It had only been four days since Marli's execution. Lauren had been on the move by night and seeking refuge by day. Someone would've reported the disappearance of so many conspirators. During Marli's trial, the authorities put the blame on Marli. But now that she was dead, the remaining members of their group could inform the police that Lauren had had her hand in murders as well. If Lauren Wick wanted to remain on the streets, she'd have to DESTROY THE EVIDENCE.

  Robbie Greer couldn't believe what he read. The whole mission had failed! He began pacing in his cell. How had it failed? What had gone wrong?
  "Greer!" the warden bellowed. "You have a visitor."
  The warden opened the cell, and RJ Regenold walked in.
  "Make it quick, you two." the warden cautioned. "I got "Silly-willy Funny-wunny Ponies" on in six minutes."
  He closed the cell, and the two were left alone.

  RJ explained the whole thing. He'd seen Lauren slink her way past the conspirators on guard near the transmitter. On his way to see how the guards outside were holding up, he heard Paul LeMaire's screams and Marli's shout. When Paul was reported dead, RJ had come up with a theory.
  "Wouldn't she try to save herself?" Greer asked. "I mean if the authorities ever found out, she'd get the death penalty, too-and what ever happened to Dower, Browder, and Jones?"
  "Oh," RJ paused, trying to remember, "she'd strangled Dower, poisoned Jones, and shot Browder in the head with a pistol. afterwards their bodies were found in a car that had been driven into a brick wall. My guess is, she was trying to stage their deaths, so her name would remain clean."
  "Probably," Robbie agreed, "but you and I know about it. Couldn't we turn her in?"
  "Well," RJ paused, "that's the thing. I've found the rest of our group, and we all think she'll try to kill whoever she thinks knows. So, don't tell anyone. For all we know, she could be plotting to kill one of us."

  Lauren found out where three conspirators were hiding out. Lauren Besselman, Scott Jacobs, and Ashley Ledbetter were hiding out in an abandon warehouse thirty miles northeast of Pilot Point. That was Lauren's target.

  Robbie looked at the laundry chute at the far end of the corridor outside his cell, fascinated. RJ recognized that conniving look and soon understood.
  "You two done?" the warden asked. "You, Greer, time for laundry duty."
  "We'll get it." Robbie mumbled. "Go watch your Silly Willy Pony show."
  "Good idea!" the warden hurried off.
  Robbie grabbed some calogne and then swung open the unlocked cell door. RJ helped him carry two baskets of laundry to the chute. After throwing the contents of the baskets inside, RJ and Robbie jumped in themselves.

  The fall was rather long, considering they were on the eighth floor of the cell block. However, their fall was abruptly stopped when they landed at the bottom.
  "This is it," Robbie exclaimed, opening the door to the chute, "let's go."
  RJ and Robbie waited until the hallway was empty and then dashed through the exit. Robbie took out the calogne and sprayed it all around the hallway, as they passed through the front doors. Once they were outside, Robbie tossed the bottle into a ditch. The two hopped in RJ'S car and sped off, in search of Lauren Wick.

  Twilight gave way to darkness, as Lauren traveled the back-roads of Fannin County. If she was lucky, several other witnesses had met up with those in the warehouse. She parked her car about a quarter mile west of the warehouse and opened the trunk, removing a pistol, baseball bat, and a nylon rope. She walked casually down the street, her eyes searching for the warehouse. Soon she spotted it, looming out of the darkness. Slowly she advanced, and prepared herself for the murders that would soon take place.

  "There!" Robbie shouted, spotting her car. "That's her car!"
  "Yep," RJ inspected the license plate, "a 1943 Studebaker, license plate: 666 KIL. That's the one."
  "Look!" Robbie said in a hoarse whisper. "There she is."
  "Are you sure?" RJ asked.
  "Who else would be walking around in this part of town at 11:30 at night?" Robbie asked.
  The two silently sprinted ahead of Lauren and entered the warehouse.

  Scott Jacobs, Lauren Besselman, Ashley Ledbetter, and new-comers Mathew Messer and Rachel Trammell were playing poker in the warehouse.
  "Ha!" Scott shouted. "Who ever heard of a "one of a kind." It doesn't exist!"
  "Yes it does!" Rachel shouted back. "I'd think that an annoying little ------- like you would know that!"
  "Shut up, shut up!" Lauren Besselman hollered. "You don't want no one to ge---"
  A loud pounding on the door stopped Lauren in her sentence.
  "Take your positions." Matt whispered.
  Matt slowly opened the door to the warehouse.
  "Garcia pizza!" a short, Italian man bellowed, "The fhinest pizza in all of Texicus!"
  "Oo," Matt could smell the cheesy goodness, "thanks. Oo, umm, how much?"
  "About twenty-five dollars, Senor Mesa." the pizza deliverer replied.
  "Here you go." Matt slipped him a $50.
  "Oh, sank you!" the deliverer quickly ran from the warehouse. "Oh oh, mamamia, aaaaaaaa, loco senorita, aaaaaahhhh!"
  A deadly silence descended on the warehouse. Matt saw a silhouette run at him. He had no time to move. The silhouette knocked him backwards.
  "Matt!" Robbie gasped. "You ok?"
  "Ouch!" Matt sat up. "What happened to the pizza guy?"
  "Lauren mistook him for one of us." RJ explained, "Apparently, she's out to kill all of us."
  "Why?" Matt asked.
  "We know that she's murdered almost just as many people as Marli did." Robbie said quickly. "And if we don't get out of here fast, she will."

