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“I vote for the lizard, too,” Sandy said. “We found some of those food packets a ways back, and I couldn’t eat more than a bite or two of the mush inside. It tasted kind of like wet cat food smells.”
I wrinkled my nose. I wasn’t sure I believed that lizard meat would be any better—but if it was between that and stinky cat food, I guessed I owed it to myself and the rest of the people I was traveling with to at least try to bring down the oversized Gila monster.
Ever so slowly, I brought the rifle to my shoulder, hoping not to startle the lizard.
I had no idea if I was doing it right, but I lined the barrel up with the animal’s head, then closed my eyes and squeezed the trigger.
I’d expected the sound of a gun, but the rifle in my hand simply made a strange fizzing noise.
Then the lizard screamed, and I opened my eyes to discover that the shot from the barrel was a stream of some kind of electricity, and it had grazed the top of the lizard’s head—and the lizard was now caught in the laser blast, convulsing and flopping from side to side.
Kaio moved up behind me and lifted the rifle away from my shoulder gently. “You can ease off the trigger now,” he said.
I did as he suggested, and the bolt of electricity stopped arcing through the air.
Kaio held the shotgun up to his shoulder and with a single short blast, put the lizard out of its misery—and my misery too.
“I’m going to dress this right here,” Kaio said, taking out the double-headed blade he’d used to clear the vines in the valley. “Sandy, will you please check outside for Trumble?”
She left the building, and I resolved to stay with Kaio—right up to the moment he carried the giant lizard into the next room, dropped it on the desk with a loud thump, and began slicing into it, peeling the skin away and cutting as he went.
“I’ll be in the other room,” I said shakily. “Or maybe outside. I could use some fresh air.”
I knew I might look weak in his eyes, but I was a city girl. And we city girls prefer to buy our meat in the market, thank you very much.
Besides, with Kaio so close at hand—literally in the next room—what could possibly go wrong?
