The Hated Hero

         It was a normal day when Tom walked into the local grocery store. His mind was filled with worries. In fact, his very existence was in danger. How will he ever get past the third stage? His mind was racing for a solution but wasn’t getting anywhere. He came in here to get some soda and chips so he could have some “fuel” for when he made his next attempt at his life’s mission.
         
         The store was mid-sized. It was not as big as a major food chain but had everything we needed. Like all good stores, the cashiers are in the front with the aisles running from the entrance to the back. The storage and employee areas had entrances at the office, which was to the far right near the cashiers, and in the middle of the back at the meat department. Other than that, the store is rather unremarkable. Most people wouldn’t even care about these details, but then again they didn’t need to. That is, until today.

         How am I going to get past that boss, Tom thought to himself. I can get the power-up but then the damn thing swoops down and hits me. I know! I’ll try a feint and quickly jump off the platform when it swoops, and grab the power-up when as it goes back up.
         
         Tom thought he was clever, but wasn’t paying attention to what was going on around him. If he had then he would have noticed the van with three masked men inside. Regardless, he went inside and headed straight for the snack aisle. After that, he would need to go two aisles over to get the soda. He often complained to the manager that they needed to place the soda in the snack aisle since it is a snack. Just like all the other times he came into the store, he swore that he would never return to a store that ignored its customers' needs. He would come back since this store is only a block away. Not the distance should really matter since he drives there all the time instead of walking the one block. When he finally arrived at the snack aisle, he started looking for some ass-kicking chips that would help him beat that damn stage. It was at this time all hell broke loose.
         
         Those three masked men stormed in and opened fire. Two of the cashiers weren’t facing the entrance at the time so they became freebies for the gunmen. One cashier’s instincts took over and ducked as her co-workers were being riddled with bullets. She was able to get away by running to the produce section. The last cashier was very unfortunate and froze up. The gunmen opened fire and shot him in the stomach. He went down gasping and writhing in burning agony. One of the gunmen had a twisted idea and leveled his rifle on his head. As he motioned to pull the trigger, he quickly lowered the rifle and shot him point blank in the groin. The torture surely would’ve continued had the cashier kept quiet. Angry, the gunman shot the cashier in the throat and left him to bleed out.
         It was at this time, Paul, the manager tried to sound the alarm and call the police but the masked men cut the phone line. The problem was that the alarm was on the wall and he would need to stand in order to set it off. Hoping luck would be with him he quickly leapt up and hit the alarm. The alarm system was silent and called the police, but he didn’t know the phone lines were cut. As for his luck, well Luck took a holiday today. A gunman saw him and quickly made his was to his office. Paul started panicking and begged, “Please take what you want! I didn’t see anything just take what you want and go.”
         ‘I didn’t see anything’. It was a poor choice of words. The gunman was only going to shoot him and move on, but now he had another idea. He took out a knife and with sadist precision sliced out each of Paul’s eyes. Like the cashier before him, Paul started screaming in pain. However, this time the gunman kept his composure and simply tore out Paul’s tongue. As Paul lay there in silent and blind agony, the gunmen joined one of the gunmen who was trying to break open the safe. The last gunman was making a quick sweep taking out any survivors. It was at this time panic quickly swept through the store and more people died. There were fifteen people in the store. When the shooting stopped there were four left. Two employees and two customers. Three of them survived by hiding, the other survived by not even noticing the shooting but contemplating the superiority of ranch-flavored chips over nacho cheese flavored chips.
         
         The customer was a man named Steve who had gone in to pick up some medicine for his wife. She was not terribly sick but he didn’t want her to get out of bed and get the medicine herself. The two employees were, Diane and Claire. These two were good friends since high school, and when the shooting started, they were in opposite sides of the store. Diane was cleaning up in the produce section and Claire was the only cashier to survive the initial onslaught. They ran into each other in the produce section and started looking for a way out. They decided that the best course of action would be to call the police. They were headed for the office when Claire asked, “Why aren’t the police here yet? Paul can easily set it off and call the police. You think he’s dead?”
         
         Diane responded in a sarcastic tone, “Dead? Ha! That coward would hide in his office and pray this would blow over. But, yeah the cops should be here by now. Maybe we shouldn’t go that way.” She looked around cautiously and when she turned back to Claire she said, “Let’s go to the meat section. We can find an exit there.”
         
         Claire nodded and the two set off for the meat section. It was at this time they ran into Steve. Both Claire and Diane were hoping to see a survivor and were glad to see Steve, and he just as glad to see them. “Hi. It seems that someone couldn’t get a refund,” he joked. It was a bad joke but it did break the tension a bit. “Has someone called the police,” he asked.
         
         Both girls nodded but Diane told him that they think someone cut the phone line. “We’re headed for the meat section so we can get out of here and get to a payphone. You should come too,” Diane offered. Steve quickly nodded and the three were off to the meat section. However as luck would have it, and this case the luck would be bad, they past the snack aisle where Tom was still pondering over which kind of chips to get. The three would have passed him by if Claire hadn’t looked down the aisle.
         
         She stopped Diane, “Hey there’s someone there. We need to get him out too.” Diane nodded, but before she could react, Claire was already headed down the aisle. Claire stopped next to Tom and asked, “Umm. The store is being robbed. Don’t you think it would be better to put the chips back and try to find a way out?”
         
         Tom looked at her in disbelief. He “knew” what was going on. He had the last bag of this kind of chips and this bitch was trying to trick him into giving them to her. He laughed, “The store isn’t being robbed. You just want these chips for yourself!”
         
