Shot to the Heart

Chapter 6- Charlotte's Cart

Jayla was nearing the back of the store when she noticed the banging had gotten louder. She realized it was coming from the Accessories section and headed that way. Tracking the sound, she noticed a stack of manikins had fallen over. 

"Well, that's odd." she mused aloud. She walked a little closer. The manikins were strewen half-hazardly, as if someone had knocked them down in a rush. Probably someone trying to escape the shooter. She reached down to shift them when a hand reached out and grabbed her by the wrist.

"Oh my gosh." It took everything Jayla had not to scream those words. The hand pulled, hard.

"Help...get...these blasted things...off." 

Jayla shifted the plastic bodies to the side. Underneath was an older lady, clad in the store uniform. She had the voice of a chain-smoker and the nails of a drag queen, which were really starting to dig into Jayla's arm.

"You're hurting me." She hissed through clenched teeth.

The hand released. "Sorry, princess." The woman took a deep breath. Jayla realized she had been shot in the stomach. A circle of red spread from the area she had been hit. 

"Here, can you sit up?" The lady tried to and gasped, red spurted out in alarming rates. "Nope, bad idea, okay, lay back down, lay back down please."  Jayla grabbed a shirt off the rack and balled it up. She pressed it to the wound, hard. 

"You some kind of EMT or something?" 

"No, ma'am."

"None of this ma'am business. I'm sixty, not eighty. And I look fifty. Call me Charlotte."

Jayla stifled a laugh. Go figure she'd be a spunky grandma. "So, Charlotte, what was the banging about?"

"Hit a belt on something. It's quiet enough it won't draw too much attention, but people still hear it."

"Where'd you learn that?"

"Off a T.V show. You oughta be impressed!"

Jayla smiled. "Of course. So, if it's not too soon, how'd you wind up with a bullet to the gut?" She remembered it was important to keep gunshot victims talking and alert. 

"I was just coming off break when I see Delores from Checkout making motions at me. I turn around and some wackjob's walking into my store with a gun! I turned to run, but he got me before i could get anywhere. I fell down and played possum. Seemed like the right thing to do."

"Delores?" Maybe there was another survivor. The woman's face grew solemn.

"Store manager. Nice old lady. Been working here since the place opened, practically." She gestured toward a pair of motionless legs under the checkout desk. "Could hear her screaming as she went. Awful way to go, just awful."

Jayla listened as Charlotte lapsed into silence. They couldn't stay here in the main aisle, as they were rather exposed. If they could just move back to the elevators, they could wait for Alex, and he could help. 

"Charlotte, do you think you could move? We need to get somewhere less exposed."

"Honey, it's taking all I got just to sit here talking to you. I ain't going nowhere unless somebody finds me a cart and wheels me out."

"Okay then, I'll go find us a cart. Stay put."

Jayla ran through the store back to the main entrance. She grabbed one of the supersize carts and wheeled it back as quickly as possible, staying on carpeted areas whenever possible to minimize squeaking. When she reached Charlotte, she had to keep from wincing. The shirt she had used to staunch the bleeding was already completely red. 

"Come on, Charlotte. Up you get." With a combination of teamwork, sweat, prayers (from Jayla), and heavy cursing (from Charlotte), they were able to situate her carefully in the cart. Jayla switched out the shirts, loaded a few more in for good measure, and they were off, back to the elevators where she prayed Alex would be waiting.