by David Smith
Kara was sitting on a couch across the room under a big window with dingy white, threadbare curtains hanging behind her. She was crying with her face in her hands.
Dane wrapped his bloody fingers around the revolver and got slowly to his feet. He raised the gun up, steady as a rock, aiming it at Choppa's head. He started to pull the trigger, the cylinder starting to rotate. Then he stopped and looked at Kara. She looked up at him for a moment.
"You ain't got the grit." Choppa said then Kara nodded and looked away.
Dane stared at him for a long time. His face was covered with sweat and growing more pale. Strangely, he looked at the back of the pistol, then turned it sideways. I thought the lack of oxygen was causing him to hallucinate. Then he opened the cylinder and shook the gun, pointing it at the ceiling and nothing fell out.
I felt a tug suddenly at the back of my pants where I had put Spider's piece and reached back to find it gone. I spun around waiting see the end of the barrel and grabbed for him but as I did, my ears rang with the blast.
Instead of me, he shot Choppa. The first round hit his chest and as I wrestled to get it away from him, he fired two more times. The gun fell to he floor and I looked back. Choppa was dead with one more shot in his neck and another in his temple. Then I heard the rumble of Dane, collapsing to the floor.
As it turned out, Spider had wanted Choppa dead for some time. It was the only way a Vulture could become number one. But with the rest of the pack dead, he just rode off into the sunrise with Kara in tow. She left a note for Dane and said to give it to him if he ever woke up and I wasn't sure if he ever would. So I've just been holding onto it for when that time comes. Whatever it says, if the broken ribs don't kill him, I'm sure the note will.
He's still sleeping for now, sweating out some kind of infection. Chontelle stuck a tube down his throat and a few times a day, Mac sucks the blood out of it just to make sure it's clear.
We're gonna stay here as long as the gators are still biting and away from town as long as the dead are too, which I figure will be a long, long time.
