Read Echoes of Tomorrow Season One: Episode Two (Echoes of Tomorrow: Season One Book 2) Online
Authors: Douglas Wayne
Echoes of Tomorrow Season One: Episode Two (Echoes of Tomorrow: Season One Book 2)
More Books in the Demontouched World
Echoes of Tomorrow
Season One
Episode Two
Douglas Wayne
ECHOES OF TOMORROW
SEASON ONE
EPISODE TWO
Douglas Wayne
Copyright © 2015 by Douglas Wayne. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, events or locales is purely coincidental. Reproduction in whole or part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited.
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Chapter One
Mobile, Alabama
September 12th, 2013
"Nate?" the man's voice shouted, echoing across the empty store. Marcy ducked closer to the floor while Tyler got as low as he could while remaining in the wheelchair.
Tyler cursed the day's luck. What was supposed to be a routine day had long since turned into one where he found himself constantly battling for his life. Around every turn the world had degenerated into a place where chaos ruled the day. Already he'd found himself mugged, beat up, truck stolen, and was inches from losing his life thanks to the thug tied up and unconscious on the floor.
As if surviving that wasn't enough, one of the downed man's friends had come into the store looking for him. The man told Tyler he had others waiting for him outside, but figured it was a load of crap. Just a way to get Tyler to lower his guard long enough for the man to strike.
But it wasn't a bullet that got his friend's attention, it was that he'd taken an excessive amount of time. With everything else wrong in the world, Tyler guessed they figured the dash and grab would be quick. They didn't plan on hitting the one store where someone was willing to fight back.
"Is there another way out?" Tyler whispered.
"Yeah, there's a door back in the storage area where we take out the trash."
Great, so it leads to the dumpsters. Just my luck.
"Any others?"
She shook her head. "That's it. Something wrong with the back?"
Tyler told her about what happened earlier in the day though he left out the part about the guys telling him Mark was dead. He hadn't had the guts to go back to the dumpster and check it, both because he didn't want to see the body and he didn't want to get attacked again if they created another ambush. Or if they never left.
"That explains your head." She got behind him and pushed the wheelchair towards the back of the store. "This is the only way."
A trickle of fear threatened to flood over him as she pushed him to the back. He wanted nothing more than to stop her before they got outside, but the sound of the new man inside the store reminded him one direction was already blocked. If he wanted to escape he had no other choice than to brave the rear exit.
The pair made it to the steel doors leading into the storage area when the new man yelled out. "James. Ryan. Get in here."
This time Tyler didn't hear the door open, but he knew the odds just got worse by the sounds of the displays near the front of the store being knocked to the ground. The new man had to have found the body they'd left tied up in the middle of the store. Again, Tyler wished he'd been able to move on his own. He could've dragged the body back to the bathrooms or even to the back room so it wouldn't be so easy for his friends to find.
The situation was well beyond the realm of 'should've.' Traveling down that line of thought wouldn't get him anywhere. He had to focus on getting away from them.
Marcy backed into the metal door and pushed it open with her backside then pulled Tyler through the door behind her. As Tyler passed through the door, he grabbed it and eased it shut, not wanting it to make a noise. For now, they held a slight advantage in that the men didn't have a clue they were here. Tyler wanted to keep that advantage long as possible, ideally until they were well away from the store.
Despite Tyler's attempt to do things the quiet way, the door made a muffled click that echoed through the back. While the sound was louder back here where the music didn't play in the background, he hoped the natural sounds of the front, namely the destruction on the two guys who'd just entered the store, covered the sound.
Marcy wheeled Tyler around the maze of boxes, discarded cardboard displays, and the piles of extra fixtures in the back. Other than the tire catching on the outstretched board of a broken wooden pallet, they made it to the back door without any trouble. When they reached it, one thing stood out to Tyler above everything else; the metal plate in front of the door that said the words 'Fire Escape, Alarm Will Sound.'
"This won't work," Tyler said, freaking out. "We need to find a place to hide."
Marcy shook her head. "Look around. We don't carry enough product to hide behind. We either wait here for them to find us, or we push through this door and run like hell. My car is around back. If we can make it there, we will be fine."
Tyler thought back to his trip around the store earlier today. He remembered seeing a car in the back, two stalls away from the dumpster. After his experience earlier in the day, he wasn't thrilled about going out back, but Marcy was right. They didn't have a load of options to choose from.
"Fine," he conceded, leaning back in the chair. "Let's do it your way." Tyler gripped the pistol Nate was nice enough to drop during his initial lunge. Holding the gun made him feel uneasy, but to get through this he needed to take control. Even if the control only amounted in the ability to pop off a few rounds at someone who got too close. Being unable to stand for more than a second or two at a time was getting to him. He didn't like his new position, being catered to and protected by a woman he didn't even know.
