PART 4

            In case there were intruders still in the house, he got out of his car and walked silently along the edge of the drive until he came within sight of his house, and the one thing he didn’t want to see- an open door. He quickly jogged back to his car and removed his Vepr. Mark silently crept back towards his home. When he got to the grassy open area surrounding it, he crouched down and began to crawl around the first level of the home, carefully checking inside each window before moving on to the next.

When he finally finished checking each first floor window and finding them all empty, he assumed it was safe for him to enter. He assumed wrong.

            As he walked into the foyer of his house for the second time that day, but under very different circumstances, he was scared. This was the first time in many years that he had been willing to admit it to himself, and the first that he had known that it was true, sincere fear that he was feeling. This feeling of fear increase exponentially as he walked into his kitchen. When he was almost completely done walking through the kitchen, he heard a squeak. Drawing his concealed carry gun and spinning around he saw, just in time, a dark man sized shape go flying past the door. Running out of the kitchen from the same door that he had entered, he followed the man dressed in black at a dead sprint down the driveway. The man was holding a bag that appeared to be filled to almost bursting, which hampered his escape considerably.

            Mark caught the man with relative ease, given that the man was so encumbered, and tackled him to the ground. Ripping the man’s mask off of his face, he revealed a young man, no more than 20 or 21 years old. While holding his knee into the man’s back to ensure he couldn’t escape, he grabbed the bag and unzipped it. What he found inside was surprising. Most of his pantry was stuffed into the bag, not his expensive silverware. Impressed by the kid’s ability to realize that something was amiss and to get his priorities straight, even if he had resorted to looting, he said “Kid, what’s your name?” “Shut up” said the kid, implying with his tone of voice that he wasn’t going to talk to Mark at all. “No, bud, you don’t understand. I just caught you breaking into my house. Even if the police can’t come and get you as fast as they would have if all this hadn’t happened, they’ll still come! So either you talk, or you’re screwed” replied Mark. Suddenly, the man squirmed free, and reached towards his waistband.