He didn’t recognize the rifle in his hands, but a gun was a gun, and sights were sights. This one had no optics, just iron sights, like every rifle in the history of rifles.

The Grubbs gang closed on the ravine he’d just left, and somebody wailed, “Oh, no! Ginny! He killed Ginny!”

This was it. He was all in. Either he’d die here in the woods, or they would.

They were coming at him fast now, running and shooting. As they got closer, their aim had to get better.

Caleb picked one of the Grubbs family, centered his front sight and pressed the trigger.

Nothing happened. The rifle didn’t shoot.

* * *

“He killed Ginny!” The tone of the cry was all grief and anger, and it was followed by a fusillade of gunfire. And it was all very close.

Mike Underwood and Ty Rowley ducked behind trees to make smaller targets.

“We can’t stop now,” Victoria said. “Not when we’re this close.”

“We’ll cover you,” Mike said.

Bullshit.

“I’m not stopping,” Victoria said.

Luke added, “Neither am I.” He brought his 10/22 to his shoulder and tried to pass his mom to take the lead.

“Oh, no,” she said. “You stay with me.”

* * *

The goddamn safety was on. The rifle he’d picked up looked like something from World War II, but with a box magazine. The safety lever wasn’t on the side like on an AR, nor was it a button at the trigger guard like with the 10/22. But there was a little flag of metal at the front of the trigger guard that had no other use, he figured, than to be a safety.

He’d lost precious seconds that he didn’t have.

Many Grubbs family members were visible to him now, and they continued to shoot. Caleb made himself as flat against the ground as he could, rested his front sight on the nearest of them—another woman—and he pressed the trigger. The rifle barked and the lady fell.

Caleb shifted his aim and did it again.

The ground around him and in front of him and behind him erupted in impacts from different directions.

“Caleb, we’re here!”

Jesus, was that his mom?

“Keep your head down!” she yelled.

He tried to roll away to get to cover when his right butt cheek spasmed and felt like he’d been set alight.

“I’m shot!” he yelled. This was the end. He was going to die in the woods.

He scrambled to cover behind a tree, but there was no way it was thick enough. Besides, now everyone knew where he was.

* * *

Luke spotted the Grubbs family first. He didn’t hesitate an instant. He dropped to a knee, shouldered his rifle and opened up. The reports from his 10/22 were nearly lost in the cacophony of gunfire.