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THE FIRST FLOOR OF the hotel is deserted, and it&039;s easy to see why The carpet is soaked ater, and there&039;s a tideround Wallpaper is hanging down in strips, and the whole place sht there would be uess most of them ashed out with the floodwater that has obviously flowed through the building in the last couple of days Others will have left when the fighting started Aone? Was she ever here at all?

I head back to the front of the hotel, feet squelching on the waterlogged carpet, then head upstairs I cliht of steps to the second floor, knifing a fucker in the gut as he tries to barge past lance back and watch as he tu over and over until he lands in a bloody, groaning heap at the very botto the rooms on the second floor, but they&039;re e the hall when a door flies open and three terrified Unchanged s and boxes of belongings as they canthey&039;re carrying, and one of theet up and start running after theone Doesn&039;t o

The next three doors are open, and the rooms are empty They&039;re foul, squalid places, full of the residue of the refugees who&039;ve been forced to live here together for weeks on end The carpets are covered with a layer of waste and abandoned belongings, so deep that I don&039;t see the curled-up body of an elderly ers of his outstretched hand crack under my boot

Back out in the hall, I force ic here The hotel&039;s e any of the vacant rooms If any of the doors aren&039;t locked, I decide, there&039;s no one there

I start hacking at the lock and hinges of the next door I find that&039;s still shut I can already hear the bastards inside the roo on the door, shoulder-charging it open when I&039;ve done enough dae to loosen the latch One of the occupants runs atI sidestep hi into the wall opposite There are three other Unchanged in the rooh an openThe light&039;s low, but I see enough to know that I don&039;t recognize any of them and they&039;re of no interest I turn and head back out to the hallway, pausing only to knife the fucker who co

The lock on the door of the next room is broken, but it&039;s held on a chain It opens just far enough for rabs hold of the door handle and pulls it shut, snatching it from my hands Another room empties as I approach, and this tiainst the wall and let two ed stumble past

Almost all of the third floor is empty, and Lizzie&039;s not in any of the rooms that are still occupied In a rooirl sitting alone in an armchair that dwarfs her tiny shape In ht be Ellis It&039;s dark, the dull dawn light just beginning to seep in through the cracks between the wooden boards that have been nailed across theIt&039;s only when I touch the girl and she slumps out of the chair that I see it isn&039;t Ellis, and it&039;s only when she lies at ain that I realize she&039;s already dead, abandoned by whoever she ith

The door to the last roohtly, but it slams shut as I run toward it I shove it open before it&039;s locked Three Unchanged woe I don&039;t understand Sounds like Polish or Russian or so I turn and leave, and one of therabs hold ofwith

Top floor Running out of options

There are ot time for I stop outside the first I can hear voices inside, so I start chopping at the lock withto feel heavy and numb with effort The rotten wood splinters easily, and the door flies open, but Lizzie&039;s not here, and I move on I can feel their relief when I turnfurniture up against it to seal the each other are both shut I jump the sprawled-out body of a Chinese ainst the first of the in Urdu or Punjabi or similar, so I i at the wood around the latch I stop for a second when I hear another deafening explosion outside, a flash of white lighting everything up like a strobe It&039;s ie the distance, but that sounded close Too close I can still feel the vibrations through ain This door is more stubborn than most It&039;s newer than the others, probably recently replaced I guess I&039;m not the first person to have to try to break into a rooain, desperate to get through

viii

WITH HIS FACE PRESSED hard against the spyhole in the door, Mark stared in disbelief at the eon his way into the room directly opposite

"What is it?" Kate asked, trying to pull him away He didn&039;t answer He couldn&039;t answer How could this be? How had he found them? Was it just coincidence or the cruelest stroke of bad luck i for thelanced back over his shoulder at Lizzie standing in the far corner, the stunned expression on his face obviously speaking volumes

"Mark, what is it? What the hell&039;s the nored her and instead continued to stare at Lizzie Shethat she already kneas outside, she tried to push Mark out of the way He stood his ground, turned his back on her, and pressed his eye up against the tiny glass button in the door again

He hadn&039;t seen hinizable, but it was definitely him, he was sure of it Danny McCoyne His cousin Danny His mom&039;s sister Jean&039;s son The kid he&039;d s and parties when they were growing up The miserable loser with the dead-end job who&039;d ended up saddled with too many kids in an apartment that was too small The notorious slacker who other members of the family had frequently cited as a pris Lizzie&039;s partner A , McCoyne continued to haer and hatred so visible on his cousin&039;s twisted face, shocked and appalled by what he had becoly, uncomfortable in his own body, but that uncertainty had been replaced noith focus, ferocity, and a vicious intent To Mark, Danny McCoyne now personified the previously faceless Hater ht he rabbed Mark&039;s arainst the spyhole briefly, then staggered away froht of the Hater in the hallway The room around her was filled with noise-Kate&039;s panicked screah&039;s constant unfathomable tirade-but she didn&039;t hear any of it How could this be? How the hell could he be here?