"Viciousness" -- An Apocalypse Role Play

October 15, 2025:

Human Beings had always wondered whether or not they were alone in the universe. They got their answer 6 days ago when -- despite trillions of dollars spent on deep space detection systems -- an alien spacecraft entered the planet's atmosphere without previously being identified.

Over the next 50 hours, hundreds of smaller ships separated from the Mother Ship. In turn, even smaller ships separated from those. Then, 90 hours after the Mother Ship's arrival, all of the smallest ships began to explode, almost like celebration fire works, sending out fiery streams of sparks in all directions over the land below them.

No one quite understood what was happening, until the mayhem began. People became vicious with one another, attacking and beating and killing others. They were up close and personal attacks of a primal nature; although some who were being attacked used firearms to defend themselves, those doing the attacking were more animalistic, using only their hands and teeth to kill and then eat their prey.

It was decided that something dispersed by the exploding alien ships was causing this viciousness. The government used radio, television, cell service, and the internet to advice people to remain indoors and protect themselves. But this failed as there were very few homes in which at least one resident didn't begin attacking the others.

There were those who didn't seem to be affected by the viciousness, though...

...and that's who our story is about.


Characters, their profiles, an more:

• Rita Pitaski -- image, introduction and profile.
  • Assistant Manager, Cabela's
  • Member, Gateway Mall Advisory Board.
• Karl Prentice -- image, introduction and profile
  • Assistant Manager, Ashley Home Store
• Maria Howard -- image, introduction and profile
  • Security Officer

Introducing Rita Pitaski

Rita "Rita Pita" Pitaski -- Asst. Manager, Cabela's
28 years old
5'8", 36D-28-36, very fit
Dark brunette hair, deep brown eyes
Tattoos to be discussed later

History:

• Grew up in Springfield.
• Was an athlete and outdoorsy type.
• Familiar with guns, survival, gardening.
• 4 years in US Army Military Police (Age 19-23)
• Cabela's employee for 5 years.
  • (Google Map Street View Link of store location.
  • Select it to see the store.
  • Then select the back arrow in the upper left -- or wherever on your device -- to see the store's location in the city map.
  
  

Family, friends, and more:

• Parents and 18 year old sister in Springfield; status is yet to be determined.
• 22 year old brother in the Army overseas; status is yet to be determined.
• She has both a male and female lover here in town; status is yet to be determined.
• Her apartment is several blocks away.

October 15, 2025 -- 2pm:

Rita had been following all of the alien attack stuff very closely even before it was known to be an attack. She'd seen enough alien arrival movies in her life to known that even if these ETs were benevolent, people would somehow fuck it up and get the entire human race annihilated or enslaved or eaten, eww.

She was the Assistant Manager of Cabela's at Springfield's (Oregon) Gateway Shopping Center, and with the Manager away on vacation, she'd been in charge during this entire event. Even before the City, State, Nation, and World as a whole erupted in panic with infected people attacking other people, Rita did as some of the other managers in the mall were already doing: she locked the store down and told the employees not to come in.

Because the store sells firearms and because in a panic, everyone wants guns to defend themselves, Rita was afraid there would be a rush on the store. Unlike many of the mall's locations, Cabela's was very secure when it closed at the end of the day. It had two different sets of metal security doors that came down at the parking lot and mall entrances, one the typical grill type and the other -- more for fire prevention -- a solid steel shutter system.

In addition, the cameras at those two entrances, as well as at the Utility Hallway entrance were powered by the solar power system that, in part, served the Mall's security system. Rita knew that if the power went down for any reason, at least she'd have that helping to keep her safe, or at least feel safe.

She hoped to escape anything crazy. She didn't. Before anyone knew about the Viciousness Virus, which it would come to be called later, Rita had invited three of her subordinates -- Cassie, Greg, and Howard -- to continue working, doing work that had nothing to do with actual sales. She was, of course, assuming that once all this alien shit got sorted out, the store would reopen. Oh was she wrong.

Rita was setting up a new display -- that, of course, no customers would ever see -- when she heard screams from the store room. She was only a few steps away from the Security Station, so she hurried over to see what the cameras would show her.

Cassie was sitting on the floor with blood all over her face, neck, and chest. She appeared to be crying in agony, and when Rita turned the volume up, she only verified that what she'd heard earlier was the young woman.

