Stan and Bradley were over visiting Lewis at Tom's house. Brad and Lewis were taking turns playing Hitman while Stan watched.

It was Lewis's turn on the PC.
Agent 47 turned the corner, the security guard was walking in the opposite direction. 47 took out the fibrewire and began to close. Just then a popup appeared through steam on the corner. "Steam..." Lewis groaned and closed it without reading. "Wait holdup" said Bradley. Who had a flash memory. "Lemme see it".

Stieney:
You seen whats happening on TV? Theres some big earthquake and they say YELLOWSTONEs next! Just sending this out to those on my friendlist as ive got friends in central. Stay safe people.

Lewis; "What do you think..."
Bradley turned to Stan "Turn on the TV".
Stanley got up; "Why?" as he reached for the remote.
CNN; -ituation, alerts have gone out through the west coast as the area is buffeted by tsunamis from the Toba super volcano Eruption. California officials said that disaster relief preparations are being deployed after the region suffered 9.5 Earthquakes. Experts say that the Yellowstone super volcano is showing increased signs of stress and the National Guard have evacuated the area around Yellowstone caldera. We now go to our correspondent-

Bradley got up and began pacing about. "My god this is it, this is it, this is it."
Stanley tried to calm him down. "But thats far away from us... Jesus those poor Indonesians." He thought, people often treat poverty as something to be punished and that stupidity is somehow deserved of disasters but that isnt how things actually are. We all started off small once. he turned back to the TV.
They watched in silence as news reports were filtering in of the war over Israel. Stanley's thoughts began to come as a constant stream matching the speed of the new events unfolding. "God, they finally decided to gang rape Israel. Ofcourse Israel will respond with nukes, no way it could stand up in a conventional war. What apartheid state is complete without nukes. The Arabs must know this... but they think while America is busy there will be no one to bail them out. Jesus what about the nuclear winter? That combined with the volcanoes will seriously effect the weather."
Stans phone began vibrating as texts from clan members started filtering in.
"Stan is this for real?"
"Stan im picking up my family and heading straight to Canada. What does the clan say about all of this?"
The last one was from Jack. "Stan im heading to you, stay at Toms place until i get there."
Was this it? He asked himself. Was this the time? Bradley was jittery and Lewis looked worried.
He thought to himself. Super volcano, nuclear war. The thing that most scared him was the part about Russia and the US leaving the UN. He decided. Its a good thing he'd been contacting the Clan members list for such an event in the recent months.
He opened the text function on his phone and selected: To Clan List. List of prewritten messages. "This is an Emergency message. Dear Clan MacStewart members. In light of recent events the Clan community center is now open for those wishing to shelter their families and friends until we ride out the storm, please bring all the supplies you can purchase and carry, the address again is..."

Bradley: "Is that the text? Should we go?"
Stan: "We should go, Lewis, get Sandy and Tom and start loading up the cars." He thumbed the Rangerover keys in his pocket.
Bradley: "What about food? You know we-"
Stan: "We'll stop by the costco as planned, everyone will be scrabbling for the shopping centers. The pro move is the costco. We'll coordinate with Mum and Dad enroute."

Stan then sent out the same message by E-mail and all other forms of communication he had. He included the itinerary list in a second text. The Phone was slow, so he moved to the internet.

At the back of his mind there was something nagging. "If the volcano was thought extinct, why DID it erupt?"

"I still can't believe we're actually doing this," Genevieve Tyler sighed as she gazed out the passenger window of the Nissan Sentra she had bought with her ex-husband several years ago. The single mother hated driving at night, and so she'd made Dean get behind the wheel for the short trip. Despite eventually agreeing with her ex that things really were probably only going to get worse, she had been arguing with herself for the last several hours about the decision to join Dean's paranoia.

"Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get you..." she reminded herself, using one of her ex's obnoxious quotes that he always used to support any of his overzealous ideas that she was pretty sure he indulged in because he was a child in a grown-man's body rather than out of a sense of safety or security. In this case, though, she was able to draw a little bit of comfort from them while she tried to push down the nerves that were spreading from her stomach.

Wahoo was a relatively small town, bigger than most of the other rural towns in Nebraska, but a small fraction of the size of the cities in the state, like Omaha, or Lincoln. It served as the county seat for Sarpy county, with a courthouse and a jail, along with some of the other governmental buildings that came with such an appointment. The reason Dean and Genevieve were heading that way in the thick of the night, though, was the National Guard armory stationed there and the massive trucks they had in their motor pool.

Dean had been a member of the Nebraska Guard for about seven years now, serving as a vertical engineer with the Wahoo unit, which Genevieve always thought was a fancy way of saying "carpenter." He had deployed once with them about five years ago. They ended up building some schools around the capital city of Afghanistan. That was all she knew, though. She had never bothered to try to get very close to any of his friends or their families in the unit, especially when it became apparent that they weren't going to stay together. When he first said they were going to go to his unit tonight to prepare for the coming panic, she thought he was crazy enough to try to get into the armory's vault and steal guns. The plan he had, though, sounded much simpler, but she couldn't believe it could be as easy as he had made it sound.

As they pulled into town, Dean turned off the headlights, navigating under the glow of the moon and stars with the occasional street lamp helping show the way. Now that they weren't on the highway, he wanted to draw as little attention as possible, and that meant keeping headlights from shining past windows. It wasn't too long before they turned down a side street adjacent to the large, deserted brick building he had come for. Just past the parking lot of the armory, a chain-link fence topped with razor wire held over a dozen military vehicles, most of them ten-ton dump trucks usually used by his unit of engineers to transport materials to and from work sites.

Something so bold would never have worked if he was trying to avoid being caught. Dean was sure that the balaclava over his face and the scarf and hat over his wife's wouldn't do much to hinder any investigation once the authorities began to track down the party responsible for stealing two military trucks. Night-vision-capable cameras would record the whole thing. By the time they would find him, though, if they were more interested in tracking down and arresting him than dealing with any of the other problems that were going to pop up, then he was wrong, and he'd go to jail and the world would hopefully go back to normal.

Parking his ex-wife's Sentra on the street down the block, Westin shut off the engine and got out, dressed in his multicam-pattern Army uniform. If anyone was going to see him in one of these trucks, it would be better if he looked the part. He had given his wife one of his zippered tops as well, but hopefully nobody would inspect her outfit very closely. None of his pants fit her frame, and she didn't care enough to try to make the disguise look much more convincing than just a uniform jacket and a patrol cap that were both too big for her.

With a large pair of bolt cutters in hand, Dean quickly went to work, cutting off the large padlock that held the gates to the motor pool shut. From there, he opened the gate, wincing as it squeaked on its rusting hinges, and walked quickly toward the nearest ten-ton dump truck. They used air brakes, and would need a few minutes to fill the tanks with air before they would be fully-functional. Luckily, these new models were all outfitted with automatic transmission. It might take a bit of getting used to, but if he allowed her the time, Genevieve would adjust to the sheer size of the truck and be able to follow him on the road without much difficulty.

Climbing up into the cab of one, and then the other, Dean started the engines on both with the push of a button. The only mechanism preventing them from being stolen was a steel chain looped around the steering wheel that was attached to the floor. Once again, Westin's bolt-cutters went to work while the noisy machines sputtered, waiting for their tanks to fill.

"Hurry up!" Genevieve hissed at him, the noise of the two trucks sparking her fear. She glanced around anxiously, positive that it would just be a few moments before flashing lights and sirens would scream around the corner to throw them in jail.

"I'm going as fast as I can," Dean told her in the calmest tone he could summon, "I told you, we have to wait for the tanks to fill up. Once the red light on the dash goes off, we can go. Come here, I'm gonna run you through the basics real quick before I go cut the lock off the other truck and scrounge up as many gas cans as I can find.

