這是一部致敬《放下那些該死的槍》的小說，《紐約時報》暢銷書作家傑森·雷諾茲的這部令人震撼的小說，故事發生在短短的六十秒內——一個孩子決定是否要殺死殺害他弟弟的兇手所需的時間。

一門大砲。一條皮帶。

一塊餅乾。

一個燃燒器。一個加熱器。

一把砍刀。一把槍。

一把錘子

一個工具

為了規則

或者，你也可以稱之為槍。這就是十五歲的威爾塞在牛仔褲後腰帶裡的東西。瞧，他的弟弟肖恩剛剛被謀殺了。威爾知道規則。不許哭泣。不許告密。復仇。這就是威爾現在要去的地方，他牛仔褲後腰帶裡塞著那把槍，那把曾經是弟弟的槍。他興奮地踏上電梯，來到七樓。他知道自己在追殺誰。或者，他真的知道嗎？

電梯停在六樓，巴克走了進來。威爾發現，在威爾拿槍之前，巴克就是把槍給了肖恩的人。巴克要威爾檢查槍裡有沒有裝子彈。就在這時，威爾發現槍裡少了一顆子彈。唯一可能開肖恩槍的人就是肖恩。啊。威爾竟然不知道肖恩真的用過他的槍。更糟的是，巴克死了。但巴克在電梯裡？

就在威爾努力思考的時候，通往下一層樓的門開了。一個十幾歲的女孩走了上來，揮手驅散了死去的巴克香菸的煙霧。威爾不認識她，但她認識他。認識。在他們八歲的時候。流彈劃破操場，威爾試圖掩護她，但她還是被擊中了。所以，在五樓的電梯停下來時，她想知道的是，如果威爾，把槍插在牛仔褲後腰帶裡的威爾，沒射中目標怎麼辦。

就這樣，電梯一路下行，每一層都停下，每次停下，都會有和他哥哥有關係的人上來，給威爾講述一個比他自以為了解的更宏大的故事。一個可能永遠沒有結局的故事……如果威爾走出電梯的話。

An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds’s electrifying novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother.

A cannon. A strap.
A piece. A biscuit.
A burner. A heater.
A chopper. A gat.
A hammer
A tool
for RULE

Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he?

As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator?

Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES.

And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if Will gets off that elevator.