She punched several times at the button switching between cameras and found Greg inside one of the inventory security cages, desperately holding the door closed as Howard tried to get inside. From the angle of the camera, Rita couldn't see Howard's front. But when Cassie cried out again, Howard turned for a moment to look that way, and Rita could see that his face, neck, and much of his chest was covered in blood. Had Howard attacked Cassie? Had he bit her, like some rabid dog?

Rita was packing heat -- a Beretta Model 92FS 9mm semiautomatic handgun -- as she regularly did. It was company policy that anyone who worked the gun sales counter -- which included all Management employees, of course -- carry during the store's open hours. But to be honest, Rita would have been packing a weapon anyway because there were now rumors going around that the town was erupting in riot.

The reasons for carrying a sidearm in the store were threefold: self defense, in case someone pulled a weapon to rob the store or simply to put the town on the news again with another mass shooting; promotion of the 2nd Amendment, the right to bear arms, which an employee walking about with a gun on their hip most certainly did; and for hand gun (and even long gun) sales, which had increased 3 fold since that store adopted the mandatory carry rule four years earlier.

But regarding that first reason, Rita didn't know what to do: was she supposed to rush to the back room and stop Howard by shooting him dead? She didn't understand what Howard was doing? Had he gone mad? Was he turning on the others simply out of anger toward them? Would he come after Rita next?

Then, as she was trying to figure out what to do next, the strangest thing happened. Howard suddenly stopped trying to get into the cage. A moment later, Greg began acting crazy inside the cage, much as Howard had been doing outside it. Howard turned and rushed away, and a moment later Rita saw Cassie panic again and scream again ... and suddenly Howard was upon her, biting at her neck and clawing at her body.

Right there on the monitor, Rita watched as one of her co-workers tore out the neck of her other coworker, killing her. Then, he started eating at her neck! And on the other camera, Greg -- who for some reason hadn't been able to open the door of the cage -- finally got out, rushed through the stock room, and joined Howard in eating on the young female sales associate's body.

The fear and horror inside Rita shifted slowly ... and after watching the madness taking place in the back room for what seemed like minutes but was actually just a couple of dozen seconds, Rita pulled her weapon, marched to the back room, hollered at the two madmen, and as they each turned to face her she put 4 or 5 or 6 rounds into each one of them. They dropped to the ground, flopping about like fish on the dock, then went still.

Cassie, of course, had already gone still, even though blood was continuing to pulse from a vein in her neck for a moment before the blood pressure inside her finally waned.



And now it's now...

What was she supposed to do now? She had 3 people -- her workers, her friends! -- dead on the concrete floor of her stock room. Two of them had killed the third, and she'd killed the two of them. As the adrenaline of what had happened began to wear off and the reality of it all came to her, she turned toward a garbage can and emptied her stomach.

Once she'd recovered, Rita put a fresh clip into the almost empty handgun and took a walk around the store. She didn't expect to find anyone inside, of course, but she just needed to get away from the corpses in the stock room. She went to the phone and called 9-1-1, but all she got was ringing and a message about how an Officer would be online as soon as possible.

Of course, no one ever came on the line; the police station and the 9-1-1 call center within it had already suffered the madness that she just had, and no one would be answering phones there again for a very long time, if ever. All around the city, First Responders were going crazy and attacking others, just as the others were attacking everyone else.

• Karl Prentice -- Asst. Manager, Ashley HomeStore
• 25 years old
• 5’11", runner’s build
• Blonde hair, blue eyes

History:

• Grew up in Springfield.
• Was an athlete in cross-country and basketball. Big Blazers fan
• Amateur chef
• Recent Business School Graduate
• Father Manages Ashley Homestore, Karl hired as Asst. Mgr after Business School

Family, friends, and more:

• Parents on a camping trip at Fall Creek; status is yet to be determined.
• 22 year old sister at the University of Oregon; status is yet to be determined.
• He is romantically unattached
• His new apartment is several miles away

Karl Prentice had just lowered the gate in front of the furniture store he worked at. All the customers had been dismissed and the employees had been sent home. The news of the alien “arrival” had been shocking, but whatever was about to happen should happen with people at home. At least, that’s what he thought. He wasn’t sure if his father would agree. But when you take a camping trip in the middle of the week you give up the ability to make some of those decisions. If he was upset, Karl would just deal with the fallout later.

