Apocalypsis 04 - Haven

weapons. Smoke from the burning body started to fill the space, choking them until one of them got smart enough to drag his former friend free by his feet. Bottles were flying into the trees and smashing into pieces as they hit branches or trunks. Apparently the drunker canners thought launching empty beers would save their lives. It was utter chaos.
    I wasted no time in the ensuing panic. Taking aim at the closest guy, I pulled the trigger. The kickback was harsh, but not as bad as I’d expected. He fell forward, landing on top of the burned guy.
    I took another shot without stopping to consider what I was doing, bringing another kid down. I forced myself to ignore the awful realization that I’d just taken two human lives into my hands and snuffed them out without a second thought. It was them or me and my friends. It was an easy decision. It had to be.
    Two more shots came from across the hut, taking down one more kid, but missing the other intended victim.
    I quickly pulled my gun back and split the barrel away, lifting it up and tipping it so the spent shell casings could fall out. I grabbed two more shells out of my pocket and slammed them into the empty chambers, pushing the gun back together when I was done.
    Sighting down the end of the barrel, I took aim again. The canners were harder to take out now, hiding behind trees or dead bodies, but I picked two more off without too much trouble and watched with sick satisfaction as they fell down into the trees.
    “Who’s there?!” came a shout, slightly off to my right.
    I reloaded and put my gun back up, swinging it over to try and find the source of the yelling. I knew it wasn’t Bodo, and I didn’t recognize the voice as one of my friends.
    I said nothing in response.
    “Come out and play, why don’t you?” yelled Bodo, sounding way too happy about what we were doing. He seemed like he was enjoying being caught up in the battle. It was probably just the adrenaline talking.
    He was almost directly across from me now. I couldn’t see him, but his voice was coming through the trees, near where the Miccosukee used to put the food.
    “You’re gonna die, asshole,” came the canner voice. “Show your face so I can blow it off.”
    A shot was fired, and I waited in tense silence. Did someone just kill Bodo?
    “Dare! I just shot your friend. Now you can come for your turn,” Bodo taunted. His voice was a little to my left now, but still across the clearing.
    I breathed a sigh of relief. One more down. That left five more. At least of the ten I’d originally seen, but that didn’t count any canners hiding in the trees or camping out somewhere else in the swamp.
    I heard nothing for a while and no one showed his face near the hut anymore. I was struggling, trying to figure out what else I could do to flush them out when I heard someone shouting and a single shot fired.
    “Back to the fire, guys!” yelled a stranger. “I got the shooter.”
    Branches were moving a little to the left, in the last place I’d seen Bodo.
    No! Not Bodo!
    “There’s more than one!” shouted another guy. “Don’t go out in the open!”
    Bodo came stumbling out into the hut, his face bleeding on one side, a wound somewhere near his temple. My heart stopped beating for a few precious seconds as I evaluated our position. The five remaining canners came out slowly to join their friend, every single one of them holding a gun pointed at Bodo.
    “Come out, or we’ll shoot him!”
    The canner nearest Bodo raised his gun and pointed it at Bodo’s heart.
    ***
    I had no time to come up with a plan, but the math was easy; there were five of them, one of me, and Bodo was dead meat if I didn’t do something fast. They would probably kill us both eventually, but they’d definitely kill Bodo if I didn’t get my butt out there. Maybe I had a chance of negotiating something if I could just talk to them. And then maybe I’d get a chance to break their faces if I could find out a way to separate them from their guns.
    “I’m coming out!” I yelled, putting my weapon against the side of the tree. I was breaking my own rule: leave to live another day, leave your fallen comrades behind. I couldn’t do that to Bodo, even when he was being a turd to me. I hoped I wouldn’t live to regret this decision. The image of Kowi taking his last breath did nothing to help me. All it did was make me want to run out there and kill the whole bunch of them, but I had to be smart and take my