Four shots. That left two – unless Jamal had brought extras. Jack couldn’t imagine a guy like Jamal thinking that far ahead.
On his way toward the rear, switching aisles at every opportunity, he heard Ecuador shouting from the far side of the store.
“Jamal! You get him? You get him?”
“No. Fucker almost got me! I catch him I’m gonna skin him alive.”
“Ain’t got time for that! Truck be here soon! Gotta get inna the safe! Wilkins! Get back here and start lookin!”
“Who’s gonna watch the front, dog?”
“Fuck the front! We’re locked in, ain’t we?
“Yeah, but–”
“Find him!”
“A’ight. Guess I’ll have to show you boys how it’s done.”
Jack now had a pretty good idea where Ecuador and Jamal were – too near the barbecue section to risk going back. So he moved ahead. Toward Wilkins. He sensed that if this chain had a weak link, Wilkins was it.
Along the way he scanned the shelves. He still had the spatula, the comb, and the butane match but needed something flammable.
Antibiotic ointments… laxatives… marshmallows…
Shit.
He zigged and zagged until he found the hair-care aisle. Possibilities here. Needed a spray can.
What the–?
Every goddamn bottle was pump action. He wanted fluorocarbons. Where were fluorocarbons when you needed them?
He ran down to the deodorant section. Everything here was either a roll-on or a smear-on. Whatever happened to Right Guard?
He spotted a green can on a bottom shelf, half hidden behind a Mitchum’s floor display. Brut. He grabbed it and scanned the label.
DANGER: Contents under pressure… flammable…
Yes!
Then he heard Wilkins singsonging along the neighboring aisle, high as the space station.
“Hello, Mister Silly Man. Where aaaare youuu? Jimmy’s got a present for you.” He giggled. “No, wait. Jimmy’s got six – count em – six presents for you. Come and get em.”
High as the space station.
Jack decided to take him up on his offer.
He removed the Brut cap as he edged to the end of the aisle and flattened against the shelf section separating him from Wilkins. He raised the can and held the tip of the match next it. The instant Wilkins’s face came into view, Jack reached forward, pressing the nozzle and triggering the match. A ten–inch jet of flame engulfed Wilkins’s eyes and nose.
He howled and dropped the gun, lurched away, kicking and screaming. His dreads had caught fire.
Jack followed him. He used the spatula to knock off the can’s nozzle. Deodorant sprayed a couple of feet into the air. He shoved the can down the back of Wilkins’s oversized jeans and struck the match. His seat exploded in flame. Jack grabbed the pistol and trotted into an aisle. Screams followed him toward the back.
One down, three to go.
He checked the pistol as he moved. An old .38 revolver with most of its bluing rubbed off. He opened the cylinder. Six hardball rounds. A piece of crap, but at least it was his piece of crap.
The odds had just become a little better.
A couple of pairs of feet started pounding toward the front. As he’d hoped, the screams were drawing a crowd.
He heard cries of “Oh, shit” and “Oh, fuck!” and “What he do to you, bro?”
Wilkins wailed in a glass-breaking pitch. “Pepe! Help me, man! I’m dyin!”
Pepe… now Ecuador had a name.
“Si,” Pepe said. “You are.”
Wilkins screamed, “No!”
A booming gunshot – had to come from the .357.
“Fuck!” Jamal cried. “I don’t believe you did that!”
A voice called from the back. “What goin on dere, mon? What hoppening?”
“‘S’okay, Demont!” Pepe called back. “Jus stay where you are!” Then, in a lower voice to Jamaclass="underline" “Wilkins jus slow us down. Now find that fuck fore he find a phone!”
Jack looked back and saw a plume of white smoke rising toward the ceiling. He waited for the alarm, the sprinklers.
Nothing.
What did he have to do – set a bonfire?
He slowed as he came upon the employee lounge again. Nah. That wasn’t going to work twice. He kept going. He was passing the ice cream freezer when something boomed to his right and a glass door shattered to his left. Ice cream sandwiches and cones flew, gallons rolled.
Jack spotted Demont three aisles away, saw him pumping another shell into the chamber of his shotgun. He ducked back as the top of the nearest shelf exploded in a cloud of shredded tampons.
“Back here, mon! Back here!”
Jack hung at the opposite endcap until he heard Demont’s feet crunch on broken glass in the aisle he’d just left. He eased down the neighboring lane, listening, stopping at the feminine hygiene area as he waited for Demont to come even.
As he raised his pistol and held it two inches from the flimsy metal of the shelving unit’s rear wall, he noticed a “personal” douche bag box sitting at eye level. Personal? Was there a community model?
When he heard Demont arrive opposite him, he fired two shots. He wanted to fire four but the crappy pistol jammed. On the far side Demont grunted. His shotgun went off, punching a hole in the dropped ceiling.
Jack tossed the pistol. Demont would be down but not out. Needed something else. Douche bags had hoses didn’t they? He opened the box. Yep – red and ribbed. He pulled it out
Footsteps pounded his way from the far side of the store as he peeked around and spotted Demont clutching his right shoulder. He’d dropped the shotgun but was making for it again.
Jack ran up and kicked it away, then looped the douche hose twice around his scrawny neck and dragged him back to the ruined ice cream door. He strung the hose over the top of the metal frame and pulled Demont off his feet. As the little man kicked and gagged, Jack slammed the door, trapping the hose. He tied two quick knots to make sure it didn’t slip, then dove through the empty frame for the shotgun. He pumped out the spent shell, chambered a new one, and pulled the trigger just as Jamal and Pepe rounded the corner.
Pepe caught a few pellets, but Jamal, leading the charge, took the brunt of the blast. His shirtfront dissolved as the double-ought did a pulled-pork thing on his overdeveloped pecs. Pepe was gone by the time Jack chambered another shell. Looked back: Demont’s face had gone pruney, his kicks feeble. Ahead: Jamal lay spread eagled, staring at the ceiling with unblinking eyes.
Now what? Go after Pepe or start that fire?
Fire. Start a big one. Get those red trucks rolling.
But which way to the barbecue section? He remembered it being somewhere near the middle.
Three aisles later he found it – and Pepe too, who was looking back over his shoulder as he passed it. Jack raised the shotgun and fired, but Pepe went down just before the double ought arrived. Not on purpose. He’d slipped in the spilled lighter fluid. The shot went over his head and hit the barbecue supplies. Bags of briquettes and tins of lighter fluid exploded. Punctured cans of Raid whirly-gigged in all directions, fogging the air with bug killer.
Pepe slipped and slid as he tried to regain his feet – would have been funny if he hadn’t been holding a .357. Jack pumped again, aimed, and pulled the trigger.
Clink.
The hammer fell on an empty chamber.
Pepe was on his knees. He smiled as he raised his pistol. Jack ducked back and dove for the floor as one bullet after another slammed through the shelving of the cough and cold products, smashing bottles, drenching him with Robitussin and Nyquil and who knew what else.
Counted six shots. Didn’t know if Pepe had a speed loader and didn’t want to find out. Yanked the butane match from his back pocket and lit her up. Jammed a Sucrets pack into the trigger guard, locking the flame on, then tossed it over the shelf. He heard no whoomp! like gasoline going up, but he did hear Pepe cry out in alarm. The cry turned to screams of pain and terror as the spewing Raid cans caught.