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"They’re all over the place," Sykes said, and sed "Why didn’t he kill ht at me"

"Which one was it?"

"What the fk does that ed "Your pal Babcock What is it with you two?" A deep treood," he said, and then he voed with the stench of bile, and so else, elemental and h his pants, his socks He kneithout looking that Sykes’s vomitus was full of blood

"Fuck!"

He raised his weapon at Sykes

"Please," Sykes said, ured he was doing Sykes a favor when he pointed the barrel at the center of his chest, the sweet spot, and then he squeezed the trigger

Lacey saw the first one coht itself! How a ht! It was up and over in an instant, vaulting off the roof into space, sailing through the air above the co in a stand of trees a hundred yards away Astar

She’d heard the alarm as the truck pulled into the coued for a minute-should they just drive away?-and Lacey had used this moment to climb out the back and scurry into the woods That hen she’d seen the de froht with a shudder

Lacey saas about to happen

The driver of the truck was opening the truck’s rear gate Ordnance, the sentry had said-guns? The truck was full of guns

The treetops reen fell toward hiht Oh! Oh!

Then there were h its s and doors, launching themselves into the air Ten, eleven, twelve And soldiers too, everywhere, running and yelling and shooting, but their bullets did nothing; the deainst them; one by one the demons fell upon the soldiers and they died

This hy she had come-to save Amy from the dee of the woods

"Halt!"

Lacey froze Should she raise her hands? The soldier appeared fro what he thought was his duty Trying not to be afraid, though of course he was; she could feel the fear co off him, like waves of heat He didn’t knoas about to happen to him She felt a tender pity

"Who are you?"

"I am no one," Lacey said, and then the demon was upon him-before he could even point his weapon, before he could finish the word he was speaking as he died-and Lacey was running toward the building

By the ti and breathing hard A faint light was falling down upon theht and, farther still, the stilled blades of a giant fan The central ventilation shaft

"Amy, honey," he said "Amy, you have to wake up"

Her eyes fluttered open and closed again He guided her ar around his waist But he could tell she had no strength

"You have to hold on, Ahtened in reply But still, he’d have to use one of his arht This would leave only one hand free to pull them up the ladder Jesus

He turned and faced the ladder, set his foot onto the first rung It was like a probleirl He has to climb a ladder, fifty feet, in a poorly lit ventilation shaft The girl is seast save both their lives?

Then he sa he could do it One rung at a tiht hand to pull the Aed hands and ht, and so on,to the top

How h? Fifty pounds? All suspended, at the le aran to cli that the sticks were outside now

He’d knoas happening to Sykes Probably it would happen to hioddamn infected blood all over hih for this to ht Hey, Cole, you weasel, you little shit Was this what you hand in mind? Is this your Pax Americana? Because there’s only one outco Richards wanted now A clean exit, with a good showing at the last

The front entrance of the Chalet was all broken glass and bullet holes, the doors ripped half off their hinges, hanging kitty-corner Three soldiers lay dead on the floor; it looked as if they’d been shot by friendly fire in the chaos Maybe they’d actually shot one another on purpose, just to hustle things along Richards raised his hand and looked at the Springfield-ould he think this would do any good? The soldiers’ rifles would be no use either He needed soer The armory was across the compound, behind the barracks He’d have to round of the coht Better now than later, since probably there would be no later He took off at a run

The soldiers were everywhere, scattered, running, shooting at nothing, at one another Not even pretending to anized defense, let alone an assault on the Chalet Richards ran full tilt, half-expecting to be hit

Richards was halfway across the coe of the lot, at a careless angle, its doors open He kneas inside it

Maybe he wouldn’t have to ent Doyle"

Doyle smiled "Lacey"

They were on the first floor of the Chalet, in a small, cra there since the shooting had started, hidden beneath a desk Waiting for Lacey

He stood

"Do you knohere they are?"

Lacey paused There were scratches on her face and neck, and bits of leaves caught in her hair

She nodded "Yes"