Doomsday

Tatum's phone vibrated in his hand to reveal that Alan had responded to his text.

We have a cousin?

Tatum read the text and smiled. He had almost forgot about that. His daughter wasn't a subject he wanted to bring up for most of her life, but he eventually grew past his wife's leaving. Still to this day however, Katie still hasn't been that known. Chuckling, he showed her the text after he responded.

Yeah, but she's thirteen. Her name's Katie.

Katie smiled at the text and even giggled slightly to the fact that her cousins didn't even know that she existed. The little girl would've stared a little longer at the message, but the toned hand pressed against her back that guided her alongside her father said otherwise.

The two piled inside the pickup Tatum started it up.

"When we get them, we need to head over to Generator Shack."

"The generator's busted," Tatum asked. "Bummer. That one would've set a record."

In truth, three months wasn't much to brag about, but between the state of the art alarm system and the high electricity demand, the generators never usually last very long. Tatum chuckled at their predicament as the truck sped through the outskirts.

Finally reaching the shop, Marion parked, exited, and locked her car. She entered into the Welcome Area. "Hello?" she called out. "Uncle Tatum?"

No answer. It was then she realized that she hadn't seen his truck out front. Marion realized he (and Katie) must have gone out for a while. After turning the sign on the front door to "Open", she climbed over the counter-a move that she knew she wasn't allowed to do in the presence of others (most notably Tatum)-and tried to open the register. It was locked.

"Aha. Tatum finally put a PIN on this thing. I have a feeling it wasn't because of the risk of a burglary..." Case in point, what she just tried to do. Marion took a seat behind the counter and propped her feet up, waiting for the day to begin.

Natalia arrived at the shop, seemingly in record time, unsurprisingly since she was in a hurry. Once she got there she turned her motorcycle off and put the keys in her pocket, before getting up and pulling the bags out of the compartments in the back. She put the messenger bag on first, going diagonally across her body, then the backpack on before heading inside.

Once inside her eyes scanned the welcome area for potential allies or threats. When she didn't really see anyone she decided to speak out and check. "Hello?" She said in a Russian accent as she waited a couple minutes before she began to head over to the ammo in search of more for her pistols.

Marion didn't even look up from the magazine she had found behind the counter as the customer entered and went to the ammo section.

"Welcome to Tatum's Food and Guns. Just because you're going to kill someone, does not mean you have to do it on an empty stomach." Marion said in a bored tone that sounded rehearsed, as if she had said this a million times everyday. "The food is to the left and guns and the like are to the right. Please refrain from stealing (lol the irony) as there is a camera and alarm set and I will not hesitate to call the police, yadda yadda yadda."

Did she really have to say this everytime a customer entered? When Tatum returned, she would ask him to change the intro.

Natalia glanced over at the counter and nodded. "Thank you." Was all she said for now as she went back to looking. The person that spoke seemed bored, and not at all worried about anything. At first she found that strange, then remembered the article she read was not yet on the normal web, and most likely only those coming from Tucson would know if there was anything actually happening up there.

So she just shrugged to herself and grabbed several boxes of ammo, before glancing around. As she did such, her eyes landed on a sniper rifle, which she walked over to and inspected. She nodded to herself before checking the ammo she had, grabbing a couple more boxes, and walking over to the desk.

Suddenly, the alarm went off, causing a rhythmic shriek to sound throughout the shop. The sudden noise caused Marion to finally look up. "Uh oh, it seems as though you have triggered the anything-but-silent alarm." she said as if she were a game show host. "The generator must not be in working order."

Marion placed her magazine down and climbed over the counter, heading to the generator room to see if she was correct. Sure enough, a red light shone from a small button-like object on the generator, confirming what Marion had suspected. That must be why Tatum is out...

She returned to the Welcome Area. "You may want to put that back, for the time being. Un- er the owner of the store is out fixing the problem but I have no idea when he'll be back."

Marion climbed back over the counter for what she felt was the millionth time and picked her magazine back up.

Natalia internally groaned at the alarm, but simply remained at the counter with the riffle. She watched and listened to the girl, but shook her head when it was suggest to put it back. "I would rather not. I need to go, with it." She said as she pulled her badge and wallet out. "Are you allowed to handle money? Or should I just leave it on the counter?" She asked in the same Russian accent as she looked up from her wallet.

Tatum marched inside and stared straight past Natalia.

"Marion," he ordered. "Help me clear my bed."

Marion knew better than to ask "Why?" to Tatum. She simply climbed over the counter again, ignoring Natalia's question, and ran to his office, clearing up his bed for who-knows-what. From the context of his order, she could only assume it was for someone who needed something to lie on immediately. Maybe someone sick or injured.

Marion fluffed up his pillow and leaned it against a wall on the bed. "I'm all done!" she called out.

(Okay, I'm bringing the group to his room right now)

Tanner entered and seeing that no time had been wasted, he quickly followed the group into Tatum's room.

Natalia glanced back as people entered while she awaited an answer to her question. When the girl ran away however, she rolled her eyes a bit. It was hard to tell whether she had noticed the injured child or not, since she simply started inspecting the riffle she held.

Still lugging Kirsten on his back, Alan carried her through the welcome area.

"I've never seen a place that sells food and guns together before." he noted as he looked around the shop. Not wasting time by stopping to take a better look at the scenery, he focused on getting his injured little sister to safety.

And on that note, he headed into Tatum's room.

After a considerable amount of effort, Logan managed to drag herself farther into the shop. Blood from the gash on her head was running down into her eye, which made it even harder to see. She had no idea if anyone was in there, but she desperately needed help.

Once again she tried to call for help, but it would take the last of her strength. "H-h.... help....!" She managed to call out before passing out on the floor. Her call was louder than the ones before, but still not the loudest.

Tatum rushed over as fast as he could to his daughter. He too heard the sounds of the alarm blaring, but it didn't matter until he knew that she was safe.

"Katie, what's the ma-"

He then realized what she had been talking about. Katie struggled to carry the young man on her shoulders who seemed wounded. The blood on this person trickled down to all the way to his eye.

"I got 'em," Tatum reassured before removing the weight off his daughter's shoulders. Tatum then carried the person over to his room.

Katie placed a hand on her father's shoulder to stop him from leaving. "There's more people outside, daddy. What do we do?"

Arriving at the scene just as Katie said those words, Alan nodded.

"I'll help." he said before heading outside to the vehicles. Coming upon the car filled with people, Alan offered a sympathetic smile.

"Please, let me help you." he said politely before opening up the back seat to help the wounded new arrival.

He carefully but firmly grasped one of her arms and pulled her to her feet with some effort. Her being unconscious made the effort more cumbersome, but he persevered nonetheless.

Slinging an arm over his shoulder, he held it in place with one arm while keeping his other arm around her waist to support her. After double-checking that she wouldn't fall over as they walked, he began making his way inside the store again.

"Follow me." he said over his shoulder to the other inhabitants of the vehicle. "It's safer inside."

Carrying her further into the store, he gazed at Tatum questioningly.

"Are there any available rooms?" he asked with a slight strain as he struggled to hold up the unconscious girl.

It wasn't that he thought she was heavy, in fact far from it. She didn't look that much older than him, so it wasn't a matter of her weight.

Realizing that she would probably have gotten offended at his strain, he was suddenly momentarily relieved that she was unconscious, and that he wouldn't have to explain himself.

Natalia was still standing at the counter inspecting the sniper riffle, ignoring the alarm and everything else going on in the room with her.