Page 111 of Fire for Effect

I stared at Cobra, and a flutter of hope tickled at my chest.

Maybe he wouldn’t do it. Maybe… maybe…

“I didn’t want it to go this way,” Cobra said, as he charged his pistol.

He took the weapon off safe and pointed the barrel at my forehead, killing that fluttering hope dead in its tracks.

I had always thought I was hard to kill, but maybe not. A bullet was a bullet. No amount of strength or will power would armor your skull against it.

“I really like you,” Cobra said, solemnly. “You’re brave, and smart. You make me proud.”

There was something about his last sentence… why would I make him proud?

“Just shoot me, already.” I wanted to sound angry and bitter. But I wasn’t. I was just ready to go. Ready to face the darkness. “This conversation is boring.”

Nothing prepares you for the immensely terrible act of writing your own Last Will and Testament at the age of eighteen. I faced my own mortality before my first deployment, then disregarded that same delicate existence each time I went in, guns blazing into combat.

I had been on borrowed time for years now.

I had thought about dying enough times that this was a quick mental trip from denial to acceptance.

“You’re wrong, you know,” Cobra said.

I waited, wondering what the hell we were talking about.

“Your Dad didn’t abandon you. In fact, he’s thought about you every day since the moment those two blue lines showed up.”

The… fuck…?

“Cobra! Shoot!” Heath was ready to take the pistol out of Cobra’s hand and end me himself. But I think we were too confused to really think about it.

Cobra took his large free hand, and pulled out a second pistol and took that one off safe too. With two barrels pointed at me, I almost laughed.

“If it’s worth killing,” I said, reciting the old Lucky 13 motto, “It’s worth overkilling, I guess.”

I tasted the blood from my cut lip, and almost smiled.

“Make sure you double tap,” I said, summoning the last of my bravado.

I’m sorry, Kai.

The words flashed through my mind as I shut my eyes.

I’m sorry we didn’t get more time.

Cobra let out a sigh, and I knew it was the end. Until he said, “Did I ever tell you my real name?”

“Cobra!” Heath yelled, his face red with his growing impatience.

Hell, I was starting to get impatient as well.

“Cobra Kai?” Why was I making jokes about an old kid’s movie I watched years ago? I wasn’t sure. But the name made me laugh.

I’m sorry, Kai.

“Something like that.” he lifted a single brow. “Some people call me Joe.”

“Joe?” Heath said, sounding as if that was the first he’d ever heard of it. “Your name’s Tom.”

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