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"There&039;s a staircase over there!" He n across the room, what seemed an incredible distance away--
--and as if it could hear thereat bulk across the floor with surprising speed, heading off their escape route It half turned back toward the about its shapeless head, a thick puddle of blackish goo spilling out from beneath its hideous fra back and forth, a high, hissing noise erupting from its squalid body Smoke actually started to rise froht, thin but bright, lay across the beast&039;s back The creature sidled to one side, rabbed her again, pulled her back The self-destruct alarh the helipad--and the feht minutes before the sequence would coht!" she shouted, as she and Billy both turned, started to run They headed for the room&039;s northwest corner, the farthest fro between the stray beaht It wasn&039;t as fast as it had been in the elevator shaft, less to push against, but it could al
"Any idea hoe open the roof?" Billy asked, shooting a look behind the them more north
"Power&039;s out," she panted "But there should be manual latches, probably hydraulic If the roof&039;s on an incline, it&039;ll slide open e unlock them We can hope"
"Do it," Billy said, visibly winded "I&039;ll try and keep her distracted"
Rebecca nodded, looking back at the creature It had fallen behind, but it wasn&039;t flagging, wasn&039;t struggling to catch its breath the way they were
She headed for a likely looking panel on the nearest wall, as behind her, Billy turned and started to fire the nine- ht had touched Its consciousness wasn&039;t entirely animal, nor human, but possessed elements of both It understood that its home was threatened, that another force would destroy its shelter, soon It understood that sunlight meant pain, even death And it understood that the two humans that ran before it were the cause of it all, were the instrument of its imminent destruction
One of the humans stopped, aimed a weapon, fired Projectiles pierced its outer flesh, wounding, but did not penetrate to the core As with the sun burns, the creature shed the injured h to s hiround as the queenhis feet out froht ankle in a fir, Billy pushed hiht his other heel down on the bunched tentacle as hard as he could, and again The appendage retracted, theto his feet, spotted Rebecca at the all,back towas on his trail "Sequence will coodda hi too close for coh to risk it, he turned, saw Rebecca at another control panel across the rooed for him but was too far away to reach, its outstretched liot off a shot into what see on rubbery legs The thing caly inexhaustible
Coo faster
Rebecca reached the fourth and final latch as the recorded loop told therabbed the small wheel that served as the manual key, twisted--
--and it was stuck Not entirely, but it took all her strength to e just a half turn She strained, felt her ot another half turn, almost there--"Rebecca, move!"
She shot a look back, saw that sootten close, too close; it would be on her in thirty seconds--but she couldn&039;t, wouldn&039;t run, knew that they couldn&039;t afford the tiain
Billy was firing, the sound of the bullets hitting liquid flesh terrifyingly immediate She didn&039;t even look, knew she&039;d lose her nerve if she sa close it actually was
"Co at the obstinate wheel with all she had--
--and it came unstuck, even as a thick, wet limb wrapped around her left ankle, horribly alive with slick, diseasedrust, the heavens split wide, raining light over theht!
The hive screa its skin, then boiling it, thousands of individual leeches dying, falling away, the burning worse than fire because it was everywhere, all at once It tried to escape, to find shelter fro, there was nowhere
The two huh a hole in the wall, but the creature didn&039;t notice, didn&039;t care It twisted and turned, giant sheaves of flesh scraping away, layers of its body s pink center of itself to the cruel, killing light, the disinfectant light of day
By the ti exploded a fewleft of it--only a handful of straggling leeches, confused, drowning in the lake of death that had once been their father, had once been James Marcus