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Shandi was panicked and exhausted. She didn’t try to collect herself or fight. She just held Jake and cried. She blamed herself for the unconscious man in her arms. She focused on this plan so intently that she refused to accept any course of action that might outright kill Billy.
The tranquilizer dart seemed to have worked at least a little. Billy stumbled in a cloud of confusion. At first, he had held his head in his hands, but now he started lurching forward as if he could fight off the disorientation with action.
With the beast stunned, Shandi heard Cam in her ear. “Steve. Take him out.”
Whatever unholy weapon Steve wielded boomed in the distance. Shandi didn’t know where the bullet ended its trajectory, but Billy remained unscathed. Another shot fired. Another missed.
“Dammit,” Steve shouted through the earpiece. “The kickback on this thing.”
The gun blasted again, echoed almost immediately by another. A bullet struck Billy in the shoulder. He screamed in rage. Blood gushed out of a gaping hole, pouring down Billy’s arm, pooling onto the ground in amounts that Shandi could barely stomach. Perhaps this gun would work.
“Um... That wasn’t me that hit him,” Steve said in her ear.
Billy fell to his knees and looked directly towards Shandi and Jake. In a surreal moment of clarity, Shandi watched Billy’s head nod forward, meeting her eyes with purpose and determination. There was something new in his eyes now. Something resolute, but sorrowful. Did Billy want to die?
She looked around to see if there was anyone else nearby. Dub had cleared the area and taken shelter behind the Jeep. Cam scrambled upright, and ushered Wes to safety. She and Jake shared this moment alone with Billy. Her tears fell faster as she fought the overwhelming feeling of sadness that she felt for both Jake and Billy.
Studying the brutality of the bullet wound, Shandi waffled between hope that the gun might kill him, and fear that he would die before she could save him. His life must have been agonizingly painful. He had subsisted on murder and mayhem. That sort of unending madness would surely leave anyone hoping for an end to it all. She hadn’t considered that before this moment. Perhaps more humanity could be found in killing Billy, rather than trying to save him.
“This is for Cornelius, asshole,” rang into Shandi’s ear, a voice filled with vitriol and hate. Miriam loved her brother, and would be underestimated no longer.
Another shot rang out. This one struck true, perfectly aimed. A huge hole opened up between the beast’s eyes as he collapsed to the ground. Shandi watched his face as he went down, unsure whether she only hoped for the slightest hint of a smile that she saw on his face. The night went silent. Shandi strained to see if Billy’s chest would rise or fall, but she couldn’t tell. It seemed so cruel and unfair. Billy deserved a better outcome than this.
Focusing on Billy’s breathing reminded her to also check Jake’s. She found his wrist and tried to find a pulse. At first, she panicked. She felt nothing. But after adjusting her fingers, she felt a faint heartbeat. Asleep. But alive.
It seemed like minutes before anyone dared to come back out from the protection they had sought out. Shandi just held Jake and refused to let her eyes leave the beast. She expected Billy to wake up at any moment, unable to believe that he was no longer a threat.
Cam drew up the courage to check first, as always. He approached Billy and put his fingers to his neck. They waited in silence for him to finish. When he stood up, he breathed deeply. It looked as if he might collapse from exhaustion right there.
“I think he might actually be dead,” he said.
Shandi sniffled, trying to regain her composure. She felt a strange mix of happiness and sadness. She so desperately wanted all of this to be over.
Shandi startled as Cam pulled his handgun from its holster and yelled, “Stop right there.”
In the distance, Miriam and Tanner approached. They both held massive guns. They stopped at the sheriff’s insistence and set the guns on the ground. Once they had, Cam relaxed and let his arm fall to his side. Miriam and Tanner continued their approach.
From a different direction came Steve. He also carried a massive gun, but Cam took no action to stop him. Eventually, the three of them convened on the beast with Cam. Miriam kicked Billy’s body in the side. Shandi wanted to protest—to defend Billy—but she remained quiet, relinquishing any control she desired to have over the situation.
One of the doors on the jeep opened. Skylar stepped out. He looked calm and collected now, with no hint of the cowardice he’d displayed mere moments ago. He did not approach Billy’s body, though, belying the composure he feigned.
“Miriam! How dare you! Do you realize what you’ve done?”
Miriam’s eyes burned as she met Skylar’s gaze. “He was your son. And you didn’t even care. You just wanted to capture your prize.”
In a smooth and quick motion, Miriam snatched the gun out of Steve’s hand, braced herself and fired it directly into Billy’s back, roughly where his heart would be. Blood flew back up and splattered those nearby. She threw the gun into the hard dirt.
“Enjoy your mountain of flesh,” Miriam said as she walked off. Tanner followed.
