There was another moan. More truly a moan than the sound Dana had made. Hartnup’s body turned and he cursed God as it did so, because he knew what horrors lay behind him.
No. Not lay. Stood.
April.
Somehow her face was untouched, though every other part of her was crumpled and torn and slashed by teeth and nails.
April. With her dead eyes. Holding small, squirming, hissing, moaning things in each arm.
The Hollow Man turned away and shambled toward the door, moving away from this place because there was nothing left here to hunt. The ache, the deep hunger, was waking once more in his stolen body. Within shuffling steps, he followed his sister and the police officers out into the howling wind.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
When Dez and JT got to the gas station it was deserted, the doors locked and the staff gone.
“Turk’s gone,” JT said as he peered in through the grimy office window.
Dez rubbed a clean spot on the window of the roll-down garage door. “Yeah, both of his wreckers are gone. Must be out cruising the roads between the schools.”
Turk and his son made money every time there was a heavy rain, pulling cars out of the mud. Dez slammed her fist on the door and turned back to their car. It was a smoking wreck and getting to the gas station took all that it had left.
JT ran over and crouched behind a corner mailbox, squinting through the gloom up Doll Factory Road. Dez opened the cruiser door and grabbed the mike, but all she got was static. Her cell phone was lost and she had no idea where. Maybe at Hartnup’s, maybe at the hospital.
“Talk to me, Hoss,” she called over her shoulder. “Are they coming?”
JT reloaded his shotgun and shoved the remaining shells into his pants pocket. “I can’t see them,” he called in a loud whisper. “They must be over the rise. Did you get Flower on the line?”
“Trying…”
Dez tried again, but there was only white noise. She threw down the mike and hurried over to kneel down next to JT.
“What are we into here?” she asked. “I mean … Jesus, JT, this thing is spreading out of control.”
He licked his lips. “Those people … they’re dead?”
It was maybe the tenth time he’d said it since they got out of the car.
“Yes, they’re fucking dead,” she said through gritted teeth.
He glanced at her. “No … no … I mean…” He shook his head, tried again. “We shot the shit out of them, Dez, and they kept coming.”
“Except some of them,” she corrected.
“Right, that’s my point. Some of them went down. Some of them are
Dez touched his shoulder. “I know, Hoss … I know. The chief … a few of the others. I shot them and they didn’t go down, and then I shot them and they did. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“When you … killed the chief,” he asked slowly, “where’d you hit him?”
Dez thought about it. “In the forehead.”
JT let out a breath, almost a sigh of relief. “Same thing happened when you shot the EMT. And I hit Paul Scott in the head and that broke his neck.”
“And the cleaning lady back at Doc’s?”
“I shot her in the cheek and she—”
“No,” he said, “where’d you put your last shot?”
Dez paused. “Right above the eye.”
“Head shot,” said JT. “That’s it, then. It’s the head. The brain, probably. Definitely the spine. That’s how to put them down for good.”
“Are you sure?”
JT said, “Think … did any of them get up after you shot them in the skull?”
Dez thought about it. “No,” she said. “Not one.”
“Head shots,” he said again. “We need to get them in the head.”
She shook her head. “I’m a good shot, but I can’t guarantee a head shot unless those fuckers are right on top of us. Maybe if I had a hunting rifle with a scope. No … we need SWAT. We need snipers firing from elevated positions.”
“Try the radio again, Dez. Maybe we can stop this if we get those snipers in here.”
She nodded. “Or enough people with guns to create a shooting line. Most rounds slow them. Double tap the fuckers back to wherever they came from.”
JT gave her a troubled look. “Dez … they came from here. That was Chief Goss and Sheldon and Paul…”
“You know what I mean,” Dez snapped, though in truth she didn’t know what she meant. She turned and hurried back to the cruiser and tried to call the station again. Nothing. Dez threw down the mike in disgust and just as the handset bounced off the seat she heard a voice.
“…
Not Flower.
Dez lunged for the handset and clicked the button.
“Unit Two to dispatch, do you copy?”
The response was immediate. “Unit Two, identify.”
She recognized the voice. The state police lieutenant, William Henry Hardy.
“Lieutenant Hardy, this is Officer Fox.”
There was considerable static, but Dez got every word. “Officer Fox, please state your location and status.”
“My unit is wrecked at the corner of Doll Factory Road and Mason Street. Turk’s Getty. Requesting immediate backup. We have officers down. I repeat, we have multiple officers down. Estimate thirty plus. County and troopers. We have civilian casualties. Estimate fifty plus.”
“Say again.”
Dez repeated it. The enormity of it was like a fist against her head.
“Backup is already rolling,” said Hardy. “What is the nature of the emergency?”
“I … don’t know.”
There was a moment of crackle.
“Officer, please repeat. What is the nature of the—”
“People are going crazy down here, Lieutenant. Everyone’s attacking everyone. People are fucking eating people. Cops, too.”
“Officer Fox, did you make contact with Chief Goss?”
She took a breath. “Chief Goss is dead.” Tears boiled out of her eyes and fell down her cheeks. “Christ … they’re all dead.” A sob hitched inside her chest and suddenly she was crying. She leaned against the side of the cruiser and slid down to the ground, the sobs wracking her, the pain in her soul doubling her over. She buried her face against her knees and banged the microphone against her head. Over and over again.
“They’re coming!” JT yelled and she jerked her head up to see him rising to lay the shotgun atop the mailbox.
“Christ,” Dez said, and realized that she was still holding the radio send button. “Lieutenant … with the storm the emergency evacuation center is the elementary school. There’s going to be hundreds of kids in there. Old folks, too. It’s only a couple of miles from here. Please … get some people over there. You can’t let any of the
