Kyle's Story!

THE INVASION OF THE

BAKE-BEAN MONSTERS

 

 

 

 

It was an ordinary day at the supermarket, but what happened there was far from usual. 

 

By Kyle Bassett, 2001

  

This story was made to be funny, not to offend people.  This story might offend some people, but that wasn't my aim.  I tried to write a fun story, taking the names of my friends and putting them in roles they wouldn't like.  Again, don't feel offended.  Especially Mel, Matilda, Leigh, Richard, Rachel and Eric, this was not a personal crack at you, but you got these roles because there was no one else, or your suited that role more. 

James lifted one of the boxes up, carried them over to the shelf.  He gently lowered the box and wiped the sweet off his brow.  The packager started lifting the cans out of the box, and put them on the shelf.  As James walked back to get the next box, his mate Bobby walked up.  

"We've got a problem in the fridge." Bobby informed him.

"Huh?  What's the matter?"  James asked distantly.  James hated this work, filling shelves with cans, and managing the massive fridge of the supermarket.  The fridge was James's responsibility, and if he did not fix every problem, the cans would not get on the shelves, the meat would not get into the displays, he would probably be fired, and the supermarket would stop functioning.  It was up to him to make sure the shelf packers did not slacken off, or put cans in the wrong place.

"What seems to be wrong?"  James asked Bobby as they walked into the supermarket's walk in freezer.  Bobby pointed to a pile of cans in one of the mini freezers.  

"So?  Put them on the shelf."  James ordered.  "What' in them?"

"I don' know.  They ain't got no labels or tags."  Bobby replied.

James picked up one of the cans.  "We don't know what's in 'em, so lets shove them on the shelf, and put them on special so they sell fast."  

Bobby looked confused.  "Nah.  Let's find out what's in them first."

            "Scrap that."  James said. "This is weird anyway.  We never get cans in the freezer." James had a look at the cans.  

"They look pretty old, don't they?" Bobby asked.

The cans had no rip-off lid, they looked old, and one had some rust around the sides.  

"If the supervisor sees this, he'll think these have been in here for ages!  You'll get the chop!  We've got to get rid of the cans!"  Bobby told James.  

"Quick!  Let's get some Baked Beans wrappers, glue them on, and sell these cans for 99c each!"  James exclaimed.

"What?!?  Do you want to get me fired?"  Yelled Bobby angrily.

However, James was already looking for the baked beans wrappers, and Bobby sighed to himself.  James always seemed to be making trouble!

Next day, Saturday,

            Kathryn woke up early on Saturday morning, to get ready for work.  She didn't like working as a checkout chick at the local supermarket, but at least it paid.  Her boyfriend Eric was a highly paid computer analyst, so working was not essential, but she still liked to think she was contributing.  She rushed out of her flat, said goodbye to Eric, and drove her Holdern to work.

            Kathryn went to work at checkout 5, this one was her favorite checkout because it got less customers through, so she didn't have to do as much work. Suddenly she saw someone she knew walking down the aisle, with a can of baked beans in his trolley that she knew she had seen before.  Did she see him on TV perhaps?

Over in checkout 7, Kathryn's friend Amy was swiping a pile of cans for a friendly dude called Tahi, when she thought she saw one of the cans start to move.  She started to scream, but just stopped herself, it was not good for the supermarket's reputation if a checkout chick had a freak attack.

"That will come to, ahh, $23.75, thanks." She told Tahi nervously.

As the man paid and left, Amy breathed a sigh of relief. She put her almost freak attack down to last night's hangover and her large imagination.  

            Leigh and Richard Woolfe, two of the most infamous criminals around, strolled into the supermarket next.  

"OK, lets grab some camp food and get outta here."  Richard told his brother.

Leigh grabbed some long life milk and threw it into the trolley, while Richard picked up some bacon and eggs, then saw some real cheep baked beans.  

"Leigh, da' ya think baked beans would be good?" He yelled.

