Kettleman was army crawling through the mud, just fast as he could. Suddenly the mud dropped away and he could swim again.
“What the hell we s’posed to do if I can’t shoot his ass?”
“Take over. Get up ‘side him.”
The bank was still thirty yards away when the skinny guy made it around the shallow and glided up beside Kettleman. No where to hide, he dove down as deep as he could.
When he came up for a breath, shaggy took a swing with a metal baseball bat. Kettleman’s shoulder took most of the hit, but the glancing blow to the cheek was explosive. When he dove down again, he was seeing stars.
Kettleman stayed down as long as he could again, this time swimming under the boat. They heard him come up and switched sides, but Kettleman was just outside of swinging range.
“Why don’t you just stop?” asked the skinny guy, casually pointing a revolver toward Kettleman. “If you don’t, I’m just gonna shoot your ass.”
Kettleman was treading water. “How about we just call it a day?”
The skinny guy grinned. “Nah, sorry friend. Can’t do that, neither.”
“This about money?” asked Kettleman, stalling as he weighed options. He had counted four shots. “I have money.”
“How much?”
“No, dammit,” growled shaggy. “We already been paid, just shoot him.”
“That’ll mess everything up, right?” asked Kettleman, treading backward slowly. “What happened to using the bat?”
“That weren’t the plan neither,” said the skinny guy, chuckling.
“He’s gonna make a break for it, just shoot him,” demanded shaggy.
KA-BOOM!
A full two minutes after the pin had been removed and the grenade thrown, it finally decided to go off. The surprise set both killers to motion and their boat to rocking, dumping shaggy overboard. Almost on top of Kettleman.
Seizing the opportunity, Kettleman grabbed a fistful of hair, yanking the man closer and down. Shaggy’s swearing was cut off abruptly as he went under, sucking in water.
“Hey! Hey! Stop that!” shouted skinny, attention split between finding his gun and the action in the water.
Desperate for air, Shaggy was clawing at Kettleman’s face.
CRACK CRACK.
Click click click click.