As they headed over to baggage claim, Victoria and Al laughed hysterically at the fact that they'd almost missed this flight to Fort Lauderdale because of their last minute need to join the mile high club on the first leg of their excursion.

"It was worth the risk if you ask me!" her husband said excitedly as if it was his first time putting her legs in the air.

"I concur," Victoria replied before turning her attention to a guy she noticed was acting a little strange as they approached baggage claim.

Al followed her glance and saw the same thing his wife did. They made an unspoken, mutual agreement to keep their eyes on him without him noticing they were doing it. The man wasn't so strange that everyone would notice, but he was strange enough where Al and Victoria were a tad bit uncomfortable with his presence. His eyes had the wrong amount of shifty. He appeared to be in his late 20s and wasn't dressed in a peculiar way and was attractive in fact. There was something about him that made Victoria want to call the authorities, but she decided against it.

Al and Victoria stood about five feet back from the crowd who was impatiently waiting for their luggage to appear on the carousel. The man that they labeled as strange stood on the opposite side of the carousel. Al noticed that when the man's shifty eyes looked around, he didn't really seem to actually be looking at anything. He was looking through people, through things. The only thing he looked at with intent was the carousel. He seemed even more anxious than everyone else to get his luggage.

Finally, the strange man's luggage came before theirs did and he quickly retrieved his duffle bag and left. Their eyes followed him until they could no longer see him. Then, Victoria and Al looked at each other and did the bug eye roll. After 15 years of marriage, they were in tune with each other's thoughts, especially when it came to diagnosing strange behavior. They had a keen awareness of the weird and creepy.

"Well now, there's a guy who is definitely up to something," Al finally said.

"Yeah, no doubt about it. Let's just hope it's not something too horrific," his wife said.

They still hadn't even gotten their luggage yet, before they saw the same man come back to the baggage claim area with a gun and started firing away, shooting at people randomly. They took cover like everyone else, but when they saw him reloading, without even thinking or talking about it, Al and Victoria sprung into action and ran towards the crazed shooter whose back was now to them, and they both tackled him. As Al tried to dislodge the firearm from the man's right hand, and Victoria wrapped up his left arm with both of her legs while using her hands to bend his left hand back, four other people-both men and women-joined in to help them disarm and subdue the man. Within a few seconds, he was disarmed, and about five hundred pounds rested on top of him until authorities arrived while others tended to other injured travelers.

A few travelers started clapping, others joined in, and less than forty-five seconds later, the police, airport security, and other authorities arrived and took hold of the situation. A couple of officers told the pack of people holding down the man that what they did was dangerous and that they should've waited for authorities. But they also made sure to tell them it was brave and that their actions saved a few lives.

Frazzled and in shock, Al and Victoria stood and looked at the crime scene and all the chaos surrounding them.

"If only we'd went for one more round in the mile high club," Victoria said.

"Yep, if only," Al agreed.

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I was watching the news and became so irritated and exhausted by yet another mass shooting story with the same ending. So, I decided to write my own happy ending in this little piece of flash fiction.

#shortstories #flashfiction #microfiction #fiction #massshootings