plenty of distance between them. He would then yell an atrocious tirade at them, hopefully getting the shadows to stand out in the open. Last, he would effectively blind them by shining the flashlight into their eyes. He did not know what to do with them once he had them at gun point, but knew that this part of the plan would sort itself out.
Eyes adjusted and night vision in place, the world now appeared well-lit and vivid. Still, anything beyond fifty feet or so looked muted and the shadows still kept their secrets. Daniel started down the narrow pathway towards the backyard. His bare foot stepped forcibly down onto one of the white stones that had escaped the confines of its pen.
Daniel barely contained shouting ‘Motherfucker!’, but his mind yelled it internally, over and over for him. It took everything Daniel had to not make any sound as he ungainly limped off the worst of the pain.
A hobbling, almost naked Daniel stormed around the corner, stopping just short of the door wall. “Listen you motherfuckers! If you don’t stand up and come out here…right…now!...I’m just going to start shooting at your asses!” he yelled, finally vocalizing the curse word that his mind was getting sick of containing for him. He got the exact reply that he was hoping for.
“Okay! Okay! Don’t shoot us!” a squeaky, adolescent voice pleaded. The appeal was followed by the tell-tale sounds of two aluminum bats clanking on the concrete patio in quick succession.
Just as Daniel saw the first shadow unsurely emerging from around the corner he heard a quick, “Pop! Past-Smack!”
A small puff of white brick dust adhered to Daniel’s sweating back. Unsure of what had just happened, he completed his previous thought; he turned on the flashlight. The beam showed a skinny, very dirty teenager standing before him. The stained boy was looking out into the yard, not at him. Daniel spun the light to his left, searching for whatever it was that could scare the boy more than his vulgar shouting and pointing a gun in his direction.
Daniel was shocked to see how close the bearded man was. He had stepped out from behind the big oak tree and was taking aim with a small pistol. The bearded man winced at the light now shining in his eyes just as the little gun he was holding spurted a little, orange wink of light back at Daniel. The flashlight had most likely saved his life.
“Pop! Phsst-Thud!” The little projectile that the bearded man had fired sounded its birth and death into the wooden door frame, just inches to the right of Daniel’s shoulder.
Anger took control over Daniel’s next actions. He fired twice at the bearded man without really aiming. Because the man was so close both rounds hit him in the center of the torso. The impact of the heavy 55 grain bullets unbalanced the man and he started to wobble, sneering in disbelief at the searing pain he suddenly felt. The bearded man dropped to his knees and then fell onto his side with a pained, “Oooff!”
After watching the man go down, Daniel spun to face the teenager again. The whole event looked like it had happened really slowly to his eyes, but at the same time those same few moments felt extremely fast. He was very happy to see that the youth had not used the chance to close the distance between them. Instead of using the situation to his advantage, the boy had watched the bearded man go down too, turning his head slightly afterward to look at Daniel shock plastered all over his gaunt face.
Anger maintained its absolute choke hold.
Daniel shot the boy twice in his side, the bullets tearing through him sideways. One of the rounds angled off a rib, ripping a long chunk of muscle from the back as it exited. The other splintered the fourth and fifth ribs as it punched its way through, shredding the lungs into tattered ribbons and exploding the bottom chambers of his heart. Considering that the bullet had left behind a channel of torn tissue, the exit wound was fairly small, only about the size of an old world quarter. The boy crumpled awkwardly onto his legs, which then recoiled, springing him onto his back as his arms flailed about.
“No!” a shocked voice yelled. “Why did you shoot him? Jimmy! Please! Jimmy!” A second boy screamed while rushing from cover to get to the side of the dying teenager. As the