"Yep.  As long as we don't smell the place out, and the sniffer dogs get us."  Leigh yelled back.  "Yeah, cool, only 99 cents!"  

He gave an innocent smile to the passersby.  

           

            One of the people in the supermarket was none other then Mr. Steve Vence. Steve Vence was a politician with an illustrious career, including a place in the Senate, ten years as minister or shadow minister of education, and one of the forerunners as the next Prime Minister of Tasmania.  His passions included politics, footy, soccer, and well, baked beans.  He never ate baked beans when he was required in Parliament, in case he let one rip, but in his private life, he ate them by the truckload.  He grabbed five cans, and continued with his shopping, happy at the cheep price.

            Outside the supermarket, Tahi shoved the bag of groceries into the back seat, turned on the car heater, and started up the car.  By the time the car had left the supermarket, it was starting to warm up...  Tahi was a Maori and loved the warm temperature, so he kept the heater on.  He came to the first intersection, turned right, and then suddenly got a strange feeling something was moving in the back seat.  Without thinking of the consequences, he looked behind him, and saw, to his horror that something was moving.  His screams were not heard over the sound of screeching brakes, then the imminent sound of metal hitting metal.

            Back in the supermarket, Amy was wondering what was the matter with her today. She thought she had seen the powerful Wolf twins, who were worth upwards of 20 million for the person who captured them.  She'd also seen a can of baked beans come alive, and was that Shane Warne over in checkout 5?  She took some deep breaths, and turned to face the next customer.  

"Hello, welcome to Woolworths."  She said politely, trying not to show the uneasiness she felt in her gut.

            Over in aisle 7, Kathryn was feeling a little nervous as well.  This dude with the baked beans kept on hitting on her while she was swiping his groceries.  

"Would you like to pay by cash or credit?" She asked the man.

"Credit will be fine."

She took a peak at the credit card, just to find out who this dude was.  

"Oh, hello Mr. Warne.  Stocking up on your baked beans?"

Shane Warne let out a laugh.  "Yeah.  After eating baked beans for a month in India, it's kinda hard to stop eating them."

"Yuck.  What does your wife think?"  Kathryn inquired.

"She wouldn't know.  I'm on tour a lot anyway."

Warne walked away, shaking his bottom all the way out of the store.

            At checkout two, Larnelle was having a difficult time with some of his customers. He was trying to deal with a very annoying old couple who was in the complaining.

"I thought these cans came with more modern opening things these days, don't they Matilda?"  The old man said to his wife, pointing to can of baked beans without a rip top lid.

"Yes.  What has become of our society?  You actually need on of those new thangled electric can opener things for these cans, don't you Andrew dear?"

Larnelle sighed.  Dealing with all these people was so annoying!  Oh well, as long the pay was good and it kept him saving for university he would put up with anything.  He swiped the can the old couple were talking about, and something about it puzzled him.  He shook it, just for curiosity.  

It sounded like it was half full of soup, diluted with water.

"Hmm, that's funny.  I didn't know baked beans made a sound like water when shook!" He thought.

Without giving it much thought, he continued putting the groceries through, not expecting what was about to happen.

            Richard and Leigh were looking at camp batteries when their hired spy, Jesse, rushed up.

"What's the matter?"  Leigh asked.  "Are the cops onto us?"

Jesse knew that his job was one of high risk, being the deliverer of bad news to such dangerous criminals could backfire.  He was always careful to underestimate the news.

"Cops, everywhere!  But they're not after you.  A big accident happened outside.  Apparently a few people died.  You'd better get outta here soon."  Jesse stuttered, out of breath.

"You annoy us for that?  Why do we employ you anyway?"  Richard exclaimed.

"He's right.  We'll go now."  Leigh decided.  

Leigh was the more careful of the brothers.  He liked keeping out of trouble and using their vast fortune to pay their way out of all trouble.  He would happily retire if their income wasn't over 200 million a year.  Richard was almost the opposite.  He loved getting into the thick of things, and especially didn't see the need for paid spies, gunmen, or hit men.  He was also money consciences, and even though they had over 800 million scattered around a number of false bank accounts, he preferred killing off older servants instead of paying up a measly few million for there services.

