He watched her as she sprinted towards the kids. He watched as they looked up and saw her, and as they yelled out to alert the others. He saw them as they frantically dug into their pant pockets and as Mary wielded her gun. He stopped watching and squeezed his eyes shut when he heard screams and gunfire.

He turned around and covered his ears to block out the horrific sounds, drawing his knees to his chest and shaking like a leaf. Soon enough he felt a hand on his shoulder and when he opened his eyes and looked up there was Mary, with a grin on her face and blood on her clothes.

“The coast is clear,” she said. “Let’s go.”

She walked away and Kevin shakily stood up, trying to calm his breathing. He started to follow Mary but then stopped dead in his tracks when the crumpled bodies came into view.

He squeezed his eyes shut like he was in pain and clutched at his cramping stomach. “They were only kids,” he managed to croak out.

Mary glanced over her shoulder at him indifferently. “Yeah, they’re called ‘Brats’ for a reason. I told ya they were kids.”

He shook his head in disbelief. “Why did you have to kill them then?”

Mary spun around and eyed him vehemently. “Are we gonna have a problem?” she asked, her voice sharp.

Kevin didn’t respond. Mary stomped over to him, her eyes like fire as she glared at him fiercely a few inches away from his face. She began to whisper so roughly that it felt like she was yelling at him. “I told ya I’d hafta kill in order to do this; they may look small but they’re really dangerous. Now if we don’t hurry more of ‘em are gonna come, we gotta go right now.”

When Kevin didn’t budge Mary narrowed her eyes and dropped her voice an octave. “D’ya wanna find yer stepdad or not?”

A drop of sweat made its way down Kevin’s temple. He looked at the bodies one more time before quickly looking away again. He took a deep breath, and thinking of his stepdad, nodded.

Mary made a sound from the back of her throat. “Good. Now let’s go.” The two of them then quickly walked past the bodies and into the factory, closing the doors shut behind them.

The room they entered was huge. There were stalled conveyer belts and cardboard boxes everywhere. Wooden planks were strew across the floor and thick electrical cords hung from the ceiling like vines. The only light in the room came from the light that poured in from the windows. The sweet smell was unbearable now and Kevin succumbed to a long overdue coughing fit. He thought Mary would reprimand him but she was busy surveying the area.

“The rest must be stationed ‘round the town,” Mary muttered under her breath. “It’s only a matter a’ time before the others come, we gotta hurry.” She touched Kevin’s shoulder. “C’mon.”

They briskly walked along the walls of the room, stepping over and around planks and boxes carefully. As they traveled deeper into the factory Kevin looked around nervously. It was dead quiet, as all the machinery had stalled. There was no one else around besides him and Mary and this unnerved him. Though he knew he would’ve been even more unnerved had there been other people.

Mary stopped walking abruptly and Kevin ran into her, nearly falling over. She glanced over at him and pointed a little ways in front of them at an elevator. “If yer stepdad is here he’s gonna be on one of the upper floors. We needta check every floor, and there’s five of ‘em,” she said, motioning with her hand. They quickly ran into the elevator and Mary pressed the number two button as soon as they got in.

When the doors opened again Mary peeked out of the elevator to check if the coast of clear, brandishing her gun at her side. She nodded her head at Kevin, confirming it was safe, and they exited the elevator to search the entire floor for his stepdad.

They painstakingly looked through every room, searched every crevice. The process, as nerve-wracking as it was, was made even more nerve-wracking when considering the possibility that they could be caught at any time. Kevin held his breath every time they opened a door, imagining a band of Brats waiting to attack them on the other side. He only relaxed when the door fully opened and he could see there was no one in the room.

When they exhausted the second floor they rode the elevator up to the third. They didn’t find Kevin’s stepdad there either, so they went up another story.

Each time they entered the elevator Kevin’s anxiety and hopelessness grew a little more. He had just about convinced himself that they would never find his stepdad when Mary punched in the last button on the elevator, the fifth floor.

The elevator doors parted and revealed a floor different from the others. Unlike the previous floors, which were filled with abandoned machinery and cardboard boxes, this one looked like a giant control room. There was a huge monitor with a blank screen mounted on the back wall and lots of keyboards and wires on the floor.

After gawking for a solid minute they left the elevator and began searching the floor. Since they were now sure the building was completely empty they split up, going in opposite directions.

Kevin practically had to sift through the stuff on the floor in order to get across one of the rooms. He searched the room half-heartedly, certain that he’d never find his stepdad. Why did I even think he would be here? Kevin thought. Maybe Mary was right.