“Oh, no,” he whispered.

And then the last bits of his strength went into the scream that I knew I’d hear in my nightmares for the rest of my life, if I even lived to sleep again.

“He’s here! Throw it now! Pull the pin and throw it!”

***

I turned, moving the grenade behind my back so the canner wouldn’t see it.

My eyes rose from the ground and made contact with Julio’s nemesis. The infamous Dave. Loco. King of the canners.

He was big. He could have played linebacker for my school’s football team, his shoulders were so broad. He wore a blood and dirt-stained jersey, and his hair was long and greasy, kept away from his face in a ponytail behind his head. He smiled, and I could tell immediately that dental hygiene had not followed him into this world any more than personal hygiene had.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here? Another dinner guest maybe?” He tilted his head to the side, looking me up and down with his eyes only. “Or maybe not. Maybe you’ve just come to join me. I’m getting tired of the little boys. Maybe I’ll try you on for size instead.”

He took a step forward.

My finger itched to pull the pin out of that grenade and throw it in his face. But I wanted to live, and if I threw it standing so close to him, I’d be gone too.

My eyes scanned the dimensions and makeup of the room we were in.

Dave stood between me and the door.

All the bodies that I could trip on were behind me.

I had a knife in my moccasin and the grenade at my back.

Chances were that Dave had at least a knife and probably a gun in his pants somewhere. But he was stupid enough to think right now that he didn’t need them, and I had to let him delude himself for as long as possible. I had to close the distance between us and get him down before he brought either weapon out to use on me.

I sucked in my gut as hard as I could to make my pants looser, using one hand to pull the back of my waistband out and the other to tuck the grenade inside. I prayed it would stay there, half in and half out, until I exited the building.

“Get your hands out from behind your back where I can see them,” he said in a menacing tone.

I pulled them away quickly and put them out to my sides. “I’ve got nothing. Just tucking my pants in. They fall down sometimes because they’re so loose,” I said, smiling shyly. I was pulling on every single scene I’d ever watched in a movie where a girl acts innocent, trying to channel those actresses’ facial expressions and body language into my own through sheer willpower. “I’m hungry. Do you guys have any food?”

The monster looked at me mockingly. “I might believe your horrendously awful acting if you hadn’t somehow managed to get all of my meat out of here before I arrived. So I know you ain’t hungry. You’re here to cause trouble.” He smiled menacingly. “And guess what, bitch? You’ve found it.” He held out his arms and made a couple pelvic thrusts in my direction. “Now come over here and get your medicine.”

“Don’t go,” whispered Julio. “Please don’t go.”

The monster’s face went beet red and spittle flew out of his mouth when he yelled. “Don’t talk, meat! No one hears you!”

“You hear me, demon,” said Julio, in a voice that surprised me with its strength. “You can’t hurt me anymore, either. You take nothing from me that I won’t give.”

“I’m warning you …,” said the monster.

“You’re going to burn in hell,” said Julio, interrupting him, laughing now and choking a little, too.

I could see his body convulsing out of the corner of my eye, but I couldn’t risk looking down at him or touching him like I wanted to. I wished I could rest my hand on his chest and somehow give him some of my strength. It wasn’t right that he was going to die like this. What had been done here was nothing less than pure evil, and I had to stop it, not matter what. Even if it meant killing us all.

Dave advanced on us both, so I took a step forward to meet him, stopping to spread my feet shoulders-width apart.

“Come easy and it won’t hurt as much,” he said. “Maybe I’ll even let you sleep in my bed tonight.” He reached out to take my arm.

“Never gonna happen,” I said, slapping his hand away. I wanted him closer. I was hoping he would try to choke me. I’d practiced getting out of that move thousands of times.

He disappointed me, though, surging forward and grabbing the top of my head by taking a fistful of hair and pulling it hard towards him.

The grenade began slipping down my shorts, and it distracted me from making the move that could have ended the fight right there. Loco’s balls were dangling out in the open, just begging for a nut crusher, but instead of kicking him, I grabbed for my butt, stopping the bomb’s downward progression to the floor in the nick of time.

“Come on, bitch. Let’s see if I can help you change your mind.” He tried to drag me out of the room by my hair, but I dug my heels in, trying not to pass out from the pain shooting down through my skull.

A few hairs ripped out of my scalp, and I wondered for one ridiculous split-second how hideous I’d look with a giant patch of hair missing at the top of my head.

Dave stopped walking and took a step towards me, letting go of my hair to slap me hard across the face.

The force of it flung me sideways, and I lost my grip on the grenade. It fell the rest of the way down my shorts and out the bottom.

I lifted my leg up in a desperate bid to stop the bomb from hitting the ground, but all I did was provide a ramp for it to roll down and shoot off of. It landed on the floor behind me and rolled a few feet, stopping against the side of Julio’s head. I took two steps backwards, trying to get nearer to it.

“What the fuck?” said Dave, staring at it with a shocked expression. “Is that a …?” He looked up at me, fury in his eyes. “That’s a goddamn grenade! You were gonna blow up my fucking meat locker!”

