No Exit by Taylor Adams 2

profound horror, he’d forgotten what it was called. He recalled
something … something like –ock. Was it Pock? Dock? Rockin-a-sock?
He wasn’t certain of anything anymore, and words
wilted and fell away like brown leaves, and he reached
frantically for them, for any of them, and grasped hold of a
simple one—
“Help—”
It came out unrecognizable, a moan.
Then the world inverted, the brightening sky going under
as Ashley pitched over, hitting the snow on his back. The gun
was somewhere to his right, but he was too mushy to reach for
it. He wasn’t even aware he’d landed, because in his
fragmenting thoughts, Ashley Garver was still airborne, still
helpless, still falling, falling, falling—
“Darby, it’s over.”
* * *
She was falling too, when she heard the girl’s voice and it
caught her. Held her to the world like a thin tether. She opened
her crusty eyes and saw the shadow of Jay hunched against a
vast, gray sky. “Darby, it’s done. I picked up your gun and
Ashley was about to kill someone else, so I shot him.”
She forced her dry lips to move. “Good job.”
“In the face.”
“Excellent.”
“You … you got shot, too, Darby.”
“Yeah, I noticed.”
“Are you okay?”
“Not really.”
Jaybird leaned in and hugged her, her hair tickling Darby’s
face. She tried to breathe, but her ribs felt strangely tight. Like
someone was standing on her chest, collapsing her lungs.
Inhale, her mother told her.