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find my family once the bag was full.
    We focused on canned food and other things that we knew would last. My daughter was the first person to think of raiding the school and the cafeteria was well stocked. Even after multiple trips, the cafeteria was still loaded with food.
    I checked the time. We only had fifteen minutes to get back to the dock before William and his son left us behind. “This'll be our last trip. We’ve got to get back to the salvage yard.”
    “Okay,” said Laura. “Come on girls.”
    The four of us dragged the last of our plunder down the hall to the waiting truck. It was already filled from our previous trips, which together with this haul would be enough to feed us for several weeks if needed.
    We were almost to the door when I saw someone picking through what we had already scavenged. I dropped my bag and motioned for the girls to stay back. I moved to the door as quiet as I could to "0"see what was happening.
    There were two men, one standing in the back of our truck and one beside it. To my relief, I saw they weren’t zombies. I opened the door and startled them.
    “That’s our stuff,” I said. I'd been through so much already that I didn’t consider this might be a dangerous situation. The man in the back of the truck pulled a gun on me.
    “Not no more, mother fucker,” said the young man with the shaved head as he pointed the revolver at me. My decision not to search for a weapon at our house suddenly vexed me.
    I put my hands up. “Calm down, man. There’s tons of food in here. Plenty for everyone.”
    “Good then,” said the second, chubbier man that stood on the side of William’s truck. “There’ll be plenty more for you when we take this load.”
    “Give me the keys,” said the one standing in the truck bed. He kept the gun pointed at my head as he walked to the back of the truck.
    “Come on, man,” I said. “You’ve already got a truck.” I motioned towards the truck parked beside ours.
    “Yeah, we’re taking your's now too,” said the one with the gun. “Now give us your keys.”
    “I don’t have them. The cops I came here with have them. Want me to go get them?”
    “Fuck you,” said the chubby one. “I watched you and that bitch drive through the field. You ain’t got no cops in there, you fucking liar.”
    The one with the gun hopped off the back of the truck and stared me down as he approached. I tried to block the doorway to give Laura and the girls a chance to escape. I didn’t think the two men had seen them in there and I hoped they'd moved into one of the classrooms to hide.
    “Why you trying to get cute with me?” asked the skinny one. He got up next to me and pressed the barrel of the gun against my forehead.
    “Okay, fine,” I said. “Take the truck. Take our stuff. We don’t want any trouble.” William had said if we didn’t make it back by 2:00 that he would come back tomorrow. I didn’t want to risk getting myself, or anyone in my family, shot just to protect the first haul from this well stocked school.
    “Too late, bro,” said the one with the gun. “Now I’m gonna shoot you for the hell of it.”
    “Can I tell you something before you shoot me?” I was sick of getting fucked with today. I've always been a docile guy. I could count the number of times I'd been in a fight before that day on one hand, or to be honest, on one finger. But this goon hadn’t just threatened my safety; he threatened the safety of the people I loved most.
    “You can tell me where the fucking keys are, you dumb mother fucker.” He pressed the barrel harder against my forehead and I stumbled back a step.
    “I got bit,” I said. “That’s what happened to my arm. I got bit by a zombie and now I’m infected.”
    “What the fuck?” asked the one with the gun. “You trying to convince me to shoot your head off or what, bro?”
    “No, you don’t want to shoot me,” I said as calmly as I could. I'd been a salesman for twenty years and the