yanks knife

Then The Thing roared and stabbed down. I looked up. Saw the blade descend. Watched, as four inches of hardened steel penetrated my forehead.

...

“How’d we get here?” said Gow.

“I found you unconscious on the porch next to Wraith’s corpse. Chucked you over my shoulder and headed straight here.” Gow frowned. “With a knife sticking out of your head?”

...

“You still haven’t told me how you’re not dead.” The edges of my mouth curled.

“He stabbed me exactly in-line with my scar,” I said, holding an index finger up between my eyes.

“I know,” said Gow. “I’m looking down the hole.”

“Great shot,” I said. “Takes incredible strength. But he didn’t know his cerebrum anatomy.” Gow cocked his head.

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“I looked down the blade,” I said. Gow blinked a few times.

“Come again?”

“Story Code told me,” I said. “Guy came into the ER in Pretoria with a machete hacked through the top of his skull. Blade was sunk in four inches. Damn near cleaved his skull in half. Code figured the guy was already dead, just didn’t know it yet. But when they removed the blade . . . .” I shrugged. “Guy was fine.”

“What?” said Gow.

“The great longitudinal fissure.” Gow blinked a couple more times, said nothing. “There’s a groove between the hemispheres of your brain,” I said. “A big cleft right down in the middle, maybe half an inch wide, about three inches deep. Just wide and deep enough for a blade to slide through without doing any serious damage.” Gow’s stared at me for a while with his mouth open.

“Are you saying you let him stab you on purpose?” he said. If I could have shaken my head, I would have.

“He was going to stab me anyway,” I said. “He was too damn good with that blade. But I knew from my old x-rays that my scar was right in line with the fissure. Figured it’d make a good target. All I had to do was tilt my face and help him line it up. It gave me the opening I needed.” Gow stared at me.

“How’d you get the blade out?” he said.

“Yanked it,” I said. “Code nearly feinted. Then rushed me to surgery and tied off the blood vessels. Pretty gnarly. I was awake the hole time.”
-Sledge vs. The Labyrinth pg. 265-268