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But she didn't go on. Just stood there, drooling out of those horrific teeth, black eyes gleaming in the blue-glow of the emergency lights, watching him almost like she was gearing herself up for something, and then he realized she wasn't looking at him.

It was the blood bag.

She moved forward and before he knew what he'd done, Adam swung and hit the little girl with a devastating left hook to the face, felt her nose sink in, his knuckles pop, and she went sliding back across the floor.

Something possessed him--a livid, white-hot jolt of rage, and as the little girl tried to sit up, the minister rushed forward, grabbing a knot of her hair as he shot past, and dragged her out into the corridor.

He could feel her struggling, trying to regain her feet, so he ran harder, hit a full-on sprint as he approached the junction, and then he gave one hard tug and sent the demon-girl careening into the nurses' station.

She crashed head-first into the wood paneling and lay unmoving on the floor.

Adam could hear noise everywhere now.

From Room 12--Brittany's room--God-awful screams, figured she was pushing the baby out, and he hoped Nurse Herrick was in with her.

The barricade was rattling, too, a demon trying to squeeze itself through the square window-frame.

The demon-girl jumped to her feet, hit the ground ru

They crashed hard to the floor, the little girl's talons digging through his black pants, pi

He looked down, saw her head moving toward his crotch, those shark teeth snapping.

Adam reached out and grabbed another handful of the little monster's hair and torqued her head a half second before she decapitated his johnson.

He brought his legs up around her and squeezed her between his thighs, straining to crush her ribcage.

She screamed, tore one of her talons out of his leg and swiped it at his face.

Adam could hear those demons trying to break through the barricade, couldn't see them from where he lay, but he could hear the ominous crack of wood splintering.

The girl struggled to inch toward him, close enough now that he let go of her hair and started punching--direct, solid blows to her face, her eyes swelling shut as she screamed.

And then suddenly he felt her talons close around his neck, and her face--the nightmare wreck of it--inches from his.

He stared into those black, soulless eyes that glistened with...

...joy...

It was unmistakable.

This little demon-girl looming over him, saliva dripping in long, bloody strings from her fangs, was pleased as punch, as if she'd finally managed to catch her first real prey.

I can't be killed by a little girl.

Please God.

Not like this.

Wait! Someone had appeared behind the girl--he craned his neck to see who it was as those monsters ravaged the barricade beyond the nurses' station.

Brittany! It was...Brittany?

Brittany stood in bare feet on the cold linoleum, her head tilted, watching Adam.

Her face had exploded, and her stomach too, and in the cavity a little eight-pound demon with a face full of half-inch razor whites was slowly chewing its way out, Adam thinking...

This is a hell worse than any I ever read about. Please God, please...where are you?

Je

IN a night filled with countless horrors, killing Lanz had to be the worst one of all.

Je

"It's okay now," she said. "We're all going to be--"

But she heard something that stopped her.

Squeak...

Squeak...

Squeak...

Could it be...?

The boys screaming in unison, so loud and shrill it hurt Je

That clown. That damn clown.

It stood next to the window, peering inside. Be



Je

"I hate clowns!"

"That's not a real clown," another boy said. "That's just some guy dressed up like a clown!"

"It's a monster clown!"

She hugged them. "Don't worry. The monster clown is out there. We're in here."

"He's doing something!"

Je

A blue handkerchief?

Squinting at it, Je

The first handkerchief was tied to a second, yellow handkerchief. He fed both through the window and kept pulling.

Attached to it was a red one.

Then a green one.

"Go away, you goddamn clown!" Je

But Be

That's not a handkerchief.

The next thing he yanked from his pocket was a human spleen.

The spleen was attached to a kidney.

The kidney was attached to a gall bladder.

Then a lung. A bladder. A descending colon. And something that might have been a trachea.

Je

Finally, with flourish, he ended the ghoulish display by tugging out the last organ. A human heart.

Then the bastard actually bowed.

"You sick son of a bitch!" Je

But Be

Je

Then Je

A sound that was both familiar, and totally out of place.

BRRRR-RRRR-RRRRR-RRRREEEEEEEEEE!

The starting and revving of a chainsaw.

The blade poked through the aluminum door like a finger through a wet tissue.

The children screamed. So did Je

As Be

Randall

HE hated to admit it, but Randall felt a lot better after his encounter with Clay. The new gun helped. But, really, the guy wasn't a complete dickhead after all. Oh, he was still a dickhead, but perhaps a smaller one than Randall had originally thought.