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The conversation ended there A low, ru sound rolled toward them With each second, it increased in intensity

"What a?" Michael said

It was the sound of feet striking the earth Thevolume barreled toward theh in the air

"Holy God," Peter said "It’s everyone"

Apgar lifted his voice over the din: "Hold fire till they reach the peri fast It seereat spectacle of nature--an avalanche, a hurricane, a flood The platfor in rhythate hold?" Peter asked Apgar He, too, had given up his binoculars for a rifle

"Against this?"

Two hundred yards Peter pressed the stock of the weapon against his clavicle

"Ready!" Apgar bellowed

One hundred yards

"Ai stopped

The virals had halted just beyond the edge of the lights Not just halted--they were frozen in place, as if a switch had been thrown

"What the hell…?"

Thea corridor Starting at the rear, it flowed down theon either side The motion see way for a great king to pass a forward through the heart of the horde It appeared to be so slowness, the corridor unfurling before it All guns were trained on the spot where it would ee A hundred feet, fifty, twenty The front wall of virals separated, opening like a doorway to reveal the shockingly ordinary figure of a person on horseback

"Is that hiar said "Is that Zero?"

The rider ht his horse to a halt and dislare of the spotlights ricocheted off the lenses of the dark glasses that obscured the upper half of her face A scabbard containing soun, lay slantwise across her back; crisscrossing her upper body, she wore a pair of bandoliers

Bandoliers