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Hell out of Dodge.”
     
    ***
     
    Michael lay propped against the side of the Outback in the hatch area behind the backseat. His pain was so intense, his knuckles were white where he clutched the floor as he tried to keep from being sent flying about by Elijah’s wild driving. Lori was so far away in the passenger seat, she might as well have been on the moon. There was so much he wanted to say to her but he couldn’t, not in front of the others. He grunted through gritted teeth as the Outback hit a pothole and jostled him, causing his muscles to tense up. Michael could feel parts of him hanging out of the open mess of his wound underneath his makeshift bandages. He never imagined he’d go like this or that death would hurt so much. Memories of better days played through his mind like short movies. He remembered when he met Lori. The way she looked all sweaty and out of place on the gym’s treadmill that day. The smell of her hair as her head rested on his chest in their bed. How she hated mushrooms and complained every time he cooked them. He thought about the child they had been planning and the future that would never be. Michael promised her he would never hurt her or let her down. He was breaking that promise now and that fact hurt him as much as the shotgun had. A moan escaped his lips.
    “ You okay back there?” Jacob asked, twisting his head around over the top of the backseat.
    “ What do you think?” Michael snapped. He hated the nerdy writer mainly because he figured Lori would one day end up in Jacob’s arms after he was gone.
    “ You were kind of scaring me there for a moment,” Jacob droned on.
    Michael ignored him until Jacob left him alone. Closing his eyes, he rested his head on his chest. Maybe he would get lucky and bite the prick’s nose off when he turned, before one of the others put a bullet in his brain. As he fell asleep, Michael dreamed of chewing on Jacob’s flesh and tearing it apart with his teeth.
    Neither Jacob nor Helena saw it coming when Michael’s corpse rose up in the hatch several minutes later and grabbed Jacob’s head by handful of his hair, jerking it backwards. Helena screamed louder than Jacob as the writer twisted about, trying to get free of Michael’s hold. Helena knew she had to do something, anything. Her hands latched onto the sides of the thing that was once Michael’s head. His flesh was feverishly hot against her skin but there was no doubt in her mind that he was dead. She strained, tugging him away from Jacob.
    “ Michael!” Lori shouted from the front of the vehicle.
    “ Kill it!” Elijah barked, unable to offer any help.
    Helena released Michael as Jacob turned in his seat, wrestling him. Michael tried to force his way over the top of the backseat to flop onto them. Helena reached for Jacob’s pistol where he had dropped it into the floorboard. Her fingers closed around it. She’d never held a gun before much less used one. The feel of the weapon in her hand sent a rush of excitement coursing through her. Helena sat up.
    “ Shoot it! Shoot it!” Jacob was yelling at her. Michael gave a low, guttural moan as his soulless, hungry eyes cut towards her, as if a shred of understanding of what a gun was remained within him.
    Helena pressed the pistol’s barrel to the side of his head and squeezed the trigger. A spray of bone fragments and brain matter flew over Jacob and the Outback’s hatch window as the bullet exited Michael’s skull. Michael’s body slouched over and slid into the floor of the hatch to lay still. Helena giggled like a little girl at the mess she had made. Jacob stared at her. She realized what she was doing and stopped suddenly. “I. . .I am sorry,” she said, handing the gun to Jacob. “I don’t know what came over me.”
    “ Don’t worry about it. You just saved my life,” Jacob said, but Helena barely heard him over the sound of Lori’s wailing. Helena reached to put a hand on Lori’s shoulder to comfort her but Lori