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First in the cart were sacks of beans; black, red and pinto Next went every spare bag of rice she could lay her hands on, both white and brown Once her cart was half-full with rice and beans she pushed the heavy cart to the next aisle and began throwing canned soups, vegetables and fruits into the cart As she struggled to turn the over-burdened cart towards the front of the store, she heard a faint electrical hurew louder by the second until—POP!
As the lights in the store blinked out, the screah the front hich were nearly cos were about to get extremely hairy, Dianne barreled down the aisle and skidded around the turn at the end, knocking over the endcap as she worked to keep the cart upright Ahead of her, the chaos had grown to a level she could scarcely believe The cashiers had all but fled their posts, leaving the custoh the checkout lanes to escape the store People of all ages fought viciously with each other, though she was so hadn’t escalated past fists and using shopping carts as battering rams
Since Dianne was off to the side of the checkout and away fro through her purse and pull out several twenty-dollar bills She shouted at the lone clerk who re a shirt and pants that were two sizes too large for him
“Hey!” Dianne shouted at hiain, and he turned to look at her, wide-eyed “Here!” Dianne wasn’t about to leave without paying, and she balled up the money and threw it at him It landed on the floor next to hiister refused to open and no one could pay with a credit card, so Dianne wasn’t exactly sure what he could do with the money She still felt better than she would have if she had si to pay
As the cashier picked up Dianne’s money, the people ere at the front of the line realized that they weren’t going to be able to pay with their cards, and beganthat there was about to be a ainst the heavy cart and rolled it towards the autoes in case of eainst the her a quick escape fro for the side of the store where she parked the truck, the screa from behind her took on a new, fevered pitch as the hordes of custooods and resort to si out with as much as they could carry
As Dianne rounded the corner to the side of the building, she looked back and saw the first strea lot Glass shattered behind theh the frontand tu her head, Dianne turned back around to look at her truck, only to stop as she saw that she wasn’t alone
Approaching the rear of the truck, Dianne could see twoblue jeans and hoodies and wielding crowbars One of the men stood off to the side while his acco at the driver’s sideand the back left ith the crowbar, grunting as it si so et through this?” The ruible in return
“Hey!” Dianne pulled the shopping cart to a stop and shouted at the men They turned abruptly and stared at her as she reached behind her back and pulled out a snub-nosed 45 revolver and dren on them “Get the hell away from my truck! Now!”
Caught unawares, theon thedropped his crowbar and fled, leaving the other one to shout at hi back to Dianne “Hey! Get back here you idiot! Oh screw off, lady, and give me the keys before I beat your head in” The man took a step towards Dianne and raised the crowbar She responded by cal careful aim at the man’s chest
“I said to get the hell away fro, and thebetween her face and the revolver a few ti no further than two steps before she squeezed the trigger It had been several weeks since she had last practiced firing the revolver, and she had forgotten how much it kicked, not to mention how much noise it made Her would-be assailant screa the side of his ribcage, tu as it went
“Bitch!” He shouted as he scra the crowbar in her direction as he ran away from the truck and pursued his acco the revolver trained on hiain that she didn’t even notice the crowbar arcing through the air until it slaainst the side of her head The heavy piece ofan explosion of light cascading through her brain She nearly dropped to one knee frorabbing onto the cart with her left hand while her right began to shake as she kept the revolver trained on thelot and soon disappeared
It took all of Dianne’s willpower to fight through the explosive pain in her head without falling to the ground, but she slowly tucked the gun into the holster at the small of her back and pushed the cart up next to the back of the truck Keeping her blurred vision trained on the direction the twofrom the store into the back of the truck until the cart was empty, then she moved around to the driver’s side door She pulled at the handle twice before re that she needed the keys, which she quickly retrieved and used to unlock the truck She jumped in, locked the doors and took a deep breath
“Mom?”
Dianne ju et that her kids were still in the back seat She turned around and pulled off the blanket that was covering them to reveal their terrified faces as they crouched on the back floor “Mark! Jacob! Josie! Are you okay?”
“We’re fine, ot up off the floor and crawled forward into the passenger’s seat