The powerful crime figures all suddenly stopped.  Leigh peered into the trolley, and started moving items around.  He lifted a loaf of bread, and under it was a most unusual sight.

            "Hey, look at that!"  Jesse exclaimed in awe.

"Wow!  I don't think we put that in the trolley." Richard commented, pointing at a strange thing, which looked almost as if it had hundreds of limbs sticking out, it looked slightly outlandish and almost alien-like.  It was covered in a gooey, slimy substance, but luckily it was in a plastic bag somewhat like glad wrap.

            "What do we do with it?"  Jesse asked.

"Why do we need you, Jesse?  Why don't you use your brain for once in your life?" Richard complained.  "I'll show you what to do."  Richard reached into the trolley, picked up the weird package, and stuffed it into the paper bag that the bacon was in.  He then very courteously wiped his hands on Jesse's back.

"Hmm.  Maybe you are useful after all."  Richard told him.

            Amy wiped the sweat off her brow.  She wasn't feeling 100% for some reason.  She wasn't having her best day ever.  After working in this supermarket, she had thought she'd seen it all.  But today was different. Something was in the air, something was about to happen, she just had that feeling.  

            "Hello, could we have service please?"  Her next customer complained.

"Oh Yikes!"  She thought.  "These two people look a lot like the Woolfe twins!  What do I do?"

As she started putting the items through, she grew totally sure these people were the same as she had seen on crimestoppers.  

"You look familiar."  She told them.  "Have I seen you before?"

"Um, well, ah. I don't think you um.. look familiar."  The taller one stuttered.

 "Lots of people say that to us." The younger one quickly came to his tongue-tided brothers' defense.

Amy was about to pursue the matter further when a sudden crash and crashing of cans and other noises burst out of the supermarket.  Amy looked over at the scene, but Leigh and Richard, being professional thieves before rising to greater heights, knew opportunities when they them.  They started running with the trolley.  They were almost out of the supermarket complex by the time Amy realized they had done a runner.

            Looking at the aisle were the canned food was kept, Amy suddenly realized what had just happened.  Cans had rolled everywhere, food was splattered all over floor, and someone was crying

            Amy, Kathryn, and Larnelle arrived at the scene simultaneously.  There was a great pile of cans next to where the aisle had feel.

"Someone could be under there!"  Larnelle exclaimed.  

Already someone was screaming from under the cans.  Someone was digging after the pained voice.  All of a sudden the situation became too much for Kathryn, who sat down and cried.  With a pile of cans on the ground trapping someone beneath them and the weird events of the day already, this was not the perfect time for a power failure.

           

The lights started flickering above Kyle's head, then they totally went out.  Kyle was an old, retired Vietnam Veteran, around 50 years old, but still had the body of a forty-year-old.  He had suffered a major injury in the war, so he walked with a slight limp.  He still liked training, however, and spent some of his time keeping fit.  He was one of the most promising soldiers of his day, but returned from Vietnam injured and useless.  He had been a crack shot and a cool head before a major battle protecting the village of Aroha, in central Vietnam.  He still enjoyed his life, liked getting out and doing things, and was putting together a video to try out for the Australian Survivor.

As he walked into the supermarket complex, he found all the lights turned off.  But there was certainly a lot of noise coming out of the supermarket. His military training started to kick in, and he ran into the building, where he found all the people crowded around what appeared to be an accident.  Cans were thrown all over the floor, there was a pile were people were slowly picking up the cans, as if looking for something.  People were crying, a body was lying on the ground with a woman weeping uncontrollably on top of it, and everyone seemed to be on their mobile phone, ringing the police.  

Chaos reigned.  Kyle saw people bump into each other in panic. Of course, the dark didn't help. He realized they needed to find anyone under all that mess soon if the were going to live.  Kyle went up to a crying shopping assistant.

"Do you have any flashlights?"  Kyle asked.

