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ADAM IS STRUGGLING, HIS battered body a wreck, but he keeps one, and we need to stop Apart fro truck a few miles back, we haven&039;t seen or heard anyone for hours Things have changed-when the fighting first started there were people everywhere Maybe it&039;s because I&039; at a fraction of my normal pace that the world seems eo on alone We&039;ll find soht When I&039;ain I&039;ll decide whether I&039; to take him with me

"Over there"

"What?"

"There," he says, pointing across the road with his badly broken hand His fingers jut out at unnatural angles, and I can&039;t see what he&039;s gesturing at "Look through the trees"

On the opposite side of the road we&039;re following is a dense forest I squint into the semidarkness to try to see whatever it is he thinks he&039;s spotted He shuffles around and hops away froap in the trees that stretches farther into the gloom I look down and see that there areonto the road from the mouth of a barely visible track

"What do you reckon?" he asks

"Got to be worth a look There wouldn&039;t be a track if it didn&039;t lead soht be more of theer to kill, but I pull hiht I can see the outline of a large building up ahead on the edge of a clearing, and I cautiously edge closer The building is huge and box-shaped, like a warehouse-but why here out in the middle of nowhere? I take another few steps forward, and realization slowly begins to dawn Shit, I knohat this place is

"What&039;s the matter, Dan?"

I don&039;t answer Can&039;t answer My s feel like lead I should turn around and walk away, but I don&039;t, and I keepWe enter a dusty, gravel-covered yard, lines ofit look like a deserted, out-of-season tourist attraction Up ahead the building&039;s doors hang open like a gaping mouth

"What is this?"

"You don&039;t know?"

He shrugs his shoulders

"Should I?"

"Slaughterhouse"

Ada it toward the open door

"You told me about these places, but I"

"What? You didn&039;t believe me?"

"It&039;s not that"

He stops talking and I stop listening Like a character in a bad horrorIt&039;s alh to know that we&039;re in a narrow corridor with a set of heavy double doors directly ahead It&039;s musty and damp in here, the faint scents of the forest and wood s with the heavy, acrid stench of chelooht I al here in the dark I can still see the helpless, terrified faces of the people cram chamber I remember their lost and desperate expressions, the confusion, frustration, and pain so evident I remember my own terror, convinced I was about to die