The security guard must have noticed her uneasiness and tried to explain. “The lobby is being cleaned up. An emergency thing, sort of. So, you better use a backup garage exit. And, the manager has just informed me that when you are ready to go back up in your room, to come through the garage. It seems the main entrance will be closed for a while.”

Tala did not know what to think about that, so the man added. “That way you will not have to deal with any police that's present in the lobby now, if you know what I mean.”

“Okay, that's good to know,” Tala said, still uncertain what was to happen once they arrived in the garage.

“Do you need us to call our driver to give you a ride?"

“Is that the same guy who drove us from the airport? I think he said his name was Willie."

“Oh, Willie, yeah, he called in sick today. I think there is someone else.”

“No, that's okay then. We'll get our own ride. Thank you though.”

The door opened

“You have yourself a good day. Yeah, and you want to go toward the East exit. You'll be able to get the ride there fastest. The police are blocking the other street, I'm afraid.”

As the elevator door closed behind them, Tala heard the security guard speak before the elevator took him up, probably to his superior, “How did they look? Scared as shit, how else. Yes, I told them about coming back through the garage.

Chitto was two steps away and he had already contacted Drew, the same guy who gave them the ride yesterday.

“The same guy?” Tala asked him with disapproval.

“Yes. He said he can be here in two minutes.”

“Well, at least we won't have to wait.”

Half an hour later, they arrived at an old warehouse with a huge sign in front of it saying “Big Tom's Firing Range”.

A small cubby guy inside with unkempt hair and an untrimmed beard welcomed them right away, and after Tala showed her passport, he asked what he could do for them.

They explained they wanted to learn how to handle and fire a gun, and the guy with a grin and confidence said, “Well, you came to the right place. We even give lessons here.”

They picked an hour-long learning course that included shooting from three different handguns, twenty-four rounds each, with instructions on how to handle the weapon, clean and maintain it.

The place was completely empty, so the instructor was the chubby short guy who said his name was Nick.

Tala thought she would hate the noise, but then the guy gave her the earplugs, and then the noise became bearable. She let Chitto shoot first, and he just would not have enough of it.

So, she asked for an extra 60 rounds, and off they went to shoot some more.

The gun was just not her thing, and it showed as it was hard for her to hit the target, bullets flying all around it.

“Good to see that at least in something I am better than you,” Chitto told her after she shot a few rounds.

That ticked her off a bit, so she decided to buy another 60 rounds and train on her own.

By the end of it, she found that she could actually hit the target. Not the center, but if it was close enough. Certainly a lot better than she did with the first rounds.

She turned around, happy with herself, hoping to laugh into Chitto's face to notice that he was not there.

She looked around but all the firing lines were empty.

Cautiously, with a gun in her hand, she went to the front desk.

There she saw Chitto byfriending Nick over two bottles of sodas and chatting away.

"So, you say you were there? You saw that guy?" "Yes! He came running at us, and we had to hide." "No, shit. And then what happened?" "Well this, black guy came up, and the zombie attacked him and.."

Chitto was into talking and explaining so much that he did not see Tala giving him signals to shut up.

"And you say... afterward, this guy, this driver of yours... he gave you a lift? You went inside the car with him?" Chitto nodded his head innocently and was ready to say something else, but then the sound of a shotgun checking made him stop.

The next second he was staring at the barrel of the shotgun that the desk guy pulled out from somewhere underneath, now pointing it directly at Chitto's face. There was a moment that froze Tala's heart. She watched in disbelief, too far away to do anything as the gun was pointed at her brother's head, a man itching to pull the trigger. She thought about jumping him, thought about raising the gun to point it at his fat head and telling him to drop the shotgun. But in an instant, she remembered the gun was empty, and that if she did that, it might just escalate the situation, so she just put her gun on the counter, made the man take his eyes off Chitto, and cast her a quick look. “We don't want no trouble. I'll pay an extra hundred bucks for your inconvenience.”

"I'd like you to leave now," the guy asked. “Leave the money and go.”

