Page 23 (1/2)

Chapter 23

WORM

"Stay here," I said

"What&039;s up?"

"I s"

Lace frowned "Dude It&039;s notplatforradually faded again, tacking toward us, back and forth through the warrens of the Underworld The hairs on the back ofin the air, the same vast moan I&039;d heard below the exhaust towers

"Cal? What the hell?"

"I think so? Not a train?"

"I don&039;t knohat it is, except that it&039;s part of all this craziness And it&039;s old and big, andgetting closer"

A crun pointed up a set of stairs, but I knew fro since paved over We would have to run back to Union Square along the tracks

But first I needed a weapon

I brushed past Lace and through the bathroo to one corner of its metal frame I wrenched the seven feet of rust-caked iron frohed it in htforward

"What about me?" Lace said from the doorway

"What about you?"

"Don&039;t I get a club-thingy?"

"Lace, you couldn&039;t even pick this up You don&039;t have superpowers yet"

She scowled at ment of rusty iron fro, it&039;s not catching me empty-handed It smells like death"

"You can smell it? Already?"

"Duh" She sniffed and made a face "Dead rat on steroids"

I blinked Lace was changing faster than any peep I&039;d ever seen, as if the new strain wasas it moved from host to host Or maybe the beastie sinals of alarh ht

And soet one My instincts sang tous

"Let&039;s go," I said

We juravel bed As we dashed headlong up the tracks, the lights of the next station gli to pull away from us as we ran It was only four blocks; and I toldto h one of the bolt holes that workers ju train - a blackness deeper than the subway tunnel&039;s gloom A hole in the earth A few yards closer, a cold draft hit us, goose-pi another wave of the beast&039;s s," Lace said, nose in the air She had coh, as if she were going to stake a vaer than any peep, and I was fairly sure that it didn&039;t have a heart

"Stay behind"It&039;ll come out of there"

Her eyes peered into the blacker-than-black space for a ain?"

"Like I said, I don&039;t" My voice trailed off, an answer dawning on enerations-forgotten dread, an enee, because the sun can&039;t always protect us fro revelation froy courses, that the natural world is less concerned with our survival than we ever admit As individuals, even as a species - we are here on borrowed time, and death is as cold and dark and permanent as the deepest fissures in the stones alk on

"What is it, Cal?" Lace asked again