Jackson blushed and mumbled, "I'm no hero.  Just a regular guy trying to do what's right."

     "Whether you want to be or not, you're my hero.  You saved me from these pigs.  That makes you a hero." 

     "You did a pretty good job of taking care of yourself, once you had the opportunity."

     Angelika looked at the body briefly and returned her gaze to Jackson, "I'm not proud of it, but I don't feel any remorse or guilt about it, either."

     "And you shouldn't.  After what they did to you."

     She reached across the table and gripped his hand as tears of gratitude rolled down her cheeks.  Jackson met her eyes and something sparked between them.  Acknowledgement of their common situation, a kindred spirit thing...something. 

     It lasted but a second as Angelika said, "What's the next step?"

     Jackson hesitated before answering.  He was angry, infuriated with Seth, at the whole situation.  He never wanted any of this, never dreamed of killing anyone; but, here he was and Seth was the cause of it all.  His problems, though, were nothing compared to Angelika's.  His rage miniscule compared to what she must be feeling.  If it were up to him, if he could, he'd simply take Angelika home, go home himself and try to forget that any of this ever happened.  But, it wasn't up to him.  Seth would not let him walk away.  Not now.  Not with Angelika free and two of his friends dead at their hands.

     "We can't just leave.  Seth will follow us.  If we split up...if I take you home and return to mine, he'll pick us off one by one.  We have to finish this and we have to stick together."

     Angelika was nodding her head while he spoke.  She was way ahead of him on this line of thought.  She wanted revenge.  "I want to go home, Jackson but I can't until this is done.  I want Seth to pay...pay dearly for what he's done to me and you."

     Jackson stood and taking her hand pulled her up.  They hugged and Jackson said, "We should go right away.  I don't know enough about this teleporting thing.  I know I can follow Seth, but I don't know how long I can wait.  His...whatever...path or signature...might fade with time."

     She nodded and picked up the shotgun.  Jackson said, "I don't think we should take those.  Who knows where we might pop up and the guns could draw unwanted attention to us.  On the other hand...."

     "On the other hand," Angelika continued, "we're going to need weapons.  You know that."  Before he could respond, she snapped her fingers in the air.  "They have pistols, too.  I've seen them..."  She turned toward an old china cabinet against the far wall.  Quickly, she strode to the large chest and began rummaging through the drawers.

     "Aha!"  Angelika pulled two pistols from the drawer and held them in the air.  "See?"  She stuck one pistol in the waistband of her jeans and the other under her arm and pulled several more drawers open.  She found what she was looking for and turned to show Jackson two shoulder holsters and a box of ammunition.

     It took them several minutes to figure out how to wear the holsters and then, the working actions of the pistols.  Jackson had enough experience with guns (mostly through reading detective novels) to identify these as .357 Magnums and he told Angelika what he knew about them.  "If these are what I think they are - .357 Magnums - they pack a helluva whallup and a big kick.  You'll need both hands to fire it."

     "Really?"  Angelika turned toward the china cabinet and, holding the pistol in both hands, just like she'd seen in countless movies, she fired three rounds into the furniture.  The noise, in the small cabinet was deafening.  The damage to the wooden cabinet extensive.  She looked at Jackson with raised eyebrows.  "Wow."

     "Yeah.  Wow."  He replied.  The moment passed and the two were all action as they finished their preparations to jump.

     Jackson moved in front of Angelika and they wrapped their arms around each other.  The nearness and heat of her body was not lost on him and he blushed.  She looked up at him and smiled.  "Let's go, hero."

     A few seconds later they were standing, just as they had been in the cabin, but now, they were in an field surrounded by eight feet tall corn stalks.  Looking around, Jackson said, "At least we didn't pop into a place full of people.  Come on, let's find our way out of this field and see where we are."

     The stopped at the edge of the cornfield and peered through the last two rows of stalks.  The view that greeted them was nothing like what they expected.  Twenty feet away was a man.  The man was at least ten feet tall.  He was dressed like a business executive but his suit was bright red and when he turned in their direction they saw that he had one big blue eye in the center of his face.

     Angelika whispered, "Oh, my God!"

     Jackson said, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."