raised his eyes to the far wall.
"Find me a ladder, I can get the stock up there."
As Ryan passed power tools down to Linc's waiting pack, he glanced to the officers stocking up on other necessities of barricading- with the exception of Gambe and Tietz. The two remained on duty at the entrance, weapons held at the ready. As he descended to move the ladder, he noticed Tietz holding the radio to his ear. An odd feeling shot down his spine as he raised his voice.
"Something wrong?"
"It's Carmen." Tietz replied, indicating Carmen and her husband who had stationed themselves on a nearby roof to keep watch.
"They're saying something, but I can't- no, get your finger-"
As he chided the use of the radio, something came through-
"-ten of them-" SCREEECK! -"more--" SCREEEK! "- out-"
"Anyone go with the kids?" Ryan broke in, a bead of sweat forming on his brow. Not waiting for an answer, he headed towards the stairs. Behind him, he heard Gambe cry a warning- and then the guns started to fire.
"Kinsey!" He shouted as he took the stairs two at a time, Linc at his back. "Time to go!"
Downstairs, he and Linc emerged into land of the Transformers and Hannah Montana as each kid was quickly attached to his or her backpack and hurried upstairs.
Burke had stationed himself at the top of the staircase, falling in step with the hustling group.
"Tietz, Arogollon and Cross set up at the gas station across the street to get them in the crossfire with Gambe, Wate and Horst here. The Doroteos are on the roof- but there's a huge horde out there."
Ryan slipped in behind Gambe, leaning around the three MPD to peer out of the doors. The parking lot was a disaster- everywhere he looked; he saw a zed head heading straight for them. One or two fell, but more were lined up like good little soldiers behind them. Turning his head, he noticed that the crosswalk that connected Sears to the rest of the Mall was clear- and was the street behind the mall. Directly in front of him on top of the GoodYear Tire building next to the gas station, he could see the Doroteos picking off the ones closest to the building, staggering their shots to cover while the other reloaded.
"We can get them out that way." Ryan moved back so that the crew could lean past him and see the clear path to the north. "That Starbucks should be our first point." Kinsey decided her brow furrowing. "That outside bistro- two of us could flank it and the kids could run in a straight line closest to the building, reach the street."
"Yeah, okay. Get the kids ready."
"Get them ready to outrun murderous fiends? How do you propose I do that?"
"Shut up. You'll scare the kids."
Ryan threw her a look, before conceding the point. "What do I tell the kids?"
"Foot race."
Staggering the children into small groups with one adult runner and one armed person took only a few seconds, but the time seemed to drag far too long.
"Okay." He addressed Carol and her four little girls. "We're going to run for the Starbucks- "
Then they were doing it, running all out with frightened crying and pounding feet. He led the way to the bistro and ducked behind it, knocking down some condiments to prop himself for a more stable shooting position.
"Get to the McDonalds." Ryan pointed out the McDonalds' drive through several yards away which had stable brick arches as the next point. "Kinsey will be there in a flash."
As he spoke to Carol, his eyes were drawn to the little girl beside her. She was the most stoic little girl, her heart shaped face washed with fear although she was not crying like the others. Blonde hair was swept to the side and clipped with a pink butterfly barrette; her clothes were carefully coordinated of a white and pink pinstriped dress. An image of a loving family dressing the girl and sending her off to school made Ryan's throat tighten. She should be playing in a playground, not running through hell.
"You're going to be okay." He assured her impulsively. "What's your name?"
"Kya." The little girl replied in a clear voice, the waver of uncertainty barely audible.
"Go win yourself a race, Kya."
Although when Kinsey arrived with the Valencia lot and Linc, she had other ideas.
"I'm staying here with you." She informed an indignant Ryan. "We're working in pairs- Burke's gonna join up with Linc, then we'll cover everyone getting out."
"No, go with-" Yet Linc had already led the siblings and cousins after Carol and even as he watched the line of children and their attached adults move, Burke had led Stacey and several more children to where Ryan and Kinsey were defending. Ryan looked back to the children, trying to find the little girl in the pinstriped dress. After a moment, he latched on that she'd already moved onto safety.
As Burke gathered the most hesitant little boy to him and he and Stacey herded the kids onward, the closest zeds honed in on the bistro.
He and Kinsey fired fervently, barely marking the zeds who fell and those who lumbered on relentlessly. He didn't notice when the sound of the children crying had faded until the three MPD who had been defending from Sear's entrance joined them behind the bistro.
"All the kids got out." Horst assured, pressing more clips into their hands. "The Dorteos are surrounded. Tietz' group is going to extract them and we're going to meet up with the kids."
Reloading, Ryan leaned around the bistro to discover that the horde was nearly upon them. Ten- twenty? - pairs of decaying hands were stretched towards them. The run towards the McDonalds was a terrifying rapport of the gunfire from those behind him, covering his and Kinsey's run- and the freakish Jack in the box appearances of zeds that would suddenly pop up in their path. His heart sank when they came across a child's pink backpack in their path. Not breaking stride, he swept it up and continued on, not noting Kinsey's glance. His jaw worked as he suppressed horrible fates for the pack's owner, pushing his body harder to reach those kids.
"Dorteos are safe." Tietz's voice came over the radio. "How are the kids?"
"Safe." Kinsey replied, turning to watch the children exuberantly reconnect with one another.
"Good. We're going to move around the horde, join up with you at their place. "
"See you there." Kinsy signed off and moved to join Ryan, who was crouching next to a young girl.
"You have my backpack." She accepted it happily from Ryan. "It fell."
"But you won that race." Ryan smiled. "So it's all right sweetheart."
He turned to see Kinsey watching him with a peculiar expression. When she realized he was looking at her, she relayed that Tietz's group was alright.
"Time to get the kids home." Raising his voice, he began to urge the kids to move.
"Come on, munchkins- how'd you like PE today? Time for a nice cool down walk home..."
Thursday 11:29 AM
Doroteo Estate
Walking into the middle room, Ryan found Kinsey bent over the dining room table. Moving closer, he realized that she was fervently flipping through pages of a notebook.
"Whats up?"
Kinsey gave him a distracted glance and returned to the notebook, turning several pages in quick succession.
"I'm trying to map out the best route."
"Best route to what?"
Settling down beside her, he could see an unfolded map of the city stretched across he lap.
"To find the kids parents."
He reached over and took the map from her, noting several highlighted areas. "You have all of the houses highlighted- so when do you want to do this?"
She glanced up to him, her brow furrowed with thought. "You'll go with me?"
"Well, you're sure as hell not going alone. I bet the kids will settle down after this morning- let's go round up the guys and get going."
Her forehead smoothed out in relief as she accepted Ryan's hand up. His heart beat a bit faster as she gave his hand a squeeze before releasing him, settling down to gather up her map. He headed out to round up help for the search and designate babysitters.