More pain. Both from the boot and from the ground as his head snapped back.

Darkness crept in, the colors and the sun fading out. He coughed, gagging on something warm and sticky in his mouth, and then settled. Eyes glassy and distant.

It wasn't so bad. Not nearly as bad as he'd ever imagined anyways.

In the black, with the heat pressing down, it was almost like being back in Dodge again. And that... that was okay.

A twitch, one last instinctive impulse, and then he was gone.