I should have never left Why? No. Maybe? No. What if? No. The thought of it would want to make me go back. Back to that place of anger, arguments, and- NO STOP.  
          As the tears rolled down his cheeks, Andy Wilkins was trying as hard as he could to ignore the fact that he had just ran away from home. Ever since his mom left, his life had been a downhill spiral. His dad used him as would a boxer use a punching bag. Countless numbers of burn and belt marks plastered his body. To cope Andy used drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, whatever he could get his hands on, courtesy of his father. Until one day he had had enough. He packed his bag and rode off. 
        Don’t know what to do, tears feel hot in my face, I need water, maybe some cologne too. Walter’s General is right in front. Dang what a deserted town. Should I go to the store? What if someone I know is inside? What if I don’t know what to do? What if .. I-I-I _I-I  jjjust- NO, STOP. Just go in quickly get it and then get out. 
    I see a Ford F150, 4 guys sitting in the back, faintly see a gun. Should I call the cop-, wait what. No, No, No. Just go in, get it, and get out. 
Old black man sitting outside of Walter’s. Smoking a Marlboro. Dang I wish I had one of those right now. 
I Throw my bike down near the entrance 
I Walk in, don’t make eye contact 
I Step in, Rush of warm air overwhelms me 
Walking, Walking, Walking straight to the cologne 
Want to get Nautica, probably have no money if I did, just have to settle with some chea- 
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CR-CR-CR-CR-CR-ACK!  
The first few gunshots had everyone struck in terror. Eyes and bodies were motionless as the 4 masked figures scanned the area. Not a soul spoke one word, consciously because they knew that it would be their last. 
“You know the drill boys, gather all the electronics, throw em in and get out. Oh, one more thing, and don’t show mercy on shoppers, if any”  
Unfortunately, the rule applied to cashiers too. 4 simultaneous shot bullets had their name written on it. Their departed bodies lay solemnly, as for the opposite of Andy Wilkins. His body trembling, shaking, rocking back and forth as for this time, bitterly cold tears running down his face unstoppably. Arms tightly strangling his legs. Eyes frozen, he stared, stared despicably at the cologne that brought him into this mess. He could hear the silent, but deadly, footsteps of the men drawing, drawing closer and closer to him. Regret in his eyes. 
      Okay, I need to get out. Maybe there’s an exit on the oth- But wait, should I get out. Would anything be different if I got out. Right now, inside this store, I'm Scared. Afraid. Trembling. Helpless. But what if I got out. Would I be free? NO. I would be held captive by my own experiences, thoughts, feelings. If I get out, I would still be Scared. Afraid. Trembling. Helpless. Just my fate.  
     Across from Andy to the left in the same aisle, a sobbing young blonde woman slowly brings up her quivering hand and covers her mouth. She looks out from the aisle and examines the vicinity for signs of footsteps and the men. The clamorous sounds of the many items clacking against each other in bags and the men yelling swears resonates throughout the store causing the ability to hear oneself cry or whisper nearly impossible, yet no one would be willing to take even the slightest risk.  
 Andy steadily places his hand on the rack behind him and endeavors to get up without causing a commotion in the men’s purloining. As he slowly gets up his fingers swipe against the wooden racks.  
TING! 
No, No, No, No, NO, oh please No. God forbid they heard that. 
The quiet yet hearable din of the metal bar hitting the floor acquired the attention of the 4, now smiling men. 
“Hey Tim, you hear that?” said a big looking figure, with glee running across his face. 
     “I think we got a fox in the hen house”, the big man said jokingly. 
“Wait no boss, that’s not the right idiom. It’s more like there's a hen in the fox house because like we’re in a-” 
“Ah why don’tcha just Shut up and go kill him.” he yelled.     “Jesus Christ, such crappy partners” the seemingly “boss” muttered. 
   “On it boss” 
No. Not yet. I can’t die. I haven’t done anything. I need to do something with my life. Something memorable. Nothing of that sort has happened yet. 
    Andy wiped off his tears and slowly flapped his hands in his direction and gestured the woman to his left to slowly walk towards him, for the 2 men were walking to the side that she was on. Andy felt as if each footstep that the men took, was a boot. Pounding against his chest. 
    “Da doom da dooba do bop, da doop bop, da do”, the man sang as he gained on them and scraped the gun against the metal as he crossed each aisle. 
   “Okay, just keep on walking away and we’ll be fine”, Andy whispered to the lady. She nodded worriedly but she knew that there was no other possible way. 
