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The slaughter began six feet from the door I didn’t know if those trapped down here had been waiting for good news, or their turn on the "rescue" boat, but they’d gotten bullets instead Bodies were everywhere, so warm blood There were spatters on the walls fro And there were more ropy loops of "intestine" here, worms evacuated from human bodies I didn’t point them out

It smelled awful--the scent when fear and death make you evacuate your bowels, plus all the warm must of what’s nornant-sto to be sick," I said, and looked for so anyone’s body E not to see

"Don’t re on that echoed rasping sound, and the little girl nodded

"Can you use that on ht need to react to sori else down

Hal picked his way through the s the other side, he waved to me "Come on"

It helped that Hal had been a sailor I supposed that at their core all ships were alike We followed him down a narrow hall, punctuated with the occasional corpse All of the fallen cren here looked surprised, like statues frozen by Medusa in an unending moment of horror I didn’t knohat they’d been forced to see down here, but I couldn’t iine the crew had fared any better than we had Worse, probably, since there’d been no way for them to throw themselves overboard

We were quiet as Claire tilted her head back and forth, and I wondered darkly if she could use voices like sonar We didn’t stop to go into any of the rooh their s they all appeared to be storage But I did knoas getting louder ahead of us, and there was a sensation of movement from the decks beneath our feet

Hal paused and turned back "We ht not be able to hear one another after this next set of doors" He pointed at his own ears "There’s a reason I’ht? They won’t hear us co at her throat Her vocal skills wouldn’t work down here We’d be on our own I nodded

Hal pushed the doors open slowly, crouching, carefully looking around Behind hi as sofas pounded up and down, keeping the Maraschino still on its space of real estate in the sea Machinery ran froes of the ship The roo up and across each side Where a row of co crew had been murdered to awas now, and if we found hiet him free

I scanned around, and spotted two parcels of C-4 on each side, in between the giant ribs of the ship, two floors up--and saw a ht-hand side I shook Hal’s sleeve and pointed He nodded when he spotted hih the sound of theWhat’s the plan? I tried to say with my hands

Hal held one hand out andquietly along to indicate stealth And then a sudden rude shoving e, onto the pistons below

As plans went, it wasn’t a great one But when life gives you lemons--or mercenaries employed by someone psychotic--you do whatever the fuck you can I nodded

Then I pried E "Stay hidden down here, okay? Like hide and seek," I whispered over the diesel engines She nodded, and crouched down behind a desk

I crawled up diamond-deck stairs, this time ahead of Hal The soldier hadn’t looked up from his task I wasn’t sure if C-4 required that much attention, or if he was just that confident that there was no one left who could put up a fight His gun was slung over his shoulder, across his back, and he was using both of his gloved hands for his task Feeling like I was pretending to be a ninja, I crept closer, using the ribs of the ship for cover, until he was only ten feet away from me He looked like he had fifty pounds onto need every foot ofmy shoes onto the deck for traction, when he looked up

I didn’t stop I ran straight for him, hatever adrenaline I had left inside With all ht here, of the worht already be dead--I used all of this to run straight toward hi up his gun, and I hit hih energy to send hie of the rails He took the blow and spun, yanking the gun up I et ahold of the trigger We spun together, wrestling over the gun, whirling around each other until we’d changed spots like dancers, the barrel of the gun still pointing at the floor I saw Hal near as hirled and Claire leaned over and caught the soldier’s neck from her perch on Hal’s back I half expected her to snap it, while I tried to leverage his rifle out of his hand I saw her lipsto hiines and his arht ht His hands reached up to clutch his throat, and the gun dropped, forgotten in breathless terror

I watched hi into water, his lips the only visible part of hi from pink to a hypoxic shade of blue She’d kissed the air out of hiotten, Hal turned toward the package of C-4 affixed to the wall He did soers and unfastened a tih it wasn’t attached to anything anymore He showed it to ht seconds on the clock