Genevieve climbed into the cab and examined the buttons and lights on the panel- which was quite different from the sedan she was used to operating. She made sure to focus on which buttons controlled the lights and the transmission, but past that, she had a hard time following everything Dean tried to tell her. The red light on the dashboard held her rapt attention as well. She knew that as soon as it turned off, they needed to get moving as quickly as possible.

Four minutes later, the dashboard light went dead and Genevieve looked up to see Dean close the driver's door on another massive, tan truck, and start the vehicle crawling forward. His eyes looked toward her expectantly, and she took the parking brake off and set the truck into Drive, like he'd taught her. After a little bit of fumbling, she managed to get the lights on and they were off, headed back toward the city.

Dean wondered how long it would take for someone to get to the armory in the morning and realize there were two trucks missing. He had looped the chain back around the gate again after leaving to make it at least look like it was still locked, but he had his doubts that his deception would last very long. They had a very limited window to pack up as much of their stuff as they could into the beds of these trucks and then stash them somewhere out of view. Neither he nor his ex-wife would be getting much sleep until they parked the vehicles somewhere out of sight, but the alternative was to play it safe and risk getting caught in a city filled with desperation and panic.

"Hello America!" a raucous voice cut into the steady growl of the truck's Diesel engine, "My name's Three Dawg! I'll be your post apocalyptic radio host, as the world goes to shit around you! I'll be offering advice, music, news and more every day until I can't broadcast no more, or this whole mess gets sorted out, whichever comes first!"

"What the hell...?" Dean looked down at the speaker attached to the SINCGARS radio mounted to his dash. A few moments later his phone lit up with a text from his wife; she had heard the same thing and now music was playing over the sound system in her truck as well as his, a system that was usually reserved only for communication between military radios.

While the frequency-hopping function allowed the SINCGARS to pick up a broad spectrum of broadcasts, it had a security feature built in that made it difficult for anyone that didn't have the same security programmed in to listen in on secure broadcasts. With that in mind, Dean pushed a few buttons to transition to non-secure transmission, cleared his throat, and got on the microphone.

"For anyone else out there, this is Ginga Ninja reaching out to anyone that can hear me," he chose a call-sign he often jokingly chose during radio-training exercises because of his dirty strawberry blonde hair. "I've commandeered some heavy-duty vehicles and I'm looking to take care of my family in the coming crisis, but I don't know where would be safe to go. I was thinking of heading up to Montana just because of the terrain and isolation, but it seems now that I'm not the only one paranoid that this is gonna get worse.

"I guess I don't know what exactly I'm trying to say, other than that I think this would be a heck of a lot easier with a little bit of help, and I think I'd be able to offer a significant asset to anyone willing to provide adequate shelter to a family of five. We're heading to go collect all of the useful material we can find, and we're going to be heading out from there this morning to a location out in the country. We're in the midwest currently, with a pretty decent range of travel."

Dean didn't know what exactly to expect, or what the full extent of his plan moving forward was going to be. So far, he had only planned to head back to the apartment, throw everything he could grab in the back of his Tacoma and these two dump-trucks, and then head for the rural community in Iowa he had grown up in. There were several farmhouses and barns that had been abandoned years ago, as well as his parents' house that could offer shelter. His childhood home was likely out of the question, though. If there would be a man-hunt for him and Genevieve over the stolen trucks, he would want to lay low and keep his mom and dad out of it.

Right now, it looked like it might be worth it to see if other options might be out there.

The crew of the Rangerover had heard all of the latest news from 3dog.
"Looks like its going to get worse before it gets better" said Stan.
"You know you cant eat rabbits for the rest of your life, right?" he said.
"Yeah i know, they'll deplete your body of vitamins until you eat something else." Said Bradley.
"Do you want to talk to those people?"
"I cant, we dont have a cb radio."
"Sure you can, just connect the bluetooth headset to the radio. It does wireless. You didnt read the manual did you?"
"Should i say something?"
"Hello, Testing, testing.. this is Stan MacStewart with the MacStewart community center upstate from Albany. Were gonna ride out the storm together with the rest of our family here. O-uhm. We cant offer space to anyone not from the clan but tradings always a possibility. Ok, over and out 3dog."