    Okay, just walk and hide behind the other side of the aisle until he goes by, and then run the oth- 
Ah no! 
The pocket of his pants had gotten stuck on a hook. 
Andy hurriedly tugged and tugged at the pocket of his baggie khaki pants that had gotten stuck to a hook with lip balm on it. When he had finally removed his pants from the grip of the hook by ripping it, the man was close. Two rows behind. 
   When the two were behind the width of the aisle, the man just passed the aisle. Andy was clenching his mouth trying as hard as he could not to make one peep. 
    The lady’s crying. I kinda wanna tell her to stop. But I don’t. That’s what dad would do. I don’t know what I’m doing.             But I find myself holding her hand. 
    “We’re gonna get out of here”, Andy whispered in a calming tone. 
“Wait no boss, there's no one. The sound was probably just- I don’t know, but there’s no one here”, The man yelled as he walked right past the aisle that the woman and Andy were hiding behind.  
  “Don’t move” Andy said. 
    “Dang it. For the first time, I thought I’d have a kill!”, the skinny man whispered. 
 As he walked past the cologne aisle something odd struck his eye. The front of a blue sketchers shoe “Wait there's someone hiding behind tha-” 
“RUN!”, Andy yelled. 
    They both took off running searching for the exit as the men got up, searching for their guns. 
  “GO, GO, GO, don’t let them get out!”  
          Andy ran ignoring the shattering sound of the light tubes being shot down. When he finally got to the exit, he let out a loud cry. 
       “AAAAAAGHHH” 
     The exit had been chained. 
         “John, it’s a kid. Let's just let him go” 
                “Oh okay, we’ll just let him go, he “definitely” won’t RUN STRAIGHT TO THE JOHNSTOWN POLICE STATION” 
     Andy looked all around him for another exit, aware that the men were gaining on him until the fire exit caught his eye. “COME ON!” he yelled at the woman next to him to follow. 
    As he ran to the fire exit door, a sense of peace came over him. A thought came upon him. Why did I want to escape? I wanted to do something memorable in my life. What would happen if I escaped? I would continue being an on the run. If by chance I got help and- No. That wouldn’t work. I would be sent to a school for disturbed kids, filled with idiots. If I ran straight out of the fire exit door, I knew what would happen. I’d be chased by the men and would be shot like a deer. I just have to do something memo- Yeah. 
 I know what I have do. 
     When Andy reached the Exit door, the men were sprinting down the same row that the door was in. From Andy’s the left the woman came running to him. The crisp smell of the foggy night hit Andy’s face, the second he swung open the door. 
  “GO! RUN TO THE NEAREST POLICE STATION AND REPORT THE INCIDENT!”, Andy screamed. 
         “What about you?”, she asked 
     “Only one of us can go. If we both go, they’ll chase us and kill us. I’ll hold them off, and you run and go to get the cops.” Andy closed his eyes, as one teardrop streamed down his face. He knew. He knew he couldn’t hold the men off. 
       “Bu-” she started 
      “JUST GO!” Andy thundered. 
         The woman ran into the midst of the night as Andy shut and locked the door. As he turned around, he could hear the deep breathing of the 4 men.  
         Something was odd. Andy looked at the man standing directly in front of him. This one’s eyes were different. His eyes showed fear. Why? of me?  
  Andy sensed someone familiar around him. For the last time, Andy closed his eyes. 
                                                 The Following Day 
 
    “Hey hey guys, hear this. 5 shot dead in local store. Four cashiers identified. One victim identification still pending”, the tall one said. “See that, we front headlines in the paper”, he said showing the paper to the three other men. 
     “Remember we didn’t make the front headlines. The five that we killed did”, One said seriously. 
  “Okay whatever so we kinda made front headlines. Huh, turns out we also kinda made second-page headlines. You know that lady that escaped. She got hit by a car.” 
        The skinny one looked past the two of them listening to see one of the men sitting there, looking nervous. 
    “Hey Mike, what's wrong with you. Are ya just gonna sit there and bite your finger-nails?” the tall one exclaimed with a confused look on his face. 
   He sat not replying 
      “Come on man, we’re all celebrating and you’re just sitting there” 
     “What is it”, Boss asked 
         “Is it about yesterday? Just forget about it okay. That’s probably the only kid we’ll encounter like ever. Someone had to do it. You just happened to have a gun.” tall one asked. 
    “Well, it did take him like 20 minutes to pull the trigger” the skinny one said. 
         The quiet one finally spoke 
   “No, it's just, it was kinda hard to pull the trigger on my son”