“Two,” said Kutch. Her voice sounded calm, as if she knew they would give up their guns to save the woman.
Tyler stepped into the dim blue light of the cellar. She stood motionless, gazing at the two bodies that hung from the far wall, thinking for a terrible moment that they were Abe and Jack.
Captain Frank bumped her side. “Lord,” he whispered.
Her eyes lowered to the torn body of a woman sprawled on the floor. She pulled her hand from Captain Frank’s grip, covered her mouth and turned to the stairway, and flinched as she heard gunshots from somewhere above. She raced across the carpet. She grabbed the railing. She started up, taking two stairs at a time.
With a look over her shoulder, she saw Captain Frank running in a drunken weave to catch up. She couldn’t wait for him. But as she started to turn away, a pale shape sprang from the tunnel’s darkness.
“Behind you!” she yelled.
The old man was too drunk or too slow. Even as he started to turn, the lunging beast rammed clawed hands down on his shoulders. He cried out. His legs folded. The beast batted the side of his head. Growling, it bared its teeth. Its snout darted toward the back of his neck.
Tyler fired. The blast stunned her ears. The revolver jumped.
She had aimed high, afraid of hitting Captain Frank. Her bullet plowed up a tuft of carpet near the wall.
The beast stared up at her. Its slanted eyes didn’t blink. Its snout was smeared red, but not with Captain Frank’s blood. Tyler remembered the gunshots she’d heard in the tunnel. They had been fired at this thing. Whose blood…?
It scurried off the back of Captain Frank and rushed forward in a low crouch with its knuckles on the carpet like a gorilla. It was almost to the foot of the stairs when Tyler squeezed off another shot. Splinters exploded off the banister. The creature jerked its head aside as flying needles of wood jabbed its face. Its right eye spat fluid. It slapped a hand to its face. Screeching, it staggered backwards.
Tyler aimed at its head and fired and missed. She aimed at its chest and fired. Her bullet slashed a red streak across the top of its shoulder.
She tried to think.
How many bullets had she fired?
The beast was standing upright with its head back, roaring with pain or rage. It should be an easy target, but the angle was bad, shooting down like this.
If she tried to finish it off, she would empty her gun. Then what good would she be to Abe?
Captain Frank’s gun!
It lay on the carpet near his body.
Unfired. Full.
If she could get to it…
Holding her revolver with both hands, she aimed at the chest of the beast and squeezed the trigger.
The gun bucked. The creature grabbed its side, just above the hip. Spinning, it fell to one knee.
With the noise of the blast still ringing in her ears, she raced down the stairs. She rushed at the beast. She stabbed the muzzle against its head above an open hole where its ear should have been. Its elbow rammed into her thigh, knocking her leg back, twisting her. The front sight carved a gash across the side of its head as she started to fall. She jerked the trigger and wished she could call back the bullet because she knew, even as the gunshot crashed in her ears, that she had missed.
When Kutch said, “Two,” the corridor roared.
Abe and Jack both fired at the same instant.
Abe had chosen, as his target, the area to the right of the young woman’s ear. Maggie’s gun was there. Half of her face was there, too, visible behind the woman’s head.
Jack must have picked the same target.
Maggie’s pistol leaped from her hand as if kicked, and bounced off her forehead. Her cheek blew open with a spray of blood. She flopped backwards. The woman with the baby hurled herself aside, hit the wall with her shoulder and sank to her knees. The baby cried wildly.
Maggie lay on her back. She didn’t move.
Side by side, Abe and Jack ran forward. Abe stopped in front of the young woman. Jack went on ahead to check on Maggie.
“Are you all right?” Abe asked.
She nodded. She stroked the head of her baby, and looked up at Abe. “Don’t let…” She slipped a knuckle into the crying baby’s mouth. Its wailing stopped. It sobbed and gummed her fingers. “Don’t let them get you,” she said. “They’re…” A muffled boom interrupted her. A gunshot from somewhere in the house.
“Jack, take these two outside.”
“Maggie’s alive.”
“Leave her. Get these two…”
Jack’s head jerked sideways. He swung his weapon. Abe pivoted, but before he could bring up his revolver a beast leaped onto him. It was half the size of the creature they had killed in the tunnel, but its weight caught him off balance. He fell onto the woman and baby, rolled off them, and let his gun fall so he could grab the throat of the beast as its mouth thrust toward his neck.
“Drop that knife!” Jack yelled.
Abe heard more far-off gunshots.
Then he glimpsed a fat woman in the doorway with a butcher knife. Her face was wrapped in bandages. He cried out in pain as claws raked his back. Then he was on top of the beast. It twisted and thrashed under him, and gurgled as his thumbs dug into its throat. Its claws tore at his sides and arms. Letting go with one hand, he smashed a fist against the side of its head. He struck it again. Then its teeth snapped shut on his fist. Pain shot up his arm. His left hand released its throat. He grabbed the top of its snout, forced his trapped hand down, and yanked the jaws wide. A gristly, cracking sound. The beast flinched rigid. Abe pulled his bloody hand from its mouth. The jaw hung slack, the tongue drooping out one side.
He ducked as it swung at him. Claws dug into his scalp, forcing his face down against the slick flesh of its chest. He drove fists into both its sides. The claws eased up. He shoved himself backwards, shaking his head free. Its penis rubbed his cheek. He jerked away from it, lunged farther back, and grabbed the beast’s ankles.
It sat up, swatting at him, missing. On his knees, he dragged it. He lurched to his feet, pulling it along the carpet as it flailed the air and kicked its trapped legs.
“Hold still!” Jack yelled. “I’ve got it.”
“Mine,” Abe grunted. He lifted the squirming beast. It flapped its arms. Its head slid across the carpet, then left the carpet. Abe swung the creature upward, turning, and slammed it against the corridor wall. Its head thudded on the wood. He released its ankles. It dropped to the floor.
As it tried to get up, Abe stomped on its head. He lost his balance, stumbled across the corridor and hit the wall. The fat woman in the doorway was staring at the beast, shaking her head and mumbling. Jack held his pistol on her. The butcher knife lay at her feet.
Breathless, Abe staggered over to her. He picked up the knife. He knelt over the writhing beast, flipped it onto its back, and slashed its throat. A hot splatter of blood blinded him, sprayed into his open mouth.
Tyler landed on her back in front of the kneeling beast. She started to bring up the gun. The beast knocked it from her hand. She flung up her other arm to block a blow to her face, but not in time. The impact dazed her. Her arm fell to the floor. She wanted to struggle, but her body seemed too weary. She felt as if she were outside herself, observing.
The beast straddled her.
Its claws hooked into the front of her sweater and ripped.
Its hands felt slimy on her breasts. Did they leave trails like a snail? Its claws scraped slightly, almost tickling. Its head moved down. Its tongue rasped over one of her nipples. Fluid from its punctured eye dribbled onto her chest. Its nose was cold like a dog’s. Then she felt teeth on her breast, on the underside and top, and she knew it had her whole breast inside its mouth. Its tongue swirled and thrust.