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“Human, stop!” Pack Leader demanded

Lana drove the truck backward The back wheels rolled up and over the mummified corpse of the truck’s owner

The truck was all the way inside now, as far as it would go Thewas mere inches above the cab The walls were close The truck was like a loose cork in the shaft The coyotes, feeling the walls closing in, had to decide whether to be trapped by the truck They opted to slither out of the way, back to the front of the truck where they took turns leaping on and off the hood, snarling, snapping, scrabbling ih paws

The truck stopped er open

That was fine That was the plan

Lana twisted around in her seat, ai tank in the back, and fired a single shot

The rearshattered into a million pieces

Shaking with fear and exciteerly out of the cab into the bed of the truck This excited the coyotes even ap between the sides of the truck and the et at her One furious head jammed sideways between roof and a crossbeam

They yapped and snarled and Pack Leader cried, “Human, stop!”

Lana reached the valve of the LPG tank She twisted it open Ias

It would take a while for the gas to drain out It was heavier than air, so it would roll down the sloping floor of the mine shaft, like an invisible flood It would sink toward the deepest part of the mine It would pool around the Darkness

Would he smell it? Would he know that she had sealed his fate? Did he even have a nose?

Lana paid out the fuse she’d asoline She’d kept it in a Ziploc bag

She took a coil and tossed it into the dark of the mine It didn’t have to reach far

She carried the rest with her, back into the cabin of the truck She stepped on the brake, turning on the brake lights and illu the shaft in hellish red It was ias, of course