Even though I'd seen him come up, I jumped, as did the other guys. We all turned to face Ace and Eyeball and they stood at the top of the embankment, staring down at us bemusedly.

"Sumbitch!" Eyeball roared, outraged. "That's my little brother!"

"Get away, Rich," Chris said almost menacingly. "We found him. We got dibs."

"Fuck your dibs," Eyeball spat. "We're gonna report him."

"The fuck you are," I said.

"There's five of us, Eyeball, you just try," Gordie said.

"Oh, we'll try, don't worry."

Suddenly, as if on cue, Charlie, Billy Jack, Fuzzy, and Vince all appeared from out of the trees. And the biggest shocker of all fucking time was Andrew McDonald, my own brother, stepping out from behind the trees and joining the rest of them.

"Andrew you fucking asshole," I said, my voice unwavering.

He gave me some sort of look and I didn't know if it was calm anger or if it was guilt. The fucking traitor.

"Here we all are," said Ace with smirk. "So you just-"

"Vern!" Billy shouted. "You little sonofawhore! You was under the porch! Cock-knocker!"

Charlie advanced forward slightly, saying, "You little keyhole-peeping cunt-licking bungwipe! I ought to beat the living shit out of you!"

"Yeah? Well try it!" Teddy challenged. I stood there with the toughest face I could manage, but deep, deep down, I was scared shitless. It didn't matter if I had balls or not, they would still beat the hell out of us. All of us. "Come on! Fightcha for it! Come on! Come on, big men!"

I saw Vern stumble back slightly in a flinch, but he remained there beside the rest of us.

Ace stopped Billy and Charlie from advancing anymore. "Now listen, you guys. There's more of us than there are of you. We're bigger. We'll give you one chance to just blow away. I don't give a fuck where. Just make like a tree and leave."

There was a small chuckle and a congratulatory back slap. "'Cause we're taking him." There was a pause. "If you go, we'll take him. If you stay, we'll beat the piss outta you and still take him. Besides, Charlie and Billy found him, so it's their dibs anyway."

"They was chicken!" Teddy cried out in outrage. "Vern told us about it! They was fuckin' chicken right outta their fuckin' minds! 'I wish we never boosted that car! I wish we never went out on no Back Harlow Road to whack off a piece! Oh, Billee, what are we gonna do? Oh, Billee, I think I just turned my Fruit of the Looms into a fudge factory! Oh, Billee-"

"That's it," said Charlie, his face bright red. "Your ass is grass."

"What do you say, Gordie?" said Ace. "You must have at least some of your brother's sense. Tell these guys to back off. I'll let Charlie beat up the foureyes el punko a little bit and then we all go about our business. What do you say?"

Wrong card, Ace.

"Suck my fat one, you cheap dime-store hood," said Gordie, his face twisted into that of unseasonable anger. Ace's reaction was priceless and I would have laughed if not for the current situation. He was so shocked that he didn't even know what to say for a good few seconds.

"That's telling him, Gordie! Oh boy! Too cool!" Teddy screamed in delight. Chris dropped my hand quickly and grabbed for his pack, but I made no notice. I didn't want to turn away from Ace and the gang because I thought I would miss something if I did.

"Okay," said Ace in a very calmly fashion. "Let's take them. Don't hurt nobody but the Lachance kid. I'm gonna break both his fucking arms."

I looked desperately up at my brother, but he wasn't interested in negotiating with Ace. They all started toward us and I just stood there in shock, feeling defeated and betrayed. I noticed a gleam and saw that Jack had taken out a pocket knife.

Vern, Teddy, Gordie, and I all formed fighting stances. The only person I'd ever actually fought before was Duchamp and I had kicked his ass. But this was different. This wasn't something stupid. This was real. This was 'I'm probably going to die but I'll put up a fight anyway'. And I was convinced to fucking Mars and back that I was gonna die. Did I recoil and run to hide? Absolutely not. I wasn't about that. I knew what was coming, but I was going to stand by my friends no matter what happened.

Then, as if a ray of light somehow shone through the grey, I heard the loud explosion from the gun and turned to see Chris, both hands on the gun, the barrel pointed toward the sky. I had never been so relieved, even when the rain had started just twenty minutes or so before.