  Matt got to his feet.
  "Everybody out!" he shouted. "We got a psycho around here. Vacate the premmesis immediately!"
  "When hell freezes over!" he heard Rachel retort.
  "A psycho?" Lauren asked. "I never thought of myself as a psycho. Hmmm. Then again, maybe I am, a psycho!!!!"
  She smashed the fuse box with her baseball bat, knocking out the electricity.
  "Crap!" Robbie shouted. "Man, RJ, get the power back on."
  "I can't!" RJ exclaimed. "I don't know where I am!"
  "Aaaaaahhh!" a scream came echoing through the warehouse.

  That started the chaos. Robbie ran straight ahead, barreling into a wall. He stood there, dazed, and collapsed in a heap. While Robbie lay there, barely conscious, the pandemonium continued. Lauren was at an advantage. All she had to do was to seize someone and either beat them to death with the bat or strangle them with the rope. This, she soon accomplished. She chose the rope. She quickly slipped the rope around her victim's neck, and with all her strength, which wasn't much, tightened it. She heard her victim gasp for air and then fall silent. She then left her victim on the floor and proceeded.

  Robbie choked. Someone had a hold of his throat. The attack persisted. He finally managed to pull the hair of his attacker. He jabbed several times and staggered away, inhaling deeply. Just as he was getting air again, two different people tackled him to the ground.
  "Hey!" he said under the three hundred pounds pinning him down. "Do I look like a psycho to you?"
  "Yes." he heard Matt reply.
  "It's Robbie, Matt." Robbie protested, knocking both people off of him. "Man!"

  It was then that the power came back on, revealing the damage. Lauren Wick stood over the body of Ashley Ledbetter. Scott Jacobs lay dead nearby. Rachel still had a hold of Lauren Besselman's throat. RJ lay on the floor with a sprained wrist. Robbie had a swolen jaw. Matt stood unscathed. The silence only remained for a moment, for Lauren knew that time was of the escence.
  "Rachel," Robbie pointed at Lauren Besselman, "I think you've done enough."
  "Oh," Rachel looked down.
  Just as Lauren Besselman got to her feet, the power went off again.
  "Crap!" Matt shouted.
  Matt didn't want to end up like Scott or Ashley. He ran in the darkness blindly, searching for some place that was not out in the open. Behind him, he heard gasps, shouts, and thuds. He finally found a large crate. Quickly, Matt climbed inside and waited.

  As before, Robbie felt two bodies slam into him from behind. This time however, nothing more had happened. He'd merely been knocked out of the way. Robbie heard Lauren Besselman let out a blood-curdling scream as he scrambled to his feet and ran in the opposite direction. He found one of the survival kits that occupied a small corner of the warehouse and quickly fished out a large bowie knife that had recently been sharpened. As he stood up, silence once again filled the warehouse. This time, the power did not come back on.

  RJ heard footsteps go past him, as he lay motionless on the ground. Something had hit him in the head, hard. He looked around. He could see someone in the corner looking around a stack of boxes and another walking slowly towards him. RJ staggered to his feet, but a sudden, ear-splitting "bonk" on his head sent him back down again.

  Rachel soon found Lauren Besselman, and together, they staggered through the darkness seaking a place to get their barings. In the meantime, Matt found a toolbox discarded on the floor behind him. He quickly felt around for something he could use as a weapon.

  Matt inspected the hammer and then looked up. He could see someone dragging a body across the floor and another slowly feeling their way through the darkness. Matt followed.

  Robbie turned to see someone with a hammer approach. He stopped. Then he noticed the shadow dragging a body across the floor. He took a chance and advanced towards the figure slowly walking across the room. He tapped the silhouette on the shoulder. Before he could see it coming, something julted him back, the wind knocked out of him. Unable to contain it, Robbie coughed loudly. He knew that he'd been found out.

  Rachel and Lauren watched as a figure dragged another across the floor. They also noticed the two silhouettes, each with a weapon, watch as the first dragged on.