The Cars arrived at Plattsburgh and drove at a steady pace to the Community centre. Down a side road through some forest and there was the school. His mom and dads car were already there. Stan wheeled the Rangerover round and parked it and got out. The glass doors swung open and Jack came out and met the two sons in his embrace. Bradley didnt enjoy hugs but he got one all the same.

"Wheres mom?" Said Stan
"Shes in the kitchen cooking something for the new arrivals" Jack said
"And Ian and the rest?"
"I had a text from them about 2 hours ago, they say their moving upstate slowly with traffic."
Everybody else was exiting their cars and stretching their legs from the drive.
They all had assembled near the group. Stan turned.

"Well I dont go much for micromanagement. You can all decide where you're needed. No jobs for today, just get the food and unload the cars and make yourself at home. Theres some food being cooked up, i suggest you fill your tanks."

With that they all began unloading he cars. Stan turned to Jack. "And ninja?". "Hes in his box in the principals office."
Stan went straight into the principals office. There was a blue box, he went over to its front cage. A very sad and very put-upon "meow" came from the box.
"Hey there ninja, hey there" Stan opened the box and immediately the cat tried to force its face out the gap moving with its full body in the way cats do. "Ok you can come out, but for now you'll have to stay in this room. I'll get you some water." A littl while later and he'd set up his laptop and bose speaker in the principals office. He went to the old principals microphone-speaker system, something which had come with the whole place. He turned on some Music and put the speaker next to the microphone. He then exited the room. The speaker system played a diminished but still recognisable version of the music. He then went out to the parking lot to help with the luggage and boxes. Some of the speakers were present in the parking lot and the music blared out there too.

A little while later and Stan had helped move all the boxes into the kitchen. "I hope you brought plenty of spices." Said Fiona.
"Ah sorry mom, i forgot." He said. "Just as well i didnt." she smiled. "Nice music by the way".

A delicious meal of sweet potato soup with fried onions and bacon bits at the school dinner benches and everyone was talking.

Sandy said "Ive made an inventory of all the medical supplies we have. Im afraid we're really short on some things, i made a list."
Lewis: "If no one else is gonna do it i could stay on the radio and wait for any responses from family on their way up or threedog or something".
Stan: "Sure, go for it, the HAM radios in the principals room, and the speaker system for the schools in there too. You could hook them up. But dont let the cat get out."
Lewis: "You brought a cat?"
Bradley: "Yeah, ninja remember? Couldnt leave him on his own."
Jack: "Wheres the showers in this place?"
Fiona: "I think they're in the sports block, but is there any hot water?"
Stan: "There should be, because as long as the electricity holds out the heaters should be working. And we've always got battery power."

A little later half of everyone had gone to sleep in the cheap creaky aluminum beds. Stan went into one of the classrooms that had been left undefined, he unlocked it. Inside were a load of pelican cases with the weapons in them. He opened one of the smaller ones and took out a PPQ. He charged it with a mag and took another mag and slipped it into his pocket. He then tucked the PPQ into the pants waist of his dark red chino pants. He then left without locking the door on purpose. It was directly opposite the sleeping room so he feared nothing.

He saw that the light was beginning to dawn outside and checked his watch. It was 6am. He then went to the foyer to wait but passed by the faraday room. Brad and Lewis were setting up Lewis's alien ware desktop pc.
"What? Its 6am what are you doing?"
"Cant sleep. Too much excitement." said Lewis
"We're gonna finish that game of Hitman." "Why dont you join us?"
"Nah ive gotta wait to see if anybody else turns up." He then made his way over to the library room. Fiona was sitting in one of the comfortable leather chairs. She was reading something, probably something Buddhist. He waved. Went over and went to select a book from the action section. But he stopped, maybe a little bit too much action for one day. He looked a little further and found "How we evolve ourselves" in the science section. He went book in hand to wait in the foyer and sat on one of the cheap ikea sofas there.

