Sam and George, two twelve-year-olds in the bodies of old men, had devised a plan to deal with the monster.  They stopped the convoy well short of the lake and gathered everyone together.  Meg began sending out party invites to every single survivor there, including the kids.  Sam and George unhitched both Howitzers and placed them on the road in front of the lead Humvee.  Each of them chose three people to serve as their ‘gun crew’, and spent a little time showing each one what to do.  The gun required one person sighting, one to load, one to feed rounds to the loader, and a crew chief that directed the others and actually pulled the trigger.

The sighting bit was different than normal.  Usually, there would be map coordinates for a target miles away.  The person sighting needed to know complicated formulas for aiming the weapon to hit that spot.  But in this case, they were going to be shooting a target the size of a tank from a couple hundred yards away.    Sam sighted in both guns on a spot in the median.  The same spot where it had gotten bogged down the other day.

Their plan was simple.  They had volunteered Allistor to take one of the ATVs down the road to attract the shellback’s attention.  When it charged at him, he’d gun his engine and get out of its way as it sped across the road into the median.  When it slowed down to turn and pursue him, the two big guns would fire.  Meg was up in the gunner’s port ready to fire the .50 caliber machine gun.  And everyone except the small children had rifles ready.   Everyone had instructions that if the big guns didn’t take it down, they were to jump into the vehicles and haul butt as fast as they could while Allistor or one of the smaller vehicles distracted it.

Allistor prepared himself.  He asked Meg for two of her grenades, in case the thing got too close.  His only hope was to blind it and try to avoid getting crushed.   The gun crews piled four rounds each next to their guns, with one already loaded.  Sam said as fast as the shellback moved, they wouldn’t have time for more than three or four shots.

With a quick kiss for luck from Amanda, Allistor hopped on his ATV and rode forward.  He honked the annoying little horn a few times to make sure he had the monster’s attention.   About halfway to the spot where it had attacked before, he saw some telltale swirling of the water.  He picked up a little speed, watching the water as his heart pounded.