Ridox grinned widely, launching herself into George’s arms. She laughed a bit, immediately brightening everyone’s mood.

“Vic’!” smiled the streamer, hugging her tightly. “You arrived sooner than we expected!”

Ezra grimaced, looking rather stressed about that.

“She drives like a madman. She almost killed us twice and ran over a raccoon!”

“He was on the way! He had it coming.”

George took a step back, frowning. He knew his friend by heart and he was anxiously waiting for the next sentence.

“Tonight we’re eating raccoon for dinner!” exclaimed with great enthusiasm the young woman.

And there went his appetite.

“It’s out of question, we are not eating something you ran over, Ridox. You want to poison us?”

“What if I do?” she snickered.

“Then please do it,” sighed Chris, arriving silently behind her, making her jump.

“Amadeo! Long-time no see, pal!” she immediately exclaimed when she saw him, hugging him tightly. “Where’s Ash?”

“Probably in the toilets, as always. Please don’t feed him raccoon, he’ll die instantly.”

The group went down the stairs, lighting up candles after verifying if the blinds were correctly closed.

“We’ve seen many buses on our way here. I was worried that you would follow them,” said Ezra. “They were packed with people. I don’t know where they are going.”

“Most probably south. People hope to find some warmth and sunlight down there. But I don’t think that rallying Texas is a good idea.”

George sighed, leaning back into his chair.

“Good thing is that now we have a whole city for us to survive.”

“Um, about that…” started Ridox with a frown. “We’ve seen strange things on our way here.”

“How strange?” asked Eliott, crossing his arms on his chest.

“A lot strange. It looked like really slender wolves but two times bigger. I’ve only caught a glimpse of those but they were three for sure.”

George and Eliott exchanged a look, one tweet from Signe coming back into their mind.

Don’t stay alone. It will create monsters you don’t want to see.

They both frowned, getting a bit more serious.

“Do you think we should arm ourselves?”

“Yeah, definitely,” answered Vic’. “Against those or possible intruders. We never know if some people are still here or not and what their intentions are.”

“We should go to the gun shop as soon as possible.”

“Why not now?”

George glanced at Chris and nodded. The sooner they had weapons the better it would be.

“Let’s go then.”

“It’s past 8, maybe we should wait for the morning? Maybe the shopkeeper is still there?” proposed Eliott, clearly not liking the idea of breaking into a shop.

“Eli’, the shops are closed, the owners left hours ago. And if not, well too bad but we need those weapons.”

His best friend agreed quietly, nervously chewing his bottom lip.

“Hey, stop that. If you don’t want to get involved in that, stay here. We don’t need to be thirty to break into a shop.”

Eliott shook his head firmly, getting up.

“If you go, I’ll go with you. You have a stupid talent to put yourself into embarrassing situations, I want to make sure everything goes smoothly.”

“That’s cool and all but how do we break in this shop?” asked Chris, looking jaded as usual. “Weapons are more protected than any other shop. What if the alarm goes off and attracts the things Ezra and Ridox saw earlier?”

“We’ll crash the car in, I don’t have much gas left in it anyway,” said Ridox with the usual confidence that filled her voice. “If you are afraid of those things or any other shitty thing that can fall onto us, we’ll go armed. I bet you guys have some bats or things like this in the basement. I have one in my car trunk.”

“Ridox, each time I talk to you, you resemble a bit more to the Russian clichés that we see on the web,” sighed Chris with a defeated tone. “But fine. We’ll do it like that. But if I ever learn about you having robbed a bank before I’ll start to worry about our safety.”

“If you just start, it’s okay then,” grinned the young woman mischievously. “Now boys, we ought to get ready.”

George glanced at Eliott and they exchanged a faint smile. If they were efficient, they would be done before midnight. The Twitter girl had said that they needed to live normal lives, they were quite far from that now. But nevermind that now, they could not continue as if nothing had happened.

“So what do we need?” asked Ezra.

Turned out they didn’t need much. A few bags, dark hoodies, and random weapons were enough to Ridox’s taste. George was not quite convinced that it would be enough but he trusted their friend who seemed to have a pretty shady past. He became even more convinced about that when he realized that her bat was riddled with nails.

“What the fuck Vic’? Why do you have nails on that?”

“Just in case. Do you know how dangerous it is to be a woman? I need a weapon to intimidate my possible enemies.”

“Now I understand why you’re a pro PvP gamer. And why you’re single. Damn girl, you are scary.”

