American Apocalypse IV - Heartland Chapter 9

Thursday raised his hammer. The officer looked at him, grinned, and said "This ain't a body shop old man. Put it down." I was doing my calculations on who I was going to kill first when he put it down. Hard. The next thing I knew was I laying on the diner floor trying to clear my eyes from the after flash of the lightening strike that had hit the Humvee outside the window. It was now a smoking ruin and all the diner windows had blown in. I was covered in shattered glass and my ears were ringing which was good. It meant I wasn't deaf.

My brain was screaming at me "Shit! Get up dumbass!" I got up, filled my hands with guns, and registered that Thursday was still standing and laughing. I saw movement on the floor where the officer escorts had been. One of the soldier boys was sitting up and shaking his head. I shook it some more for him and shot the one next to him who was screaming. The officer was down. His head was a pulp. Mentally I noted it, thought "Huh?" and moved forward to find the remaining two.

One of them was busy bleeding out from the face full of glass he taken. The other popped up from behind a table and I caught him right between the eyes. I swear he looked cross eyed at the bullet just before it impacted. "Damn! The kid!" I looked back and he was fine. He had gone down and stayed down on the floor. He looked a little pale but I didn't see any bleeding. This was good. Someone outside cut loose with a short burst just barely missing me. It was time to go. I yelled "Go!" and ran for the kitchen door. I didn't look back. They either followed or we all died right here and I wasn't in the mood to die.

Inside the kitchen there was no sign of the cook or the waitress. Just as well. No sign of apple pie either and no time to look. Life was a real bitch sometimes. The kid was through next followed by Thursday. He had waited to make sure the kid cleared the room first. I liked that. I crouched down and gestured for them to do the same. Someone was pushing rounds through the front of the diner and I knew we were running out of time fast. I also knew going out the back door was probably going to hurt.