It was early morning and Stan awoke with a start still sitting in the chair of the foyer. A volkswagon hatchback had rolled into the parking lot. He recognised it, got to his feet and strode forward, through the glass door and into the lot. Ian and William were just getting out of the car.
"Welcome, welcome. I guess it was a crazy journey?"
"Yes, sort of. Everyone in the country decided to move around like musical chairs was the safest thing to do." Said Ian in his trademark sardonic humour.
"Well come in, we've got some sweet potatoe soup left in the kitchen that you can warm up. Most everyones asleep... well atleast i think they are... I was..."
"Hi Will, hi Addison" he waved as they disembarked unloaded things from the car.
A little while later and they had warmed up some leftover soup, mugs of tea and bread.
Ian, who preferred not to talk to the young men had no other choice but to make small talk. "Well so what exactly's the plan here, we stay in the community centre, have wars like mad max with other groups over important things like sheep?"
Stan hesitated and then said "Well... i was thinking we could croft, like some of the old places up in the highlands. Deer, wild birds. You could even do some fishing... we have a boat."
"Ah, good... ive been planning a fishing holiday." said the Engineer as he drank some more tea.
"Soo...." Addison began folding her arms and rolling her eyes. "Hows the family been?"
"Everyones holding together hoping this will be over soon... we'll be expecting some more people."
"How many more?"
"Well theres plenty on the membership list. As many as turn up i suppose. A dozen or so???"
William let out a sigh as he tapped on his ipad. "Internets' still slow."
"Well, we have a computer room already set up, just off to the side of the foyer. Bradley and Lewis were setting up a computer last night. You dont know Lewis but hes from the other side of the family. Professional Drummer." William raised his eyebrows but then went back to his glum teenage look and then slunk off from the table to go find the others.
"Dont mind him. SO. Is there any jobs we can do?" Said Addison. Addison who had, of all things grown up on a sailing boat travelling the world with her father who as ex-military officer but somehow made domestic bliss look second nature with Ian.
"Its fine. Besides he hasnt had any sleep... neither of you have. Just get yourselfs ensconced and at home and i'll show you the boat later."
"What kind of boat is this we're talking about? Wooden barrel? Upturned bucket? Powered by blueberries?" said Ian.
"Oh... its a zoidiac." Stan said, not sure how to react to the joke.

