"A penalty shot is required," the man in the suit told her, and she was handed a loaded weapon.

Darla bit her lip, took careful aim, and this time she hit Julie square in the belly, very close to her navel.

"Ooooff," Julie groaned. Darla swapped guns and fired again, striking Julie a couple inches to the left of her navel. "Huh," Julie gasped, then looked approvingly at her friend. "Okay, that was good, Darla." Three steady streams of blood trickled and forked down Julie's shiny white latex suit, with the center wound gushing a bit more profusely than its two counterparts. Julie tried to steady her heart rate and minimize the bleeding, and again began to hope for a slip up from her opponents. She watched nervously as the blonde girl put another hole in Alicia's gut with expert accuracy, dashing her dreams of an early victory.

Darla took a newly loaded pistol and added a fourth hole in Julie's belly, but before Julie could resign herself to another brief reprieve, a judge stepped up to her and deemed the last wound too low, as it was located just beneath the line of her hips, only slightly to the right of her navel.

"No," Julie whispered. "You've gotta be kidding me."

"F*ck! I'm sorry!" Darla cried.

"A little higher, Darla," Julie advised.

Darla heeded her advice, plugging Julie in the upper abdomen, a little off to the right.

"Huh," Julie grunted. "Maybe a little lower next time," she said with a wince. "I think that was my liver."

Darla put the next shot in her belly, a couple inches up and to the left of her navel.

"Better," Julie sighed. She peered down at her wounds and wondered if there was any chance she could survive being shot six times in the stomach. While she mulled that question over, Blondie shot Alicia for the third time, again demonstrating impressive marksmanship. Alicia now had three evenly spaced gun shot wounds across her belly, none of which were anywhere near vital parts of the body. Evidently she was in this for the long haul.

I'm f*cked, Julie thought. Darla took aim, and then put a bullet through her approximately an inch to the right of her navel.

"Uhhhnn," Julie cried, and blood flew from her lips. If there was any doubt that she was dying, it was quickly erased. Oh God, I'm really f*cked. I'm already spitting up blood. The judge verified the bullet hole was more than an inch from the second gun shot wound Darla had inflicted on her, and the turn passed to Blondie.

Alicia caught a round in the left side of her gut, and she screamed in agony. When Darla was handed a freshly loaded pistol, she was informed that she would be permitted to target Julie from the hips to the knees, as this was the fifth official shot.

"Okay," Julie croaked, blood trickling down her chin, "try to hit me in the thigh." Darla did as Julie asked, punching a hole in Julie's right thigh, tearing through the meat to the right of her femur. "Ahhhh! Okay, nice one," Julie told her.

As usual, Blondie answered with remarkable aim, plugging Alicia in the left thigh.

Julie steadied herself for yet another hole in her belly. "Darla," she said, "I don't think I'm gonna be able to play in state." She tried to laugh to show she was making light of a dire situation, but what came out was half giggle and half sob.

Squinting through tears of her own, Darla managed to shoot Julie an inch and a half above her navel, just barely to the right of her spine.

"Ulllhhnn," Julie grunted. There was now a trio of bullet holes clustered together around her belly button. "Maybe… you could aim a… a little closer to the side of… of my stomach, next time."

"I'm sorry," Darla told her again. Julie wanted to scream at her to stop apologizing. Saying you're sorry didn't make dying any easier, but she lacked the strength to scream, so she just stood there and bled.

Alicia was shot for the sixth time, taking another round in the stomach.

"Remember… not so close to my spine," Julie said, prepping Darla for the next shot. She licked blood from her lips and watched Darla pull the trigger. "Unnnngg." The bullet slammed into the left side of her lower abdomen, clearly below her hips. "Sh*t," Julie muttered.

"This shot is a miss," the guy in the suit announced, without bothering to check with the judge for confirmation. "A penalty shot will be required, and the original shot must still be taken."

"Noooo!" Darla cried.

At least she didn't apologize, Julie thought. She couldn't take much solace in that, however, since Darla was promptly handed another freshly loaded pistol, and when she leveled the gun at Julie, her hand was trembling so violently that Julie was sure the next shot would be errant. "Darla," Julie said with surprising composure, "take it easy. Take a deep breath." Darla's hand steadied slightly, and when she pulled the trigger she managed to score a valid hit, the bullet striking Julie just below the left side of her rib cage. "Urrrgghh," Julie winced as hot lead wreaked havoc on her insides. "There… there you go," she said with a sigh. "Just stay calm."

"I can't," Darla cried, bawling uncontrollably.

"Dar, I'm already dying," Julie said softly. "You can't… save me. I'm dead meat. Just… think of it like ya… you're shooting a target." Because that's what I am, target practice, she thought with unbridled and thinly concealed horror.

Sniffling, Darla took her next shot, and found a previously unblemished section of Julie's midriff, low and far to the right of her navel. The judge deemed it legal, just above Julie's waist line, and Blondie was given her turn. Alicia's belly absorbed its sixth bullet, and the holes were creeping ever closer towards her center, where the blood flowed more freely. Julie looked at her own bullet-riddled belly and wondered if it might be time for Darla to target her chest. Before she could say anything, however, Darla plugged her in the gut, hitting her a little to the right and very close to the seventh gun shot wound she had suffered. The judge approached, and using a tape measure he determined the two wounds were less than an inch apart, rendering this a miss.

"Darla, yuh… you can sh… shoot me in the chest… if you need to."

"No," Darla said, "I can do this." She fired a shot through the left side of Julie's belly, and it was ruled a clean hit. She then found another spot in the lower left quadrant of Julie's abdomen to ventilate, and the turn passed to Blondie and Alicia. Without missing a beat, Blondie plugged Alicia in the gut, and Darla was armed for the eighteenth time. Sixteen of the previous seventeen bullets had found their way into Julie's body, but only eight qualified as legitimate hits. With fifteen bullet holes scattered across her abdomen, Julie urged Darla to shift her aim higher.