He went back into the back and started closing up the books for the day. It probably wouldn’t have taken very long, but he was new at it. His dad had only started letting him manage the store on his own a few months ago, after almost a year as assistant manager. He was just finishing up when he heard the gate at the front of the store rattling.

“Help!”

Karl looked up at the security camera’s feed. There was a man standing at the gate. He was dressed in jeans and a button-up shirt. The remarkable thing about him was the blood covering one side of his body. Karl stepped out to stand in the back of the store where he could see the entire storefront. The man was clearly agitated, and he started to walk away without noticing Karl, presumably to move on to the next store. Before he made it out of sight, though, a pair of teenage girls sprinted into him from behind. They were clawing at him and biting him like animals. He screamed, and Karl ran up to the gate, yelling at the girls to leave the man alone. He reached for his keys, but he had left them on the desk in the back. He started to run back, but he heard the man gurgle and saw him shake until he was still. The girls quickly stood up and jumped at the gate, rattling the metal links against each other.

Karl had no idea what to do. These girls’ eyes were blank. Nobody was home. What had happened to them? Was it the aliens, somehow? Were these aliens in disguise? The gate seemed to be holding, but Karl was frozen. The girls gave up and started pacing like some kind of wild predator. Before Karl snapped out of his reverie, some sound in the distance alerted the girls to a more accessible target.

Karl ran back to the office and started trying to make calls. He called his parents’ number, but they probably couldn’t get a signal. His sister didn’t answer, either. He was embarrassed that he hadn’t thought to call the police first, but he felt better about when all he got there was a recording. They must have a lot to deal with right now. He started cycling through numbers of everyone he knew, but stopped quickly. What was he going to say to them?

Thankfully, the store only had two entrances. The door at the back took him a few minutes to reinforce with some heavy furniture. The gate seemed solid, so he wasn’t too stressed about it, but he didn’t know what else to do. He sat down on a nice power reclining sofa, a Garristown model, to start thinking through his options. So far it didn’t seem like there were many.

Introducing Maria Howard

Maria Howard -- Mall Security

• 22 years old
• 5'6", 32B-24-36 (Baby's got back)
• Brunette hair, straight, mid-back but almost always in a bun
• Dark brown eyes

History:

• Grew up in a tough neighborhood in Seattle, Washington.
• Was a member of a Latinx girl gang called the Chicas from the time she entered puberty. Theoretically, she still is a member. They were the sister gang to a male gang that ran heroine, a group for which they often played lookout or drove cars filled with dope.
• Came to Eugene to attend the University of Oregon School of Journalism, where she is a junior.
• Hired as Mall Security 2 years ago. She is considered a Corporal. (Her boss is a former Marine and loves the concept of rank and hierarchy.)

Family, friends, and more:

• She has no romantic interests at this time.
• She has no family to speak of, here or anywhere else.
• She is heterosexual, likes fucking, and knows she can get stuff through fucking, so I would imagine she'll find a lover at the earliest convenience.

"I'm the only one here!" Maria was speaking into the Security Office's landline with a sense of panic. She listened to the voice at the other end of the line and said with even more emphasis, "No! I mean the only one! There's no one else! Where is everyone?"

Maria had arrived at 5am to unlock the doors used by the Mall's morning workers, as well as the Walkers who liked getting in their steps without getting rained on. An hour later one of her coworkers arrived, and an hour after that her boss arrived.

Personally, Maria didn't even know why the mall was open. Half of the store managers/owners had already shut down their shops, either because the had no customers, had no one to work their shops, or didn't want to work themselves.

There were a lot of scared people out there what with this alien invasion thing going on. Okay, so, whoever or whatever was up in those ships or satellites or what ever they were hadn't attacked yet, but Maria knew it was just a matter of time.

As she was walking around the mall, listening to the local news radio station on her phone, the reports of weird shit happening began coming in. Maria had been listening to them for a day or two, but she'd chalked it up to your normal apocalyptic hysteria. Then, right in front of her eyes, she saw a teenage girl attack a man, leaping on him and scratching and biting at him.

She ran quickly at the girl, hopping onto her security radio to call it in to her boss, who was supposed to be in the office. As she got close she pulled her Taser but then froze when blood sprayed out of the man's neck and splashed on her face and uniform, even getting into one of her eyes.

