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Alicia had opened the rear co out packs and rifles "Just take e’ll need for tonight," she ordered "Whatever we can carry Bring as much water as you can"

"What about the Hu anywhere on their own" Alicia, after drawing a belt of grenades over her head, checked the load on her rifle "Hightop, do you have a way in yet? We’re losing the light here"

Caleb and Michael were furiously working to pry loose the covering fro plywood it yanked loose frorilass shattered

"Flyers," he exclaiuess we’ll find out," Alicia said "Okay, everybody, let’s h thefirst Hollis would bring up the rear with A inside, Peter found hi parallel with the front of the building To his right stood a pair of h the handles He stepped back to the open

"Caleb, pass me a hammer The pry bar, too"

He used the sharp end of the pry bar to shatter the chain The door swung free, revealing a wide, open space, ion than room, remarkably undisturbed Apart froical-and a heavy layer of dust that coated every surface, the iave was less of ruin than abandono, not decades At the center of the space stood a large stone structure, evidently some kind of fountain, and on a raised platfor counter was positioned to the left

Peter tilted his gaze upward to the ceiling, which was bisected by elaborately carvedinto discrete, convex panels Each was ornately painted: winged figures with sad, dewy eyes and plu clouds

Caleb whispered, "Is itsome kind of church?"

Peter didn’t answer; he didn’t know So was disquieting, even a little o by the cobwebbed piano, gazing upward like the rest of theround" He felt it, too, Peter could tell, this ghostlike presence hovering over them "Let’s try to find the stairs"

They advanced into the building’s interior down a second, wider hallway, lined with stores-Prada, Tutto, La Scarpa, Tesorini-the nae here, s shattered, shards of glinting glass scattered over the stone floor and crunching under the soles of their boots Many of the stores appeared to have been ransacked-counters s overturned-while others seemed untouched, their peculiar, useless wares-shoes no one could actually walk in, bags that were too s-still displayed in the s They passed signs that said SPA LEVEL and POOL PROMENADE, with arrows pointing down other, adjacent hallways, and banks of elevators, their glea that said STAIRS

The hallway ended in a second open area, as large as the first, receding into darkness There was so subterranean about it, as if they had stumbled upon the entrance to an iht sticks andthe area with their rifles The roo banks ofPeter had ever seen before, with video screens and various buttons and levers and switches Before each was a stool, presu their unknown function

Then they saw the slims

First one and then another and then loom Most were seated around a series of tall tables, their postures grimly comical, as if they’d been overcome in the midst of some desperate, private act

"What the hell is this place?"

Peter approached the nearest table Three seated figures occupied it; a fourth lay on the floor beside his overturned stool Holding up his light stick, Peter bent to the closest body, a woman She had toppled face-first; her head was turned to the side, her cheekbone resting on the table’s surface Her hair, bleached of all color, formed a snarl of parched fibers around the knob of her skull Where her teeth should have been were a pair of dentures, their plastic guruously lifelike pinkness Ropes of golden ers, where they rested on the tabletop-she seemed to have reached out to stop her fall-were bedecked with rings, fat shining stones of every color On the table before her was a pair of playing cards, face-up A six and a jack It was the sa There were o-to In the center lay a heaping s and watches and bracelets, as well as a pistol and a handful of shells

"We better keepwas here, he thought, so he was meant to find

"It’ll be dark soon, Peter We have to find those stairs"

He pulled his gaze away, nodding

They elass The sky above was cooling, night falling Escalators led down to another dark recess; to the right they saw a bank of elevators, and yet another hallway, andin circles?" This was Michael "I se carave "Peter-"

"I know, I know" Thefor the stairs or seek shelter on the ground floor He turned to face the group, which seemed, suddenly, too small

"Damnit, not now"

Mausami pointed toward the s of the closest shop "There she is"

DESERT GIFT EMPORIUM, the sign read Peter opened the door anda wall of shelves by the counter, bearing a display of spherical glass objects Aave it a hard shake, filling its interior with a flurry of irl turned, her face bright-I have found so wonderful-and held it out for hiht filled his hand: the sphere was full of liquid Suspended in this fluid, bits of glittering whitedown upon a landscape of tiny buildings Rising at the center of this miniaturized city was a white tower-the same tower, Peter realized, in which they now stood

The others had crowded around "What is it?" Michael asked

Peter passed it to Sara, who showed it to the others

"So a look of glowing happiness "Why did you want us to see this?"

But it was Alicia who provided the answer

"Peter," she said, "I think you better look at this"

She had turned the globe upside down, revealing the words that were printed on its base

Milagro Hotel and Casino

Las Vegas

The s to do with the slias Mostly methane, which hy the place smelled like an outhouse Somewhere beneath the hotel was a sea of one-hundred-year-old effluent, the pooled waste of an entire city, trapped like a giant fermentation tank

"We don’t want to be here when that lets go," he warned "It’ll be the biggest fart in history The place will go up like a torch"