LOL! Yeah, I know its crazy. But this is actually inspired by reallife events. In 1999 I read Peter Maas' book "Underboss. Sammy The Bull Gravano's story of life in the Mafia", and in it he tells of one hit where they shot a guy in the face from point blank range and he still managed to drive away! The story left such an impression on me, I knew I had to put it in a story one day. Also, there's the fact that male praying mantises continue to copulate even after the female bites their heads off. Mandilla is an insectoid, after all, so I thought it was reasonable.
I read a reporters memoir of the Serb-Croatian war, and he describes a scene where a car rushes up on this checkpoint and the guards light it up, killing everybody in it. When they go up and open the door, the driver tips over and his brain falls out of his busted head in pieces and spills onto the ground. As they’re staring at this, a cat runs up and grabs a big brain blob and runs off with it. That scene is burned in my head forever and I wasn’t even there....