He rushed me with both hands out, planning to wring the life out of me or snap my neck, I wasn’t sure which.

I waited for him to come, my hands twitching at my sides, readying themselves for the moves they would have to make, and make quickly if I were going to get out of this alive.

His big, thick fingers closed around my neck at the same time he hit into me like a human bulldozer.

My head whipped backwards and my breath was cut off in an instant.

I brought my hands up and over his wrists, using the technique my dad insisted I memorize to slam them apart and off of my windpipe.

Before he could reposition them or do anything else to disable me, I took the monster’s wrist and twisted it out and down, forcing his shoulder to the side.

I slid my other hand down to execute a move I’d used over and over, every day for more than ten years, twisting his arm up behind his back.

My right knee came up into his face next and smashed it a couple times, stunning him in the process.

I loosened the grip I had on his arm so he could stand, giving him the false hope that he’d soon be able to come after me.

As soon as his knee was no longer bent and in the way, I delivered a hard kick to his nuts.

He groaned and doubled over, but he didn’t go down.

I’d let go of his left arm and realized my mistake when he reached around behind his back and came out with a knife.

Before I had time to move out of range, he slashed me with it, catching me in the arm.

I danced away, the stinging and wetness I felt dripping down telling me he’d gotten me good. My arm still worked, but it felt numb all of a sudden.

The monster took two stumbling steps back, his knife held out in front of him, dripping with my blood. He held this other hand on his thigh, as if trying to push the pain out of his balls by pressing on his quadriceps.

“You’re gonna pay for that, you bitch,” he growled, panting after.

“Come on over here and make me pay, then, wuss. Letting a girl my size beat you. I wonder if all those guys know how much you actually suck at fighting.”

He moved the knife until it was eye level for him, pointing it at me while squinting his eyes, sighting down the blade as he moved it, drawing patterns in the air.

“First I’m going to cut out your eyes. Then your nose will come off - Duke likes to eat noses.” He smiled, giving me an up front and personal view of his deeply yellow teeth. “Then your lips and ears. You won’t be so pretty then, will you? But I’ll let you live. You’re going to be my personal slave. I’ll take the fingers off one of your hands, of course. I don’t want you getting too frisky. But we need to keep the fingers on one hand, so you can put them on my …”

I didn’t want to hear the rest. I couldn’t hear it. He was wandering around in an insane landscape that I couldn’t allow to become my reality. I strode towards him, my eyes never leaving the knife.

He lashed out at me as soon as I was within range, but I arched my body backwards, letting the blade whistle past through the air above me.

As his arm continued its backward motion, I stepped up right in front of him, punching him one, two, three times hard in the face, destroying his nose and sending his head snapping back with each strike.

I kicked him again in the crotch, but he was twisted sideways from my punches so my foot landed just shy of his nuts, hitting him high on the thigh instead.

Before I had time to disengage my foot from his leg, he snatched my ankle with this free hand and threw it up, forcing me backwards and onto my ass on the floor.

I landed right next to Julio, our faces coming together, the grenade between us.

“Pull the pin and put it on my foot,” whispered Julio, desperation tainting his voice. “Do it now, before he comes after you again!”

Dave had staggered back and was feeling his nose cautiously with his knifeless hand, acting stunned.

I didn’t question Julio’s logic at all; I just followed his instructions, pulling the silver pin out of the heavy, metal, lumpy body of the grenade before scrambling over on my hands and knees to his foot. I placed it gently in the pocket he had created, bending his knee and tilting his foot up. The bomb now rested in the spot where his foot met his ankle, cradled on the top of it.

“I used to do this with hacky sacks and tennis balls all the time. Just get the hell out of here. I’ll kick it into his face as soon as you’re safe. Now go!”

I backed up on my hands and knees still and leaned down to kiss Julio right on the lips. “Tell Yasmine I said hi.” Tears were streaming down my face. “Tell her she’s a lucky girl.”

“I will. Please go before it’s too late,” he begged.

I patted him on the cheek once and then turned around, getting up on my feet and measuring the distance between where I stood and the door. I had about twenty feet to go and a monster in my way. The door was open, so all I had to do was make it to the exit.

I reached down and pulled my knife out of my boot. Moving forward, I stepped first to one side and then the other, looking for a way out.

The monster rushed me before I could make my move. One minute he was across the room and the next he was on me, grabbing me in a bear hug and tackling me to the ground. It was the worst possible position for me to be in - he was three times my size.

I stuck my knife into his back, but it didn’t slow him down a bit. He sat up and pulled his fist back, punching me in the face.

I was stunned for a moment, unable to think straight. But when he reached down and squeezed my boob hard enough to bruise it, I came to my senses immediately. It was either that or his heinous breath, nearly bad enough to bring the dead back to life, that did it.

I still had a hold on my knife, so I stabbed him again, drawing the knife over his side a little so he’d feel it more.

He growled, his body leaning down as he reached around to take it from my hand.

I used the opportunity to sit up and head butt him.