Corn, Cows, and the Apocalypse

Hip Hip Hurray!

My pot buzz left as quickly as it came, but the roar of the crowd and Devin's untamable enthusiasm kept me going long after. A beer in one hand and a hot dog in the other, I cheered and jeered with the rest of them. I was never much of a sports fan, but live theater yes, and this was life or death theater.

When Haden stepped up for the scoring challenge, I couldn't help but scoot to the edge of my seat. I wanted to press my palms together to pray for a good outcome, but even as my arms started to raise, August took my hand in hers, squeezing it hard. It was still two hands pressed together, just two different ones. I couldn't help but smile when I saw she had the same antsy expression on her face.

Haden cracked her neck and stared down the arena at the paneled corral stalls that held grim instead of cattle. As I understood it, her gun held fifteen shots. She had used up one on the first round with a dead-on shot to the head, which meant she had fourteen left to shoot at the ten grim about to be released. If she missed on any shot she would have a disadvantage in the final round.

The faster she shot, the better the score; the more accurate the shot—head, heart—the better the score. Misses were deductions, as were leg and arm shots, since they weren't usually enough to stop a grim. Not to mention the sharp-shooters weren't taking protective shots until her entire clip was empty.

The horn blew and I watched Haden concentrate on her first five distance shots. She ignored the three fast runners that were barreling right at her and took out the slow ones. I gripped August's hand hard.

"Why is she doing that? She needs to get the fast ones," I said, nearly lifting off my seat to yell at her.

"She knows what she's doing," August said confidently even though she was clutching my hand just as hard.

Haden took down two more that were veering off to find closer prey. A nervous handler waved happily after she shot an approaching grim. I was practically kneeling, I was so far off my chair. If she didn't shoot her forward attackers soon, I was going to tip over the railing. I couldn't even think beyond please.

The remaining three angled into her from their previous starting points. They were about to pounce on her in quick succession. At the last nail-biting second, she sidestepped and shot the first one.

Her shift in position brought the approaching grim from an angled sequential attack to a straight line with her aim. The first grim's head shattered like glass. The second shattered almost simultaneously. By the third, the bullet had slowed, but his face cracked and fell to the ground, the bullet costing him a good quarter of his noggin on impact. Haden had killed three birds with one stone.

It took a millisecond for the crowd to realize what she had done and we all erupted. I screamed louder than I thought possible, jumping up with August's hand still in mine. When I realized I had nearly yanked her arm off, I let her go and hugged her. I turned back to Devin and he scooped me up and twirled me, wooing all the way.

He gave me a wet kiss that I knew he intended for Haden, but since I was the only one there, he made do. When he put me back down, we both screamed our hearts out at Haden and waved frantically to get her attention.

When Haden looked up us, she gave us a reserved nod, but I knew she was holding her smile at bay. She no doubt wanted to celebrate as much as we were, but since she hadn't officially won yet, it would have been tactless to do so. Devin blew her kisses, and I did the same, even though she rolled her eyes at me.

I wiped away the joyful tears that were creeping down my cheeks. August noticed and put her arm around me. "What's wrong?" She furrowed her brow.

I shook my head and shrugged. "I'm just so happy."