The four boys were sitting around in James's basement, playing Super Smash Bros: Melee, when Benny got a random idea. "Let's build a raft out of an old car and float around the river! There's an old car in the woods behind my house."
"Hey, that's a fun idea," commented Russell.
"Yeah and I know where we can find a river!" said Gary after a short pause.
"That's great, Gary!" The others knew about Gary's developmental problems and tried not to make him feel bad.
They headed to Benny's backyard where they found parts from a VW Beetle. James had some inner tubes from his family vacation in Florida, so he brought those along, too.
After a while, they had a boat that'd surely float, so they went to the nearest body of water, the Occoquan River, to set sail (And yes, they did make a sail of sorts, even though it was more like a flag.) and enjoy their afternoon in the river.
"It's getting late, we should head back to the strand," Benny said a few hours later.
"Strand? What the hell is a strand?" James asked, confused.
"Oh, sorry. It's a word I made up, it means shore. We should head back to the shore."
"Oh no! We didn't bring any paddles!" Russell observed.
"We can swim our way back!" said Gary, but then he remembered that he couldn't swim. "Oh . . . "
"Hey, look! On the strand--I mean shore! It's Perra and Marshall! Maybe they could help us!" Benny started shouting, "Hey! Guys! Help us out here, could you?"
"Ok," Perra shouted back, pulling something out of his jacket. Marshall did the same.
There were four gunshots. And only four (Both Perra and Marshall were at the top of their class in the JROTC rifle squad, so they had outstanding aiming skill).
"Heh," Marshall began, still looking out onto the water, "That was interesting, what do you want to do--" he looked back at Perra only to see the sawed-off tip of the barrel of a shotgun staring back at him.
There was another gunshot, and Marshall's body lie limp on the beach.
Perra picked up a stick, and scribbled into the sand with it. "Perra was here." He walked back into the woods and followed the trail back to his house.
//Marshall
