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Forget her face Concentrate: don’t lose track of the knives To carefully left to right--and Jesus, she wasn’t sinkingthe shift of uneven stone beneath his boots, diser reach by forcing his knife hand further away and off-target He didn’t knohat kind of knives she had, but they icked: silvered steel, long and thin, single-edged, with only the suggestion of a curve Hers were real fighting knives,Her blades were already insun, and he had trouble keeping track of both As the light got worse, that would also get harder, assuht be over pretty quick She didn’t need to get in a killing thrust All she had to do was cut him a couple of times and then stand back and wait for him to weaken, or bleed to death

Any soldier knew hand-to-hand co was the rifle-bayonet course The reality was a lot siuy who survived was the one who held off an attacker until his buddies arrived with guns Unlike Special Forces and Black Ops guys, all of ere big into close-quarters combat, Tom knew only the basics of what to do with a knife: cover the middle, defend the face and neck, deflect with the left hand and forearet close and behind her knives, he ht slash her face Better yet, cut her forehead, let all that blood spill into her eyes and blind her But he kneasn’t good enough for anything fancy Rush her, and he’d probably end up i the job for her

One thing was certain, though He had absolutely no reason to hang on to the Glock now He needed his hands free But instead of dropping the weapon to the snow--the s his body, keeping the tip of his knife pointed at her head, he swept his left hand around and under his open parka to shove the weapon into the small of his back--

And that was all it took, that little move He wasn’t centered and she knew it He saw her dart forward, lohite blur, stepping in His reaction was cluht hand, which was closest, swept in a high cut Gasping, he struggled to whip his left arm back into line to fend off the strike Too late, he read the cock of her elbow, registered the feint

Suddenly, she was there, twisting beneath his right ar under his knife Her blade flickered, its silver tongue licking side to side--one-two-three, zip-zip-zip He couldn’t follow it, didn’t really see the knife at all, but on the third pass, he felt a lick of cold as his clothing ripped and then a snaky burn, a line of fire across his exposed belly Biting back a shout, he arched, pulling hi up The setting sun bathed her skin as richly red as the blood welling froash across his stomach He could feel the oozy drizzle, warht then Cold sweat oiled his face as she began to circle again, a balletictheir slow, le thrust, a twist, and she could have watched hi, he clamped his left forear to wor to kill hiot cut too many more times or she decided to slash just a little deeper, unzip hiuts spilled out, he’d never keep his feet Got to do sohtly despite the snow, she ca purely on instinct, he tried countering with his own knife, which meant that he had to twist to his left As she pulled the thrust in a perfectly tiht side exposed, but he’d taken his eyes from the knife in her left hand Shit! He tried to correct, to turn, but she was so daht hip all the way up to his chest

This ti over, he tried to protect his torso--stupid, stupid, stupid; that brought his face into her strike zone--and she was right there, the knife whickering for his face

What happened next was all reflex Uncoiling, he whipped up with his left arm to defend himselfand damn if he didn’t still have that Glock

She saw it co with the blow, but she was a fraction of a second too late The hard butt clipped her nose It was so fast, he didn’t know he’d connected until her neck snapped back A bright red bib spu, off-balance, shaking her head like a wounded dog, her blood flying in ropy spatters

Come on, come on, ed because, he figured, what the hell He was out her dictate the fight So he had to move; he had to step into this; he had to , he closed the distance in three big strides Snarling, her face cramped with fury, she thrust to deflect with her left and jab with her right, but his reach was longer and for once he did exactly the rightto his left knee, he swept his left ar her blade out of line, and then he thrust his KA-BAR into her h thick down and clothing For one terrible second, he thought that either she had on too many layers or maybe even a Kevlar vest But then he felt her juive of flesh and ht elbow, he twisted the knife, tearing both cloth and so, she arched back, trying to get away His knife jued on cloth and, uts So, two choices now, and only two: Go with her, press the advantage; get her on her back in the snow Suffocate her, choke her to death, beat in her skull with the Glock, et his hands on one of her knives

Or drop the Glock and go for the Bravo

He flung the Glock aside Didn’t follow its arc Either he’d find it later, or he’d be dead Fisting her parka, he yanked her as close as a lover, then put some muscle behind it and drove his knife into her as fast as he could, as far as it would go

She screeched again Her own knives flashed, and he ducked, turtling his head and neck One knife missed The second didn’t First, the parka and then the flesh of his left forear with pain, he pushed up, still holding her close, his KA-BAR so deep she could’ve been a chunk of beef skewered for a kabob He could s now, the rank iron stink of it His sto Before she could slash up, he gave her a ood ten feet to collapse in a loose-lilirow bright red as a bloody puddle overflowed the cup of her belly and spilled down her sides

For anyone or anything else, that would’ve been the end The bad guy pulling a knife out of his stoainst you? Only happened in movies In real life, that little trick never ell, and not just because it hurt like a bitch Extracting a knife or any stabbing weapon was, in fact, an excellent way to hasten death A knife ht also be a cork Pull it out, and stand back as the blood flowed When the knife was serrated, like his KA-BAR, it orse Those barbs hooked That was the point So in addition to bleeding like stink, which was its own special kind of agony when it cae string of guts at the saine so your face from your skull, and thenout your eyes would hurt less than ripping out your own intestines Pain like that, you wished it could kill you

But thisthing? It didn’t see Look how fast it had recovered from that kick Now, dumbstruck, he watched as she wrapped her hands around the KA-BAR’s grip Even that tiny jostle of the blade hurt; he could see it in the flare of her blood-soaked nostrils, the tight grimace, the strain in her neck, the arch of her back

My God What was this thing? This couldn’t be a feral Chucky, unless there was a difference between new Chuckies, ones turning now versus those who had turned right away Ferals weren’t organized; they were crazy, they couldn’t plan Not even Ji other than a rabid ani new and different: nearly i machine And I’ve seen this before, too--but where?

She pulled--

And then, to Tom’s horrorthe KA-BAR moved

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Ellie couldn’t an to quiver When she sed, she could hear the sharp click in her throat My rifle, where is it? She didn’t dare take her eyes froirl to look, but she didn’t think she’d ree when she went for Bella That irl only watched, which was good because that gave Ellie a little breathing roo around Mina’s growl had swelled to an open- her eyes down for a quick peek Mina’s attention was fixed on the girl So either there was only this one people-eater, or h back that Mina couldn’t smell or see them She also saw Bella’s nostrils flare and that quick flick of the ot wind of the people-eater No, no, no, please don’t bolt, you stupid horse; just wait, wait

The girl was sure waiting for so why Her gaze ran over the griirl’s hair, which was frozen solid where it dangled beloatch cap that was once crearay Ellie couldn’t tell what color that grubby parka ed froreen coil