Alternate Shanna Shooting Scene

Joe says: In our very first email volleys, Paul had intended Shanna to embrace Clay's gun-loving ways, and wrote this to be the scene where she becomes enamored with them. I liked it and thought it was realistic--lots of people, when they shoot for the first time, instantly fall in love with firearms. Paul thought it was too over-the-top and changed it to her having a negative reaction.

Shanna

SHE stared down at the dead creature. "That fella" wasn't a fella. It was wearing a bloodstained maroon pantsuit. She stepped closer and saw the nametag: Marge McGuire.

Shanna felt sick. "That's Marge from admitting! I had a long sit-down with her when Mortimer was admitted for that possible overdose. She had pictures of her kids on her desk. She..." A sob broke free. "What have I done?"

"It was her or you, Shanna."

"I killed Marge!"

Clay knelt beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "That wasn't Marge from admissions anymore. Marge was already gone. You killed something else, something that had taken her over."

"But her kids--"

"Had already lost their mama. You just kept this thing from fouling her memory by killing you and who knows how many others, and turning them into foul things like her. You did Marge a favor."

Clay seemed to understand and was making sense, neither of which she'd expected from him. He helped her to her feet.

"Us or them," Shanna he added. "Who do you want to walk out of here?"

"Us, of course."

"And who are the attackers here?"

"Them."

"So we're going to walk out of here, and along the way we're going to leave them alone. But if they try to kill us, we need to do what we have to do to protect ourselves--and that means kill them first."

Yeah...they did.

She looked at the thing that had been Marge. If she hadn't fired this big heavy thing in her hands, she'd be dead on the floor. And worse--soon she'd be one of them.

He pointed to the Taurus. "I'm sorry it knocked you down."

"It's okay, Clay."

"No, it's not. That gun's too powerful for you." He reached for it. "I'll find you--"

She snatched her Taurus away and clutched it between her breasts. Yes, suddenly it was her Taurus Raging Bull. She loved it. She thought of that bumper sticker she'd always laughed at: You can have my gun when you take it from my cold dead hands. Or something like that.

"You touch my gun and I'll kick you in the fucking balls."

Clay looked flummoxed. "Shanna, you said 'fucking.' And 'balls.'"

"Damn right, I did. For the first time since that first monster broke in here, I feel we've got a chance to get out alive, and I'm not giving that up."

And then the lights went out.