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The air in the rooan to smell different Hot, and with the iven off when it died A spot of red appeared on the deck hatch, then shifted to yellow, then to white The girl in thefor them

The hatch above them, the one that led forward on the ship, was closed and flashing the lockdown e Naomi hadn’t told her what the override code was The airlock was on their level, but it was locked down too

The deck hatch began to open in lurching incre as she forced it And Naomi’s lockdown code hadn’t kept the insane woman out, it had only locked thee vacuu in after her There was no lock on the door Between the unconscious woh room for her to close it She set both of her feet at the corner where the door of the locker nets up to full She felt the suit lock onto theher up close against the locker door

On the far side, ainst the back of Anna’s neck Naomi’s hand, limp and bloody Anna tried not to move, tried not to breathe loudly The prayer she offered up was hardly more than a confusion of fear and hope

A locker door slammed open off to her left Then another one, closer And then another Anna wondered where Naootten to It was in the locker soht, and she’d have to unlock the nets on her boots to look for it She hoped they hadn’t left it outside with the crazy woman Another locker opened

The door centimeters from Anna’s face shifted, but didn’t open The vents and the cracks in the locker door flared the white of a cutting torch, then went dark A mechanical voice said, “Backup power depleted” The curse from the other side was pure frustration It was followed by a series of grunts and thue of hope

“Open it,” Melba said Her voice was low, rough, and bestial

“No”

“Open it”

“You… I can hear that you’re feeling upset,” Anna said, horrified by the words even as she spoke them “I think we should talk about this if you—”

Melba’s screa Anna had heard before, deep and vicious and wild If the id had a throat, it would have sounded like that If the devil spoke