Nothing was already displayed in the main area of the store, no displays up, nothing on the shelves, just boxes. Tons and tons of boxes, all piled in the parts of the store where they were meant to be stocked.

Sara was right, this was an untouched treasure trove.

The layout looked similar to the REI they had in Jack and Bryans home town. Bryan noticed and couldn’t help but let the corner of his lips turn up in a smile.

“Thank god for cookie cutter big box stores” Bryan had commented. This should be easy.

And he was right, with Jack and bryan leading the way, they where able to find anything and everything they could have ever wanted for this situation. Packs, food, tools, cloths, it was all there.

After an hour of searching, each of them had a internal frame backpacking bag, water purifiers, clean changes of rugged breathable clothing, cold weather jackets and pants, camping stoves and lanterns, and everyone’s own utility knife like Rachel’s.

The boys where still pulling gear from all over the store as the girls resigned to packing the bags along with going through the food and a big box of odds and ends that the boys thought would be helpful if they could fit in the packs.

Jack had picked out a bike, using the measurements of Bryans to find the one that fit him right.

While looking for tools to put it together as well as a pump to fill the tires, Bryan came running around the corner from the back stock room.

“You have got to see this Jack!” Bryan said with a grin from ear to ear.

Knowing his brother well, Jack ran to follow him before he was left in the dust. Coming around the corner of the large stock room in the rear of the store, Jack stopped dead in his tracks and his jaw hit the floor.

Before him was a metal cage, filled to the brim with firearms and ammunition. “Holy crap.” He stammered.

Bryan was still grinning and motioned toward the door of the cage, “Just need you to do your little trick and we’re in!”

Jack took it all in for a few seconds before snapping into action, quickly opening the cage with the same trick he used to open the front door.

Bryan and Jack both carefully made their way into the cage. Easily the size of the living room of the house they stayed in the night before, the arsenal that now layed before the brothers was more then they could have ever imagined finding.

Boxes were stacked high, Browning, Bushmaster, Beretta, Glock, Bennellli and Remington stamped on their sides with all their respective logos. Both brothers didn’t know where to start, looking at each other, they both had faces of little kid on Christmas morning.

Their father had taken them hunting with him as soon as they were old enough to stay quiet and still in the old tree stand that their father had built before they were born. But the gun laws being as strict as they are in New York, more than half the guns that lay before them were things they had never even seen before except day dreaming online.

Embracing their childish wims, they quickly started pouring over the stacks and shelves looking for weapons they thought would be useful.

Bryan went right for the Bushmaster stack, Jack knew his brother had an obsession with AR rifles growing up and was not surprised in the least at his brother’s enthusiasm. Jack on the other hand, tried to stay practical. Thinking of the rifle he had carried from Jimmies, he gravitated towards the rifles, trying to find something more powerful than the flimsy old 22 they currently possessed.

Remembering the words of his father that surprised him, he looked for a 30-06. The ammunition should be common enough that if they were to need more, it should be easy to find. Also heading into the mountains it should be a great help with wild animals.

The boxes had been stacked by someone with organization in mind that made his search allot easier then he thought it would be. It only took a few shelves before he found what he was looking for.

It was a rifle his father had talked about dreaming to own on their last trip, the name didn’t mean much to him but when he opened the Browning box he knew why his father had coveted it. It was a sleak black carbon fiber stock, all the metal pieces shone like polished silver. Finding it already assembled in the box made his decision for him, this was now his rifle.

Placing the box near the enterance of the cage, Jack watched his brother, opening box after box still searching for his own treasure. Smiling at his brothers lasting excitement, Jack turned to thinking of self-defense.

Pistols, for each of them.

Moving to the far end of the cage that held the much smaller boxes, Jack was overwhelmed with the choices. Having never fired a hand gun before, Jack was really at a loss of what was best. His only knowledge of handguns came from movies and TV and he was very hesitant on taking any of that seriously. Opening a few box’s to have a look, Jack found most of them where not assembled. Worried about assembling them properly to work when they needed the most, Jack grew even further hesitant. Using the same theory as the rifle, Jack stuck with a common caliber 9mm. Grabing a few that looked the most assembled, Jack figured he would try to put them together as best he could and them come back for what he was most comfortable with.

Heading out of the cage, Jack picked up the rifle box and struggled with his armfuls heading back to the girls.

Rounding the first corner in the back storage area, Jack was supprised to find the girls had moved all the gear into the back, having cleared an area to continue their packing. Confused, all jack managed to do was raise his eyebrows at the girls before they jumped in explaining.

“Its getting dark already!” Rachel exclaimed, “What are you boys doing back there? We had to move all this stuff by ourselves. We’re going to need lanterns and flash lights to see by pretty soon and we didn’t want to be a beacon for the gang still out in the parking lot!”

Jack nodded, not realizing how much time had passed while in the gun room.

Sara looked on Jack with an equally confused look, staring at the boxes in his arms. “Whats all that?”

She sounded slightly exasperated, as if the thought of now have to repack all the bags to carry what ever was in Jacks arms was going to break her spirit.