  Matt recognized Robbie's nasal cough. He also saw a knife go sailing through the air. He dove for it, but a hand grabbed it instead.
  "Robbie!" Matt whispered. "Duck!"
  The knife went tearing through the air, grazing the top of Robbie's head.
 : "Die, die, all of you must die!" Lauren screamed.
  "Why?" Matt shouted. "Why are we such a damn nucense to you!"
  "You don't know?" she lowered the knife. "You don't know that it was I who killed LeMaire, Browder, Dower, and Jones?"
  "We do, now." Rachel called.
  "Well," Lauren tapped the knife, "then you could turn me in, couldn't you!"
  "Yes," Robbie began, "but how could----"
  "Silence!" Lauren shouted, removing the pistol from her pocket.
  "Holy crap!" Robbie shouted. "Hey, that's my "big knife"."
  Just as Robbie finished his sentence, the sound of gun fire rang out, shot after shot ringing in Robbie's ears.

  Matt felt a shell imbed itself in his leg. He fell, pain shooting up his spine. He saw Lauren Wick spinning slowly, letting loose every shell in the pistol.

  The power flickered and then came back on. Lauren threw the pistol over a wall of crates and charged at Rachel with Robbie's "big knife." Rachel was still looking at the flickering power, when a sudden stab in the stomach drew her attention elsewhere.
  "Hey!" Robbie watched as Rachel collapsed, her blood gushing out of the wound.
  Matt turned from Lauren Besselman's corpse to see Lauren coming at him with the bowie knife.
  "Hey, hey!" Robbie shouted. "That's my "big knife"."
  Matt blocked the first slash of the knife with the hammer. The next one nicked him in the shoulder, causing him to drop the hammer. With two more deadly slashes, Matt lay in a pool of blood, decapitated.
  "RJ!" Robbie shouted. "Get the hell out of here!"
  He kicked the knife out of Lauren's hand. Quickly, he retrieved it and wiped the blood off.
  "So," he muttered, "the little ----- thinks she can kill without interference. Well, that is not the case this time."
  "Wait," Lauren stopped him from his attack, "I'm unarmed."
  "Unlike you," Robbie lowered the knife, glowering, "I don't kill unarmed opponents. Get a knife. I'll win in the end."
  She searched for a moment and then found a knife, identical to Robbie's. She sharpened it and then advanced towards Robbie.

  Knives clashed furiously, a barrage of metal. An opening opened; Lauren lunged. Robbie bared his teeth under the pain. Blood was trickling down the left side of his shirt. As Lauren retracted her lunge, a blow from Robbie knocked the knife from her hand.
  "Go ahead," she patronized, "kill me!"
  "Pick it up." Robbie said softly, "Go on, pick it up."
  She slowly bent down and picked up the knife. Then, in rapid succession, she stabbed Robbie several times in the chest and neck. Robbie went down.

  He looked up at her. She held the knife unsteadily in her grip.
  "You do know that RJ is still out there." Robbie exclaimed weakly. "He was the one who told me what you did."
  "He'll turn up." Lauren said, the knife poised inches from Robbie's throat. "You will be one less witness to worry about."
  The knife went down, down, down, and stopped. RJ stood with the knife in his hand.
  "Give me that!" Lauren shouted.
  "Ok." RJ tossed the knife out the open door. "Robbie, you ok?"
  "No!" Robbie pointed to the blood coming out of his arm. "I gotta kill her with my "big knife," "big knife," "big knife," now, now, now!!!!"
  "Miss Wick," RJ looked up from Robbie, "I would strongly advise you to turn yourself in."
  "The hell I will." She belted RJ. "I've come this far, and I ain't quittin' now!"
  Robbie struggled to his feet, still bleeding.
  "Look at what you've done!" he shouted. "You killed four people, and wanted to cover up for it. Now, you've killed six others."
  She picked up the baseball bat and knocked Robbie twice in the head. He collapsed and didn't move.
  "You won't succeed!" RJ said, turning towards the open door.
  "Oh yes I will," she wound back and hit RJ on the base of the skull.
  He, too collapsed.

  Lauren looked in a survival kit. There they were. Matches. She fished out a lighter and lit one. She tossed it into a stack of papers atop a crate nearby. Just as the first few flames shot up, Lauren turned and charged out the door. As she climbed into her car, she noticed a figure walking past the Hoinker Doinker Soda Shop across the street.

  Six people were reported dead the next day. The funeral had taken place two days ago. Lauren had not attended. She thought that her snickers would give way to the revelations of who was responsible for their deaths. Then she glanced back at the obituaries from the day after the fire. Six, six people were listed. She'd killed eight: Besselman, Greer, Jacobs, Ledbetter, Messer, Regenold, Trammelll, and that sleezy pizza boy. Then she remembered the figure by the soda shop. It must've been Robbie or RJ. Lauren threw the paper aside and hurled her glass of water through the window, shattering both into a million pieces.
  "Back to square one."