Al froze on the bar as Sam told her to run.  It was what her instincts said to do.  But, she'd run before and lived to regret it.  So, she stood there, shocked when the man hurled himself over the bar and then Sam snatched the bat from her grip, moving too fast.  Al backed up along the bar until she cast herself up against the support post at the end where the bar made the turn.  She stood there, unsure which way to turn, weaponless now.<br/><br/>Her eyes roved over the unreal scene around her, one hand automatically rubbing the bugs from her neck, kicking one leg and then the other.<br/><br/>The next round of gunfire made her jump.  The first round obviously hadn't done the trick...why try the same shit again? she mused.  Wasn't that the definition of insanity?  She giggled, watching everything climbing into that handbasket that seemed on a express to hell.  She breathed out.<em>Think.</em>She told herself.  She wasn't taking orders very well...not even from herself.<br/><br/>Her head jerked as she heard something in the back room.  Something was back there.  O.K.  Good to know all escape routes were closed.  Not even snow tires and chains would get them out of the bar now.<em>Fuck.  No time for hysteria, now, girl.  THINK.</em><br/><br/>There was a sound from behind her, below and to her right and a boy burst through the flaming door.  At first, Al thought he was on fire.  She squatted and eased off the bar, going behind it to grab the fire extinguisher they were required to have.  He wasn't screaming, though.  She peeked over the bar and she saw the kid holding a torch...at least, that's how her brain identified the object in his hands.  A second look and she felt even more disbelief than she'd felt when the glowing-eyed Mr. Baleful had spoken to her; a flaming SWORD?  No way, she thought, the extinguisher slipping from her fingers to smack poor Louie's arm.  Al bent over to grab the extinguisher.  "Sorry," she hissed at Louie, grabbing the hose part of the extinguisher and yanking the pin from the handle, she straightened to look over the bar once more.<br/><br/>The question was, was the kid with the flaming fucking sword with the other monsters or was he --- could she actually be thinking this? -- Was he there to help?  She didn’t miss the religious symbolism of the sword.  But, this sure as hell wasn’t the Garden of Eden.  And, she didn’t believe those fairytales anymore than she believed in happy endings.  Al looked over at the man with the gun, her ears still ringing from the first shots.  With the swordsman between her and the front door and who-knew-what going on in the back room, and the center ring full to the brim with bugs and monsters, she felt a little on edge.<br/>