         Claire was confused. He had to have heard the gunshots. No one could be THAT dense. She decided that there was no time to argue so she grabbed the bag and tossed it toward Diane. She told him, “The chips will be on the house. Just come with us so we can get out of here.”
         
         Well when she snatched the bag from his hand, he snapped. He started shouting, “What kind of store is this?! Who the hell do you think you are snatching things from a customers' hand? I’ll get the manager and have your ass fired!”
         
         With all the shouting, one of the masked men that were going through the store making sure that everyone was dead, heard it and headed for the snack aisle. He stopped and aimed his rifle at Tom’s back.
         
         Diane and Steve saw him but Claire didn’t she moved behind Tom to push him towards the end of the aisle when she suddenly jerked forward twice. Tom turned and saw the masked man with a rifle. Dark red spots were forming on Claire’s abdomen and she stumbled and fell. Tom panicked and ran, but still had sense enough to pick up the bag of chips as he headed for Diane and Steve who were in a state of total shock.
         
         Claire was injured but not fatally. She tried to stand up and nearly succeeded when the masked man kick her in the stomach. She yelped in pain and he put a boot on her chest. The gunman remembered she ducked and he couldn’t find her. Taking this opportunity to exact a little revenge the gunman started applying more pressure on her wounds and laughed with a pleasure that bordered on the orgasmic as she was crying out in pain. He got bored quickly and pointed his rifle down at her. The last thing she saw was a bright flash as he put a bullet in her head.
         
         The shot knocked Diane out of shock and she grabbed Steve and started running to the meat section. Tom caught up with them and made his compassion clear, “They’re really robbing this place?! At least I won’t have to pay for the chips.”
         
         Diane stopped and turned to face Tom. She was hoping that he was joking, but he wasn’t. He honestly did not care that Claire had died trying to get him out. Her voice was on the edge of cracking when she asked, “The girl who died. Do you know her name?”
         
         Tom laughed, “No and I don’t care.” He thought back to the girl who tried to steal his chips. She shouldn’t have taken the chips from me, he thought, serves her right.
         
         Steve sensed that things could get violent or at least loud, so he grabbed Diane and asked her where the entrance was to the meat department. She pointed to a door and they headed for it. The door had a sturdy lock and she wanted to get there with Steve before Tom so she could lock him out. The bastard got Claire killed, and showed no remorse for it. She wanted him dead. She had lost her best friend over a bag of chips. They were nearly at the door when Tom knocked her down into the room and locked it. Both Steve and Diane were too stunned to react. Steve knocked on the door as loudly as he dared and kept telling Tom to unlock the door. All they heard was a bag opening and someone eating chips. They would’ve started pounding on the door but a shot rang out and they had to run.
         
         They headed down the pet food aisle and Diane was looking behind her to see how far the gunman was. Steve saw one of the gunmen at the end of the aisle, clotheslined Diane, and was shot in the arm. If he hadn’t she would’ve been hit in the neck. The gunman aimed again and shot him squarely in the chest and Steve fell lifelessly to the floor. Diane was sitting up and she saw that the gunmen were on each end of the aisle. She knew it was over for her, and now she didn’t care if the police came or not.
         
         Tom saw as the gunmen walked toward Diane. He even laughed when one shot her in the leg and the other shot her in the arm. The gunmen were laughing as they tortured their victim. It was at this time the third gunman finished getting the money out of the safe and joined them. He held her arms as one of the other men held her legs. The third ripped open her shirt and commenced to start slicing her stomach. They started to laugh as her tears and her blood poured out of her. The gunman holding her legs said, “Hey this girl's being really helpful. Hey baby can you give me a hand with something?”
         And on cue, the gunman that was slicing her lifted the knife over his head and came down with brutal fury cleaving her right hand at the wrist. The gunmen laughed as he tossed her severed hand toward the one hold her legs.
         “Thanks doll”, he told her with a leer. “We got what we came for let’s go,” he said at length. All three men stood up and said goodbye to Diane by shooting her in a different place, the one holding her hands shot her left wrist. The one holding her legs shot her in the chest puncturing her lung. The last one merely shot her the stomach. They started back toward the safe to divide the money and made bets to see whether Diane would die from blood loss or drown from the shot to the lung. In the end, she bled out and quietly cursed Tom for being born. Tom saw all of this and thought, at least it wasn’t me.
         
         The gunmen were busy laughing at their success and enjoying themselves so much they didn’t to look for another survivor. An idea flashed in Tom’s mind. This is his chance to be a hero. He knew that he could become famous. All he needed to do was contact the police. He searched the area and found Claire’s cell phone. He casually picked it up and dialed 911. He informed the dispatcher that there was a robbery in place and would appreciate a police response. The dispatcher commended Tom on his calm attitude and sent out the police.
         
         Within a few hours, the gunmen were as dead as their victims were. Tom was led out and became the hero who foiled the robbery. He made national news and was regarded as a brave citizen who stared danger in the face and laughed. He did a few commercials about bravery and made quite a bit of money. He used that money to buy a new entertainment system, and enjoyed his instant gratification. He was a hero and the world loved him. Being a glory hog, he didn’t want to share the spotlight so when he was asked about the victims he merely said, “They were with the robbers. I guess they messed up whatever deal they made with the gunmen.” He would laugh and say that crime doesn’t pay and only the brave can change the world. Whenever he slept he would dream of Diane being tortured and couldn’t help but smile at his great fortune. His life was looking up. He was a hero, got a free bag of chips and now all that was left was to finish that damn third stage.