﻿<strong>Malcolm Mercer<br/>Thursday, 7/18/11 -- 8:13 AM<br/>McLemore's Auto Service<br/>"When Shit Gets Real"</strong><br/><br/>Mal let the engine rev down as one of the soldiers approached him. She withdrew a sidearm pistol from a holster on her hip and offered it to him grip-first, and for a moment he was hesitant to take it. Guns had never really been his forte; in fact, they'd always made him rather nervous as a boy. He'd grown out of it when a friend's dad had taken a bunch of his son's pals out to a shooting range and taught them how to shoot safely, but the idea of actually pointing one at someone had never seriously crossed his mind. Until today.<br/><br/>"Gee, I didn't get you guys anything," Malcolm said as he took the proffered weapon. He checked the safety and shoved the gun into a jacket pocket, nodding his gratitude. "All right, guys, lets get out of..." His words trailed off at the sound of rapid, thunderous footsteps approaching from down the road, and the four turned to see a giant with an enormous hammer charging at them. "...you have to be fucking kidding me," he said, one eye twitching in disbelief moments before the garage exploded into chaos.<br/><br/>The car was transformed into a crumpled pocket of ragged steel and shattered glass, and gunfire erupted from the soldiers before Mal could even process what had happened. The monster's hammer stuck out of the car's front end, and its owner stalked forward through the hail of bullets as one of the soldiers, Mal thought it was the woman who'd offered him the gun, rushed toward him again and pushed a small, folded map into his hand and began shouting half-heard instructions to him. Safe zone, X marked the spot, victims turned after being bitten. At least, he hoped that was what she was telling him; the battle raging mere feet away dashed any hope of clarification.<br/><br/>Mal nodded again, fighting to rein in the panic that was rising in his chest, and straddled Lucy. The monster clearly seemed fixated on the soldiers and their weapons, providing what Malcolm hoped was an opportunity to jet past him to the relative safety of the undead-infested streets. He tore out of the garage like a bat outta hell, Lucy's engine screaming beneath him. He wished he'd gotten a better look at the map he'd been given, but he decided if he found a new sanctuary soon, he could study the page in more detail. For now, he would simply have to ride for his life.