“Oh, you sons a bitches were lying to me!” Dusk yelled laughing as he ran to the back of the room.

  Dusk jumped through the open window landing on the soft mud of the swamp’s low tide. He looked around for the crew and noticed they were all on a boat, paddling away. Dusk took out his copper and shot lead at them three times. The crew ducked after the gunshots rang out. The first bullet hit one of the humans square in the shoulder. He let out a stifled cry and fell to the boat’s sole. The second landed on the metal casing protecting the stern of the boat. Bounced right off. The other sailed over the heads as they dipped their heads.

  Dusk ran along the side of the river, but the mud made running harder. It was more like plodding. He was losing momentum and he was getting closer to encountering a patch of gators bathing in the sun. He pointed his copper at the squad but they had let the boat sail down the river as they took cover, being unmanned and still gaining the distance.

  “Son of a…” Dusk stopped running. He opened the pink quartz chamber on his magic gun and let the glass vials fall into his palm. Five bullets came out. No other spell bullets in his pouch. He examined all of them. One had a dark hand etched onto them. The other had a fire. Two had a snowflake. The last one had a tongue.

  Dusk looked at the boat getting smaller. Sure, he could hit it with the firebolt, some of those guys would crisp instantly. Would it be enough to pierce the Subek’s scaly hide? Lyle had some thick hide. Thicker than bullets. He was also coldblooded.

  It probably would,” Dusk thought to himself, But I’d need to be right on top of him.

  He looked at the other two. The tongue…. It would be too dangerous with the alligators around him. The dark hand… that one was tough to figure out. He shuffled them all back inside his chamber, taking note of the tick marks next to their position on the chamber, then clicked his gun to the fourth notch, the one with the snowflake.

  “Here goes nothing,” Dusk said as he pointed the gun at the water and shot his gun. A spray of ice poured out of the barrel, glazing the river and causing the top side to freeze.

  Dusk took a step back, then ran toward the river, continuously pointing his gun at the water and holding his finger on the trigger.

  Damn!” Dusk said, as he leapt from his position, the mud pulled him just enough to stagger his leap, landing on his knees on the ice bridge he was creating. He didn’t let the gun fall as it keptt pouring out the freeze spell. He stood up, wiggling around on the slick ice, and got his bearings enough to run toward the crew on their boat.

  “That’s right you sons of bitches,” Dusk whispered under his breath, “I’ll get you yet.”

  The croc was the first to notice he was coming. They had been peeking their heads, giggling as they thought they’d escaped. The croc peered over the stern as they sailed down the river and noticed Dusk running on water creating the pathway of ice in front of him.

  “Well I'll be a son of a bitch!” The crocodile said, “Spell Slingers really do got magic guns! Shoot him. Make sure he’s dead, too.”

  “If we can just get him in the river, the gators will get him!”

  “Do whatever it takes,” Lyle said, “I’m the strongest. I’ll take over the paddling.”

  Dusk whistled at them. They all looked back to see him waving his arms, taunting them as he approached. Lyle grabbed the paddles and started rowing down the river. The men grabbed their pistols, all except the man who was shot in the shoulder. Lyle stared at him, “We need your hand,”

  “He shot me in my shooting shoulder!” the downed man said.

  Lyle shed a tear, wiping it away, “I know you’ve been shot. And that pains me, but can’t you see it in you to shoot at him? Just for me?”

  The man sighed upon seeing his boss vulnerable. The croc who gave him away at his wedding, eyes dry, had shed a tear. Knowing that this must be important to him, the man grabbed his gun with his other hand, leaned against the boat and pointed the gun the best he could.

  Another on his crew crouched down and whispered, “You know he’s just giving you crocodile tears,” The crewman whispered.

  The shot man looked at the crewman and said, “No. I can tell these are real. He’d never do that to us,” He pointed his gun with his right hand, shaking, he looked down his barrel to see Dusk running toward them.

  The man clicked the trigger, the bullet missed Dusk by an inch. Dusk felt the whiz of a stray bullet go past him. The other two able bodied men pointed their weapons. Before they could shoot, Dusk slid to a stop and shifted the snowbeam, causing the ice to stack and create a barrier. He ducked behind it as the bullets broke through the stack. He looked through the bullet hole at the boat getting smaller, pointed his copper out of the side of the wall and shot. Dusk watched as the man to the far right grabbed his chest and fell off the boat.

  Dusk switched to his second freezing spell, took a step back and jumped over the small icestack. In the small gap that had been created before the new icebridge, an alligator leapt up and took a snap at Dusk. Dusk pulled his feet in, the chomps missing him as he pointed the spell at the river and shot. He landed on his belly on the new ice bridge, sliding as the river’s descent started to increase. He’d begun to gain on them. Dusk took out his copper and plugged the man with the shoulder wound. Lyle watched as the dead body of his crew rested on the sole, taking up space on the shi. Lyle, paused his paddling and grabbed the corpse to toss over the edge of the boat.