Maria panicked, her discipline suddenly going out the window. She heard quickly approaching footsteps and looked to see another girl racing toward the man and young woman. She should have intervened, but Maria was at a loss. She hadn't been trained for this. She stepped back behind a kiosk and watched as the new girl -- who had this manic, animalistic look in her eyes -- slammed into the man and the woman already attacking him.

The three of them tumbled to the ground, and for a moment the two girls clawed at each other and hissed like wild cats. But Maria noticed that it wasn't like how the first girl had been attacking the guy; they weren't trying to hurt each other but almost seemed to be fighting over who got the guy as ... as what, dinner?

The man got to his feet, press a hand over the bleeding wound in his neck, and ran. Maria just stood there, silent and still, fearful that the two women would see and attack her instead. But as the man -- who seemed slowed by his blood loss -- began rattling closed store grills, begging for help, the two girls seemed to get over their spat ... and they attacked him together this time, right in front of the Ashley Home Store.

Maria looked to the Taser in her hands and thought to herself, Fuck this! She backed away until the two crazed females couldn't see her, then rushed to security for backup. But there wasn't any. Her boss was missing, as was her subordinate; she would later find both of them dead in the mall, the former killed and eaten upon by the creatures, and the latter looking as though he'd become a creature before being beaten with a bat. Maria would know it was a bat because she would later find a dead man a couple of dozen yards away still holding it while he was surrounded by a pool of his own blood.

"You want me to what?" she asked with exasperation. "You want me to go around the mall and lock it all up? I'm not going out there!"

She listened more and argued more ... and then heard mayhem on the other end of the line, followed by a scream from a woman, then a man, then what sounded like an animal ripping through flesh with sharp teeth. Then there was nothing but background noise, and she was all alone.

"Attention in the mall," she spoke into the intercom after she'd finally decided to activate the Active Shooter Protocol Alarm, letting it sound for a couple of minutes before turning it off again. "This is Maria with Mall Security. If you inside a closed store and have not already done so, please find a hiding place and remain silent and still until you are told that it is safe to emerge."

She had been watching the 6 monitors being fed images from the 122 security cameras located all about the mall, and she knew there weren't many people -- except for the crazed guys -- still out and about moving around.

"If you are in the public area of the mall ... in the halls or hiding in a kiosk or some other vulnerable space where you feel you are in danger," she continued, surprisingly calm, "please find the nearest place to hide and, again, be silent and still. If you have a cell phone, I want you to text me and tell me precisely where you are, and I will try to direct you to safety. I will give you that phone number now, and I will repeat it again every few minutes until I believe everyone has found a safe place to hide."

Maria gave the number, repeated it, then continued, "I don't know what's going on. I know you don't want to here that from Security. But I'm not going to lie to you. I called 9-1-1 and only got a recording. I'm sure some of you probably got the same result."

Her phone chimed with a text, and a moment later a second message came in. She gave the number again, saying into the microphone, "I'm getting your texts now, and I'm going to respond to each and everyone of you. Stay quiet, turn the volume and vibration off on your phones just in case these ... monsters hear the vibrations. Trust me, we will get through this."

She again repeated her number, then set about responding to the messages.

Karl heard the woman’s announcement, and while it wasn’t exactly comforting, he was glad to hear someone was taking some initiative. He got the number into his phone the second time she said it, and then he started typing out his message.

{This is Karl Prentice. Thank you for making your announcement. I’m glad someone is doing something. I’m locked in Ashley HomeStore. I have the keys, but I’m afraid to unlock the store. I’m safe right now, so other people should probably be your priority. Just, please, don’t forget about me.}

He hit send, and lay back on the sofa. It gave him comfort to have something specific to wait for. He also didn’t hear anything terrible at the moment, so he relaxed as much as he could considering what he’d just seen.

Maria opened the first text, read it, and tapped on the controls for the security cameras. She found the Chipotle in the Food Court from which the text had come and responded:


Maria got onto the intercom again, announcing, "Hello again, this is Maria with Security. I am receiving your text messages, and I am responding to each of you in turn. Please, remain still and silent where you are if you feel safe. If you do not feel safe where you are are, find safety elsewhere but please, please, be quick and quiet about it. These ... creatures seem to be attracted to sound."

As if to prove themselves to her, Maria caught sight of two of the Creatures running through the view of one of the monitoring cameras. She tapped some buttons and found them a moment later, just as the cornered, attacked, and killed a woman Maria recognized as a young sales associate from one of the women's apparel shops. Their speed and viciousness simply amazed and appalled her.

