Savages

227

Ben flips the switch.

A blast of flame and the lead car hops sideways.

Shredded.

The cash car speeds up to pull around it but

Chon squeezes the trigger of the Barrett Model 90 and

The driver’s face disappears, red (incarnadine) with the daybreak, then

Its passenger leans in to take the wheel as

Chon slides the bolt back, reloads, sights, and shoots a big ragged hole into the would-be hero’s chest and then the car rolls into the rocks, stops, and bursts into flame.

Men, rifles in their hands, start to get out of the follow car but

Ben flips the second switch and

fragments of the Escalade become shrapnel, tearing, ripping, killing, and what it doesn’t do

Chon does.

The survivors of the blast—stunned, shocked, and bleeding—look up and around as if to ask the question

where does death come from

it comes from

Chon, sliding the bolt, pulling the trigger, and in seconds

It is quiet except for

The crackling of flames and the

Groans of the wounded.