I backed away a few steps and drew the pistol right on the guy; that shit was gonna end right there, with him tucking his tail between his legs and running off.  I had the gun on him and was screaming at the shit head…demanding that he just get the fuck out of there.  Run away.  Anywhere, I didn’t care.  It’s like he didn’t hear a thing I was saying though, and he just kept on coming at me, slow and steady…walking, and oozing, screaming, and making a fuss.  This wasn’t like the movies where the guy sees a gun, starts crying, pisses his pants, gets on his knees, begs, or takes off running somewhere…no, this guy, for whatever reason, meant business.  Was I about to shoot this guy?  Was I prepared to take a life?  I dunno…killing wasn’t something that I was ready to do; and apparently, I didn’t have to.  I heard the rattle of chains at the front doors of the bar, the turn of the lock, and the next thing I knew, Sam’s barging out into the rain with a shotgun.  It all happened so damned fast.  The guy in front of me heard the racket of Sam opening the door, and like that, he went from snarling at me to stumbling at him, but he didn’t get a chance to make it three feet before Sam sent him to his maker missing that busted up mug on top of his shoulders.

The quick blast of his shotgun lit up the night for half a second, but you could barely hear it over the roar of the storm.  The guy took the hit directly to the face, and what was once a head disintegrated into a spray of bone and gristle and fragments of mush.  He dropped to his knees instantly, then crumpled chest first with a big watery splash into the pavement. I looked down at the guy, stunned off my ass, and saw nothing but a red disaster where his head had been not 10 seconds before; he laid there, face down in a puddle, all that screaming and growling just a thing of the past.  I stood there, probably with my mouth open, for a few seconds before Sam grabbed my arm and shoved me inside the bar; it was pitch black in there, and dead silent save for a few voices and whispers behind the bar. Sounds crazy to say it under those circumstances, but I’d never been happier to see old Sam…my head was ablaze with shock, confusion, and questions, but the only thing on my mind was getting back out there to Sally before whatever was happening in this town swallowed us all whole.