Page 42 of The Circle

My head hurts.

DANNY

As the tireon the van blows and the thing flips over on its side, I swerve to avoid it careening into me and wind up skidding out myself.

Throwing my arms around my head to act as a miserable excuse for a helmet, I roll until I come to a stop about fifteen feet away from where the van has slid to a stop.

I don’t think I’ve broken anything, but I know I’m going to be feeling it tomorrow. But, right now, the adrenaline has me going and I leap to my feet, run over to the van, look in the driver’s side window, and see that my old friend Cillian is dead. Alec’s bullet went right through his temple and imbedded itself in his brain.

I breathe a sigh of relief. Not so much because he’s gone, but just because in the state I find myself, I don’t think I’d do great in a smackdown with a rocket-fisted bare-knuckle brawler. And at the same time I’m a little disappointed that I won’t get to find out just how much punch old Cillian packed. Which is an unusual-as-balls thought.

There’s definitely something wrong with me.

Christine…

I stumble to the back of the toppled van, grab the handle on the rear door, and wrench it open. It swings heavy to the ground with a thud.

Christine squints as the light hits her eyes.

“Hey,” she says, lifting her hand in a tiny wave.

“Hey,” I say back.

“Is everybody alive?”

I assume she means all three of us.

“Yeah,” I say.

“Is everyone else dead?”

“Not everyone, probably, but everyone trying to kill us right now, I think, yeah.”

There’s a beat before she says, “Cool.”

And now…

Ring.

Ring.

Ring.

“Yours?” Christine asks. I check my phone. It’s not. I shake my head.

She glances at hers. She has the flashlight on. The light hits me in the eyes and I blink it away. “Not me,” she says.

Ring.

Ring.

It’s coming from the cab of the van.

Cillian’s getting a call.

ALEC

I don’t want to distractfrom the urgency and seriousness of our current situation, but those were two beautiful fokken shots and I need to take a moment to appreciate the level of both skill and composure required.