Page 17 of For Now

By the end, I learned that a person doesn’t have to pack a suitcase and kiss you goodbye to leave you. Sometimes they will slip away quietly right next to you and you cannot reach them. He was gone.Forever.

Chapter Eleven

Samueland I made the entire drive to wherever we were going playing twenty questions. I was attempting to guess our destination on the way but as we pulled up, I realized how wildly unsuccessful I had been. In fact, I never even came close. When we parked and got out, I still couldn’t figure out where we were. The building didn’t have any insignia and the sign by the road was too far away to read. I looked at him,perplexed.

“Don’t worry, you’re going to love this. I think.” Helaughed.

“Such confidence from someone who doesn’t know me,” Icountered.

“I already told you. I’ve been knowing you the wholetime.”

Suddenly I was uneasy and shifting. He motioned for me to walk with him toward the front. He opened the door for me just as he had the night before. We walked to the front counter and were greeted by a cheery young guy, maybe high schoolaged.

“Hey, guys! Have you been here before?” heasked.

“I have, she hasn’t,” Samuel answered, showing him some type of membershipcard.

“All right then, let’s get you set up!” hesaid.

By then I was so confused, I just followed them both down a small corridor where we were both dumped into a room with gun holsters.What onearth?

“You look like you need a medium. Are you right handed or southpaw?” Samuel askedme.

“Southpaw,” I said. And he grabbed a thigh holster from the wall. He reached down toward my leg and I jumped back probably afoot.

“I’ll do it,” I said, grabbing it from his outstretchedhand.

“Okay,” he said with asmile.

I was definitely not ready for a man to be touching my legs. No way. I strapped it on with his guidance from afar and tightened it. We walked to the nearby counter and the guy behind it put about five different handguns in front ofme.

“We are shooting stuff?” Iasked.

“Well, sort of. Don’t worry, they’re only rubber bullets.” Helaughed.

I chose the 9mm Baretta. I checked and loaded the clip, put the safety on, and holsteredit.

“Whoa, wait a minute. You seem to be handling that like it’s not exactly your first time,” hesaid.

“Is that a question or a statement?” Igrinned.

“Both, Ithink.”

“I may or may not have handled a gun or two in my time, sir,” Isaid.

A thorough look of surprise and approval swept his face. We walked into the next room where it was dark. In front of us were two doors, and a red siren light was fixed above them. I looked around for clues but there weren’t many. Another young guy appeared and started spouting off somerules.

“Don’t touch them. Only open doors when the lights signal you to. Keep going. There are twenty-five targets and you’re equipped with twenty-seven bullets between the two clips. So don’t miss too much,” he recited withease.

“Are you ready?” Samuel asked with genuine excitement in hisvoice.

“I still have no idea what we’re doing!” Isaid.

“Oh, we are killing zombies!GO!”

“Wait, what?!” I yelled toward him as he charged forward through the door. I followed behind him into a dark makeshift corridor while strobe lights flashed overhead and ominous music played loudly with an occasional woman screaming. This was straight out of a haunted house. One of those really fancy, over-the-top haunted houses. Just then something popped up to the left of us and we both jerked instinctively to point our guns atit.

“Go ahead!” heyelled.

---