"Please! If you don't have to move, don't!" she warned again. "If you can stick tight to where you are, help is coming."

Maria practically leaped out of her shoes when the office phone rang next to her. She answered to the sound of a familiar voice announcing, "Maria, it's Rita, over at Cabela's."

"Oh, thank God you're okay!" Maria said with obvious relief. "Are you okay? Are you safe?"

The two exchanged recaps of their current situations, after which Rita asked, "Are the service hallways clear? Can you get to Cabela's service door safely?"

"Let me look," the security officer said. After checking the cameras, she told Rita there were at least 3 of the things she was calling Creatures running about in the hallways. "What do I do? I mean, do have an idea? It sounds like you have an idea."

"I do," Rita told her, "but first, how many people have texted you so far? And how many others do you see in the mall that need help?"

Maria looked to her phone, then answered, "Six. I've gotten six texts so far."

They went down the list. Rita knew where each of the locations were, of course; she'd worked at the mall for years and she was on the mall's Advisory Board, which meant that she spent a lot of time talking to the Managers and Sales Associates at most if not all of the stores from time to time. Maria knew where all the stores were, too, seeing how it was her job to respond to issues at them without having to check some mall map display near an entrance.

"Okay, this is what I want you to do, Maria," Rita told her. "I want you to respond to each and every text. Tell them to stay put ... that I'm coming for them."

"What?" Maria reacted with a shocked tone. "You're going out there?"

Rita tried to calm the younger woman down, ran through her instructions, and asked, "Can you do this, Maria? You're in charge of security now. You are Paul Blart, Mall Cop, got it?"

Maria couldn't help but laugh at that. The two of them -- with two other Security Officers and come other friends -- had had a movie night in which they'd watched both Paul Blart, Mall Cop movies. Maria said, "I don't have a Segway ... but I'm ready."

They reviewed the plan once more, and then each of them went to work. Maria got onto her cell phone again, sending a message to Chloe and the others that help was on the way. Then she sent her last one:

Introducing Chloe McDougal

Chloe McDougal
20 years old
5'2", 32A-22-32, petite
Long, wavy, auburn hair.
Blue eyes.

History:

• Grew up in Springfield.
• Still lives with her parents, whose status is unknown at this time.
• 2nd year Associate of Arts student at Lane Community College (Eugene, OR)
• She was visiting a friend at the Food Court when the place went crazy.

October 15, 2025:

Chloe was in the food court when what she thought was a brawl began in the far corner. After less than a minute, though, she found herself hiding behind the counter of the Chipotle ordering area with her friend, LeAnn. They huddled together in fear while people were screaming and screeching just out of sight.

And then, LeAnn began twitching about. Chloe thought her friend was suffering some kind of seizure. She tried to help the other young woman, only to suddenly feel LeAnn's teeth biting into her arm. Chloe drew away, realizing after a moment that her friend was suffering whatever the others were. She stood to run, only to find the food court a melee between attackers and attackees.

She turned and ran into Chipotle's kitchen. There was no one there; Chloe had known LeAnn's boss had taken a walk to their off site storage area. She blocked the door just as LeAnn charged and slammed against it. The two of them fought against their own sides of the door for a couple of minutes, until suddenly LeAnn just ran off.

That was when she'd heard the Security Officer's announcement and texted. Maria had texted back, and now Chloe was receiving another text:

Karl read Maria’s text. He knew Rita a little bit, and respected her. His father didn’t like her, but that was just because he didn’t like competent women. He always felt like they were rubbing his nose in it.

As well as Maria had been doing, the relief Karl felt when he found out Rita was alive and present was undeniable.

Karl moved to the front of the store as quietly as he could. At 5:18 he planned to unlock the gate, just in case his watch was off. He couldn’t see any of the creatures around. After that he would just stay ready for two minutes in case he saw her. At 5:20, he would open the gate whether he saw her or not.

Rita Pitaski goes to Ashley's HomeStore to reach Karl Prentice

Rita and Maria had returned to texting rather than talking, and both of their phones were on mute with no vibration, fearful that even the buzzing of the phone's bodies might attract unwanted attention.

