Sweet hero o' mine

Chapter 10: Guided tour through chaos

~~~~~~~~~~~Tessa's jeep~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Through the broken city laid businesses replacing old ones and a few food carts crushed and tipped over.

Lou sat at the back with Ellen and Scarlet, he stared out passing by a few teens trying to break into a Dollar store while a hard hatted an masked cat runs out of business carrying a box of fish sticks in his mouth.

The cat dashed off into a dark grungy alley. Lou just stared out the window in silence through the chatter and rambling. Passing by was an ice cream truck set on fire to more abandoned buildings that are possibly inhabited by shopkeepers or survivors.

Lou never thought to see something this bleak and dark, he snapped back to reality when Ellen called his name while nudging his shoulder. Lou turned his head to Ellen.

"Frightening but n-not that bad though, also we're nearly there"

~~~~~~~~~~The Gunslinging range~~~~~~~~

The range took place just outside of town, a huge abandoned building with rows of cracked and shattered windows, flaking an cracked wall paint, and luckily the doors were still seemingly intact. Wired fence stretched around the areas of the building to form a rectangular shape as some panels seemed either destroyed or looked to be completely gone.
A large banner that reads crudely in paint "The Gunslinger range" plastered on the entrance.

The jeep enters through an open gap of the fence.

~~~~~~

Inside it showed shredded couches that were surprisingly still intact , slightly cracked TVs turned on to random channels , decorated plants, and counter tables of people playing poker or chess, along with a gathering crowd of more teenagers and young adults teasing and mingling while cleaning their shooting weapons as what sounded like banging going off in the distance in another room.

On their way to the shooting gallery the halls were decorated with smug, humorous, and sarcastic sentences with spray paint, along with leftover dusty framed pictures.

The gallery had novelty shaped cardboard bullseye painted cutouts different types of creatures, even dinosaurs to be exact.

"So Lou, here's your choice" Tessa shows Lou the table that displays varieties of weapons
"we got all sorts, we also have laser guns, we even have lightsabers" Tessa explains.

They watch a random war-crying teenager charging up to a deer cutout that had a comical angry face drawn on it, with the blue lightsaber he starts attacking it and slicing it into pieces.

"Ain't that fun?"

"uhh-"

The teen ends up impaling the cardboard deer then gave out one last war-cry.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a few times of practicing with the laser gun Lou went and rest up in the lobby with Ellen. The two sat down at one of the ripped couches.

"So..ya still..g-glad that you're out here then there?"

"Of course, even though this city looks like it could collapse even more"

"The people try..I once w-was too scared to come back h-here..but I got my friends here"

"You also need a big brave guy to keep ya safe here?~"

Ellen shyly giggles while hiding in her sleeves.

"Have I mentioned your shy giggles are quite cute?~"

"Eheh, stop it~ eheh" Ellen giggled with her face still buried in her sleeved hands, she took a small peek up at Lou "th-thanks" Ellen takes her sleeves from her face.

"y-you're quite..look... quite n-nice too" Ellen manages to mustarded out for Lou to hear while she blushes.

"So..for all the..dolls you wanted to escape into the big world..you picked me? Was it also because I'm cute?"

Ellen shakes her head

"What you said that I deserve better?"

Ellen nodded her head "I k-know you could also at least see the big world and be better person..i didn't..l-like seeing you t-trapped in that world forever..when there's more out there to explore..and maybe.."she starts to mumble the last sentence "I-I th-thought y-you would b-be.....also..c-c-cute as human a-as well"

Lou makes a side smile at her soft response.

Voices of disgruntled tones went off in the distance about cheating in a game of cards, fighting started to go off. Lou and Ellen look up to the source in shock. Lou quickly gets up then helps Ellen out of the couch. The two head out from the chaotic ruckus watching one grab a beaten up but sloppily fixed up chair to try and use it as a weapon.