"Ye-yeah.  Just on the shelf under the cashier."  She replied.

Kyle found that every checkout had a torch, so he grabbed them all, and started to hand them out to the people who looked organized.  Already a body, badly bruised and covered in what was canned spaghetti, was being pulled out.  

            "It's Steve Vence!"  Exclaimed Kathryn.  

"He's dead!"  Someone else added, with his hand on the politician's pulse. "Well, it was Steve Vence." Larnelle noted, looking at Steve's bruised and battered body.

"How did this happen?"  Kyle asked, his military training programming him to be unemotional.  

Seeing nobody seemed to answer, he started looking himself for clues.

            Leigh and Richard were packing the stolen groceries into their Toyota Tarago, also stolen, when Jesse had an idea.

"That checkout chick surely saw you.  I think we should go in there and get her."  Jesse explained.  "There was a power failure as we left, and there was a big accident when we did a runner.  There will be panic in there, so no one will notice her gone."

            "Dude, don't you think that's a bit risky?"  Leigh questioned.

"Nah man.  This kid has some talent.  Lets go."  Richard agreed, lifting the floor of the Tarago's boot up, and revealing a layer of semi automatic machine guns, that the twins kept for emergencies like this.  

"You guys gonna come?"  He asked.

            "No way!  This is stupid!  Let the girl go!" Leigh exclaimed.  "The police will be in there soon.  We will be caught!"

But his protests went unnoticed.  Richard and Jesse were already shoving the machine guns down their backs between their shoulder blades, and tying rounds of ammo around their waists.

            The situation in the supermarket was under control, considering three people had just been squished to death under tons of metal cans.  Kyle was checking out the damage, but what he could see with his torch was not revealing.  The one survivor of the fall, a middle aged man called Isaac, whose features were covered in tomato sauce, claimed he heard a noise, turned around and saw a can opening itself, before the shelf fell.  

            Kathryn and Larnelle both were convinced it was doomsday.  They discussed the weird events of the day, of the cans that seemed alive, of Shane Warne's appearance, and Amy thinking she had seen the Woolfe twins.  

            Larnelle was convinced there was something suspicious in those cans of baked beans.  His theory made the girls laugh, but he seemed pretty serious about it, so the girls agreed they should open a can, just to find out what was in there.  Larnelle picked up a can of baked beans, and ripped the top off. Out fell baked beans in a river of tomato sauce.

            "Great.  There are over ten brands of baked beans in the supermarket," Larnelle sighed. "We don't have the right to open them all."

"Could you find out on the computer what type of baked beans was brought the most?"  Asked Amy.

"Sure, but it's totally against company policy to look into what has been brought by certain customers."  Larnelle pointed out.  But anyway, it's worth a try."

            Larnelle was disappointed to find the computers were offline because of the power failure.  

"Darn!  Now what?"  He exclaimed.

"Maybe we should just open all the cans." Kathryn suggested.  

The three of them got to opening all the cans they could find, ripping the tops off.                                                                                                     

            Kyle walked through the aisles, around the bread section.  He was looking for clues, and to see how much he could put in his army pockets.  Suddenly he heard a noise in the bakery.  Kyle squatted down behind a trolley.  The supervisor in the supermarket had done a head count, and all the employees had been all there.  Kyle was going to take to take down this shoplifter, despite the hypocrisy involved.  

           

            Leigh, Richard, and Jesse sneaked through the only entrance they could find, through the bakery.  Richard and Jesse were quite happy with this plan, Richards's gun had a telescopic view, and so all they had to do was sneak in range, fire once or twice, and flee.  

            Leigh was having second thoughts.

"Come on guys.  This is stupid.  Lets make the border and get outta here!"  Leigh argued.  

"Tasmania doesn't even have a border, you loser." Richard said sarcastically.  

"But, um, maybe it's a good idea to . ." Leigh stuttered.

"Now, lets spread out and keep on touch with our radios."  Richard commanded.

            Kyle was not expecting three people holding guns to walk out of the bakery. Whatever they were doing, Kyle knew it was up to him to stop them.

