Jane was resting on a hammock in her bikini when there were a series of loud cracks that sounded distinctly like gunfire. She gave a start and almost fell out of her hammock. As far as she could tell, they came from the area by the resort’s lower pool. She got to her feet and walked very slowly down the path, trying to see something through the trees.

Soon one side of the pool came into view. The chef lay sunbathing in the nude as always only this time there were several huge holes in his hairy back and his blood drained down into the blue pool water. Jane took her sunglasses off to see better. His back was a mess.

Then she crept down the path, listening intently. She pushed open the wooden gate that led into the pool area.

Floating on an inflatable raft was a woman in a floppy sunhat and bathing suit. She had her hand on a margarita but there was a hole straight through to her heart. It was still leaking blood, which looked brown when it hit the chlorinated water.

A small, scruffy-looking dog darted into the bushes. Jane moved slowly to the hot-tub, where an overweight couple had their arms around each other’s shoulders. Their heads were tilted back with their mouths open. Blood was coming out and there were bullet-holes.

Jane climbed the steps to the upper sun-deck and found more victims on the folding beach chairs. Beside a bucket with champagne on ice, there was a man with a mustache who still had a cigar in his mouth. Light shone through the holes in his chest.

When Jane turned to go back down the stairs she saw the shooter- a teenage girl wearing sunglasses. The girl held an assault rifle casually in one hand and a diet soda in the other. Before Jane could retreat the girl pointed the gun up at her. “What are you going to say?” the girl asked.

Jane stood there, frozen. She gradually became aware of a loud beating noise and looked up to see a helicopter. A rope ladder was being lowered down. The girl grabbed onto the ladder and pulled herself up, her rifle hanging by its strap over her shoulder as the helicopter lifted her higher.

Jane snapped out of her daze and took hold of the champagne bottle. Powered solely by adrenaline, she hurled the full bottle at the girl. The girl lost her grip on the ladder and fell down, landing hard on the tile by the side of the pool, the wind knocked out of her. While the girl gasped for breath, Jane grabbed the rifle and shot up at the helicopter, which spun out of control and smashed into the side of one of the resort chalets, exploding in flames.

Just then the girl sprang up and attacked Jane. Jane slipped and was knocked into the bloody pool. The girl took off running.

Jane pulled herself slowly out of the water.

She went back and lay on the hammock. Wet and shuddering violently, she tried to will herself back to earlier in the day, before all of this happened.

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