Shades and Shadows - Part Two

Shades and Shadows - Part Two

Marc
36 year old
Single father of three

Ralph's Supermarket - Parking Lot
San Luis Valley, Colorado
3:13 pm

I tried to help her, but she wouldn't stop bleeding. There was blood everywhere. She kept jumping, scratching, and clawing at our car. I didn't know what to do. Darrian, my 18 year old daughter, was sitting next to me in the passenger seat. The terrified look on her face made my heart sink deep into my stomach. Johnathan and Marie were sitting in the back seat. Marie, my 4 year old, was screaming. She didn't understand what was happening, and the bizarre thing is, neither did I.

Johnathan was 16. He seemed to have bottled up the fear, as he hugged Marie and tried to calm her down. But you can still see it in his eyes; the sense of fear and dread had clearly taken over.

I held the steering wheel as tight as I could, and thought to myself... "How can I get my kids out of here?" And then it clicked. I knew what I had to do. This crazed woman was putting my kids in danger. She needed to be stopped; in any way possible. I told my children to cover their ears and keep their eyes closed. I reach over to the glove compartment and open the secret latch which housed my 9mm.

I never thought the day would where I had to even use it, but it did. I waited until the women was on the left side of the car, so I'd have time to get out, do what I had to do, and get back in.

I opened the door, aimed at her head, and pulled the trigger. I must have shot at her three or four times. The woman collapsed on the ground. She was shaking for what seemed like hours, and then she was suddenly still. I stared at her pale face for a while, trying to piece together what had just happened. But I couldn't risk my kids getting hurt, so I left her there. She was a stranger after all. I didn't know what else to do.

I sped of into the street and up the highway. I couldn't risk going back home. People where dead. They were everywhere. All over the pasture, in the yards, hundreds of lifeless corpses decorated the streets like an apocalyptic nightmare.

It's been 13 days, but I can still hear the screaming and the banging; I can still smell the blood. What had happened that day still and might always remain a mystery.