Страница 54 из 123
He laid his hand against his wife's forehead--cool and sweaty.
Closed his eyes. Prayed harder than he'd ever prayed in his life.
"I'm so cold, Adam."
He started unbuttoning his black shirt.
"I hope you won't lose your faith over this."
He wondered if she meant her death, if she knew it was imminent, or everything else.
"Of course not," he said, wondering if he was lying to her.
Stacie looked down into the face of her daughter, and as Adam pulled his arms out of his shirtsleeves and laid it across Stacie's chest, she said, "You'll tell her about me?"
"Stacie, stop, you're go
"I know what's happening," she said.
He could barely get the words out. "Every day, darling. Every day. I love you, Stacie. I love you so much." Tears streamed down his face.
Her eyes were going glassy, filling slowly with a kind of stu
"Stacie! Do you hear me?"
She turned her head, and stared up into his eyes, one last and fading beat of lucidity.
"I know you love me, Adam," she whispered. "You know I love you?"
He nodded.
"I'm scared, Adam."
He laid down beside his wife as the demons started beating against the door, their faces turned toward each other, staring into Stacie's eyes as the life inside them drained away.
Je
JENNY turned away from the dying woman and her newborn. Yet another tragedy in a night filled with them.
She pushed her emotions back, maintaining the guise of a professional, and looked for Randall. He and Clay had finished barricading the door and now Randall stood alone, staring off into the sea of blinking, flashing emergency lights. Je
"Do you think we'll be rescued?" she asked.
A silly question, because there was no way he could know, any more than she did. But Je
"I'll make sure you and the kids get safe, Je
His voice was cracking, and he looked away from her.
"Randall? What's wrong?"
He coughed and covered his mouth, but not before something fell from his lips and bounced onto the tar-papered roof.
A tooth.
"Oh, Randall..."
He stared at her, his eyes hooded, his pupils already starting to enlarge.
"I won't hurt you," he said. "I won't hurt you or the kids. I'll...I'll throw myself off the building before I let that happen."
He tried a pathetic smile, and more of his teeth dropped out. Je
Clay was walking over.
"Randall, I need your help guarding the barricade...holy fuck!"
Clay raised his weapon, pointing it at her husband's head.
Without thinking, Je
"No!"
"Get out of the way, Je
"He's my husband! You're not going to kill him, Clayton Theel!"
Randall made a grunting sound, then doubled over and dropped to his knees. Je
"Je
"I know Randall. He won't hurt me. Will you, Randall?"
Randall violently shook his head. "Won't...hurt...no one. I...can...fight it."
Clay reached for Je
"If I...lose...control...kill me. But...until then...fuck...off."
Randall released Clay, who immediately pointed the gun at him again. Once more, Je
Clay stuck out his jaw. "My girl, Sha
Randall cried out as his teeth tore through his cheeks. Then came an ear-splitting sound of screeching metal.
"They're here!" one of the boys screamed.
Je
Randall pulled her tightly against him.
She felt his hot breath on her cheek, his warm, bloody drool dripping onto her neck.
"I...love...you..." her husband whispered.
Then he picked up his chainsaw and limped toward the oncoming horde.
Stacie
IT was like someone dimming the lights from inside her head.
No pain, but so dizzy.
She could still sense her daughter lying asleep in the crook of her arm, though she couldn't feel a thing.
There was noise all around her, but Adam--sweet, wonderful Adam--his voice cut through, lips pressed against her ear.
"I will extend peace to her like a river."
Thinking, I ca
"And the wealth of nations like a flooding stream."
Please God, undo this.
"You will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knee."
There's so much I want to experience.
"As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted."
Nothing to do but latch onto his voice as the darkness flooded in and unconsciousness loomed like both the heartbreaking end and the answer to so many questions.
"When you see this your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass. Peace like a river, Stacie. Peace to you. I love you Stacie."
His voice fading.
"I love you Stacie."
She could feel herself slipping, and she didn't fight it anymore.
"Always, Stacie."
Randall
RANDALL admitted, often with pride, that he could be one of the most stubborn bastards to walk the planet. He'd always been that way, and even though his stubbor
But at some point you had to accept that things weren't going to happen the way you wanted, no matter how desperately you stuck to the plan.
At some point you had to accept that you were doomed.
Randall did not accept his fate as he rushed onto the roof with Je
Did not accept his fate as he and Je
Did not accept his fate as he and Clay dragged the air conditioning units to create a barricade against the draculas.
Hell, he didn't even accept his fate when Clay had a big-ass gun on him. He'd be fine. He'd recover. He was a lot stronger than the other people who'd transformed. He was a goddamn lumberjack!
Even as he vowed to throw himself off the roof if needed, he knew it was an u
But when the pain began, he knew he was fucked.
It seemed like tonight had been nothing except pain, but not like this. Nothing could compare to this. It was as if every single tooth in his mouth was simultaneously attacked by a sadistic Nazi dentist, drilling deep into the nerves, not simply without Novocain but with drugs to enhance his senses, pain so incredible that he thought he might finally take that next step and go completely insane.