She laughed, brushing off the comment with her hand. She taped the bat on the ground, catching everyone’s attention. They all looked suspicious as hell, dressed in black with their hoods on. George had even hidden his hair under a black beanie and took off his iconic earrings. With their masks, it would be perfect.

“Now guys, are you ready? Everything’s in the car?”

“Yes. We’re just waiting for Ashley to finally get out of the toilets and we’re ready to go,” calmly answered Chris, inspecting with a distracted eye his weapon, a quite unusual fire-thrower made off a deodorant spray and his kitchen gas-lighter.

George was only hoping that he would not get burned if his invention was a failure. Eliott had a big kitchen knife taped onto a broomstick, Ezra a table leg that Ridox had customized with nails – it really was a habit – and George had an old hammer.

Yes, he was definitely dead if they were in trouble. Eliott too. He would never stab anything, he was a-… Nevermind, George took that thought back when he saw his best friend murder a poor fly in cold blood. He was surrounded by dangerous individuals.

He looked around and sighed heavily. Was he the only one nervous? Maybe Ashley's stress ruined his intestinal transit, hence why he was in the toilets.

“Ash’, get the fuck out those toilets!” yelled Chris, growing impatient with each second passing.

“Chris, what the- Don’t yell at Ashley!” yelled back Eliott, slamming his improvised weapon on the ground.

Ugh, that would leave holes. They would never get their money back…

Chris’s head snapped toward the other and they stared into each other eyes for a second before the arguing started again.

“What you gonna do uh?? What you gonna do?” shouted Chris, glaring at Eliott. “He’s making us wait for too fucking long!”

“Don’t yell at Ash’!”

George frowned, looking at his friend, feeling some exasperation rising in his chest. They were more than capable to fight for a stupid detail, like Ashley, and the streamer was not ready to bury them in the backyard yet.

“Can you not-“ he started before he saw Ashley's face appear in the opening of the kitchen door.

“Don’t yell at Ash’!” repeated Eliott with a warning tone.

“Hey, Ashley!!” immediately yelled Chris with a strange look on his face. “You smell like muffins!”

There was a silence where Ashley stood frozen in the doorframe before he smiled slightly, muttering a cute “I like that”. George sighed, adjusting his beanie properly. He glanced at Chris, instantly rolling his eyes when he saw his smug face.

“Okay gays, can we go now?”

“The only one gay here is Ezra,” remarked Eliott.

“Bro, you’re clearly homiesexual. It’s a secret for no one,” smirked Ridox, walking towards the door, a huge sports bag on her left shoulder, her bat coming out from it. “The only thing that blocks you from assuming it is your fear.”

George frowned. Eliott was straight, it was a secret for no one. But it was also not a secret that he didn’t like to talk about his sexuality or his best friend's sexuality. It was things that he preferred to keep silent even if people knew about it already.

Eliott shot a glare to Ridox, hiding his uneasiness under aggressiveness. Not wanting bloodshed before the actual battle, George stepped in.

“Ridox, when are you gonna stop fooling around and just date Ashley? He is waiting for you, you know.”

Silence fell on the group, everyone staring at Vic’ expectantly. But she just shrugged and opened the front door, exiting the house as if nothing had been said. They all followed, entering the car that the young woman had left unlocked. George stayed back to lock the front door et verify that none of their windows was opened. Satisfied with the security, he followed the others.

They were six, it was the maximum capacity of the pick-up truck. Now they just had to avoid dying in the car crash Ridox wanted to put them in. Now that he thought about it…

“How the hell are we gonna get back home if you destroy your car?”

Ridox ran over some dead bushes and, exchanging a look with Chris, followed his directions.

“We’ll steal another one or improvise. We are six, we are quite safe. Except if all of you guys are pussies.”

Ashley gasped but said nothing, probably wanting to be on Ridox best side. And that side was tiny so he was careful. They drove in silence for a while, anxiety filling up the air as they quickly got closer to the gun shop. Oh God, that was a terrible idea…

Ridox stopped at a safe distance from the shop and turned to look at the others.

“Get out. Wait on the side until I tell you to move.”

“That’s it, I’m sure she’s robbed a place before,” sighed Ezra, quickly getting out of the car, followed by the four other men.

“What are you going to do? If you hurt yourself, we won’t be able to save you!” panicked Ashley. “Please don’t hurt yourself.”

Ridox smiled softly, ruffling his hair.

“I won’t kill myself, I won’t even be in this car. Look, silly boy.”

