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I told the boys to drink as much water as they could hold, to gather together as much as they thought we could carry on our backs. We found an empty canvas pack hanging from a peg on the wall by Qui
In ten minutes, we were ready.
Griffin carried the extra pack. We took as much as we could from Qui
Jack and his habits.
In ten minutes, we were ready.
But it was already too late.
They were here.
Qui
Now there would be only one way out.
Down.
Into the garage by the fire pole. Then down again, into Marbury’s underworld.
As soon as I flipped the switches, we heard pounding and kicking at the lower door.
Griffin’s eyes went wide. “What do we do?”
“It’s okay. I know a way out.”
“Well, what are we waiting for, then?” Ben was rightfully impatient.
Pounding again.
“Fuck them,” I said. “They’ll have a surprise if they come up the stairs.”
Of course, I didn’t have any idea how—or if—Qui
Once we did that, there would be no turning back, and I remembered how Qui
“Billy! Billy, open the goddamned door! It’s me, Qui
I closed my eyes and exhaled.
It was like getting punched in the stomach.
Fuck this place.
“What are you going to do?” Ben said.
Griffin pulled on my arm, snapping me out of my confusion and disgust. “Fuck him, Jack. Don’t let him in. What if he’s fucking with us?”
It was Qui
More urgent kicking on the door.
“Billy! Don’t leave me out here, you fucking ingrate!”
Fuck you, Jack.
I shook my head. I wished someone would slap me.
I sighed. “I can’t leave him outside. He didn’t do it to us when he could have.”
“Fuck him,” Griffin repeated.
But I opened the trunk, turned off Qui
If I had turned the booby trap off three seconds sooner, the Rangers outside would have killed me, and I wouldn’t have known anything about it. When I was halfway down the metal stairs, there came a blast of automatic gunfire. The outer door splintered into shards and swung crookedly open as if pushed by a ghost.
There was no smoke, no smell, just the ti
I started to turn back, and I saw Qui
He sold me out.
I knew it as soon as I saw him. He brought the Rangers here to hand me over to them. I looked at him as he hesitated at the base of the stairs below me. I could see the guilt in his stupid fucking eyes. He didn’t need the Rangers to make it back home. He owned this place. Qui
That’s what was behind his act. Following me. Promising how we’d be such good friends. It was always, only, about wi
I wondered what they gave him.
Fuck you, Qui
I spun around. Ben was waiting at the upper door.
Below me, the man they called Preacher appeared in the door frame behind Qui
I knew everything about him. In another world, at another time, he was the man Seth Mansfield killed in a hayloft.
Qui
First there was a rainlike noise that sounded like insects—a swarm of locusts hurling themselves at the doorway, clicking their shelled bodies by the thousands against the walls of the firehouse. Arrows.
The Hunters had followed.
We were trapped, and trapped again.
By the time I’d made it back to the upper floor, Qui
I glanced back over my shoulder and saw Preacher stagger backwards into the wall. He’d been shot in the face with an arrow. It entered below his cheekbone and came out through the ear on the same side. He grunted and snapped the shaft, pulling it out through the back of his head. His blood flecked the wall behind him, but the man seemed unfazed by his wound. He pointed his gun out the door and began firing wildly.
“Get up, Billy! It’s an ambush!”
Qui
I went through the door, and Qui
I didn’t even acknowledge Ben and Griffin. They stood there, waiting to see what I’d tell them to do. We were fucked, and now we were trapped inside the firehouse with the sonofabitch who dealt me over to the Rangers.
I slapped the speargun from Qui
“What the fuck, Qui
I couldn’t stop myself. I started punching him.
It felt good.
Ben didn’t say anything. He just picked up Qui
I don’t know if he was more stu
When I stopped punching Qui
He didn’t swing back one time; didn’t even try to defend himself against me, which made me feel even more disgusted by him. The fucker didn’t even know how to act like a real boy. His nose trickled blood over his lips and down to his chin. The kid was crying, trying to cover his wet and blood-streaked face with quaking hands.
If I had the time, I probably could have felt bad for him, for what I did, but Qui
The wrapping on my right hand was spotted with his blood.
“What the fuck was that about?” Ben seemed perfectly calm. Maybe he was just trying to keep his voice down because he was afraid of setting me off. But hearing him ask it made me madder.
I looked at Qui
I slid my knife out from its sheath and held it.
I grabbed a fistful of Qui
Qui
“Remember your fucking knife, Qui
Qui
“Look at me, sonofabitch!”
Qui
Ben said, “Jack.”
Griffin came flying down the ladder. “Holy fuck! Holy fuck! We gotta get out of here!”
I pulled the knife back.
Qui