"Laurie, get away from the windows and find somewhere safe." Axel Vance immediately turned from the record player and pushed Laurie Strode toward the far corner before she could recover from the sudden gunfire outside. He looked at Clarice Starling and added, "Stay with Laurie and her father. I’ll check what’s happening."
Axel brought the shotgun against his shoulder and crouched as he approached the broken doorway. He had barely leaned far enough to see outside when another shot cracked through the air. The bullet struck the wooden doorframe beside him and sent splinters flying across the floor.
"Damn fugitive!" a young voice shouted excitedly from outside. "You’ve got friends hiding in there too? Everybody come out!"
Axel’s expression darkened immediately. After Chief Woody’s bounty announcement, half of Miami seemed to have decided that carrying a gun automatically made them qualified bounty hunters. He leaned out just enough to identify the direction of the shooter, raised his shotgun, and fired into a clear patch of ground away from everyone.
Bang!
"I’m a cop!" Axel roared. "Drop the gun right now before you turn a stupid mistake into a felony!"
"Oh, shit! He’s police!"
"Run!"
Axel heard hurried footsteps immediately. He stepped through the doorway and saw two young men in baseball jackets sprinting away as though their lives depended on it. Neither looked old enough to have any business hunting escaped serial killers.
Axel raised the shotgun again and fired another warning blast into an empty stretch of dirt several feet away from them. The sound stopped both men instantly, and they dropped into crouches with their hands over their heads. "Don’t shoot! We surrender!"
Axel walked over with the shotgun still ready. He took their weapons, ordered them to keep their hands visible, and handcuffed them together. "You two fired into a building without even checking who was inside. Do you understand how close you came to shooting a police officer?"
One of the young men turned pale. "Officer, it was a misunderstanding. I swear we weren’t trying to shoot cops." He swallowed nervously and quickly added, "We were chasing one of the escaped convicts, and he ran toward this place. We thought you were helping him."
Axel immediately stopped scolding them.
"An escaped convict?"
The young man nodded rapidly.
Axel crouched slightly so they were at eye level. "Tell me exactly what he looked like."
The bounty hunter searched his memory while glancing nervously toward the abandoned house. "Really tall. Big guy. He was wearing dark-blue work coveralls, and there was blood on him." His expression changed as another detail came back. "He also had this white mask. Completely blank, like a mannequin face."
Axel’s eyes narrowed.
Michael Myers.
The young man continued before Axel could speak. "I hit him too. More than once."
"With what?"
"My pistol."
The bounty hunter visibly shuddered. "I know I hit him, Officer. He barely reacted. He just kept moving, and when we chased him, the bastard ran way faster than someone his size should be able to."
That removed the last uncertainty.
It was definitely Michael.
Axel escorted both young men toward the police car while Clarice brought Laurie and her adoptive father outside. Laurie immediately looked around for Michael, but Axel stopped her before she could ask anything. "He was here recently, and that means this area isn’t safe anymore."
Laurie’s father turned pale. "What do you want us to do?"
Axel opened the driver’s door and handed him the keys. "Take Laurie back to the police department. These two idiots go with you, and when you arrive, tell the desk sergeant they fired at a police officer during the bounty hunt."
One of the young men immediately protested. "Officer, come on! We just gave you an important clue."
Axel looked at him coldly. "You can explain that to the judge."
The man wisely stopped talking.
Axel turned back toward Laurie’s father. "Once you reach the station, stay inside. Don’t take Laurie anywhere until Clarice or I come back."
Her father nodded without hesitation. Now that Michael had been confirmed nearby, he needed no further convincing. He loaded Laurie into the car, made sure the two handcuffed bounty hunters were secured in the back, and drove away.
Clarice approached with her pistol already drawn. Her eyes carefully searched the street before she looked at Axel. "Was it him?"
"Exactly."
Neither needed to say anything else.
They started in the direction the bounty hunters had indicated.
Despite supposedly being shot several times, Michael had left almost no visible blood trail. Axel searched pavement, fences, yards, and nearby walls but found practically nothing useful. It was as though bullets had done little more than inconvenience him.
After several minutes, Axel began wondering whether they had already lost him.
Then another gunshot cracked through the neighborhood.
Several more followed.
Angry shouting rose from somewhere ahead.
Axel immediately looked toward Clarice. "Someone else found him."
They broke into a run.
After turning around the next corner, both investigators stopped in surprise.
A tall man wearing dark-blue coveralls lay motionless in the street.
Michael Myers.
Two separate groups of armed civilians stood around him, but instead of checking whether the serial killer was actually dead, they were arguing over who deserved the reward.