She seemed nice enough, but when the shit hit the fan would she leave him along the side of the road so she could get away? Many good people before her had done much worse things to those under their care under much less dire circumstances. Tyler knew, deep down, he should only trust her so far.
For the time being he was at her mercy. At least until they could get out to her car and the hell away from here.
"Hold on tight," Marcy said, lining the wheelchair up to the door. "Once we open the door there is no going back."
"I thought you were the manager? Don't you have a way to shut off the alarm?"
"Yes and no."
Tyler gave her a puzzled look. "You either do, or you don't." Then the realization hit. She had a set of keys to lock and unlock the doors and disable the alarms, but she didn't have them on her. They were probably back in an office or a break room next to some of her other belongings, but they might as well have been a hundred miles away for all the good they'd do. "Sorry, I got it."
She smiled. "You can apologize later, ready?"
As soon as Tyler nodded, she pushed him through the door setting off the fire alarm instantly. As she wheeled him through the rear parking lot, Tyler glanced over at the dumpsters. The door to each of the bins was closed, but under the first he noticed a pool of blood seeping under the gate. Tyler's heart sank seeing it, but there wasn't anything he could do other than promise to get someone back here to investigate it as soon as he could.
Marcy had Tyler to the passenger side of the car before the back doors burst open. Three guys filed out one after the other, each holding what looked to be tire irons in their hands. Tyler gripped the gun tight with both hands and held it out in front of him. He wanted to be ready if one of the assholes came over this way.
Marcy hyperventilated and dropped to the ground clutching her chest, her brave facade washing off as the sea of fear set in. For a moment, Tyler felt bad for her. She'd put up such a brave face back in the store when their odds were two on one, but now that they were looking at an understated three on two, she didn't seem so sure.
Even though he held his expressions in check, inside he was also a ragged mess. He wanted to be out of here. Out of the parking lot. Out of Mobile. Hell, he wanted to be well out of Alabama.
He longed to be back at home with his family in Flagstaff. The last few months had tested the limits of their relationship. One screwed up job after another had kept him away from home for the last nine months, other than a few overnight stays for the holidays. His kids growing up without him was nothing new, but he did what he could to be there for their firsts. But this year there was no avoiding it though there weren't as many. Just his son's first concert and first job and his daughter's first pregnancy test. The former made him happy to see his not-so-little boy growing up on his own. The later, however, he'd deal with when he got home. Once he got home he would pay Prince Charming a little visit and educate him the finer facts of dating his daughter. All he could offer was a bunch of empty threats, but perhaps he could do just enough that her boyfriend would think twice in fear of another visit.
Tyler felt like a sitting duck on the side of the car in the wheelchair. The position gave him the perfect line of sight to the three men out back, but if they turned this way it would be the same for them. As much as he hated being blind, he needed to get down to the ground without making any noise.
Tyler set the brake, and slid out of the chair, careful not to make any unnecessary noise. Once he was halfway out of the seat, Marcy noticed what he was doing and helped him to the ground.
"What are we going to do?" she said, struggling to keep it together.
"We need to get out of here."
"But how? I can't go to my door and you can't stand up." Tears poured down her face as she made the realization.
Tyler considered the situation for a moment. The more he thought about it, the more he realized she was right. If they were to crawl through the car, it would be easy to see anyone trying to climb over the center console, not to mention the car rocking as they crawled their way through. Walking wasn't going to work either, and neither was a crawl. They were fine as long as the men didn't move in their direction, but he knew the truth. It was only a matter of time until they did.
Single car on an otherwise open and abandoned parking lot? The marking is on the wall clear as day. The only other obvious hiding spot was near the dumpsters. Tyler believed their only hope was that the trio would all check out in the street and the neighboring parking lot, giving them enough time to get in and escape.
Tyler forced himself to his knees when he heard tires screeching against the pavement. He poked his head over the window in time to see a blue four-door car pull into the lot then come to a stop in front of the men. The man who came out the back door first looked around then leaned into the window.
"What's going on?" Marcy asked, still struggling with her emotions.
"Car pulled up. Apparently friends with the people chasing us."
Marcy gasped. "What do we do?"
There wasn't anything they could do. If they sent the driver to case the parking lot and the nearby area with the car, they'd be caught. The front end of the car and sparse vegetation separating the pharmacy parking lot from the one next door wasn't enough to hide behind. Not for the two of them at least. And that was without the wheelchair sitting next to the car. It made the dented sedan stand out even more than it did before.
Tyler kept his gaze on the men, fighting off the dizziness as best he could. The two other men both moved closer to the car, one moving behind the leader while the other walked around to the passenger side. Tyler's heart beat harder in his chest, knowing they were putting together a plan to search the area. It was only a matter of time until they found them then did who knows what to them.
"They're leaving?" Tyler said, meaning it to sound more like a statement but came out like a question. He watched as the three men piled into the car, each taking the seat closest. The tires screamed as the driver punched the car into gear, sending a plume of white smoke into the air as he tore around the building.