Free Echoes of Tomorrow Season One: Episode Two (Echoes of Tomorrow: Season One Book 2) by Douglas Wayne Page A

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