Sasha couldn’t stop staring at Darryl’s blood. I did that. I ended him. She’d ended two men today. She felt no guilt about Alexander, but that was almost more disturbing. It seemed impossible that she’d been a pampered suburban girl less than a month ago. Now she was a murderer. Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed. Sasha felt as if a thick cloud of doom had fallen on her shoulders.

The truck veered off to the right and slammed to a sudden stop. Sasha was flung forward onto the back of Tule’s seat. A trio of vehicles zoomed past them, speeding in the opposite direction like several bats fleeing the same hell. Sasha realized, with a moment’s focus, that there was an awful lot of traffic heading away from them as fast as possible.

“Cunt!” Tule cursed and fought with the stick shift. The truck lurched forward again and made it back onto the road for a few seconds. Then another speeding car roared into the oncoming lane and she was forced to veer off to the shoulder again.

The sounds of gunfire grew louder. Sasha heard the thrum of helicopter blades too, a second before one buzzed right over their heads. It looked like a military vehicle, painted matte black and laden with weapons. Sasha watched as it zoomed ahead and rose up over a pair of high-rise apartment buildings near the horizon line. There was a loud “krump” sound and black smoke billowed from the side of the craft. It spun around drunkenly in the air for one very long second before slamming into the roof of one of the high-rises.

The resultant blast rocked the truck. Tule veered left and right around a pothole and another speeding truck, respectively. Her knuckles were white; her jaw was clenched. Sasha could see Tule’s eyes in the rearview mirror. She looked terrified and angry at the same time. Rick moaned in pain with every shake and jostle. Manny closed his eyes, shook his head, and muttered something low under his breath.

“Are we close?” Sasha asked Manny. He squinted and looked out at the road for a second.

“I mean,” he shrugged, “yeah? Probably? I’m going to guess Roland’s close to the explosions. And also causing them.”

Smoke now dominated the horizon, which grew less horizon-y and more imminent with each passing second. In spite of all that, Sasha’s eyes kept being drawn back to the gun in Manny’s hand and the dry red-brown stains on the slide. That was a good man’s blood, she thought. How did it come to this?

“Hey. Jesus girl.”

It was Tule. Sasha looked up to the rearview mirror and locked eyes with the other woman.