Short Story Excerpt – Long Shot

More figurative pen to paper. If you want to be a beta-reader, please send me an email or leave me a comment and I’ll share the rest of the story.
—

Long Shot

(C) Sean Donovan

“That make you feel any better?” I asked.

Karl spit out a shot glass worth of blood, phlegm, and half a tooth.

“Can’t blame a man for trying,” he said, mumbling around the broken tooth.

“Sure I can. Can’t blame a man for shooting you in the head, you try it again,” I answered. “Now turn back facing forward again.”

Karl was as still as a stone as he stared me in the eye, gauging me, guessing if I was bluffing. I hit him on the other side of his face. More spit and blood. No tooth. Then I put the pointy end of my AES-K rifle, safety off, at his head. Rifle was technically wrong, there was no bore, no bullet, only phased plasma. Wasn’t pointy either. Terminology aside, at short range it could cut you clean through…