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She said, "Hit once"

"Got biffed," Bobby said, biffedin there," I said

"Totally thrashed," he said, and coughed

"Not totally," I insisted, more terrified than I had ever been before, but determined not to show it

Sasha unbuttoned the Hawaiian shirt, hooked her fingers in the bullet-punctured material of Bobby’s black pullover, and ripped the sweater to expose the wound in his left shoulder The hole was too low in the shoulder, too far to the right, so you would have to call a chest wound, not a shoulder wound, if you were going to be honest, which I was by God not going to be

"Shoulder wound," I told hi electronic sound dwindled, the cera the spatters of blood with theh not all of the another cycle, which ive us a uns showed up

Rich blood, so deeply red that it was al to stop this type of bleeding Neither a tourniquet nor a co alcohol, Neosporin, and gauze bandages, even if we’d had any of those things

"Woofy," he said

The pain had washed away his perpetual tan, leaving him not white but jaundice-yellow He looked bad

The hallway had fewer lingering fluorescents and the oscillating hu the previous cycle

I was afraid the past was going to fade entirely out of the present, leaving us with an empty elevator shaft I wasn’t confident that we could carry Bobby up six flights of stairs without causing hiie, whose sole to be all right, daain

Roosevelt was either doing as the cat wished or following , because he repeatedly jaainst the call button

The indicator board above the doors showed only four floors--G, B-1, B-2, and B-3--though we knew there were seven The cab was supposedly up at the first level, G for ground, which was the hangar above this subterranean facility

"Come on, come on," Roosevelt muttered

Bobby tried to lift his head to reconnoiter, but Sasha gently pressed hio into shock Ideally, his head should be lower than the rest of his and lower body Shock kills as surely as bullets His lips were slightly blue Wasn’t that an early symptom of shock?

The cab was at B-1, the first baseojerrie was staring at me as if to say, I warned you

"Cats don’t know shit," I told hih, but it was a laugh nonetheless Could he be dying or even slipping into shock if he were laughing? Maybe everything would be okay

Just call htly Snow

The elevator reached B-2, one floor above us

I raised the shotgun, in case passengers were in the elevator, as there evidently had been before

Already, the pulsing huines--or whatever infernal ie said, because if the wrong ht wash sory, armed men with it

The elevator whined to a stop at B-3, our floor

The corridor around an to slide open, I expected to see the ht in the cab, and then I was suddenly afraid I’d be confronted with that impossible vista of stars and cold black space I’d seen beyond the stairwell door

The elevator cab was just an elevator cab Eed

Roosevelt and Sasha already had Bobby on his feet, virtually carrying hi to minimize the strain on his left shoulder

I held the elevator door, and as they took Bobby past ony If he had been about to scream with pain, he repressed it and instead said, "Carpe cerevisi"

"Beer later," I pro off his backpack, Doogie followed us into the big elevator, which could probably carry fifteen passengers The cab briefly swayed and jiggled as it adjusted to his weight, and we all tried not to step on Mungojerrie

"Up and out," I said

"Down," Bobby disagreed

The control panel had no buttons for the three floors that were supposedly below us An unlabeled slot for a netic card indicated how soraain access to lower realet farther down," I said

"Always a way," Doogie deht The loud throbbing sound grew louder

The elevator doors rolled shut, but we didn’t go anywhere, and when I reached toward the G button, Doogie slappedfor a cookie without having asked perreed

He sagged against the back wall of the cab, supported by Sasha and Roosevelt He was gray now

I said, "Bro, you don’t have to be a hero"

"Yeah, I do"

"No, you don’t!"

"Kahuna"

"What?"

"If I’m Kahuna, I can’t be a chickenshit"

"You aren’t Kahuna"

"King of the surf," he said When he coughed this time, blood bubbled on his lips

Desperate, I said to Sasha, "We’re getting hiht now"

A crack and then a creak sounded behind ie had picked the lock on the control panel and had swung the cover aside, exposing the wiring "What floor?" he asked

"Mungojerrie says all the way down," Roosevelt advised