Later on some people had woken up. Stan rallied Jack and Tom to go with im to show them around. He showed them the outdoor sheds the jetty, the zodiac and had gathered one of the nets hed put in the shed. He then walked into the woods towards where the water screw turbine house was.
"These woods are hopefully where we'll hunt. No messing about we need to get hunting as soon as possible and i was hoping you two would help me. We've got electric ATVs for brining back food and hunting rifles we'll train you on. I suggest taking the ATVs out a good one and a half kilomiters out to hunt. Stay in contact with Lewis, whos our radio operator with the bluetooth headsets. Theres probably too much commotion at the centre to get good game. Ducks and pheasants and whatever are probably a good idea with the shotguns. There will be arrow firing gass guns for bigger stuff on the ground like deer or whatever. Those will be silent so you'll have more of a chance."
They approached the water screw. "Right, im going to set up this net by the water screw. Sometimes fish come down here... i mean, i assume, because it says its designed that way." He made his way down the stony embankment and with Jack crossing over the other side they were able to pin a net with some rocks.
"We'll keep catching as much food as we can and vacuum packing it; we have an industrial vacuum packer. That way we'll have enough for winter."
"Whats the point in hunting when the shops are still open?" Jack said as he dutifully placed down a stone on the net.
"Well, exactly, today were going to go see what the local shops look like. I passed a strip mall on the way here."
"Yes i know the one." Said Jack.
"There... imagine if we catch a salmon, then we can have salmon." Stan said as he put down the final stone.
"What do you say? Up to an excursion to the shops?" He said looking everyone in the face.
"Sure, why not?" Said Tom.
After a silence Stan said. "We'll have to take some guns. From now on nobody leaves the centre unarmed. Its just a precaution."
"Im not sure, do we need to? I dont want to actually shoot anything." Said Tom.
"Dont." Said Stan. "They're just for show." He then added "Hopefully."
They then went to the armoury room and picked out 3 LWRC carbines. Loaded 3 mags each. And took two additional PPQ pistols.
Bradley and Stan then gave them a run down of gun safety. They stressed these points.
"The gun is always treated as if its loaded. Always. Even if its empty you dont point the barrel at anything you dont intend to die." Said Bradley. "Also, if you are in a gunfight and your ally is infront of you behind cover. You dont fire OVER their cover. Never fire over the cover. If they stand up suddenly, or bullets drop down, their dead. Bullets also skip on stuff like pebbles on water. so be careful and never fire near an ally unless you have to." Stan said. Then he added. "Theres a bit of a legal confusion over brandishing vs not brandishing. As of now im telling you we do not practice brandishing. If you have a pistol, you keep it hidden right up until the life or death moment. If someones being a bastard, try convincing them right up until the moment they threaten to kill someone. We dont want anyone to be able to gauge our strength because our strength is not that big." He then let the instructions sink in.

Just before they all got in the Rangerover, Stan stopped by Sandy to get the list of medicines they needed. Bradley was staying back this time and the team was made up of Stan, Jack and Tom. The sleek green Rangerover hybrid whined out of the parking lot driven again by Stan. Trees lined the road either side until they got out to the two way main road which had telephone wires and a few houses here and there. Not even twenty minutes passed and they were at the strip mall.

They pulled up to a shop that said "Seeds and Flowers" on the outside. Stan parked close to the building entrance which was easy as only a few cars were parked there. The building, which had metal bars on the windows had the lights on. Stan let his rifle hang from his back and peeked through the door window before entering followed by Jack and Tom. A woman of about 60 with her grey hair in a bun was behind the counter.
She eyed them suspiciously as they entered.
"Hello, im from the clan MacStewart community centre and..."
She eyed the black rifle barrel poking out from his back and began to back away.
Stan raised both hands palms empty "We have money. We have money." he quickly said.
"We have MONEY and we'll PAY you." He stressed the terms "We're from a community centre and we need some seeds for vegetables."
She looked a little confused and then called "Arnie?" to the back of the room which was filled with shelves of grow bags.
A moment passed and Stan kept his palms up for good measure. Then Arnie appeared. A younger, fitter, rotund looking man with black hair, of about the same age. "Can i help you?"
"Have you got any seeds for us to BUY." Stan said while trying to smile. "We're local" He added. "Just off church street, by the old summer camp. We were thinking we could grow some extra food and anyone that would sell to us we could enter into a business relationship, sell back to them stuff WE have. Safety in numbers. Until all of this has blown over..."
"We're all out of seeds." Arnie said.
Stan looked crestfallen.
"They were all bought up by the traffic that came through yesterday" Arnie said.
Arnie looked over the strange young man in front of him wearing the tartain pants.
"What community centre did you say you were from again?" he added.
"We're from the Clan MacStewart community centre up by the old summer camp. Theres a bunch of us." Stan said.
Arnie mulled this over for a nanosecond.
"You dont need seeds. You want vines and grow bags." He finally said, confidingly. "Noone bought any vines or soil."
Stan continued cautiously. "How many can you sell me?"
"I can let you have about 12 tomatoe and squash vines today. And about 12 more each month." He said slowly.
"Sounds good to me." Stan said looking at Jack and Tom. "Lets pay the man."
A little while later and the back trunk was filled with vines and soil bags.
When they were done Stan said "Ok lets check that pharmacy over there."

