Dead Man at the Database.

    There were two things on my mind.
One, I wasn't alone out there. It was an amazing feeling. I had spent almost exactly a month by myself, running from something that I didn't understand. I had been shot at, I had stabbed myself, and another man, I had even actually shot someone. For the past month, it had been the world against me, me against them. Suddenly, even though I had no idea who it was, suddenly, it was US against them. I wasn't alone, and it made me brave.
     That bravery made me a little stupid, I guess, because I didn't take time to think. I had a mission now. So, rather than wait and think, I started driving toward Colorado that night. It wasn't a big mistake or anything, It just meant that I stayed up late driving. I slept in my car on the side of the road somewhere near Wichita falls. I ended up sleeping until noon the next day, and kept driving. I stopped for food, and found a hunting supplies store, where I purchased a gun cleaning kit, and a very good pair of binoculars. I crashed in a cheap hotel again, one of those hourly places, for four hours. and got on my way. I should have taken my time. I wasn't alert enough to try the kind of stuff i was about to do, but I didn't care.
     I spent the first hour of my day scoping the place out. I hid on a hill a few miles away from the airstrip and studied it through my binoculars. There was a strip of tarmac, about 150 feet long. There was a small post at one end, with a camera and a solar panel on it. The camera rotated almost 360 degrees at a go, rotating back and forth over the whole airstrip, and most of the area around it. I knew that rushing in there would end poorly, since it took fifteen minutes for backup to arrive. I had to find a means of approach that would let me get at least close without the camera seeing me. I studied it  long time, trying to determine where I should approach from. After a long while, I decided to take my chances. I had an opening on the east side of the airstrip, behind the post, where the camera couldn't see. It was a narrow blind spot, but it was there.
     I got back into my car, and drove around the airstrip, trying to keep a consistent radius from the camera. I drove until I thought I was in the blind spot, checked with my binoculars, re-positioned myself, and then drove in as straight a line as I could manage, hopefully behind the pole. I drove as fast as I could, hoping that if I was seen, I could still be in and out before the guard arrived. I slammed on the breaks right next to the pole, and jumped out. The metal panel was right where he said it would be, I lifted it up, and jumped down. I should have been paying more attention. there was a ladder. I expected a four foot drop, and got a eight foot fall. I landed a lot harder than I had planned, and rolled my ankle a bit. Then I looked up, pulled out a flashlight, and studied the room. It was just an electrical panel room, breaker boxes on one wall, warning signs on the other, and cut off switches on the third. The last wall had the ladder I didn't notice. I started looking for a door, something, anything to let me into the database. I decided to just start pulling things. I tore away at the warning signs and then I started throwing breakers, and finally started pulling at the power switches. That did it. One of the power switches was actually a latch, that opened a door in the wall. I pushed the door open, and found myself in a small office room. Almost like a waiting room at a doctor's office. there were three doors, and i chose the one at the far side.  I dashed through, and found the server room, right there, waiting for me.

     It was a surprisingly large room, with four servers inside of it, arranged in rows, big things with stacks of clicking harddrives. The room was covered in tangled cables, and felt very dry, and just a little bit warmer than was comfortable. I dashed in, looking for a console. I found one at the other end of the room, a small, old looking computer sitting on a table, and looked for a USB port. There were none on the front, and just as I started pulling the computer to find one in the back, I heard the door open, and a voice shouted, "Don't move!" I looked up to find a man in a vaguely uniform-like set of coveralls standing at the door, pointing a police pistol. I raised my hands, and let the thumbdrive fall into my coat sleeve, before turning around slowly.
     "no need to shoot me, pal, I haven't got anything to hide here." I replied. I'm sure my voice was shaking.
     "I'm going to come over there and pat you down. If you make ANY sudden movements, I will shoot. Hold still."
He crossed the room slowly, and started to pat me down, He found my gun, pulled it from my pocket, made a rude comment, and tossed it away from me. The knife got the same treatment. When he moved to pat down my legs, I took my moment. I kneed him in the face, and kicked the gun from his hand, before leaping for my own. I grabbed it and turned just in time for him to grab his own gun. I dived behind one of the servers, and flicked off my safety. Then I saw something fantastic: the server had a USB port. I was fumbling through my coat trying to get at the drive, when I realized that i had dropped it when I ran for my gun. I could see it out on the floor, very exposed, and tried to reach for it. He saw me, and fired. He missed, which was both good and bad. The good news was that I had not been shot in the hand. The bad news was that bullets ricochet. The bullet hit the floor and bounced. I didn't know what had happened until I looked at the server rack in front of me. The bullet had smashed a harddrive, putting a hole through it and the drive above it. they began to spark a bit, and I seriously thought I was screwed. But I decided to try to harvest what I could. I grabbed my flashlight from my pocket, and threw it at the door I had entered through. It clattered against the door, and rolled away from it. The sound was enough for the guard to look away while I snatched the drive off of the floor. I slammed it into a USB port, and prayed that it would work. Meanwhile, I was occupied with the guard, who had not taken my trick very well.
     He swung around the back end of the server I was hiding behind, and took a shot at me. It was a good one, went through my arm, and against one of my ribs, cracking it, and knocking all the air from me. Looking back, I know it wasn't that serious of an injury, mostly a graze, but at the time, I knew I was dead. I swung my pistol and fired off four shots, almost braindead with pain. I hit him with three, two in the chest and one in the head. Then I heard the plane overhead, and knew my trouble had only started.