Saying, "You're the wheel man," he got out. I crawled behind the wheel. "If you see anyone coming down the trail or up the road, drive away. I'll meet you at Lone Fir." He pressed his thigh against the door handle and the latch softly clicked.

He walked Reedspeed, up to the butt of Southern Style. The gauntlet covered most of his forearm.

Whomp. Whomp. He'd fired two rounds from about waist high, angled down into the machine's guts. He walked around the far side to where I couldn't see him. Whomp. Whomp. To me the report sounded like the smack of a baseball bat against an area rug draped over a clothesline. Steel bullets rip through machine with a guttural crunch unlike anything I've ever heard. He walked between the machines. Whomp. Whomp. A dog started jumping up behind one of Big Buck's big tinted windows, a thick bundle of hair with a bit of teeth and paws and eyes. Those eyes were on me. It looked like a Yorkshire terrier. It must've been jumping on the back of a couch or something, looking like a toy going up and down behind the right rear window. Its piercing bark really gave me the creeps, a muffled choppy scream. Lew reappeared. Glancing up the trail, he popped open the gauntlet's access panel. He swung open the cylinder and punched the extractor. Brass casings tinkled on pavement. He pulled the quick-load clip from his pocket, and slipped between the machines. In seconds: Whomp. Whomp. He stepped behind Big Bucks. Whomp. Whomp. The dog freaked, screeching at Lew and slamming its bared teeth and front paws against glass as if trying to break through. Lew came around to Big Bucks' flank, his back to me. Whomp. He hesitated...and stepped back. He aimed up at the window. Whomp. The dog disappeared behind the hole and web of cracks in the glass. Lew trotted toward the car, carrying the gauntlet with both hands. I started the engine. He hopped in and shut the door. I drove us down the road.

"That's what you call friendly fire," he said, reaching around to lay the gauntlet behind his seat. I smelled oil. We both looked at his shoes. "The fuckers bled on me."