"Just drive by..." Danny mutters to himself and for a second it looks like it might but then it stops and the door opens.

Danny expects to see the Sheriff but instead a fat body climbs out and waddles over.

It's a middle aged man who has stretched out his uniform so far it looks like spandex yet he still holds his hands onto his belt as he walks like his pants are about to fall down.

He has thick glasses and a unkempt beard that probably has food stuck in it.

Danny ducks behind a bookshelf.

"Jen... Jen..." he calls to her in the darkness, trying to keep his voice low. "We have company..."

Jen doesn't respond.

Danny can hear the Deputy talking to himself, muttering.

When the plaque hit, first it was the masks, then it was the hand sanitizer and then toilet paper. The food supply took awhile to dwindle but as distributors and truck drivers got ill the supply lines got cut off and food became scarce. But it didn't look like this cop had any problems finding a meal.

"Holy shit fire..." he heard the cop mutter to myself. The beam of a flash light hit the window where Jen had broken it out.

"I knew it..." the fat Deputy said, tapping at the window with sausage fingers.

"Sheriff... Sheriff come in!" he heard the cop say and Danny realized he was using his radio.

Fuck.

"What is it Phil? I'm a little fucking busy here" a voice came back over the radio. Even though it was crackly, Danny recognized it as the Sheriff.

"I got something at the library!" the Deputy shouted back. "Broken window. I see a rock nearby too. Looks like someone broke in!"

There was a pause then a crackling and the same voice as before, tone changed.

"Stay right there. Do not go in Phil. Do you hear me? I'll be right there..."

The radio went silent.

"Don't go in?" Phil muttered to himself. "Whatever..."

Phil disappeared and Danny tried to call for Jen again, but there was no response. Then came a rustling of metal against wood and chains and Danny realized fat Phil was opening the pad lock. He even heard him chuckling to himself.

"I'm going to get you... hehehe"

What was with this guy?

All at once the door flew open and Danny scooped up the books and, staying low, raced behind a further bookshelf.

"Here's Johnny!" Phil said to himself in an awkward whisper, and made his way in.

As he came into what little light remained Danny saw he had his gun drawn, but also noticed something else. He seemed to be muttering to himself in a low tone and nodding his head rapidly.

"Is this guy retarded?" Danny asked himself. It wasn't a politically correct way to put it, but clearly this guy didn't have all his marbles and Danny felt the second he was seen he would be shot no questions asked.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Jen popped out of the shadows with a box in her hand, totally oblivious to what was going on, and was about to speak when she saw Danny crouching at the corner of her eye signaling to her to get down. She did immediately and ducked behind a bookshelf before making her way with the box over to Danny.

"We've got company" he said and both of them started putting the books into the box. "We've got to get the hell out of here. The Sheriff is on the way."

Jen nodded.

"There's another way out in the back I found" she whispered. "Come on, follow me..."

Danny nodded and staying low made their way in the direction Jen had gone looking for something to carry the books. They may have made it out if it wasn't Danny bumping one of the book cases, sending a rotating globe crashing to the ground.

Phil spun in the direction of the crash and fired an errant shot, or so it appeared, but the globe exploded as he shot it and shards of plastic went everyone. Fat boy could aim.

Jen, thinking the shot had been aimed at her jumped up and in doing so exposed herself. Phil spun the gun towards her and Danny thought for sure Jen's head was able to look like the globe, only with lots of blood and brains, but Phil didn't shoot.

"Freeze!" he said and he sounded nervous, panicked even. His hands shook that were holding the gun, which made Danny nervous he was going to accidentally shoot.

"Wait..." Danny said in the darkness and Phil focused his gun in his direction.

"I'm coming up, don't shoot" Danny said and stood hands up.

"Danny, what the fuck!?" Jen shouted at him and Phil jerked his gun back and forth between them.

"Hey hey! Relax" Danny said. "We surrender, ok? Just relax... Xir isn't going to want us dead and you can be the man that brought us to him alive."

Phil's eyes got big and he smiled.

"That's right..." he muttered to himself. "Don't you fucking move!" he barked at them as he picked up his radio.

He pressed the bottom and spoke into the radio.

"Sheriff! Sheriff! Come on!" he said excitedly and for reasons that would become clear in a moment his voice was a static filled echoed in another part of the room. "I found the intruders, Sheriff! And you're not going to believe this! It's the ones Xir has..."

Suddenly Phil's head exploded. Pieces of bone and blood and brain matter splattered the walls, the books and a poster with a skateboarding rabbit that said "Reading is Kool, Dude!"

Jen and Danny stood there stunned, unmoving. Jen dropped the box of books in her hand and it hit the floor.

From the shadows a figure emerged. It was Sheriff Clay.

He looked down at what was left of Phil, shook his head and sighed, rubbing the butt of the gun against his temple.

"Okay..." he said, clearly nervous. "We have to go. Right now."