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"The helicopter!" Shark roars, leading the break for our only hope of survival We pound after him, but I see within seconds that we haven&039;t a snowman in hell&039;s chance The olves are closer to the helicopter than we are and they can run faster

Alert to the danger, James starts to take his Farrier Harrier up, out of the reach of the onrushing olves But he&039;s not quick enough One of the larger beasts takes a running leap and grabs hold of the skid on the pilot&039;s side Marian levels her gun at it, but the weight of the olf causes the helicopter to lurch and she&039;s jolted off target The olf hauls itself up on to the skid and drives its fists and head through the pilot&039;sIt locks its jaws on Jaes hiainst the olf, tries to thrash free, fails, then goes liht, then banks and smashes into the co squeal The blood-spattered glass shatters and the body of the helicopter buckles inwards But it doesn&039;t explode like I expect it to

I spot a shaken, bloodied Marian struggling froe Three olves jump her while she&039;s half out of the helicopter They drive her back inside and finish her off, fighting over the scraps

The first olf is on us before we can feel any pity for James and Marian Shark takes careful aih the centre of its head Then he changes direction and darts for the helicopter which was already here e arrived He bellows at us to follow

Werewolves quickly fill the area around us Shark and his re, killing I can&039;t work up any sympathy for my unfortunate relatives It&039;s them or us now

Timas stoops over Pip&039;s body as we pass, swiftly loosens her rucksack and burrows through it as he runs, whistling casually He picks out a device, smiles, shakes his head and carefully replaces it Never drops his pace, keeping up with the rest of us even though he&039;s not concentrating

Some of the olves are distracted by the stranded, wounded survivors of Juni&039;s forces-easy pickings The ground between us and the helicopter partially clears Shark and his tea a path Hope flares within oing to make it!

We reach the helicopter More andon us, but it doesn&039;t matter Liam, Stephen and the injured Leo cut down those closest to the helicopter and stand guard outside, keeping the area clear while the rest of us clamber in

Shark and Timas bundle into the cockpit Shark whoops and tries to start the engine There&039;s no response He frowns, ducks, looks beneath the control panel Comes up pale-faced "They removed" He curses, then stares at Timas ild hope "Any way you could"

Tih to peer down "No," he says "This is going nowhere" He continues ruasps "Werewolves can&039;t swim"

"It would take at least two minutes to lower a boat," Prae says miserably "We could cut one free and drop it, but we&039;d still have to climb down the ladders They&039;d clamber after us or hurl themselves off the cliff on top of us We&039;d never make it"

"I could put a shield in place at the top of the ladder," I pant

"You&039;d need a bigger shield than that," Timas murmurs "Didn&039;t you notice the slits in the cliffside walls of the couards can fire at anything attacking from the seaward direction They can pick us off if we try to descend"

"Could you cover us frounfire and olves all the way to the bottoroan "I can try"

"I don&039;t like it," he growls "We&039;d be too exposed Any other suggestions?"

"Can you get us inside the coain?" Meera asks Prae

"No I don&039;t know the security codes"

"Tiure them out," he says calmly, "but it would take several oes down, tackled by a pair of small olves Liam and Stephen fire into them, but it&039;s too late When they fall away, Leo&039;s eyes are wide and lifeless, a shredded hs "Let&039;s try for the boats and just hope for-"

"Caves!" I shout, flashing on an iht arm "Are there caves near here?"

"I don&039;t know," she scowls "I wasn&039;t involved with this project I haven&039;t-"

"There are a feithin reach," Timas cuts in He looks at me curiously "What sort of cave are you interested in?"

"One with a single entrance, so we can block it off and seal ourselves in"

"What will that achieve?" Shark frowns

"If I have a few hours, I can open ato the Demonata universe"

Shark stares at me, then the boats, then the breached perih He calculates the odds

"If we don&039;t make it to the cave, we can break for the sea and juhtfully

"So we&039;d have a plan B," Shark nods "OK The cave Go for it!"

Spilling out of the helicopter, we face the onco ranks of olves and press stubbornly-suicidally-forward into the thick of theh the wild, fast, powerful, stinking, howling creatures Shark, Tiht circle around Meera and ainst us Weforward aardly The soldiers and Prae shower the olves with bullets, but it won&039;t be long before one breaks through, then another, then all

"This is crazy!" I yell, changing my mind "We&039;ll never make it Let&039;s try the boats"

"No," Timas responds "If we reach the wall, we&039;ll be over the worst Notice how the floolves has lessened? Most of the beasts within quick reach of the co his eyes off the beasts, firing every few seconds,any

"I have a plan," Timas says "It should buy us some tiles Pip&039;s rucksack at er, incredibly h the air Bullets froun lace his body, but he lands on top of Spenser and yanks him away from us The olf tumbles after the soldier and drops dead a second later But the dae is done Spenser&039;s cut off Before he can rejoin the group, half a dozen wolfen savages are covering hi a woman&039;s name

We push on, no tiic, but I have to saveto the cave if I can&039;t open ato safety once we&039;re there

We creep closer to the wall, the olves dogging our every step, snapping and clawing at us, trying to press through the rain of bullets I notice thatback behind the smaller specimens They must be some of the enhanced creatures, those ere physically and mentally altered, trained to hunt in packs They&039;re letting the weaker creatures hurl themselves at us, to tire us, so they canto Timas, the Lambs created more than two hundred of these newer, deadlier olves I can&039;t count more than fifty around us Thatfor us outside the wall