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some of Zach’s teeth left his mouth and scattered across the pavement.  He and Quin still hadn’t moved.
    For the third time, Zach started to get up.  Doyle brought his axe down and buried the blade in his chest.  With an effort that made River’s head spin, Zach totally ignored the axe sticking out of him and wrapped his hands around Doyle’s neck.  Doyle was doing everything he could to push Zach away from him, but couldn’t get him to stop choking him.  Greg had become useless.  He had fallen over, tripped up by his own feet.
    Quin finally moved.  He ran over to Zach and wrapped his arms around him.  Although Quin hadn’t performed in ten years, he kept in shape just as well as when he did.  Quin had always been very animated on stage, usually running from one end to the other and up an alley through the middle of the crowd.  When he didn’t get that marathon of a workout anymore, he ran real marathons.  He also went to a dance studio to keep up his sense of rhythm.  He had a face like an old, beat-up baseball glove, but still had the body of someone much younger than himself.  Anyway, he was fucking fit, and he hauled Zach off Doyle as if it was nothing.
    Quin yelled at Doyle, asking him what the fuck he should do.  Doyle was just trying to breathe.  River jogged over and pulled the axe out of Zach’s chest, who reacted the same way to that painful stimulus as he had when it went in.  River was thinking that maybe Zach had finished off Quin’s drugs; there were still some left at that time.
    Zach kicked and flailed, trying to free himself from Quin’s bear hug.  He finally succeeded and ran straight at River.  River could see the murderous intent in his eyes.  When River had been younger and the band was in its prime, a man had tried to kill him in a restaurant.  He managed to stab River with a fork before the idiot security team finally got him.  River saw the same look in Zach’s eyes that man had.
    Still, Zach was Mitch’s son.  Mitch was a brother to River, closer even.  They had played and toured together for forty years.  River had watched Zach grow up; he was practically a son.  He couldn’t swing the blade he held.  Instead, he used it in the manner of a pool cue.  The flat top of the axe hit Zach right in the mouth, knocking out even more of his teeth.  Zach spun around from the impact and ended up facing Quin.  He ran at Quin this time.
    Quin was quick.  He lowered his shoulder and grabbed Zach around the waist.  With a yell, Quin rose up, throwing Zach over his shoulder like a wrestler.  Quin said later that he didn’t know how close to the edge of the parking garage he was.  River believed him.  When Quin threw Zach, Zach landed on the cement edge and his momentum pulled him over.
    Zach grabbed hold of the ledge.  Quin and River ran over to help him up, but when they got close, when Zach saw them, he let go with both hands; it looked like Zach thought he could grab at them if he did.  Instead, he fell all seven storeys to the sidewalk below.
    River didn’t really want to look over the edge, but he did.  Zach was a splat below.  It looked like one of his arms was still twitching.  Someone else was down there, and he looked up at Quin and River.  River quickly pulled away from the edge, pulling Quin with him.  They hurried back to the bus, gathering up Doyle and Greg as they went.  Doyle could finally breathe normally again.  He sounded really raspy though.  Greg had gotten back on his feet and looked stupid.  He had no idea what was going on.
    Once they were back in the bus, River, Quin, and Doyle shut the door and all the windows.  Doyle didn’t ask what was going on; he must have seen something in their faces.
    Nothing and no one showed up that day, but they had been scared.  Everything seemed ten times more serious now.  They were even afraid of each other.  If Zach could snap like that, who’s to say another one of them couldn’t?
    ***
    It