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Which left two rooms

Two rooms with their doors opposite each other

I didn’t like it, even though I couldn’t sense anything living in either of those rooh I sure as hell was ser here It burned acrossthat made me want to take a shower and wash the sensation away

So that had evil on itsthe laser through the walls into both roo whatever waited in either of them But I had no idea where Joe was-if he was still alive, that is-and until I did know, I couldn’t risk anything that ht kill him And a random laser shot would certainly do that

I flaredh the sheer depths of evil and decay that filled the air So it was a fifty-fifty proposition that I’d choose the wrong rooer, then went left, choosing what looked like the bathrooh the doorway and co up on one knee, the laser ai attacked me In fact, no one was even in the roo, I looked up A hatchway sat above the basin, and there were fresh fingerprints etched into the dust Someone had moved it recently

A street kid desperate to escape the newly risen dead, perhaps?

I stepped toward the basin, and in thatwind stirred the hairs along the back ofroom

I spun, but before I could fire, the zo at me I ducked automatically, and felt a quick flash of a ging h violently, and the amuse before ic evident near Jacques

The zorabbedas it wrested the laser froers that were so, est sensation, like half ofit

The laser got thrown-clattering to the floor soers around h the tears strea flesh Could feel the force of the woht she and her creature had me

How little she knew

I raised my arms and knocked the zombie’s hands away from my throat, then pushed him, as hard as I could, out the door He stu as he tried to catch his balance, bits of flesh and God knohat else flying free as he hit the door fra on the tap and splashing water over h , I could at least see a little better Behindto his feet I ran at hi hi flesh, but the force of ainst the wall As I hit the floor and rolled back tothu down the wall, leaving bits of hair and flesh and other things dribbling down the wall after hi to attack

Still being controlled by the sorceress

I looked around and sawit as the zo and fired without really looking, sweeping across the creature’s legs and dropping hie

It didn’t stop him

He siain, but didn’t pull the trigger This ti deep down, into the darkness that had once been this thing’semptiness

But the sorceress lay in the deeper recesses, and she hispering words of command and hate Kill it, kill it, it doesn’t deserve to live, kill it

It? I obviously wasn’t an "it," but I let it go as I wrapped a psychic rope around her presence and pulled it tight

Shock rolled through the darkness, and then she was fighting, struggling, like a ht to hold her, and the sweat already rolling down my cheek became a river

"Tell me who you are," I said, both out loud and within "Tellthis"

Even as I said it, I attacked her, trying to rip past her shields and grab the answers But it was taking all h left to break her shields

She didn’t answer, just continued to struggle Then so and yankedthe floor hard and sending pain jarring up one instantly, leaving her creature to carry out her last co his nose back into his rotting flesh, then rolled away, cli off his head with one swift slice Without the remnants of his brain and the orders planted within it, the creature stoppedI don’t think he was dead, as such, but I didn’t think he was dangerous anyain evident now that the adrenaline froh it obviously was designed to stop me somehow And if that stuff had been used on Jacques and the other victims, then ht before they were hacked to pieces

Though why had it only partially affected me? What was so different about ht back and the others hadn’t?

There was only one reason I could think of I was half vaned solely to stop them probably wouldn’t work on e

Of course, I wouldn’t know for sure if I was right until I talked to the i, but I very much suspected I was on the proper track It was the only thing that made sense

I walked back to the end of the hallway and checked the re and no one else was there I e of the bath, shoving the hatchway cover to one side "Joe, are you up there?"<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>