"Hey, Chris, that's Daddy's," said a now frightened Eyeball. "You're gonna get the tar whaled out of you-"

"That's nothing to what you'll get," Chris said. His blue eyes were fiery; I'd never seen him so angry in the entire time we'd been friends. "Gordie was right. You're nothing but a bunch of cheap hoods.  Charlie and Billy didn't want their fucking dibs and you all know it. We wouldn't have walked way the fuck out here if they said they did. They just went someplace and puked the story up and let Ace Merrill do their thinking for them. But you ain't gonna get him, do you hear me?" I had never in my life been so terrified of such a calm, collected person like Chris Chambers.

"Now listen," said Ace. "You better put that down before you take your foot off with it. You ain't got the sack to shoot a woodchuck. You're just a sawed-off pint-sized pissy-assed little runt and I'm gonna make you eat that fucking gun."

"Ace, if you don't stand still, I'm going to shoot you, I swear to God."

"You'll go to jayyy-ail," he taunted. But there was something that flickered in his eyes. Fear maybe. But he didn't necessarily show it. Not directly. Ace started forward again, but Chris pointed the gun directly at Ace and, for a minute, I thought he'd actually shoot him.

"Where do you want it, Ace? Arm or leg? I can't pick. You pick for me."

Ace looked mortified now, like he knew Chris meant business. I'd seen Chris bluff in poker, but if he was lying then, then I have no words to describe the level of seriousness he made himself sound.

I looked to my brother, who was looking directly at me. He looked just as scared as the others. Good, I thought angrily, my face contorting to the biggest scowl I could manage.

"Alright," Ace said finally. "But I know how you're going to come out of this, motherfuck."

"No you don't," said Chris firmly.

"You little prick! You're gonna wind up in traction for this!"

"Bite my bag," said Chris with almost no emotion to his voice, but a hell of a lot of meaning behind his words. Angrily, Eyeball advanced forward. Chris pointed the gun at the ground and fired it. Eyeball jumped back and looked at his brother with that of surprise and actual fear.

"Now what?" said Ace.

"Now you guys get into your cars and bomb on back to Castle Rock. After that, I don't care. But you ain't getting him." Chris went silent for another second. "You dig me?"

"But we'll get you," said Ace. "Don't you know that?"

"You might. You might not," I said bravely.

"We'll get you hard," said Ace. "Even you, you little bitch. We'll hurt you. I can't believe you don't fucking know that. We'll put you all in the fucking hospital with fucking ruptures. Sincerely."

"Why don't you go home and fuck your mother some more," I said. "I hear she loves the way you do it."

He pointed to me, his eyes ablaze with undeniable anger. I didn't stand down. "I'll kill you for that, McDonald. I don't care who the fuck your brother is. No one ranks out my mother." I spat at the ground, my glare persistent.

"I hear your mother fucks for bucks," said Chris. "In fact, I hear she throws blowjobs for jukebox nickels. I heard that-" At that moment, God raged on. Thunder sounded viciously around us, like he was either egging on a showdown or angry that we were still standing there in the storm fighting over a fucking dead body.

Vern was the first to take off running. A minute later, Teddy ditched, too. Vince and Fuzzy made for shelter under some trees, too, but the rest of us stood our grounds.

"Stick with me, Gordie, Rosie. Stick with me."

"I'm right here," said Gordie.

"I'm not going anywhere," I said.

"Go on now," said Chris to Ace.

"We'll get you," Ace said, his voice strangely calm. "We're not going to forget it if that's what you're thinking. This is big time, baby."

"That's fine. You just go on and do your getting another day."

"We'll fucking ambush you, Chambers. We'll-"

"Get out!" Chris roared, making everyone jump.

Ace looked around at his sidekicks. "Come on," he ordered. One by one, they all disappeared, except for Andrew.

"Roseanne," he said. "Look, I-" I stooped down and picked up a heaping ball of mud and hurled it right at his face.

"Get the fuck away from me, you backstabbing pile of grade-a shit!" I screamed. I threw another ball of mud at him. "Go fuck yourself you fucking dogshit eating bastard!" He kind of flinched, not even moving to avoid getting hit by the mud. He gave me a look that I couldn't decipher through my rage and fury and he set off after the others.

"Stay here," said Chris.

"Chris!" said Gordie, but I barely heard him.

"I got to. Stay here. Watch over Rosie."

I stood next to Gordie and we waited for him to come back. Chris finally returned after a long time.

"We did it," he said. "They're gone."

"You sure?" asked Gordie.

"Yeah. Both cars."

After a minute of silence, Chris smirked at Gordie and said, "'Suck my fat one'? Whoever told you you had a fat one, Lachance?"

"Biggest one in four counties," Gordie smirked.