Burrack store shootout

The Burrack store shootout marks the violent climax of the cross-country crime spree of Lloyd Henreid and Andrew "Poke" Freeman. Having already murdered the owner of a white Continental and his family, as well as the proprietor of a general store in Sheldon, Arizona, the pair are fleeing west in the stolen car, their nerves frayed by the dope and guns they carry. Their decision to stop in the small town of Burrack for gas and cash sets the stage for a sudden, brutal confrontation that ends their rampage and sends Lloyd to prison, where he will later be recruited by Randall Flagg.

The Robbery and the First Shots

Poke and Lloyd pull into a combination café, store, and gas station in Burrack. Poke arms himself with a .357 Magnum, while Lloyd carries a Schmeisser submachine gun. Inside, a tired-looking woman is shopping for spaghetti sauce, and a man in cowboy clothes is paying for cigarettes and Slim Jims at the counter. The proprietor, a freckled man in a gray shirt and a Shell cap, looks up as the screen door slaps shut. Lloyd fires a burst from the Schmeisser into the ceiling, shattering the hanging lightbulbs. He shouts, "Just hold still and nobody'll get hurt!" but Poke immediately contradicts him by shooting the woman looking at the sauces, killing her instantly. Poke yells, "Pokerized her, ole buddy! She'll never watch Jerry Falwell again! Whoop! Whoop!"

The Cowboy's Counterattack

The man in the cowboy clothes, who has been identified as Bill Markson, does not freeze. He plucks a .45 revolver from his belt and fires, hitting Poke in the left side of the face, vaporizing his cheek and teeth. Poke staggers backward, screaming, and falls onto the porch. Lloyd, stunned, fires the Schmeisser wildly, raking the store. The proprietor drops behind the counter. Lloyd's fire destroys a gumball machine, bottles, and a calendar, but he also puts three bullets into the cowboy, killing him. Lloyd, panicked, continues firing until the Schmeisser is empty. The store is filled with the smell of gunpowder and the sight of the dead woman and the dead cowboy.

The Storekeeper's Final Stand

Poke, horribly wounded, staggers back inside, demanding to kill the cowboy. He puts a foot on the cowboy's body and prepares to empty his .357 into the man's head. At that moment, the proprietor, who had hidden behind the counter, pops back up with a double-barreled shotgun. Poke looks up just in time to receive both barrels in the face, killing him instantly. Lloyd, seeing his partner dead and the situation hopeless, decides to flee. He runs out of the store, but an Arizona State Police cruiser has just pulled into the yard. A trooper orders him to halt. Lloyd tries to run for the Continental, but the trooper fires a warning shot, and Lloyd surrenders. The proprietor comes out onto the porch, still clutching his shotgun, and yells that he wants to shoot Lloyd too, but the troopers calm him down. Lloyd is handcuffed and taken into custody, ending the spree that had made him and Poke the subjects of a massive manhunt.

Consequences and Significance

The Burrack store shootout directly leads to Lloyd Henreid's imprisonment in the Apache County Jail. While awaiting trial under the swift "Markham vs. South Carolina" guidelines, which could have led to his execution within weeks, the superflu epidemic sweeps through the prison. The guards and staff die or desert, leaving Lloyd to starve in his cell. This desperate situation makes him receptive to the rescue and offer of power from Randall Flagg, who frees him and makes him his right-hand man. The shootout thus serves as the pivotal event that transforms Lloyd from a small-time criminal into a key lieutenant in the dark man's emerging empire in the West. The violence of the encounter also foreshadows the brutal, lawless nature of the world that Flagg will come to rule.