Bullets

Bullets

                Nobody thought it was weird when every second gun shop owner in Midwel fell sick over a period of about two weeks. Well, they might have, if they’d noticed. But no-one did. It’s not really the kind of thing people keep track of. And there aren’t many organisations that would have realised that something was amiss.

                The IPC would have. Strange sicknesses spreading to particular parts of a population was a red flag worthy of investigation; but they only monitored politics and other positions of power. Gun shop owner didn’t qualify, despite the access to firearms in large numbers.

                The gun shop owners got better, as well, and none died. There were a couple of strange things, like those who worked their shops changing their staff (causing a bit of bad blood) or those that didn’t or rarely did not showing up at all for a little while, but nothing major. Every second gun shop owner was only eleven people – nothing to cause a panic in a city of millions.

                Another thing that nobody paid attention to was that the other gun shops got bought. Mostly by small companies that ran franchises, although a couple were larger groups. It was different people buying each time, and some industry pundits commented on it, but they didn’t follow the paper trail. It was only a minor blip – ten gun shops changing hands over about a month. Nothing super important.

                Even if you had followed the paper trail, you probably wouldn’t have picked up on the important detail. Again, the IPC probably would have – but they have every person and company related to Meander Corporation on file. You see, each conglomerate or franchising group was associated with Meander. Perhaps the owner of their owner was the nephew of a board member. Perhaps the money to found the company could be traced back to Meander, if you could get at the records. Perhaps they had worked with a Meander subsidiary in the past. It would always be a faint link, but if you looked hard enough you’d find it.

                These two infiltrations were the reason that, right after the Midwel barrier went up, every last gun shop was completely empty. No guns. No ammo. Worried people on the first day went to buy ammo or, if they could, new guns. On the second day people raided the gun shops, breaking all the way into the vaults of some. They found nothing at all.

                Now, firearms are not too much of a risk to most our undead allies – in fact, in Australia, they are barely a problem at all. There are too few and they are of calibres meant, at best, for hunting smaller animals. Utilising the blackwings and our own resources to remove them from play almost completely was useful, but not essential.

                So where had the guns gone? My masterstroke. On the night the barrier went up, every last gun for sale in Midwel was loaded up and brought to our warehouses. And once there we distributed them to every single vampire, ghoul, and even werewolf that had come to tear Midwel asunder.

With the guns, our allies had a new weapon in their arsenal: not the guns themselves, but the fear of them. See, if you scare group of people as a monster, they’ll run. You might catch a few but you won’t catch them all.

                Point a gun at them, and they’re an easy meal.