Jonnie lay on the cross-members of the canister storage area of the drone, gripped in a nightmare. He was in the cage again, a collar around his throat, and a demon was crushing in the back of his skull. He kept trying to tell the demon he would shoot it if it didn’t stop, but he couldn’t get the words out.
He wrestled himself up from the nightmare. The roar of the huge drone engines beat against his head. He realized where he was. It wasn’t the collar: it was the neck lanyard of the revolver; the heavy weapon was hanging down between the beams. He painfully retrieved it. There was a small amount of light in here and he swung the cylinder open.
Just one shot left.
He reached to his belt to see whether he had reloads. He didn’t. The blastgun was lost.
Before he passed out he had opened
