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"Get the hook Grab her!"

I fight to ignore the pain,nowhere I dunk under and let the water take ain, the boat is farther away I search for the others For a e in the distance against the light fro in on that person now

I tread water for ahard, unsure ofkeep me afloat My other arm throbs, useless at ling to keep one now Dead Part ofchase to one of e and head for shore I can try to find the others from there That’s what Sean would tell , I face the shore again and start swi And painful I stop several tiainst the water and storing th

All of me aches with a bone-deep burn Weariness nips at me, ready to sink in its teeth, but I refuse to let that happen I knoatery grave will be ht that, too Stopping, I take anotheraze blurs Thousands of tiny stars dance against a blanket of dark night, and I rather deliriously wonder why they’restars? A s fillspain in ood hand, I try to reach there, to assess the dauish water from blood I lower my hand and shove away the fact that I’ve been shot There’s nothing I can do about it right now Nothing Nothing to be done about the fact that there’s a bullet lodged in my shoulder and I’itive Alone

If someone had posed this scenario to me before, I would have declared I didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of surviving But that was before Before I’d proven just how resilient I could be And didn’t people get shot in the old West and survive? I’ve seen enough of those spaghetti westerns with my dad on Sunday afternoons to know They lived I deliberately ignore the fact that that was television and I’ with the real world A world that has not been kind to me lately

Gradually sound fades away I don’t hear anything any boat It’s like so in endless space Just ainst my face

I reach for the fa too late with a pang that it’s abandoned htensCrave it desperately Just one song nowa few verses, but my voice escapes broken and hoarse, terrible and off-pitch I forcefor the cadence to fill h and lift ives up on the lyrics Darkness edges , but I’ with "Please," I ask no one again Help me "I needplease"

Someone

Water creeps over ency Interview

AGENT POLLOCK: Thank you for co in to see us today, Mitchell May I call you Mitchell?

MITCHELL HAMILTON: I didn’t realize I had a choice Your guys practically hauled uess you couldn’t just interviewme into this little room? Is this an intimidation tactic?

AGENT POLLOCK: Are you intimidated, Mitchell?