The sound of a gunshot splits the night. You don't have time to feel fear, because the pain comes first.

You fall to the ground, your thigh on fire with the most urgent, agonizing pain you have ever felt. You curl in on yourself, your hands fluttering uselessly above the wet spot on your leg, where dark blood is already seeping into your clothing.

There's a gut-wrenching chock! sound. You look up just in time to see Wes stumble backward, a large rock rolling across the ground at his feet. He raises a hand to his head, appearing to be dazed.

A scream tears through the silence that follows the gunshot, and you look up to see Ivy whipping past you, her arms outspread.

"Ivy, no—!"

She launches herself at Wes, who is closer now than you had thought he was; he must have kept walking after you fell. By the time he looks up, Ivy has already collided with him, and he falls backward with an ugly curse, the gun slipping from his fingers and clattering to the gravel.

You don't wait. You compartmentalize the physical pain and haul yourself up onto your hands and your good knee, dragging your bad leg behind you as you crawl toward the gun.

Ivy is scratching and punching wildly at Wes's face, but he's stronger than her. He lands a brutal, cracking blow across her cheek, whipping her head to the side. Ivy slumps to her left, and Wes rolls her off of him. In almost the same instant, Ivy jerks up again, throwing herself over him. She drives her knee up into his sternum, and he gives a grunt, then seizes her by the wrist and the shoulder. He jerks her arm behind her, still laying on his back but now grasping her to his chest as she kicks and bucks. He slides the hand he used to grip her shoulder over her throat.

Wes is clearly overpowering Ivy. You have a split second to use this gun.

You haven't used a gun before, Kendall. It's dark, they're at close range, and they're moving. Let's hope luck is on your side.

Choose one of the following paths:

[[Go to Chapter 88.]]

[[Go to Chapter 89.]]

[[Go to Chapter 90.]]