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"Heon every other word as I was forced to breathe in the rancid stench

Elyssa squeaked and went rigid Her hand tightened on my wrist so hard I expected to hear the bones crunch I followed her gaze Bodies littered the floor Flies buzzed around the corpses They appeared black and oily to ruesome scene all the worse My heartbeat sped up My face felt hot frohter this represented Even with the decay, I could tell soers and the elderly Many appeared to be dressed in rags, possibly homeless when they were alive

"They’re all dead," I said in a hoarse whisper

A grunt echoed One of the bodies jerked upright and turned our way, its sunken eye cavities staring blindly in our direction I al bodies echoed in the cha noise I’d heard earlier More corpses jerked upright, their heads swiveling toward htened another notch "Not quite" She stared atyour heartbeat?"

"I think I let that slip when I saw the dead bodies"

"Oh, God" Elyssa spun back the e’d entered "We’ve got to get out of here We’ve got to run Now!" Her voice was a whisper, but the alar fear

The animated corpses jerked like broken puppets to their feet all the whilenoises that could only e vocal cords

We spun and raced back through the maze

"Zos," Elyssa said "These idiot va to turn hu or they don’t kno"

"But they look dead"

"They’re ht The hu the e Now they’re just empty mindless shells that crave blood Think zo From the looks of them, they haven’t been fed in weeks"

I tried desperately to cover up h presence of ry shouts echoed fro No, not just people Va this way We screeched to a halt

Elyssa’s eyes widened with panic Mine felt like they were bugging out of ht the dead ones," I said "They look rotten enough to punch through"

"You don’t understand," Elyssa said "With the huone, they have no sense of self-preservation or self-li beliefs The worst part is, they’re relentless They’ll never stop coore" She scanned our surroundings "We’ve got to hide until the vao back upstairs"

"Someone intentionally blew out the keypad," said a female voice from up ahead "Maxiood stuff, he’d gut thees for a uard duty, Felicia?" a male voice whined "It’s new moon"

"Shut up, Mortiet the va fierce," Mortimer said "We need to talk to Maximus about some Lysol"

"Shut up, Mortiuy piled on "Mortimer, you’re a whiny little bitch"

Elyssa stopped ers My heart raced even faster I thought back to the fight in the alley The va as I was on their own, but they were strong together We looked for a hiding place, a niche, anything A guttural screas sha toward us at a horrific clip, their eyes focused on the only thing in existence that mattered to them: food

Elyssa pulled her swords I followed suit

The va red embers burned in their eye sockets as they stared at us, then at the vaot warest of the vaeek chick

The young boy, the very same one who’d helped kidnap my father, nodded "I’m on it" He raced back toward the stairs

Felicia flashed a wicked ss off"