At 5:15, Rita drew a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and began what she was privately calling Operation: Don't get eaten!. She didn't like what she had to do to get from Cabela's to Ashley's HomeStore but she had no better options. There were no doors from the store directly to the service hallways, so she had to open the roll up security grill and solid shutters to the mall's interior, press the button to lower them again, roll underneath them, and run for the service hall. And she had to do this without attracting those things Maria was calling Creatures.

Of course, while this was dangerous enough, the second problem was that Rita couldn't get back into the store this way. The only way back in was to go out onto the sidewalk and use the people door that accessed the stock room. She was not eager to go outside, but she didn't see any other option.

Rita put a headset on that she'd gotten from their electronics section and plugged it into her cell phone's headphone jack. She dialed Maria, asking, "Am I clear"

"As far as I can tell, yes," Maria said as she cycled through all of the cameras that watched the area outside the store's mall entrance. "Good luck."

Rita had never really thought the doors moved slow until this moment; it reminded her of the old saying about how a watched pot never boils. Soon, the doors were both about 3 feet off the floor. Rita tossed two packed hunting bags out, hit stop on the door controls, hit down on both, then dropped to the floor and rolled out.

She grabbed up the bags and ran, bursting through the service hallway door as she asked with an already rising panic, "Update?".

"Clear all the way to the corner," Maria told her, watching the service hallway's cameras. The first leg of the hall was less than 200 feet, but to Maria, it seemed like Rita was taking her own sweet time. Suddenly, she caught movement in the second leg of the hallway and called out, "There someone around the corner from you!"

Rita had slung the bags over her shoulders, securing them. As she ran down the hallway, she had a 12 gauge shotgun in her hands. Even before she reached the corner, as Maria was still calling out warnings she heard in her ear buds, one of the Creatures stepped into view, attracted by the noise.

Rita hesitated to see what the former Human Being would do. She was thankful that she didn't recognized the person, because it did as she feared: charged, charged with its mouth open as if to bear its fangs -- which it didn't have -- and hissing at her menacingly.

She didn't hesitate: she put one round into the Creature's chest, stopping its forward movement and causing it to teeter around, trying to regain its balance. The second round knocked it off its feet. Oh, not like you see in the movies, where the guy goes flying across the room to slam into the wall, which was entirely unrealistic. No, it basically just jerked hard, lost its footing, and fell to the concrete ... dead.

"Am I clear?" Rita asked, already moving ahead. She sped up after the Security Officer told her she was clear all the way out into the mall. She slowed before she opened the door, peeked both directions as well as behind her, then checked her watch: 5:21, she was late. Again she asked, "Clear?"

She got the okay to go, burst through the door, and ran for Ashley's. She was almost to the door when a male Creature came rushing from out of the Service Hallway on the opposite side of the mall's main shopping area. She didn't hesitate to point the gun and fire, this time exploding the Creature's skull.

Reaching the front of Ashley's, Rita was seriously relieved to find the grill raised 2 feet, just as requested. She made eye contact with Karl, even saying as she slid the shotgun underneath the gate, "Hey!"

She unslung one bag, threw it underneath, then the other, and was about to drop when she looked to Karl again. Her eyes widened, and she spun to find not one, not two, not three, but four creatures rushing their way. She ripped the 9mm Beretta off her hip, and began popping off the 15 rounds in the chamber and clip.

Then, she dropped to the floor and rolled underneath.

It was 5:21 before Karl finally saw Rita, bursting out of the service corridor and blasting one of the insane people that came out of nowhere. Karl hadn’t seen any of them until then, but waiting there with that gate open was still the scariest minute of his life. He was really glad he’d done it, though. He knew that his odds of survival were much higher with Rita. He lowered the gate and let out a sigh of relief.

More of them had come, drawn by Rita’s gunshots. The crazies outside were hard to ignore, clawing at the bars and screaming, but they couldn’t get in. At least not this way. Karl, thankfully, didn’t recognize any of them. He was sure he would at some point, though. He wondered what he would do in that moment. They seemed gone; dead already. If one of his friends or family members was running at him, though: in that moment, would he have doubts?

The strangers, though? He could kill the feral strangers. He saw the shotgun at his feet and picked it up, resting it in his palms to offer it to Rita. “You want to show me how to use one of these real quick? I’ve shot small handguns and rifles maybe three or four times in my life, but never a shotgun. I assume getting to Maria is going to be tougher than that just was, at least for me.”