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away his position and losing the advantage he had by remaining unseen. He tried to get his crosshairs on the man as he approached, but there were too many branches in the way, so he waited, tracking his movement as best he could until he finally stopped. Unbelievably, that stupid teen-aged boy of his still didn’t know he had been seen until the man said something to him. From his position across the road, the shooter couldn’t hear what it was, but he saw that the man was carrying a rifle and that he was holding it at hip level, the muzzle pointed in his son’s direction. It didn’t look like he was going to shoot him immediately, but when Kenny turned to face him, standing up with the knife still in his hand; he decided it wasn’t worth waiting to find out. The man was in the open now and he had a clear shot, so he put his crosshairs on him and squeezed the trigger, dropping him instantly. His son glanced over his way for a second at the sound of the rifle, but then turned to face something else—another man running at him from the same general area the first one had come from. He ran with one hand raised overhead, poised as if to throw something.  
    The shooter saw what looked like a long stick fly past Kenny’s head as he tried to get lined up on this new target. It missed him clean and stuck in the ground several yards farther back, and he realized it was a spear. At least his kid wasn’t backing down, and he smiled when he saw him close in on the screaming stranger with his knife. Since the other man appeared to be unarmed but for the stick he’d already thrown, the shooter decided he would let Kenny take him with the knife. It wouldn’t be his first, and it was what he would surely want to do to save face after being dumb enough to let a couple of farmers get the drop on him like that. The shooter thought it would be fun to watch and he was sure of the outcome; but then from out of nowhere, there was another gunshot that came as a total surprise. He saw his son collapse into a heap, his knife landing on the ground beside him. Kenny wasn’t moving and was probably dead before he realized he had been shot!

    * * *

    Benny had closed half the distance to the unsuspecting trespasser when all of a sudden he heard a shout. The voice came from somewhere among the trees off to his left, closer to the road, and he could have sworn it sounded like his boy, Tommy. But Benny couldn’t see anyone. The stranger got up and turned to face whoever it was, and for the first time, Benny got a good look at his face. He was young, just a boy really, but when he stood up he was brandishing that bloody knife like he wasn’t afraid of anything. Benny knew the boy wasn’t aware of his presence; his focus was completely on what had startled him.  
    Benny eased closer, to try and get to where he could see for himself who it was, when all of a sudden another rifle shot boomed out from somewhere across the road. So there was more than one of them! Benny had been right to be suspicious that there would be, but whoever he or she was, the shooter had not been aiming at him. A chill swept over him as he thought about Tommy again. Could that have really been his voice? Benny had to get close enough to find out, but he couldn’t risk being seen, either by the boy he was stalking or the unseen shooter across the road.  
    The sound of the rifle caused the trespasser with the knife to turn and glance at the wooded hillside where Benny was sure the shot had come from. But then he turned his attention in the direction from which he’d been surprised when he first stood. Ignoring the rifle leaning against the tree, he held the knife like he was getting ready to use it and began advancing. Benny glanced back to where the girls were hiding, signaling with a subtle motion of his hand that they were to stay put. Then, just as he turned his attention back to the scene unfolding before him, he was startled by a wild scream of rage.
    He saw a flash