COMING SOON!!

He eased onto the accelerator again, his eyes trying to penetrate the darkness under the bridge. They drove most of the way past the space before Ally saw something.

“There, right back there, near that beam.”

“Where? I didn’t see anything.”

“He’s pretty well hidden.” She paused to look up ahead. “There, quick, pull past that hedge and park.”

He eased the car behind the bush she was indicating, and drove up on to the curb right behind it.

“Leave it running,” she said. “We may need to beat a hasty exit.”

“Wait, how do we do this?”

“What do you mean?”

“We just go in, guns blazing?”

She looked to the stadium, noticed the happy crowds starting to file out. “We don’t have time for a neat plan. You go wide behind him, see if you can get him to announce his intentions. I’m gonna try to get in front of him and at least disrupt his line of fire.”

They got out of the car and went their separate directions.

Billy recognized this feeling. The last time he felt it was in the mountain home over a year ago. The pulse pounding in his head; the taste of adrenaline; the rush of energy. Sadly, this time it was without the lingering effects of Vicodin.

Billy ran quickly up to one pillar, glanced around. Through the opening in the tunnel, he could see the wide, concrete stairway on the south end of the stadium filling up. That no shots had been fired yet was small comfort, but he knew that wouldn’t last.

No shadow of a gunman in this compartment. Ten yards to the next pillar. GO GO GO!

He ran, knees bent, Sig-Sauer pointed down, to the next pillar, eyes focused into the shadows. Once at the pillar, he stood with his back to it, and took two deep breaths to try to master his nerves.

No luck.

He moved ever so slowly to the edge of the pillar, leaned to where he could get a view around it. Sharp intake of breath.

There, barely visible by the light of the parking lots behind them and the occasional car passing overhead or around the neighborhood, was a man, crouched down behind a short support wall. The man peered around the wall once, then pulled back and revealed a long-barrel rifle. As Billy was watching, the man stood, raised the weapon and braced it on the wall, and adjusted his stance.

“Hey! What are you doing?” It was lame, but it was all Billy could think of. The man whirled around in a flash and brought the rifle to bear on Billy. Billy had barely enough time to pull back behind the pillar. Three concussions followed immediately …