"We are leaving!" Tala screamed, pulling Chitto who was frozen with shock away.

The man husked to put the face mask on as Tala pushed Chitto away. Tala turned around to see the man standing there in the window, watching them, his hands still holding a shotgun and an expression on his face that said he regretted not using that shotgun on them.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

By driveway, she picked up a rock, but then dropped it to the ground. It was too big. Picked a smaller one that set just right in her hand as she bounced it a few times. And then she turned around and with all the force of her Blacksmith Strike, she threw it at the shotgun guy staring at them through the window.

It smashed the glass window into countless pieces and hit the guy in the head, knocking his lights out and sending him to kiss his dirty floor.

"Dumb fuck!" she said as she pulled her brother's hand and ran down the driveway on the street and away from the warehouse. "You dumb bastard! Scaring my brother like that! Hope zombies feast on your fat ass tonight!"

[Karma balance update.

Karma - 5 points]

flashed in her head, but she did not mind.

"Sorry," Chitto said, feeling bad for running his mouth. "I really did not think people could... behave like that."

"Fuck it. What can you do? It was not your fault. The guy was a bastard."

"You freakin' nailed him," he said and she looked at him and started to laugh and they started to run and laugh at the same time.

"No more victims! We won't be anybody's victims anymore!!" she screamed.

Later, when they got tired of running, Chitto called for a ride, and when the same old white Toyota appeared, Tala cursed and asked him with disapproval, “You called the same guy again?”

“Yes.”

“Gee... what's up with you?”

“I like him. He has a very trustworthy face.”

“Shit, is that what you thought about the shotgun guy at the firing range?”

“Yeah, I guess I got it wrong there. Still... I feel bad you knocked him out. That was some throw though.”

“Yes, if this zombie apocalypse fails to stick, I may try my luck with baseball. I bet a lot of teams would pay for an arm like mine.”

“You are so bad. But, you know... if we ever run into him again, he'll remember us.”

“Good! And if he ever points his gun at us again, it won't be a piece of a rock that will end on his head. Fucken' asshole.”

”Where to?” Drew asked, happy to see them again.

“What's good to see around here? Any... special places?" Chitto asked.

"There is a famous Zoo here...”

"No, how about some true American diner? I mean We had some shitty food downtown."

“It was not bad. Great salats.”

“Oh, please, who comes to the US and eats salats?”

Drew laughed and said, “I know a good dinner.”

“Really?”

"It's out of town, but if you don't mind a ride...”

“No, take us away,” Chitto said swiftly before Tala could protest.

“And what is this place?” Tala wanted to know.

”I'll take you to the TruckStop Diner. It's an old place, but has great burgers and even better pies."

“Now we talking,” Chitto said.

“Is it good?” Tala asked.

"Is that good?' 'You like burgers that run down your fingers?'

Never had those. "they are good.'

“Oh, yeah, and we need to stop someplace and buy some ammo. And guns,” Chitto added.

“Oh, you like those?”

“No,” Tala said. “We hate them, that's why we will buy some.”

“Don't mind her. We just want a few pieced, for protection, you know.”

“Yeah, A lot of crazy stuff going around now. I hear there is this new drug in town, and people going crazy.”

“Is that so.”

“Yeah. So I understand. But not me. I'm anti-gun all the way.”

“Yeah, we'll see about that,” Tala muttered but decided not to collaborate on what she meant.

Drew dropped them off at the dinner that looked nothing special except it was out of town and had a lot of parking space around, mostly unoccupied. Before he drove off, Chitto asked him to wait for them and said that he would not mind paying for his time.

But as they sat down by the window boot, Chitto had a change of heart. “I do not like watching him sitting there in the car while we eat here.”

“So, then go and send him away,” Tala asked him while she was looking at an old plastic menu with pictures of menu items.

“No, actually, I'll ask him to come in,” he said and before his sister could protest, he got up and left.

“Hey, Drew, why don't you come inside and join us?”

He saw doubt on Drew's face so he swiftly added. “My sister said you should come, that it's her treat, that she'd pay. She actually insisted.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, she said, it would be nice to... talk to you.”