“Guns”, Jack said with a smile. Carefully Jack set down his burden an explained to the girls about the cage room.

“How on earth are we going to carry all that?” Rachel said, her inner brat showing through again. “I can barely carry one of these packs as it is! I cant imagin having to ride a bike with it on. Now we’re going to be carring load guns to? We’ll be lucky not to kill ourselves by the time we get rolling!”

Frowning, Jack caught a hint of truth to her words. Walking to one of the two packs the girls had finished, he hefted it to his shoulders, being careful of all the straps. Surprised by its bulk, it must have weighed over fifty pounds. With his frown reaching his eyes, he looked down at the unpacked bags in front of the girls and then to the pile of gear next to them. Quickly he realized they had picked and grabbed so much without a single thought to how much weight it would be.

“And that’s the light one,” Sara added, “we aren’t used to packing these things and that one was our first, having the least in it.” Her voice was almost pleading, looking up at Jack with her big beautiful brown eyes.

Those beautiful brown eyes, Jack thought. Melting all over again as he looked into her eyes. Jack stammered, trying to find the words, but having no luck other then the profuse opologies that came to his mind.

As if on cue, Bryan barged in the room looking like he was about to burst in glee. “Yes!” he shouted triumphantly, hold a semi-automatic rifle in each hand and another gun slung over his shoulder that looked to be a tactical shotgun of sorts. His grin quickly dropped at the sight of the girls look of contempt and Jacks look of elation at being saved from his awkwardness by Bryan. “What? What happened?”

“Nothing,” Jack replied, “We have a problem, we’ve gathered to much stuff. They..” He noticed rachels glare of contempt shift to himself, “Rachel just pointed out that we have to much to fit in the packs, and even if we do, they are going to be way too heavy to carry on the bikes and have any hope of making it out of the city alive.”

The look on Bryan’s face made no sence to Jack.

It was back to excitement again, “Be right back!” he shouted, placing the weapons down next to Jack and taking off at a run into the store.

Bewildered by his brothers out burst Jack looked to the girls for an answer but both looked as utterly lost as him.

Shrugging his shoulders, Jack opened his backpack from earlier in search of something to eat. In all the excitement he hadn’t eaten dinner, and neither had the girls.

Munching on beef jerky and drinking a sports drink they had found cases of, the trio sat and waited for Bryan to return. About half way through their meal, they heard a exasperated huff as Bryan came through the door still grinning ear to ear. He had pushed a big box through the swinging door and collapsed next to it, motioning for jack to toss him a drink.

Jack acknowledged him, making the toss, but still was at a loss for his brothers elation. “More stuff is the answer?” Jack offered up in confusion.

“No Genius, while you were picking out a bike, I found this.” Bryan shot back.

“And what is this?” Rachel questioned.

Jack was glad she asked, he had no intention of prodding his brother any further.

“It’s a buggy, A kid carriage that can be towed behind the bikes,” Bryan explained, “You might have powers, but I am by far to be the better shopper!”

Sara beat jack to it, “Is that something you should brag about? Should we know something Bryan? Something you would like to share with the group?”

Bryan turned bright red with rage, but the roar of laughter coming from Jack and Rachel. Seeing the others, Bryan had no choice but to join in laughing lightly, “Ha Ha very funny, say what you want but I just fixed your problem.”

Jack was still trying to get his laughter under control, no one spoke to Bryan like that. The only one to get away with a jibe like that and not get hit was him. And that was only because Jack could run faster when they where younger.

And that’s why I like her so much, he thought to himself.

That thought seemed to base him out finally bringing his laughter under control. He really does, Jack realized. He really liked Sara, somehow even though it had only been two days, he found he had an overabundance of feelings for her. With out realizing it, he was staring at Sara, eyes brimming with emotions he was to afraid to show, didn’t really know how to show. His gaze broke as something hit him in the face. Narrowing his eyes he knew it could only come from one source, it was Bryan now that was laughing out of control.

As Jack glared, it was Rachel who sighed, breaking the tension, “You boys better quit it, if the gang didn’t hear the laughing before, your wailing Bryan might just do it.”

Bryan stopped realizing she was quite right. Opening his own bag of jerky, Bryan started to put a dinner together for himself. As the others finished eating while Bryan was still working on the jerky, they talked out what was left to get and do.

To Jacks surprise, Bryan had made a friend in collage that was in ROTC that used to take him shooting on the weekends. That explained how he was able to assemble the rifles, so he was in charge of outfitting their new personal arsenal.

They knew they would need as much ammo they could carry, as well as clips and holsters, scopes for the rifles if he could find them. So after dinner he set off on his own by the cage with a lantern to find what they needed.

Jack was responsible for putting together his bike, and along with it the carriages. Finding tools to assemble them was easy, most where already set out as if they workers had expected to start putting everything together the next day. Putting together the bike was easy enough, but as the light faded, trying to put the carriages together by lantern was not an easy feat.

