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Once the feed room door was shut, the barn ashed with the sahts,” Shaun called I had tihts clicked on Rickup somewhere behind me Not a real surprise Everyone tosses their cookies at least once on this sort of trip—I had, after all

When enough time had passed to let my eyes adjust to the limits of their capacity, I loweredbarn see, just a few odd stains and some dead cats The dead cats were here, too, strewn around the floor like discarded rags As for the rest

My first thought was that the entire barn had been drenched with blood Not just sprayed; literally drenched, like so the walls That impression passed as it became clear that the majority of the blood was in one of two locations—either shly three feet off the floor, or soaking the floor itself, which had turned a dozen different shades of brown and black as the mixture of bleach, blood, and fecal , until I was over the urge to vomit Once was fine Tas not, especially when round two happened in front of the others

“These are labeled with the names of the horses,” Shaun called He was on the far side of the barn, studying one of the stalls “This one was called ‘Tuesday Blues’ What kind of name is that for a horse?”

“They liked weather na If anything odd happened here, we ns of it around their stalls”

“Under the six hundred gallons of gore,” Rick ht a shovel!” Shaun called, sounding ungodly cheerful

Rick stared at him “Your brother is an alien”

“Yeah, but he’s a cute one,” I said “Start checking stalls”

I was halfway down my o of stalls—between “Dorothy’s Gale” and “Hurricane Warning”—when Rick called, “Over here” Shaun and I looked toward hi a corner stall “I found Goldie”

“Great,” Shaun said, and we started toward hi?”

“No,” Rick replied “I aiting for you”

“Good”

The stall door hung askew The hinges had been broken from the inside, and the as half-splintered in places, dented with the crescent shapes of a horse’s hooves Shaun whistled low “Goldie wanted out pretty darn bad”

“Can’t say that I bla forward to study the broken wood “Shaun, you’ve got gloves on Can you open that?”

“For you, the world Or at least an open door on a really disgusting horse stall” Shaun swung the door open, latching it with a s my camera record every inch, as Shaun stepped past us into the stall itself

So crunched under his feet

Rick and I whipped around to face hi noises in the field are alood At best, they mean a close call At worst

“Shaun? Report”

Face pale, Shaun lifted first one foot, and then the other A piece of sharp-edged plastic edged in the sole of his left boot “Just so deal” He reached down to pull it loose