She took her backpack and took a book out of it, one of those that was as heavy as a brick, and got out of the car. She then got out of the car and leaned in. There was a thud and suddenly the car was speeding towards the shop, getting faster and faster. The sound of the crash made George wince, the streamer immediately putting his arms up in defense. The motor worked for a whole minute before completely shutting off, heavy smoke coming out of the car.

“See? I’m alive,” smiled the young woman with a strange glint in her eyes. “Now it’s time to speed rob that place. Get to work boys.”

As they got closer to the shop, the alarm started blaring, making all of them jump in pure terror. Ashley whined, hiding behind Eliott as he kept an eye on the place.

“That was not a good idea… We’re gonna end up in prison…”

George frowned.

“What do you think happened to those who were behind the bars?”

“Probably nothing good,” answered Chris. “But it’s not our problem. Come.”

They passed by the car and walked into the shop, the sound of broken glass crunching under their shoes making George flinch. He hated that sound. It was awful.

The shop was completely dark, the showcases closed and, if the shop owner was careful enough, probably locked. But strange enough, everything was still in place and nothing had been taken away or locked into a safe.

This was definitely too easy. Ridox took out the cameras in a few bat swings and disappeared behind the counter to turn the alarm off. The boys looked at each other, heisting. They didn’t know what they could need.

“What do we take? I don’t know how to use a gun…” mumbled Ashley.

“Me neither but we should all take one, for emergencies and maybe see if they have some bladed weapons, bats, and stuff,” answered Eliott, who was already starting to look around.

George gulped nervously, following him closely. He took out a flashlight and turned it on, looking at all the weapons that were stocked here. He didn’t want something big, he would probably be unable to use it. He needed a handgun and something like a bat or a…

“An ax…” he muttered, his eyes laying upon the bladed weapons that were exposed here.

“Are you sure you could use it?”

“Yes. Absolutely. Blood doesn’t scare me, Eliott. And it’s not like I would be killing people randomly. It’s for self-defense.”

“Not being scared of blood and injuring someone is different. You have to want it. My question is: do you think that when the time will come, facing danger, you will be able to hurt the one in front of you?”

George stayed silent for a moment. He honestly didn’t know the answer. For fuck sake, he was usually playing video games not running around and stabbing people. He couldn’t imagine the feeling if he ever was to hurt someone. Nor with an ax nor a gun. He was not a crazy bastard or a psychopath. He was just a fucking student who was hoping to work for NASA.

Now that his whole future was probably ruined, maybe he would be able to do it? To kill to survive? Ugh. Most definitely not.

Chris could. Ridox could. And they would survive. Him? He was probably gonna die of some silly bullshit.

“George?”

He jumped. He hadn’t realized that Eliott was still talking to him.

“What…?”

“You looked deep in thought. I’m sorry if I pushed the matter a bit too far.”

“No, don’t be. You’re right, I’m probably not capable of doing that but… It’s for self-defense, right? I’ll probably be panicked and do it just as a reflex. For the repercussions… I’ll think about it after. But I don’t think I should take an ax.”

“Yeah, keep the perforating ones for Chris and Vic’. You should take a bat or something like that. Hitting people is more like you,” softly smiled his best-friend.

George smiled a bit, walking away from the showcases. However, he did notice that Eliott took a hunting knife that he hid in his back pocket. The streamer frowned, quickening his pace to reach the other side of the shop where Ashley was looking at the handguns.

“Which one should we take?”

“I have no fucking clue. Just take the one that seems simple enough for you?”

The alarm finally went off, making both of them freeze. Was it because of Ridox or someone else?

“All clear guys!” shouted the Russian, jumping over the counter. “What did you take?”

Chris showed her his bag full of ammo and the two shotguns he had stocked in there.

“This, Eliott and Ezra are looking at knives, and George and Ash… are hesitating over handguns.”

George rolled his eyes, shooting his friend a jaded look. Was he trying to show off? Impress the Russian to be her right-hand man? That was a low blow.

But Ridox didn’t seem to find that information funny as she quickly joined them.

“It’s normal to hesitate when you know nothing about it. Here take those.”

She took two handguns and gave them the confused duo, a reassuring smile on her face.

“Those are easy to use for beginners. The ammo you’ll need is over there, grab a few boxes, and wait for us at the door. We’ll be quick.”

The two streamers obliged and soon they were out of the gun shop, sighing heavily.

“I hate this place, it’s official,” mumbled Ashley, adjusting his backpack properly.

“Who would have thought that robbing a weapon shop was that stressful…” sighed his friend. “I hope that we’ll never have to use those weapons.”

Oh, he really should have stayed quiet.