“You’re probably wondering what that noise is all about. Don’t worry, Junebug. It’s just my car exploding. I set a timer on it. That ought to distract your law enforcement buddies for a while. That way we can get some uninterrupted quality time. Sound good?”

He was still swiveling back and forth, trying to catch sight of her. Despite her anxiousness, Jessie tried to remain patient, waiting until the echo from the exploding car had faded and until his attention was elsewhere.

Then she got her chance. When he briefly turned the other way, she tossed the mannequin head in the air, high overhead so that it he couldn’t see it. It hit something about twenty feet in front of him before landing on the ground, reverberating loudly in the now otherwise quiet warehouse.

He spun in that direction, pointing but not firing. Jessie skulked forward several steps, then launched the unattached arm at a mannequin closer to her father. It landed with a thud, making the full-sized body careen backward, colliding into multiple other mannequins like human-shaped bowling pins going down all at once.

Using the cacophony of noise as cover, she pulled out the pistol and sprinted toward him. Initially startled, Xander regrouped quickly. He must have sensed the move was a diversion because he quickly spun around, pointing his gun in her general direction.

She fired at him as she ran, aware that with the multiple mannequins between them, she was unlikely to hit him. That wasn’t even her primary goal. She was hoping that he would try to duck or dive or even just flinch long enough for her to get within fighting distance of him.

It partly worked. He did flinch, but only briefly. Recovering, it took only a couple of seconds for him to turn his gun on her. No longer concerned with stealth and now less than ten feet away, she slammed toward him, knocking over as many mannequins as possible so as to disorient him. She was only steps away when he locked in on her.

As he pointed his weapon, she shoved the last remaining mannequin torso between them at him with her left hand as she fired wildly with her right. At that moment, the mannequin’s chest exploded in front of her, spraying a cloud of dust everywhere.

And then she was on him, colliding hard into his body with every ounce of force she could muster. Her pistol flew out of her hand as she landed on top of him, hearing the air get sucked from his chest. As she rolled over, she saw that his hands were empty and heard his gun slide off somewhere out of view.

Pulling herself to her feet, she advanced on him. He rolled over onto his stomach and pushed up onto all fours just in time for her to kick him square in the chest. He toppled over backward, his now-longish hair falling forward to cover his forehead and part of his eyes. He flailed wildly in the sea of mannequin limbs that lay on the ground all around him