They walked across the carpark, passed the KFC restaurant. The pharmacy had its lights on, but the shelves were clearly completely empty. The bell rang as they went in.
"Hello? Anybody here? We'd just like to BU-" he stopped as he turned round the corner.
"An old lady was on her knees comforting a young man who had been shot." There was lots blood all over the floor, it was a deep red, too much. "Help, i dont know what to do!" She cried.
Stan darted over with Jack at his side. He bent down. "I-i tried calling the hospital but the lines too busy." She had obviously tried to staunch the bleeding by pressing down bandages but they were all soaked through onto the floor. She wore a pharmacist coat and name tag 'Gladys'. Stan immediately reached back into his pocket and took out a quick clot patch. "here this'll help stop the bleeding." "SOMEONE GET HIM SOME WATER QUICK." he shouted. The young man also wore a pharmacy labcoat and groaned deliriously. Stan took off the sodden bloody bandages, a big circular bullet hole right over his liver oozed blood and Stan slapped on the quick clot. He tried to poke the patch closer inside the hole but he was too squeamish to jam his finger in. "Oh Mark... oh Mark!" said the old lady. Tom appeared with a cup of water. Stan took it an tried to poor it down the mans throat. He groaned and swallowed. "We have to get him to a hospital. Theres one in town." Stan said. The woman who was in tears said. "You cant carry him! I'll get a hammock." and hurried to a back room. She appeared with a sheet and they lifted him onto it. They then grabbed each side and picked him up in the sheet. The young man groaned in pain but was too delirious to say anything. They quickly carried him back to the Rangerover and holding the man up with the strength of one arm Jack opened the rear doors. "What about the plants?" said Stan. "Theres no fucking time. We'll have to leave them in." Replied Jack. They piled the man ontop of the grow bags and Tom climbed in the back. The old lady got into the side door and Jack and Stan ran round to the front seats of the SUV and strapped their seatbelts. Stan hammered down the accelerator and tore out of onto the main road at top speed. "Tom, i need you to prop his legs up. WAY up there. Keep them WAY up there." Shouted Stan. The SUV revved as the accelerator kept going up gears. There was nobody else on the road and they hit top speed after about 6 seconds. "Whats going on?" Stan heared Lewis in the bluetooth earpiece. "Ive found a random man shot and we're proceeding to hospital." Stan said slowly and with concentration. After a little while he heard Lewis respond. "What do you need me to do?", "Stay on the line, the hospitals just coming up.". They rounded to the main entrance and Stan honked the horn and hit the brakes which squealed to a halt. In a moment they were out of the vehicle and Stan ran into the hospital. "A PHARMACISTS BEEN SHOT! I NEED A DOCTOR!" A moment later some nurses and a doctor came running out with a gurney. The young doctor called out "Wheres he been shot?" Stan said "the liver... it... it looks like the liver.", "i need to get him into an operating room, quick." called the doctor. He looked at the guns. "We didnt..." Stan began "I dont care." replied the doctor as he ran up with the gurney. The old lady Gladys disappeared with them into the hospital. In a moment they were gone and the 3 were left standing on the concrete driveway. Leaving bloody bootprints, Silently they got back into the car. "We've handed him off to the hospital, Lewis. We're heading back to the strip mall."
On the drive back, adrenalin pumping, this time obeying the speed limit. They parked at the strip mall and Stan pulled the break handle back. They sat silently. Stan breathed in and then breathed out a big sigh. "Well, that was unexpected." he waited another moment. "C'mon lets finish the job." He popped open the door and got out into the carpark. He took out the list. "Doesnt look like we'll get any of those medicines today." He looked up at the KFC. "But how about some food? Its getting about lunchtime." He set off to the KFC, Jack and Tom followed. The lights were off but the glass front door was ajar. He took out his rifle from its sling and wielded it one hand as he opened the door with the other. "Hello?" He entered the gloom. The lights were on by the kitchen. There were illuminated signs saying "6 piece meal." and etc. There was a strong smell of frying and the faint sound of boiling in the background. Stan walked as quietly as he could. He reached the cashier tills and walked around. He could see that the tills had been opened and the cash swiped clean. "Huh." He said half to himself. He then turned his attention to the kitchen and advanced slowly around the corner. The frying vats were still bubbleing, boiling infact, actually he could see some blue smoke raising up from them. JESUS A FIRE! He went to the dails on the front and switched them all off. He saw the wires heading back to a fuse box, someone had put a nail in the fuse socket. So this is how it was? Swipe the cash and arson the building to cover your tracks. Jack and Tom surveyed the situation. "Well how about that? Ambulance AND fire preventers?!" Stan said jokingly. "I dont know about you, but i'd say preventing a building from burning down has urnt us a free lunch just as soon as these fryers cool down" He then went to the managers room at the back of the building. The vault was open. "Ah, an inside job." He went back to the kitchen and over to the fridge and opened it. There were huge bags of chicken. He took some from the open bag and dropped them into the fryer. He passed some giant cans of cooking oil. "Thats what we need. Cooking oil!" He picked up the cans and started to load them onto the cash desk. "You want to just, TAKE these?" Said Jack. "If it werent for us, the whole building would have burnt to the crisp, heck the entire strip mall, I say we eat our lunch and go."
"This doesn't feel right." said Tom.
"Ive had a rough day and i want some chicken." Stan retorted.
"He does have a point." said Jack. "People have gone crazy and we dont know when we'll get more food."
Tom just shook his head. He took out his wallet, a sleek black hugo boss leather affair and opened it to reveal a huge wodge of hundreds. He took one out and placed it on the chash desk.
A little while later they were eating at one of the KFC stalls. Even Tom to everyone's surprise. They eat silently, enjoying their ill gotten just reward of self service KFC.
Stan broke the silence by getting out the list again. "Humm, alcohol to disinfect and dull pain." he read out. Ofcourse, there weren't any pain killers in the centre. Lots of iodine, no pain killers. "Ok after this we'll try the liquor shop." They finished up and Jack and Stan loaded the cans of cooking oil into the Rangerover.
"Ok stick close." he said.