He listened in to the conversation between the three shadowy figures.

"..It's to late.  The police will be here soon.  Let's get"

".  But if she gets away?."

".Let's just do it. ."

Kyle didn't understand what the conversation was getting at.  But the guns told the story. Kyle watched as they split up, and started walking around, heading for the accident scene.

            Leigh had tried his best to postpone the killing, but postponing was all he was ever going to do.  Richard knew he was always the boss, and Leigh just the astute businessman.  Richard laughed to himself.  Jesse was proving to have some guts.  Maybe he would come in useful one day.  

Richard was crouched behind a display of bread rolls, with only a few meters to go before he would see the people, when a chill ran up his spine.  Suddenly something was gripping on his throat, pulling him under.  He tried to pull of the thing, but in vain. He got one took at the tentacle strangling him before he ran out of oxygen.

            "Richard, what is your position?"  Leigh asked the walkie-talkie.

There was no reply.  "Richard!  Come in, you loser!"

A pang of fear hit Leigh.  He had always tried to keep his brother out of trouble, but always knew that sometime the police would catch up to them.  He was now shivering at the thought of a prison cell; the dark days would be a lot different to the mansion they owned in Florida.  The thoughts were too painful for Leigh to bear, and he determined to get out of Tasmania alive.  He caught a glimpse of someone moving around, near were he thought Richard should be, and headed in that direction, hoping it was Richard.

            Jesse paused next to a pile of boxes, and loaded his gun.  His brain got to work, thinking of the best plan of attack.  He peered out from behind his box, and saw people standing around talking and pointing, as well as a few crying wrecks.  He could see that chick Amy talking with another girl, pointing around and looking at their watches, as well as a Negro looking at cans.  Jesse wondered why the police weren't there.  Maybe no one had ringed the police yet, but that was unlikely.  They would be here soon.  

Power was not restored yet, but the doors and windows at the front of the supermarket let in a little light. If Richard didn't come soon, Jesse would have to do the honors.  Jesse had been eager to keep on Richards's good books, because if he knew if he didn't, he'd be taken out.  It might be a gunshot in the back, or some poison in his food, but one way or another Jesse knew he would get the chop.  He was still planning how he was going to tip the police off and collect the prize money for them without being caught.  

He knew, however, that if he put one step out of line, he would pay the ultimate price.  He had heard rumors of Richard and Leigh's hitman "Shorty88".  Apparently he had killed over 20 of the Woolfe's enemies, and was more than happy to do it again.  

Jesse had already seen one of his co-workers disappear.  Mel had been hired out by Richard, under the impression that he was just another filthy rich businessman.  She worked in the Florida mansion for a little while, before she found a few business documents in Richards's pocket.  After she had learned the truth, it was only a matter of hours before she was in a trashcan.  Jesse didn't want to end up like that!  All he knew he had to do was arrange a drop-off site with the police, get a few million in a suitcase, leave a map with the Woolfe's address on it, and make for Asia.

"I'm in position."  Jesse said into the walkie-talkie.

Jesse sat and waited for further orders, not wondering why Richard had not answered.

            Kyle had stayed hidden for about a minute, watching the shortest crook lying on the ground, not moving or showing signs of life.  Why would you lay on the ground unless you where hurt?  Kyle was looking at one of the others, looked back to see what this tall fella was doing, and he was on the ground, just like that.  Kyle couldn't see the other two crooks, so he decided to make a break for it, and get the gun off the injured dude.  Kyle had first hand experience of what happened if you didn't have a gun.  Once Kyle had a gun, it would be easy to hold off these crooks, or whatever they were.

            Kyle noted he would have to run through ten metres of open territory before he could reach the body, grab the gun, and then sprint two metres to safety.  It was an easy task for a fit young man with no one shooting, but for Kyle the task seemed impossible.  Kyle started walking back to the front of the supermarket, head down in shame, when he felt a tinge of regret at what the war had taken away from him.  He had lost his best mate Jimmy when the Viet Cong had attacked the village, named Aroha, which they were assigned to protect.  

