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THERE&039;S A FIRE ESCAPE at the rear of the hotel, a staircase running down the back of the building Lizzie, watchinga knife I know she won&039;t dare use, pushesand around a corner toward an innocuous-looking gray door It&039;s already been forced open She gestures for h

"Where is she?" I ask as I step outside, shouting tothat fill the air We stand at the top of a zigzagging metal staircase bracketed to the back of the old, run-down building She points in the general direction of the streets behind the hotel, but I can&039;t see anything specific The sun is rising, and below us the city is beginning to burn A fleet of planes and helicopters is taking off from soarage," she answers breathlessly "The front of it has collapsed, so it&039;s difficult to get in or out We locked her in the back of a van"

"If this is a trick, Lizzie-"

"No trick," she says quickly, and I know she&039;s telling the truth We&039;re wasting precious ti down

There&039;s another parking lot at the back of the hotel, and a sarden beyond it Lizzie leadsdown a narrow path that&039;s barely visible through the long, daray cloud, but it&039;s slowly beginning to brighten

"This way," she whispers, catching her breath when a series of brilliant white flashes explodes, lighting up the early loo helicopter gunship ru back toward town

I follow her to the end of the path, where there&039;s a tall wrought-iron gate Lizzie bends down and shifts a broken luate swings open She pauses before going through, ducking back into the shadows as a group of people runs past I watch the a fourth down a narrow, cobbled passageway They corner the lone runner, drag hiround, and kick the shit out of hi the Unchanged being hunted down, or is that one of my people cornered? It doesn&039;tate in a wooden fence on the other side of this alleyway We go through, and I can tell i car parts and piles of tires and h a side door into a dusty office It&039;s dark She stops suddenly, and I walk into the back of her, then hold on to her as she grabsonly to pick up a flashlight she obviously left here previously We go through another door and down a single steep step into what must be the main workshop The air&039;s cold, and the noise we ht farther ahead, and I see that the front of the building has collapsed in on itself, sealing it off from the street

"Over here"

We move around the back of a jacked-up car to the farthest corner of the workspace There&039;s a white and blue van parked with its back to the wall Its front fender is a light e e back As we ht on inside it Lizzie pushes me out of the way and unlocks the door She opens it as far as she can, then slips through the gap, and I follow her

Lying flat on her back in the agged and her wrists, legs, and ankles bound together with plastic-covered clothesline, is Ellis She&039;s awake and alert, her beautiful brown eyes darting froht at me, but I&039;ray undershirt and panties, her tiny body is covered in cuts, scratches, and bruises Lizzie leans over her, and she ie forward and attack The longer I look at her, the less fa like a frightened aniain I never dared dream this would really happen Suddenly the noise of the battles outside and the helicopters and explosions don&039;t see that I have left is in the back of this van I swing my backpack off my shoulders and open it up I pull out Ellis&039;s doll, and Lizzie takes it fro down her face

"You went back?" She whispers

"Looking for you," I tell her

Lizzie moves Ellis&039;s wild, unkempt hair away from her eyes and tries to show her the doll She recoils fro to pull away Lizzie seeuess she nition, no understanding

"It would have been easier on everyone if she&039;d just stayed with you," she admits, "but hoas I to know after what you did?"

"I know"

"I didn&039;t even realize she was like you until a couple of days after you&039;d gone I didn&039;t expect it, didn&039;t even think it could happen Onethere with her brothers, the next I was out of the room for less than five minutes I came back in and saw her with Edward"

She starts sobbing, tears dripping down onto Ellis, riggles and squirms as if they&039;re corrosive acid drops

"Why did this have to happen, Danny?" she asks She knows I can&039;t give her the answers she wants

"It wasn&039;t because of anything you did or didn&039;t do None of us could control it or predict it"

She smiles and wipes her eyes "Remember how hard we used to think we had it? How frustrated we used to get with the kids?"