“Really.”

“Yeah, I think she likes you, buddy”

“What?”

“Never mind. Just come.”

“Okay. If you think it's okay.”

“Yeah, I actually do."

Tala ordered a Philly steak sandwich, Drew got a grilled chees with coleslaw and Chitto finally got himself a double cheese with bacon.

It was more than he could finish, but Tala decided to help him as her huge serving seemed to have still left some empty room in her stomach.

Then they each ordered different pies and as they feasted on them, Tala decided to ask Drew a question.

“So, what kind of a guy are you, Drew?” she said, looking at him straight in the eyes.

“What?”

“I mean, you don't like burgers, you don't like guns, you can't drive...”

“What?”

“You almost crashed us five times to get here,” Tala said.

“That was not my fault.”

“Oh, okay, so is that the kind of a guy you are? Not-my-fault kind of a guy?”

It took a moment for Drew to compose himself and then he squinted his eyes and stared at Tala and said it with full confidence, “I’m the smartest guy you will ever meet.”

But Tala would not have it. She squinted her own eyes as she stared him back and said, “Really? That means…”

His smile was turning into the epitome of cockiness when she finished I. “You're smarter than me. And that means... I’m completely fucked! I mean, if that is the truth, I have no future. Because, you, buddy, you’re dumber than an elephant riding a bicycle.”

Chitto scoffed. “She does not mean it. She just says stuff… you know, and…”

“Whatever,” Tala said. “I need to go to the restroom.”

When she was gone far enough not to be able to hear him, Drew asked, his face still reddened from Tala's comment. “What was that about?”

“Yeah, she can be mean.”

“Very mean.”

“Yeah, but only to people she likes. I mean, if she did not like you, she’d like not paying any attention to you, or… she would just... throw a rock at you, or use a hammer to hit you with.”

“Oh, shit. She is one of that kind?”

“Yeah. My sister. I hate that I love her.”

“What the hell were you talking to that guy about?” Tala asked in Japanese once she came back

“Nothing,” he answered in Japanese as well.

“Chitto?”

“Nothing.”

“He’s behaving so weird. Looking at me… all the time. So weird. I just wish he would stop. Making me so… very uncomfortable.”

“Well, maybe he likes you.”

“What? I hope not. Did you see his face? He has more pimples on it than the whole of your class combined.”

“What? That’s just one? How can you be so heartless?”

“I’m not heartless. I just can’t like the guy. He’s so… unable to drive and got us lost. You've noticed that did you? I mean, how do you get lost with maps on your phone?"

"I..."

"Oh, come on, Chitto. He’s rather useless, you know.”

“Well…”

“And ugly… He like fits so perfectly in this zombie apocalypse. They would not even attack him, consider him one of their own. No makeup required.”

“Heartless, that’s what you are.”

Just to prove that he was not right, Tala gave Drew the nicest smile she could do and then politely said, “You picked a really good place, Drew, I think it was exactly what we wanted.”

“Yeah, I’m glad you liked it. I used to come here with my dad. But that was… a long time ago.”

As Drew drove them away, Chitto had a great idea.

"Can you be like our... driver for a few days and we pay you upfront... So, I don't need to call you all the time. I don't know, how much would you charge?"

"A whole day service?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I can do it for three hundred bucks. Does that sound okay to you? Gas included?"

"Okay. But you better offer some free water with that," Tala added.

"I can do that."

"She’s just kidding. Drive us nice, and we'll even tip you."

"Fine... So, then, where do you want to go next?"

"Hollywood."

"Shit," Drew cursed, thinking of the long ride.

"No, my brother was just kidding. We need to stay in here, San Diego," Tala corrected him and then reminded him that they needed to stay at the hotel since Howey was to meet them there.

“Actually, since we learned how to shoot, we might as well buy a handgun or two and some ammo, don’t you think?” she said and looked at her brother who lighted up.

Then she turned to her system and accepted the second and the third mission on her list.