the ground, a confusion of movement in the night, people going in different directions, rolling, searching for cover.
Her wild hope was that the single shot would be enough to scare them off, that they’d leave when they realized there was an armed guard at the store. Right now the dark was her friend. They’d have no idea how many people were in here, only that their surprise raid hadn’t worked.
Then another shot boomed out, and the window shattered beside her.
Panic filled her like a huge inkblot, spreading through her entire body. Olivia squeaked; Sela turned and dropped down, expecting to see Olivia lying bleeding at her feet. Instead the girl crouched by the door, staring up at her, her face a white blob in the darkness. “Back!” she yelled, ordering Olivia to retreat to the rear of the store. More shots. More glass shattered and rained on and around them. Sela felt several stings on her face, her hands. Instead of obeying Olivia moved forward, not back, raising her rifle and taking aim. She fired, then fired again.
Shit! Shit! They were so vulnerable here, with nothing to hide behind that would stop a bullet, and Olivia shooting back instead of taking cover. They had to get out, they had to get out now. “The back door!” Sela said insistently. They wouldn’t be able to get the Honda, but they could escape down the path. She grabbed Olivia by the collar of her coat and hauled the girl backward.
This time, thank goodness, Olivia cooperated by scooting back, crawling with the rifle in her hand. Sela did the same; as she did so she saw two dark figures darting past, skirting along the sides of the store. It was already too late to run, they’d be caught as soon as they went out the back door—but at least that door was locked with a heavy-duty dead bolt, and they only had to worry about people coming through the front.
“Too late,” she panted, and fired through the door to hold off any who thought they might rush through it.
More shots. The plate-glass windows were completely gone, the glass door nothing more than an empty steel frame.
Her only advantage was that in the colorless moonlight she could at least see them outside, whereas she and Olivia were swallowed up by the darkness of the store’s interior. Terror almost swamped her, but for Olivia, not herself. She would shoot as long as she was able to keep Olivia safe. How could she ever have let Olivia stay? She should have insisted on taking the girl home. If anything happened to her, Carol would be devastated.
“Get behind the counter!” It wouldn’t provide much shelter at all, being made of wood instead of heavy metal, but it was better than nothing. She kept herself between Olivia and the front of the store as they crawled across the glass-studded floor.
Someone would hear, someone had to hear. Even though it was the middle of the night, the sound of gunfire would wake people up, people who were on edge after what had happened at the Livingstons’ house the night before. Someone would come. Let it be soon! she thought frantically.
She saw the moon glint on a rifle barrel resting on the side of a pickup truck bed, near the left edge of the parking lot. Quickly she aimed and pulled the trigger, then ducked as answering fire splintered the counter to her left. Olivia popped up like a jack-in-the-box and shot, then dropped back down. “I think I got him,” she said, her voice so high it sounded as if she was on the verge of shrieking.
“Good girl!” Later she would think about what it meant that she had praised Olivia for possibly shooting someone. Later she would likely fall apart herself. For now she was too busy trying to stay alive to do more than have the fleeting thought.
“Get in the cooler!”
At least it was metal. It couldn’t be locked from the inside, but it was more protection, more—
Then she caught sight of movement to the side, and saw a couple of dark figures pushing at her Honda. The shooter at the pickup truck on the left had been drawing their attention away from what the others were doing. Fiercely she swung the barrel around and fired again.
The morons! Didn’t they know the entire valley would soon be awake, and heading this way? Their only chance for success had been to get in and out without anyone noticing,