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by five minutes after, we’d go looking for them.
    “I’m not sure yet, Mia. Shit keeps getting weirder and weirder,” I said, shaking my head. We were stretching our legs and pacing around while we waited, Gus following me as I slipped him treats.
    “Listen, let’s see what Nancy and Jake think,” Zack offered. “Then if we agree, we’ll load up the packhorses with what we can from the IGA.”
    Mia and I nodded but it did nothing to alleviate our anxious dread. That’s when Gus decided to make things worse, scaring the shit out of all three of us, by letting out an ear-piercing bay right at my feet. Mia screamed, I jumped, and Zack laughed so hard he fell over against the storefront sidewalk. Gus took off down the street and met Nancy.
    “Jesus Christ, I’m gonna kill that fucking dog.” I clutched my chest. Apparently the high tension was getting to all of us.
    “Kasey!” Nancy called out while waving me towards her. I pulled myself together and jogged down the street.
    “Where’s Jake?” I asked. Nancy looked like she might cry, she was so nervous. And mad.
    “We found a gun shop, but Jake stayed behind. Said he wanted to look around. I tried to get him to come back, but he made me go without him.” She stopped for a moment and took a deep breath, her hurt feelings giving way to grandmotherly fury. “I’m goin’ back there and whip his ass.”
    “Easy, Nancy, we’ll all go back. We’ve got another situation to deal with, but we’ll load up on ammo first.”
    I waited until I was sure she wasn’t going to take off before letting go of her reins and looking back up the street. Mia and Zack were already riding in our direction and leading my horse and the packhorses behind them. I looked back the other way, hoping Jake wasn’t doing something stupid.
     
    * * *
     
    “Where is it, Nance?”
    We were approaching the end of the street, so I figured she’d gotten turned around and taken us the wrong way. When she pointed to the last store on the right, I noticed the rickety and faded sign out front. Jake was nowhere in sight.
    “Shit,” I mumbled and trotted Daisy the last hundred feet.
    Jake’s horse was picking grass in a vacant lot behind the store. The front door was open. I slid out of the saddle and drew my pistol at the same time, waiting until the others caught up before approaching the sidewalk and calling Jake’s name.
    I stepped up onto the walk and peered into the darkened doorway. “Hey, Jake, are you in there?”
    That was a stupid question, of course he was in there. His recent behavior, however, made me question the wisdom of sneaking up on him in the dark. I was so engrossed with trying to see inside the store that I didn’t notice the sun was beginning to set. Or that the others had snuck up behind me. Or that Gus had let himself in, already darting through the open doorway and happily sniffing around inside.
    “C’mon.” Zack pressed his hand against the small of my back.
    I jumped before straightening from the crouch I had unknowingly assumed and strode through the doorway. Turns out it wasn’t as dark on the inside as my mind had made it out to be. This prompted another lecture to myself about getting freaked out over nothing.
    “Jake!” Zack shouted while we fanned out through the store.
    It wasn’t very big; one large room with a glass counter along two of the walls, and several aisles down the center. The other two walls were devoted to fishing equipment. Poles of all different sizes hung there, along with assorted bait and accessories. There were shotguns and rifles on the wall behind the counter, with handguns inside it, under the glass. There were shelves under the gun racks lined with ammunition, usually inaccessible and unseen to the everyday customer, unless for whatever reason they jumped the counter. Which is exactly what Mia was doing as Zack and Nancy walked through the store yelling for Jake.
    Gus and I stood just inside the doorway, considering and