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Justin’sto speak words con to itself

"Shitload Knohy? It’s because there’s a shitload of us in here Now here’s what’s gonna happen--"

The left side of Justin’s scalp disappeared in a spray of pink brain er as fast as it could twitch, the sound shattering the air Little sprays of blood flicked out fro hiun in aat a h my lip I felt electricity inside, the buzz of the violence, sparks raining down inside my skull as if from a blown fuse

Too faainst a wall, but kept his feet

I pulled the trigger again

Click

I squeezed the trigger about twentyin there sohted hihed like a ot to be shittingup each of his wounds, forlass I finally realized I wasn’t fighting this kid, I was fighting those things The fear was like lead weights in ainst--"

His words were cut off when the e hiht a hand to his face

"Stop that shit! Don’t you knoe got the same plan?"

He took a step toward me I looked across the room The door TheI couldn’t h Shitload

He said, "We both goin’ to Vegas, right? You all packed up and all"

My hand at my side, I made a fist

"Uh, I don’t think so"

I realized once ain, had learned no fighting skills since the last one Only this ti the opponent’s teeth ripping outpunch that missed by a foot

The Justin roin I doubled over, struggled to keep my feet

"The only difference is"

He advanced and in a blur threw three more punches that each landed solidly on ut and I fell back against a chair I aardly kicked at his chest

He caught the leg and delivered an expert crotch kick that finished me

"I’m doin’ the drivin’"

Justin clasped both of his hands into one fist, raised it high above his head as if in victory and then with all his roin

I blacked out

DARKNESS, BARKING AND footsteps I felt Molly’s wet nose onovercrotch on the way over

I felt the floor ed I was hefted over a shoulder like a sack of dog food and dropped onto a ed shut, a latch clicked into place

In the haze I felt the presence of others aroundaround their minds like flies I could sense the sauce in thehts like alcohol on a wino’s breath

Vegas

I had a hallucination, or a vision It was the road atlas, spread before led like arteries across the country Undisclosed on the right, Las Vegas a red dot on the left, the line of an ink pen scratched along the highways joining the two

We were going there because he wanted us there Not this Justin ain I felt the presence of it in this space Pulsing A will of its own The soy sauce was alive, I knew that

But beyond it, too, there was so I had run into orking on its behalf

In as pulsed, as if so Like an anih

My eyes snapped open

I was expecting to find myself inside Justin’s stolen ambulance Instead I saw cardboard boxes stacked around os There was a sweet, spoiled s on one stack was Big Ji 275 pounds of bulk

You should call home, Jim Cucumber is worried about you

Next to Jim was a very pale and shaky Jennifer Lopez, scratched and dirty, wearing the sareen Heineken cases was a little, wiry oatee, whom I had never seen before and who, by process of elimination, had to be Fred Chu He had his tattooed arms folded under his head and looked unharmed Molly went and sat down in the ht of me, Fred Chu said, "Shit"