After attaching the first to his new bike, he realized it was going to be too wide to fit through back door of the store room, so he had to take it off and move the whole assembly out into the dark of the store front. Using his power to make his hands glow he made quick work of it, being careful to keep it dim to not arise suspicion from the gang he could still hear whooping and hollering across the parking lot.

Holding the door open, Sara helped jack load the carriages, handing things through to Jack to be loaded in. With the team work, they quickly had everything set to go.

Rachel was repacking the bags, with help from Sara and Jack, once they finished they would be easy to carry but still hold all the essentials if they would have to ditch the carriages. It was tedious work, but it was crucial if something were to happen and they needed a quick getaway.

Bryan came and went, dropping off supplies and ammo for the guns as they packed things away, finally coming up with some harnesses for the hand guns that Jack had put together under Bryans careful instruction.

When Bryan finally came back and sat down, he had an armload of accessories he thought where essential for the guns. A high power scope for Jacks 30-06, two mid-range ones for the AR’s as well as a bunch of smaller attachments to go on the AR’s. Out of curiosity, he brought over a night scope but even though it had had the batteries out when the comet passed by, it still wouldn’t work.

While the girls where adjusting the straps on their packs trying to find comfortable settings and Bryan finishing up the AR’s, Jack thought he would go sneak a peak through the front doors at the Gang across the way. Taking his 30-06, he thought he would test the scope by adding light to his vision, but as he carefully crawled to the front doors, his heart sank.

Before he could reach for his magic, Jack squinted trying to believe what he had seen. In the dark it was hard to tell but Jack could have sworn he saw two Car sized objects fly through the air. His suspicions were confirmed as each car came down with a deafening crunch followed by and explosion so big it managed to rattle the front doors Jack was spying through. Fireballs climbing home gah in the sky.

They must have at least one berserker mage like Jimmy, he thought.

Reaching the mats in front of the doors, Jack set up the rifle in front of him. Bryan had found a mini tripod that attached nicely to the front to help keep it steady. Jack was thankful because he could feel his hands shaking in nervousness of the prospect of facing not one but possibly two mages along with the well-armed men.

Peering down the scope with his right eye closed, Jack was able to make out shadows of people around the burning bonfire of a car on the far side of the parking lot. Without any lights but the raging bon fire, detecting any detail was going to be impossible.

Seeing the bleak parking lot, Jack decided against trying to use his powers to light only his sight, if he did it wrong he would be like a beacon in the night for the gang to come attack. Sighing jack wiggled his way back away from the door. Once he made it back a safe distance, Jack crouched and ran for the back of the store.

By the time Jack reachied the back, everyone was set and ready to go. Jack looked around at the group realizing they were all staring at him in waiting. “Nothing to report on the gang,” he mumbled moving to triple check his own bag. “But they have mages.”

“You’re kidding?” Bryan admonished in disbelief.

“Nope, it might just be one, but they would have to be a whole degree stronger than Jimmy, right when I got to the doors I saw two cars fly into their bonfire.”

Groans of displeasure rung through the store area as they all settled back on the ground.

“Well, especially if that’s the case, I’ve got an idea,” Sara stated. With all eyes on her, she continued, “If we make it out of here, any way we do it, the gang is going to know where we came from and find this place. Can you imagine if a group like that found all this stuff like we did? No one would stand a chance against them. I’m sure those cops we saw dead at their feet where not their first victims and definitely not going to be their last.” Taking a deep breath, it seemed as if Sara had put a lot of thought towards these next words, “We would either have to kill them all, or somehow destroy everything we’re leaving behind to make sure they could never have any of this stuff.”

“Kill them all? Whats wrong with you Sara! How could you think that!” Rachel yelled.

“She’s thinking realistically,” Jack cut in, “Your right, those really are the only two options when it comes to all this coming into the wrong hands. Plus it might just be the distraction we’ll need to get out of here as safely as possible.”

“But you’re really not saying we have to kill all of them are you?” Bryan said, disgust blatant in his voice.

“Hey, you’re the one that went straight for the semi-auto weapons. What did you think you were going to use them for? Shooting cans in the street on lunch breaks? Like you all assured me last night about Jimmy’s cousin. At some time, our survival is going to come to an us or them situation. I don’t know about you but with that gang out there I think it’s not far off.” Pausing to gather himself, Jack looked at the faces around him, Sara was nodding in agreement, Rachel looked to be suffering from great internal conflict, but Bryan, Bryan seemed to be somberly seeing the light, starting to nod as well.

“Look, I’m not saying we have to kill all those people out there. I’m saying that if it comes down to protecting ourselves from them killing us by killing them, we have to be ready for that.”

The mood in the room was heavy as Jacks words sunk in.

Never in a million years did any of them think they would be in the position of kill or be killed. But it was here, and they had to recognize it or none of them would make it out of the parking lot, let alone back to their families. Jack felt the mood turning from that of understanding and sadness to a sour feeling or fear and lack of confidence. Trying to stymie the feelings before they took hold, Jack had an idea.

“But as for this place falling into the wrong hands, I have an idea what to do about that.”