"I dropped him!" a burly man in a leather jacket shouted. "Everybody saw my shot hit him right in the chest."
A thin man standing across from him immediately pointed his pistol accusingly. "Bullshit! I shot him in the leg first. He only fell because of me."
"You barely clipped him!"
"My shot counts!"
Axel stared at them in disbelief.
Apparently, the deadliest escaped killer in the city had become the centerpiece of a financial dispute before anyone had even confirmed he was dead.
Several bounty hunters noticed Axel’s uniform and immediately surrounded him. "Perfect! The cops are here."
"Officer, tell these idiots I killed him."
"No, I did!"
Axel ignored every one of them.
His eyes remained locked on Michael.
Something moved.
Axel saw one finger twitch.
His expression instantly changed.
"Everybody back!" he shouted. "He’s not dead!"
The bounty hunters fell silent.
"What?"
Michael suddenly sat up.
The movement was so abrupt that the nearest man barely had time to react. Michael grabbed the burly bounty hunter by the jacket with one hand while the large kitchen knife in his other hand drove straight toward the man’s abdomen.
The blade sank deep.
The bounty hunter gasped.
To Axel’s disbelief, the man’s face did not show terror.
It showed excitement.
"Hah!"
He grabbed for the handgun at his waist.
"You’re still alive! Good!"
Michael twisted the knife deeper.
The wounded man ignored the pain and raised his pistol directly toward Michael’s chest. "That hundred grand is mine!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
He emptied several rounds into Michael at point-blank range.
Each bullet struck the killer’s chest and forced him backward a step. Michael still did not fall.
Instead, he yanked the wounded man in front of himself and used the larger body as a shield while retreating toward a narrow alley. A few frightened bounty hunters raised their weapons but hesitated because they could no longer shoot without hitting their own companion.
Michael disappeared around the corner.
The wounded bounty hunter collapsed once Michael discarded him.
Blood poured from the knife wound in his abdomen.
His friend immediately knelt beside him and pressed both hands against the injury. "Stay with me, man. Don’t move."
The wounded man barely seemed to hear him.
"He was mine..." he muttered weakly.
His friend stared at him.
The man coughed and whispered, "Hundred grand... my debt’s finally gone."
Axel almost could not believe what he was hearing.
Instead of frightening the remaining bounty hunters, however, Michael’s refusal to die seemed to enrage them. One man reloaded his handgun and shouted, "Screw this! There are ten of us and one of him."
Another nodded. "We all shoot him this time."
A third raised his shotgun. "Then we split the reward."
That was all the encouragement they needed.
The group rushed toward the alley.
Only the wounded man’s friend remained behind to help stop the bleeding.
Clarice stared after the others. "I’ve never seen civilians voluntarily chase a serial killer before."
Axel checked the wounded man quickly and saw that his friend had at least managed to slow the bleeding. He stood and looked toward the alley. "Stop trying to understand Miami today."
Clarice almost laughed but remained visibly stunned. "This entire situation is backward."
Axel’s expression became serious. "They had an advantage when Michael was standing in the open. Ten armed people can surround one target."
He looked toward the narrow passage.
"But in there?"
Clarice understood.
The alley twisted between old buildings, fences, dumpsters, and narrow side passages. Sight lines were short, movement was restricted, and a large group could not bring all its weapons to bear at once. For someone like Michael Myers, it was perfect terrain.
"Come on," Axel said. "Those idiots are going to get themselves killed."
They ran after the bounty hunters.
It did not take long to find the first casualty.
A man lay against one wall clutching an arm bent at an unnatural angle. He groaned in pain and pointed farther down the alley when Axel passed him.
Another bounty hunter appeared around the next corner.
He was on the ground holding his knee.
"Where’s Myers?" Axel demanded.
The injured man gasped. "That way."
Axel and Clarice continued.
They found another man near a dumpster with a broken wrist.
Then another with an injured leg.
Michael was not simply running.
He was dismantling the pursuit.
Each time one or two bounty hunters became separated from the group, he struck quickly and left them unable to continue. The civilians who had entered the alley convinced that sheer numbers made them invincible were being removed one at a time.
Clarice’s expression grew increasingly grim. "He’s isolating them."
Axel nodded.
Michael was far more dangerous in confined spaces than the bounty hunters had understood. He needed only a few seconds of confusion, and another pursuer was gone.
A distant scream echoed between the buildings.
Axel immediately accelerated.
He felt an increasingly bad premonition.
"Hurry!"
Clarice ran beside him.
Axel tightened his grip around the shotgun and stared toward the next turn.
"We have to catch Michael before he gets away."
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