He stared in fascination at the spreading red. He watched as his blood turned chunky and thick. The spurting faded away to a slow ooze. The pain caught up to him now and Manny’s vision went black for a moment. The world faded back into view after a while. Dr. Arnst, Isaac, and both guards were standing above him. The guard with the handgun had it drawn. A wisp of smoke trailed up from the barrel. Manny watched, enthralled, as it curled up to the sky and gradually disappeared into the air around them.

“You’ve made a grievous error, my boy.” Dr. Arnst’s voice was grave now, devoid of all compassion. “You were so close to paradise. It almost brings me to tears.”

The doctor was only a few feet away, but his voice sounded distant and muffled. I’m dying, aren’t I? Manny thought. No, if that was a kill shot I’d be dead by now. The bleeding’s already stopped. The thought did little to calm his nerves. He’d thoroughly blown his cover. Even if they never guessed his true purpose in coming to the Heavenly Kingdom, he’d be executed for trying to flee.

“This is going to put us even further behind schedule.” That was Isaac. His nose was bleeding, but it didn’t look broken. I wish I was better at punching.

“Take him outside,” Dr. Arnst said to the guards, “and make it quick. There’s no sense in stringing him up in public for simple cowardice.”

So this is how it’s going to end. Manny was confused by how at peace he felt with that. Some of it was guilt. Alejandro was dead, Hamid was dead, Oscar was dead, Mr. Peron was dead. This was nothing more than he deserved. He was pleasantly surprised to find that, as the little robots in his blood flooded his system with happy drugs, that sense of guilt began to fade. He felt wonderfully detached from the world. He wondered if this was how Roland felt all the time: disconnected and pleasant in a vague, indefinable way.

The guards bent down. Manny felt their hands on his arms. He felt them lift him up. He felt a terrible, shifting pain in his gut as another rush of clotting blood poured out of him. Manny thought of Mr. Peron; he could almost see his face. Maybe the Christians were right about the afterlife. That was a nice thought, actually. He thought Mr. Peron would be proud of him. I tried to do something, sir, I really did.

KRRRAK-THUD.

Manny didn’t see the source of the noise. It sounded like something heavy falling from a high height onto something soft and squishy. Someone soft and squishy, he realized. The guards dropped him. Men started to yell.

Blak! Blak! Blak!