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  ‘Why’d you do a thing like that!” Another crew said, “We coulda buried the body! Given it a proper funeral! I’m wondering if you even care about us at all the way you’re tossing us like meat!”

  When the man turned back and looked at Lyle, his boss of many years and leader of the crocodile tear gang, he saw a well of emotion in the ol’ croc’s face. Tears streamed down his beak.

  “You think I wanted this?” Lyle said, “You think I didn’t want that body buried? Who do you think is going to be having that conversation with Diane? No, I don’t see you as pieces of meat. I see you as kin. That’s why I threw him overboard. You’re the only one left. I can’t let another one of my kin die at the hands of that madman.

  The man looked at Lyle crying. He knew in his heart that Lyle had been lying to his crew, but could tell that Lyle was being truthful now.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry. Let’s take this sucker dow-”

  The last man alive got a bullet right in the back. He fell to the floor of the dinghy as the croc kept paddling.

  “I’m- I’m okay.” the man said, “I’ll be okay. I just… need us to boat to safety.”

  Dusk reloaded his gun and started shooting again, still sledding on his belly. This time, the croc had no cover. Lyle took his monstrous strength and pulled the shot man up, using him to block Dusk’s bullets.

  “What the hell are you doing, Lyle!” the human shield screamed, I said I’ll be okay!”

  The croc looked right at his last man, tears streaming down his cheeks, “I didn’t want to do this, but there’s no way you’re going to make it if I get shot. I need to use you as a human shield.”

  “That’s it!” The man said, still held up by the croc’s arms ,”I don’t believe you one lick! You’re just using me!”

  More tears raced down the croc’s snout, “How could you say that!”

  “I-I’m sorry,” The man said.

  The raging rapids smashed the ice bridge behind Dusk. Dusk didn’t have an opening to shoot the croc. Dusk put his two fingers in his mouth and whistled loud enough for Zephyr to hear. Zephyr dove down and swiped at the croc who got scratched at by Dusk’s flying racoon.

  “Hey!” The croc said as he tried to block the attack. Zephyr pulled her skin flaps and caught a gust upward, catching more air and teeing up another dive. She circled a bit and dive bombed again.

  “Oh, no!” The croc said, “Not this time!” He dropped his last man

  “Oh fuck! Lyle, why’d you drop me?!” Lyle stood up on his boat, grabbed his last man by the foot and swung him up in the air, taking a swipe at Zephyr, who had to quickly tited her legs and feet, causing her membranous wings to pull her to the left.

  “LYLE!” The man said, “WHAT THE FUCK!”

  That was the moment Dusk needed, he landed a few bullets into Lyle’s chest. Lyle staggered backward, almost falling off his boat. But he managed to grab onto his man’s leg and pull himself back up. Lyle rested the man on the dinghy bench as he prepared for another Zephyr divebomb. He gave the man one last look, tears and snot fully colliding on his face, causing a torrent of sadness, “I wish it didn’t come to this,”

  “No, Lyle please, LYLE!” The croc twisted his body, grabbed the man’s now twisted leg and cranked the man’s body so that it flung across the water, skipping along the river and being launched at Dusk.

  The man collided with dusk sent the Spell Slinger flying back on the ice bridge. Dusk’s gun pointed upward, shooting snowflakes into the air. The stagger caused Dusk’s hat to fly off his head where it landed on the water and an alligator reached up and pulled it to the murky depths.

  The man looked at Dusk, “You gotta help me. He’s craz-whoa!”

  Dusk pushed the man off of him into the raging rapids where the alligators chomped away at him.

  “AAAAHH!”

  Dusk stood up, his gun still letting out the freeze spell, and repeated the same move. He penguin-slid toward the croc, taking his copper and shooting behind him to add any bit of thrust he could.

  As Lyle kept swiping at Zephyr dive bombing him, Dusk contracted his belly, launching himself off of the ground and into the boat. The vessel rocked so hard it caused Lyle to grab at the edge, desperate for balance.

  Dusk pointed his copper at the crocodile and unloaded.

  Click. Click. Click.

  It was out. He grabbed his spell slinger, notched the chamber to the firebolt spell and pointed it directly at Lyle, “I wanted to take you in alive, but I don't have chains that could hold you.”

  Lyle looked at Dusk, tears beginning to stream down his cheek, “If only you knew how I became this way,”

  “That's enough out of you!” Dusk said, pistol whipping Lyle. he pointed his firebolt spell directly at the croc, Zephyr landed on Dusk’s shoulder. A pain struck Dusk’s head.

  Who’s this?

  “I.. uhm,” Dusk said, “Do you have any alcohol on this raft?”

  “What?” Lyle asked.

  “To clear my head I just-,”

  Who’s this?

  Dusk grabbed his head. Zephyr pulled at a lock of Dusk’s hair while Dusk rubbed his temple. Lyle swiped at Dusk’s legs with his tail. Dusk went down, his hurting head colliding on the boat bench.

  “Can’t lock the croc, baby!”

  Lyle leapt off the boat and swam into river, swimming upstream while Dusk bobbled along the raging rapids which had begun their crescendo into a waterfall.