He still remembered the ferocious gun battle outside the village, when he thought like a hero, where Jimmy fell in a pool of blood, and where the last shot the Conga fired slammed into his leg.  After that fight, he was shipped back to Australia with the other injured men, when all he wanted to do stay and protect the innocent Vietnamese villagers. Now, all these years later, some people with guns had walked into a supermarket, perhaps even to kill innocent people, and Kyle determined to stop them.

Leigh headed towards what he thought was Richard, but suddenly saw a body lying on the ground.

"What have you done, Richard?"  Leigh asked nobody in particular.  Leigh had seen killing before, in fact, more than his fare share. It was nothing he wasn't used to, nothing that should make him afraid.  But something about today bothered him.  It was a sick feeling he had woken up with, as if something bad was going to happen.  

All of a sudden he looked back at all the crime he had watched, all the money he had taken off those how needed it the most, and the innocent lives that had been ruined to make him into a millionaire.  An idea ran through his head.  If he double-crossed Richard and Jesse and got to America before the police forced Richard to tell them all their hiding spots, he might just be able to get out of this mess he had made hi life into.  It would mean a life on the run, but America was a big place, and he had friends in high places, and enough money to bribe the police.  All of a sudden he turned, and walked out of the supermarket, headed for the Tarago.

"Why haven't the police or ambulance arrived here yet?" Amy asked.

"Who knows?  Anyway, all I want at the moment is my boyfriend and my mummy!"  Kathryn admitted.

"How sweet" Larnelle said.  "Anyway, we ripped off a lot of lids just then, but we didn't find anything, so maybe there is nothing in the cans after all."  

"I can't believe that a whole shelf would just fall over like that. And far out, four people died under all that metal and food!"  Amy seemed calm considering she had seen half mutilated bodies being brought out into the open, with hankies over their faces.

This was too much for Kathryn, however, who sat down in the sub-darkness and started to cry once more.

"Life is so short."  She sobbed uncontrollably  "You don't think about it, but you could be here one minute and gone the next! These people were here yesterday, but today they're not!"  She wept so hard now that she couldn't talk.

Larnelle was the first to break the uneasy silence.  "What do you guys think happens when you die?  I mean, do you go somewhere or just stop all together?"  Larnelle asked curiously.  

"Well, I believe in."Amy's sentence was cut short by a sudden sound of a gun going off, and suddenly, Kathryn, who had just lifted her head to listen to Amy, fell to the ground, as if hit by a powerful force.  

            Constable Ryan Whu Flun Dung was on his way to an official meeting with the mayor of an outlining city when he got a call from Sergeant Fry on his mobile phone.

"What's the matter, Serg?  Whu Flun Dung asked.

"Get to Woolworths in Park Street now!"  Fry yelled into the phone.  Sergeant Fry hated to ask Whu Flun Dung to do jobs because he was so unreliable.  He would spend all his time chatting up the women when he was supposed to be doing tasks.  Fry had a personal grudge against Whu Flun Dung after he caught him trying to chat up his wife Rachel.  Fry liked giving the harder jobs to Whu Flun Dung in the hope he would make a serious mistake, so he could fire him.  

            "There's been a major accident apparently.  I want you there, at the scene, in five minutes!"  Fry yelled.  "And make sure you don't stuff this up!"  

"Yes sir!"  Whu Flung Dung answered.

Fry knew this job was too much for the constable, so he got on the phone and rang up Constable Emma Kingsly, and ordered her to the scene as well.        

            As a crowd, shell-shocked at the gunshot, gathered around Kathryn, they realized quickly that Kathryn was dead.  

Even Amy burst into uncontrollable tears, but Larnelle kept control.  

"Did someone here a shot?"  Larnelle asked a group of shoppers who had just walked in, who were wondering what was happening.  

"I think so."  Said a woman who was staring into space.

