The Day an Idiot Robbed Wal-Mart

-Chapter 5-

Chapter 5

"Oh my...Cameron?" I called out quietly in the dark, for once not using his nickname. This situation seemed too serious to be calling him Cat Boy. Since yesterday we'd kind of blown off the seriousness of the situation, but reality was hitting right about now.

"I'm right here." I heard him whisper, and then he shushed me when I tried to talk again. I guess he didn't want to alert the robbers to where we were, and that was probably the best idea.

I felt his hand touch mine and I gently grasped it, grateful for the comfort when I was so frightened.

"Lacie...you're shaking."

The most shocking thing about that sentence was that Cameron actually referred to me by my real name, instead of Llama. Somehow, it didn't feel right coming from his lips. I almost didn't recognize my own name.

Then I noticed that it was true; I was trembling like a leaf. Cameron tightened his grip on my hand and inched closer. We were still hunched down at the end of the book aisle, praying the robbers weren't in the mood to read today.

What would we do if they came over here? Perhaps it wasn't them at all. The crash could've been Lamar, and the power outage could've been because of the storm.

But when I heard the voices, I knew that wasn't true.

I could feel Cameron tensing up beside me, and I clutched onto his hand like it would save my life. The voices were close, very close. We must've been near to the back door that the robbers broke through. Shouldn't there have been an alarm or something? Well, perhaps the power outage caused it to not go off. In which case, the robbers got off lucky.

"You two, split up and look for the people. Don't hurt them, but make sure they won't interfere with us." I heard a deep, masculine voice saying. Probably their leader. The patting of feet headed in our direction as the men he had directed jogged off. I almost breathed a sigh of relief as they passed Cameron and I, but I knew we weren't the only people at risk. At least they had been commanded not to hurt them.

I couldn't hear the man talking any more, so I figured he and the other robbers had gone off to grab what they could. Probably to the electronic aisle.

When we couldn't hear anybody any more, Cameron and I relaxed and sat up against the aisle separator. His arm was around me, and he pulled me close. Any other time, I would've pulled away, but right then I welcomed the comfort.

"How long do you think they'll be in here?" I whispered to Cameron. He shook his head, staring straight in front of him. I could only wonder what was going through his head.

"Let's just wait it out," he whispered. We sat in a complete silence for what seemed like eternity, the only sound was the panting of our breath. Not even the air was flowing from the vents due to the power outage.

And then, one possibly fatal mistake.

I shifted and turned - right into the aisle separator. The entire thing seemed to happen in slow motion: Cameron snatching my hand and yanking me back, me gasping in horror, then the holding in of breath as the entire separator crashed to the ground.

We sat there a moment, in complete awe. The sound had no doubt reverberated throughout the entire store. How could I have let that happen?

"Move. Now." Cameron shoved me down the aisle, and at first I thought he was being rude, but then I realized that the robbers would no doubt be coming back to check out the noise. "Follow me, and run!" Cameron whisper-yelled, and started to run towards the bathroom. The only reason we hadn't gone there in the first place was because we could be trapped if the robbers found us. There was no other way out. Now we ran there for our lives, hoping the robbers wouldn't check there.

I remained right behind Cameron as we ran along, keeping our backs hunched so the robbers hopefully wouldn't see us. The murmur of yelling voices began to get louder, as no doubt the robbers were making their way towards the noise - and us.

Cameron had made it to the bathroom door and burst inside, then peeked his head out and waved me in. I could feel my asthma acting up, the horrible thing I'd been cursed with as a child, but I pushed on. Each breath was raspy and stabbed at my lungs, but I'd rather have an asthma attack than have the robbers catch me.

It seemed that fate wouldn't let that happen.

Unable to restrain myself, I let out a raspy cough. I had reached the door, but not before a robber turned a corner and saw me standing there.

I was instantly put into a battle of thoughts. I couldn't go into the bathroom now, it would endanger Cameron.

"Go, hide!" I whispered to Cameron, just as the robber started to run my way. Quickly, I stepped away from the men's bathroom, which he had gone in, and pretended to be running into the women's bathroom. I knew I wouldn't be able to hide, but perhaps my ruse would work.

Without any regard to the gender on the door, the robber, who was clearly a man, shoved his way into the bathroom. I tried my best to hide, but I knew it was futile. His hands roughly grasped my arm as he dragged me out of the bathroom. My heart pounded on my chest, and I could feel the sweat beading on the top of my forehead. The robbers had been instructed not to hurt us, but that didn't mean they'd keep that word.

Taking a glance at my captor, I searched him for any recognizable signs that would come in handy later, if we needed to identify. Nothing. His black mask revealed nothing but his eyes, which were a common shade of brown. His body build was that of any trained athlete, which would explain how he was able to hold me captive so easily.

With one of his hands grasping my wrists, and the other clamped over my mouth, we stumbled along towards the book section, where the rest of his crew must've been.

As we rounded a corner, we came across two other men. One of them in particular walked with an intimidating swagger as he sauntered over to me, his dark eyes surveying me. His height alone was a frightening aspect, as he towered over me. No doubt he was the leader.

After a moment of exchanged glares, he snapped his hand towards a package of duct tape. "Tie her up." he said, his voice rough and deep.

The original captor yanked me towards the duct tape, and began wrapping my hands and mouth with the tape.