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"This one’s open" Nathan’s call cah the gloo next to the dark bulk of what looked like a minivan "No keys"
"What’s the rinned "Pre- or post-auto drive?"
"I don’t kno am I supposed to know that? It’s an Io I can’t even tell what color it is"
"Wait right there" Fishy half jogged across the garage, neatly sidestepping around Beverly, to join Nathan at the open van door He peered inside the vehicle, see to look iven the darkness--and finally announced, gleefully, "You don’t need keys or a crash course on how to hot-wire a car All you need is one short and a screwdriver"
"What?" said Nathan
"What?" I said
"You spent a lot of tiot messed up, didn’t you?" said Dr Banks
Fishy ignored us all as he turned and walked over to the wall Bu me wince It was hard to kno arage, but even a little could very easily be too much, under the circumstances There was one final clatter, louder than the rest, and then Fishy was trotting back, holding so and pointed in one hand "There’s always a toolbox in a place like this," he said, pushing past Nathan His upper body half vanished into the van, and for a fewinaround in the front seat
There was a click The van’s engine turned over, and the headlights cae into terrible clarity A ht, only a few feet away froing through The man’s throat had been slit, and the words "I’ly suspected was his blood I shuddered and looked away
Fishy didn’t appear to have noticed He was enthusiastically explaining the art of using a screwdriver in place of a key to Nathan, periodically leaning back into the van to give the screwdriver a twist or jiggle, for reasons I couldn’t understand and didn’t particularly want to learn I shiftedfor the for theand put this dark, dead space behind us
Beverly began to growl
It was a low, almost inaudible sound at first, easily overlooked under the chatter fro replies fro to turnfor pheromone trails or… or whatever it was that I actually looked for when I did that I found nothing But Beverly was still growling, the sound increasing in both voluency, and she didn’t do that without cause "Guys?" I said
They ignoredHer eyes were fixed on the open garage door, and her ears were flat against her head, giving her a distinctly predatory cast "Guys," I said again, louder this tiot Dr Banks to pay attention to me, at least "Is it sleepwalkers?"
"I don’t know I’, but I don’t know if I would I think we should be rowl, still getting steadily louder For the first ti at the back of , sleepwalkers nearby--but it was so er than I had expected it to be, especially with so little lead-in, that it ht as well have meant sleepwalkers here
"We don’t have any o now"
The urgency in h to catch his attention; the outline of his head appeared above the dashboard of the van I turned, dragging Beverly with me, and ran toward the others Dr Banks saw loriousto be okay: we haddanger
And then the sleepwalkers of San Francisco, who had had quite a long while to grow hungry as they roved the hills looking for things to fill the holes that could never be filled, hit the open door of the garage like a wave Their bodies blocked out what little light there was in an instant, and everything becaet ourselves into the van I wound up in the back, holding on to Beverly with allout of the vehicle and tearing off into the fray Nathan pushed Dr Banks in after me and slammed the door
The front doors were still open "Coet in the car!" shouted Nathan
Fishy Fishy was still out there "I’ood!" he shouted back "Go, I’ll hold the to kill us all," snarled Dr Banks, and for once he and I were in perfect, terrible agree across the van to grab the back of Fishy’s shirt and haul hi to lift the srunt of strained protest The sleepwalkers were closing fast, and the buzz inbell warningphysically painful I bent forward, clasping my hands at the base of my skull, and tried to will the sound away