"No more… n… no more sh… shots in m… muh… my belly," she stammered.

Darla nodded and blasted a hole in Julie just above her right breast. Julie wheezed heavily, and thousands of droplets of blood flew from her mouth in a red mist as she exhaled. As if in consolation, after Alicia sustained the eighth bullet wound in her belly, blood began to well from her lips as well.

"This is the tenth official shot, so you may once again target Julie's hips and thighs," Gerard declared as Darla was handed another freshly loaded pistol. Aiming low, Darla fired at Julie's leg, and the bullet grazed Julie's left thigh.

"This shot is a miss," the judge announced.

Darla moaned miserably, but ended up putting a pair of holes in Julie's quadriceps, successfully completing her turn. Alicia similarly sprouted another hole in her left thigh, and Darla popped Julie below her right breast. A crushing tightness in her chest made breathing difficult, but Julie continued to gasp and wheeze, somehow drawing air into her lungs. Alicia was crying and pleading for mercy, babbling on about how much she didn't want to die, and Blondie plugged her in the gut for the ninth time. Incredibly, all nine shots were spaced perfectly across her belly, and Julie knew this game was rigged. Blondie was a planted marksman, and Darla had no hope of defeating her.

"Duh… uh… *slurp* *gurgle* duh… De… bee," Julie managed, but she couldn't get anything more out.

"fk, Julie," Darla squealed, "how can I pretend you're just a target when you're f*ing talking to me." Tears streaked down her cheeks as she fired, drilling Julie's right breast, just above the nipple.

"Guuuuuhhhh!" Julie grunted.

Meanwhile Blondie's shots were now encroaching on Alicia's ribs, and she put a round into the girl's upper abdomen. Julie began to wonder if she might still outlast her, even though Julie had nearly twice as many bullet wounds in her. Her body was failing, but she fought against death with stubborn determination, not only for Darla's sake, but for the sake of being alive. Unfortunately she suffered another setback, as Darla's next shot missed its mark and punched into her right shoulder. The judge uttered those hateful words, "This shot is a miss," and Julie steeled herself for two more slugs.

The next round caught her just beneath her right collar bone, and the one after that tore a hole in her left breast, ruining the one good lung she had left. After that, it seemed no matter how hard she sucked at the air, scarcely any oxygen found its way to her brain. Her breath rattled loudly in her throat, interspersed with guttural, choking noises.

I don't have much time left, she thought grimly.

A bullet ripped through Alicia's chest, high above her right breast, where none of her vital organs would be damaged. With the knowledge that yet another bullet was about to strike her, Julie tensed, and Darla shot her just beneath her sternum, shearing off part of spinal column and spraying chunks of bone out her back. The spinal cord itself remained in tact, however. Although this was a critical injury, Julie was just relieved that Darla had avoided punching another hole in her lungs. She no longer possessed the strength to turn her head and watch as Alicia took on another bullet hole, but she heard her anguished cries.

Darla received word that this was the fifteenth official shot, although twenty-five bullets had already ripped holes in her target, and she blasted Julie in the right hip. Julie could only presume that Blondie's turn went without a hitch, in typical fashion, and that one of Alicia's thighs was pierced by hot lead, before it was once again time for Darla to take aim at her.

Darla switched back to targeting the right side of her chest, and the twenty-seventh bullet to enter Julie's flesh drilled through her right nipple. The judge ruled that this wound was within an inch of her twenty-first wound, and was considered a miss. Darla squawked in frustration, and took another shot. This time she aimed for the left side of Julie's chest, and hit her above the breast, near her shoulder. Thankfully, no serious damage was done. The next shot, which was to make up for the miss, went slightly astray and slipped into Julie's chest on the inside curve of her left tit, pulverizing her left ventricle. Julie's eyes bulged wide in her sockets and her mouth yawned in a silent scream as her damaged heart spasmed and stopped.

This is it, she thought, sick with horror. Her muscles tautened, rebelling against the finality of her being, and somewhere far away she heard Darla screaming. Then Julie was gone, leaving a beautiful, bullet riddled corpse in her wake.

"NOOOOO!!!!!" Darla cried. Julie was staring at nothing, her eyes wide and blank and glossy, and Darla knew she was dead. Since she had taken her turn first, the blonde girl still had to put one more bullet into Alicia without killing her to clinch victory, but Darla didn't notice. Her mind was reeling from the fact that she had just killed yet another of her teammates, and the prospect of her own death had not yet even entered her mind. She didn't hear the gun go off next to her, or see the bullet strike Alicia in the right breast.

It wasn't until a pair of guards grabbed her arms and a third pressed the barrel of a .50 caliber hand cannon against her belly that she was snapped out of her trance. Her eyes widened and a gasp escaped her lips just before the trigger was pulled. Unlike the rounds she had fired at Julie, which were of a small caliber and encased in steel for maximum penetration, this weapon was loaded with massive hollow points, which expanded immediately on impact. The slug mushroomed into her guts, shredding her intestines and expending all its kinetic energy before it could reach her spine. Darla was released and she fell back onto her plump, round ass, and slapped both hands to her belly.

Thick, dark blood coursed relentlessly through her fingers, running down between her legs and turning the dirt a rusty red color. Too stunned to speak, she simply sat there making quiet slurping sounds, until after bleeding profusely for a couple of minutes she finally fell on her back, still clutching her stomach. Everyone's attention was divided between Alicia, who was still clinging desperately to life, and Darla, who writhed on the ground in excruciating agony, until the clock ran out on Alicia several minutes later. Darla continued to fight for two more hours before she ultimately bled out.