They all walked up to the liquor shop. Stan had a bad feeling about this as he saw the glass window was broken. He opened the door quietly and slipped inside.
Inside was a room full to bursting with alcohol of every different type. Nothing had been touched he walked slowly and noticed there wasnt much glass to step on... He approached the desk counter his hand hovering over his pistol holster... a man was sitting with his back turned to them. He hadnt heard them enter. An open bottle of scotch sat next to him and a radio was playing 3 dog. "Hello?" Stan called.
The man wheeled around, eyes flashing white and pulled out a pump action shotgun. "WOW, WOW, WOW" Stan shouted "FRIENDLIES, FRIENDLIES!!" The mans burst of speed had got the drop on all of them he was standing up, aiming at Stan. He had white stubble and thinning hair.
"Get out the way you came." The grizzled looking man said.
"Friendlies! We just want to buy..."
"GET OUT. You scavengers are all the same. I heard the shots next door."
"That wasnt us! We helped! We took the guy to the hospital."
The man looked confused and angry. Lowered the shotgun to his hip.
"I saw. It wasnt you. It was that other guy. I took a shot at him through my window. The guy with the white Ferrari."
"A white Ferrari?" Stan repeated.
"But you still have to LEAVE."
"Ok, we're leaving, we're leaving." Slowly they backed out awkwardly out of the door.
They went back to the car and got in.
"Lets go, not every store visit has to be a victory." He said as he hit the indicators.
"A white Ferrari?" Said Jack.
Stan slowly blew air out of his teeth. "Some people..."