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She spared a few seconds to press her ear to Chris’s chest His heart balled with a dull thumppausethumppausethumpBoy, that was really slow She wished she knew if that was good or bad, then decided anything was better than zip His eyes still roaasps now, and his skin was pinker

Drag hi up pillows from the other bodies, she eyed Chris, the distance he would fall, then arranged the pillows into a landing zone Shaking out two of the burlap sacks, she spread these over the pillows, then clambered back up to Chris, braced herself on her knees, hooked her hands under his arainst her lap His arers like the legs of dead spiders Chris’s head slewed then lolled, and she could see the steady but slow throb of his pulse in his neck The sray

"Okay," she said She hitched toward the edge in fits and starts, scooting hi with her feet for the moment when her boot tipped over the pallet’s lip and into air Chris was , her breath coee with another gigantic heave--

Her right foot shot into thin air Gasping, she felt herself tilt as Chris’s weight shifted against her chest; her left knee, still bent to support hi pain as she tumbled sideways off the pallet She came down hard on the pillows, on her back, and in an aard splay, like a ballerina doing a really bad split The is, and pain roared all the way into her groin Chris was so h he was now s loosely flexed at the knees Squirot her boots planted and pushed to a stand Her left knee yelled, but she could giht, hurry up, hurry up Pulling his legs off the rest of the way, she got Chris arranged on the burlap sled, tucked all the re sacks and her coat around his body Then she went to his head, fisted up tongues of burlap, and pulled, really put her weight into it He moved--not by a lot, but the burlap let out a shush as it skidded over stone, and suddenly, his head was six inches closer to the slider than it had been only a second before Huffing, grunting, her boots clapping stone and Mina keeping pace, she hauled him all the way to the slider, which she’d left open this tie but backed away in that black eddy as she slid the burlap onto the snow Here, the going got even easier As she dragged Chris to the left and toward Bella, she eyed the saddle Okay, slide him as close as you can, then roll hiet his chest over the saddle--

As if someone somewhere flicked a switch, the croent completely still and silent Just a dead stop, like a soundtrack suddenly cutting out What? For a second, Ellie actually thought there was so with her ears But then she heard Mina’s pants and her own harsh breaths, and the hard drum of her heart Uh-oh All the fine hairs bristled on her neck She was still in her crouch, but now she let go of the burlap and straightened Beneath her boots, the snow spoke in tiny, alarhed a low e, silent stor fro cloud It was sodied that Ellie threw her arain!" She couldn’t help it But there was no detonation of pain in her head So it’s not that Eyes wide, she threw her head back, watching the crows silently spin away Then what? What could--

By her side, Mina began to growl, deep in her chest, a sound that swelled to a snarl

OhHerher ribs, Ellie swept her eyes from the sky and those silent birds and down to the snow and the woods Oh boy, I’ and at the mouth of the trail that would take her and Chris froirl

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Those knives were real trouble The Glock in his hand wouldn’t fire Neither would the Eagle His Bravo was out of easy reach Tolint in the trees and wondered just how many other Chuckies were out there, knives at the ready, and what they aiting for, unless this was siht after the other, to tire hi in for the kill, like wolves

For the first tiirl had waited, watched He’d been on the snow, exposed, forwhat? A half hour? At least that--and a good portion of that time, he’d been out of it, so consumed with visions and flashbacks and theclose to insanity that it would’ve been sht The Chucky was on her feet now, and God, she recovered fast Fear iced his throat She didn’t want to just kill hiht into him He should already be dead Come to think of it, she could probably handle a rifle or pistol just fine But this girl wanted the rush, the fun of the kill The blood

And there’s so with her, different Given she was a Chucky, this was an understate about them; the colortoo dark But she was so far away he wasn’t certain, and that was just fine, thanks<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>