My inevitable meeting with the rampaging beast comes when the last seat disappears. I rip and tear at his scruffy boots since they’re the only things within my low reach. Sadly, the soft outer layer is about as far as my dead fingers can dig. He just laughs and drives his foot deeper into my ribcage.

The beating pauses only so I can vomit on the floor. Then it resumes by scooping up my mostly dead body and hurling it through the back window. There’s no glass, but plenty of metal remaining. I feel the flaky steel slice under my skin on the way out. It hammers in further with every tumble across the hard desert floor.

I can’t fight anymore. My brittle arms collapse while trying to pull myself from the sand. The best they can do is drag my nose out far enough to breath...

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