Larnelle went to where Kathryn fell, and looked for where a gunman might hid. In the darkness, he saw a hand behind a display, and headed in that direction.  He could here sirens outside now, and some yelling outside, but Larnelle decided he was going to nail this guy.

            Ryan Whu Flun Dung arrived at the supermarket, hopped out of the car, and ran into the supermarket complex.  He grabbed his gun and ran into Woolworths.  

"What happened?"  Ryan asked a man who was standing next to the ice cream parlor.  

"Don't know.  Apparently a shelf fell down and killed a few people, then someone got shot." The man replied.

"Ok."  Whu Flun rushed into the supermarket, and should have started investigating the scene, but saw a pretty chick talking on her mobile.  He walked up to her and started flirting; ignoring the dead bodies that needed to be photographed, the witnesses that had to be questioned, and a gunman who had to be caught.  

           

            Kyle had secured the gun, the person who had it looked extremely dead, he was not breathing, and his pulse was nonexistent. Kyle was considering his next option when a gunshot rang out.  Kyle turned to where he had heard the noise, and saw a man crumple to the ground, holding his gun.  Kyle knew instantly the man was suffering from gun shock.  In the training camp for the army, you where taken out and forced to shot Kangaroo's, just so in battle you didn't freeze up before or after your first shot.  He had seen members of the Cong standing, finger on the trigger, white as a ghost, without the courage to pull back the trigger and blast off Jimmy's head.  Kyle, who had already shot living things, was not afraid to pull the trigger, and saved Jimmy.

            Kyle started walking over to the body, but slowly, because any fast motion might scare the remaining criminal into shooting. It took him a minute to walk to the body.

"Ahhhhh!"  Yelled a voice.  "It's the murderer!"

"Wait, its only me.'  Kyle said down to the scared man, who was looking at the body, who he took off, running into the open.

"Shoot!  Shoot!"  Yelled the man.

Suddenly a police officer was aiming his gun at him!  

"Wait!"  Yelled Kyle.  

The first shot missed him by inches.  

Suddenly he saw the gun shocked man reaching for the gun again, and knew he had to do something.  He dived forward, kicking him on the head and knocking the gun away from him.  The Policeman still was shooting to kill.

"Don't shoot you loser!"  Kyle yelled again, as he ducked for cover.  However, he was too late.  Stopping the man from getting his gun had delayed him a few seconds too much.  He felt a fierce pain in the leg that had caused him so much pain years ago, then dropped to the ground.

            Many questions were asked over the next days.  How did four people die under a falling shelf?  Why was there a massive car accident outside the supermarket?  Why was Richard Woolfe, the famous criminal, found strangled in the supermarket?  Why did the police shoot at the war veteran, Kyle? What caused all these things to happen.  

            Amy and Larnelle, in their search for answers, remembered the suspicious cans did not have ripable lids.  They found a can with a weird, almost octopus-like creature in it, with many long tentacles.  They would have traced the cans to where they originally can from, but the memory of their friend Kathryn was too painful, and they stopped looking.  

            Jesse came out of his shock, and was quick to dob in Richard and Leigh, but Richard was dead and Leigh made it back to America, where he lived a life on the run.  Jesse was sentenced to 20 years jail at the murder of Kathryn.  James was sent to jail for 3 years, not because of anything he had done, but because the public wanted answers and he was the only one who seemed responsible.  Tahi never made it to hospital, nor did the three people in the car he ran into.  

            Eric never got over Kathryn's death, he is still having counseling.  Steve Vence was sadly missed by the world of politics.  Andrew and Matilda both died of mysterious heart attacks a few hours after the events at the supermarket.  Shane Warne was reported at the doctor for treatment of a stress related problem two days later.  Kyle died on the way to hospital; the pain was too much to bear.  Fry fired Ryan Whu Flun Dung, who ran off with Rachel behind his former bosses back.  

            The only conclusion Amy and Larnelle reached was that those stupid cans caused all the problems.  Both of them quitted their jobs at the supermarket, and both will never touch baked beans again.

 

 

                                 Kyle Bassett, 2001