If asked to look back at what had happened later, Alice might say that she heard the shot. Before it hit her, as a matter of fact. But at the moment, all she knew was that there was a crack, and a great amount of force at her back that brought her to her knees. Her vision swam and there was pain spreading through her body. She tried to twist, to look around to see what had happened, who had done this to her, but the pain made her pulse throb and her hands were shaking and going cold. She dropped to all fours, gasping. She was cold. So very cold.
The last thing she saw was a tiny weed growing through a crack in the pavement. Above that, the sky.