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It moved forward.

Toward him.

One of the animal's forelegs caught his attention. A green light glowed from a thick grey band strapped to the creature's left forelimb.

It was close now -- its jaws wide, salivating wildly, dripping goo all over the floor. Hawkins' eyes were locked on the swaying antennae on its head, clocking from side to side like a pair of metronomes.

It was three feet away...

Two feet...

Hawkins tensed to run, but for some terrifying reason, his legs wouldn't move. He tried to raise his gun, but couldn't -- it was as if every muscle in his body had gone completely, instantly limp. He watched helplessly as, to his horror, his gun slipped from his unresponsive hand and dropped loudly to the floor.

The antennae kept swaying.

One foot...

Hawkins was sweating profusely, breathing in short, rapid breaths. He just couldn't take his eyes off them. The antennae. They seemed to move in perfect rhythm, swaying in smooth hypnotic circles...

He watched -- completely defenceless -- as the creature's sinister-looking head came slowly up to his knee.

Ohshit. Ohshit. Ohshit.

And then, suddenly, unexpectedly, like a cobra coiling up off the ground, the creature's long, pointed, eight- foot tail lifted off the floor and swung forward -- over its low reptilian body -- so that now it was pointing forward, arcing over its frame like a scorpion's stinger, the tip of the tail pointing right at the bridge of Paul Hawkins' nose.

Hawkins saw it happen and his terror hit fever pitch. He desperately wanted to shut his eyes, so he wouldn't see it happen, but he couldn't even do that--

'Hey!'

The creature's head snapped left.

And in an instant, the trance was broken and Hawkins could move again. He looked up and saw...

... a man.

A man, standing a short way down the aisle. Hawkins hadn't even seen him approach. Hadn't even heard him. Hawkins took in the man's appearance. He had wet hair, and was wearing jeans and sneakers and a white shirt that hung out at the waist.

The man spoke to Hawkins.

'Come over here. Now.'

Hawkins looked down warily at the big alligator-like creature at his feet. It ignored him completely, simply faced the man in jeans, its body dead still.

If it had eyes, Hawkins thought, it was definitely glaring at him. A low rumbling noise rose threateningly from the back of its throat.

Hawkins glanced back questioningly at the man. The man just kept his eyes levelled at him.

'Come on,' the man said calmly, eyes unmoving. 'Just leave the gun there and walk very slowly over to me.'

Tentatively, Hawkins took a step forward.

The creature at his knee didn't move. It remained steadfastly focused on the man in jeans.

The man pushed Hawkins behind him and slowly stepped backwards, away from the creature.

Hawkins looked down the aisle behind them and saw two figures standing maybe forty feet away -- a small one in white, and another, equally small, who looked like... he squinted... like a little girl.

'Move,' Swain said, pushing Hawkins down the aisle, his back to him.

Swain kept his eyes up, focused on the bookshelves, away from the creature's swaying antennae, watching it only out of his peripheral vision.

The two men stepped slowly down the aisle, away from the frozen creature.

And then suddenly it began to follow them, moving around the corner in a darting crab-like manner that belied its size. Then it stopped.

Swain pushed Hawkins further down the aisle. 'Keep moving. Just keep moving.'

'What the--'

'Just move.'

Swain was walking backwards, still facing the creature. Again it made a darting, scuttling movement ten feet forward, and then stopped again, well short of Hawkins and himself

It's being cautious, he thought.

And then it charged.

'Oh, shit!'

The large animal bounded down the narrow confines of the aisle.

Swain looked frantically for somewhere to run. But he was still ten feet away from the nearest passageway into the maze of bookshelves.

There was nowhere to go!

Swain braced himself, the ground beneath him vibrating under the thumping weight of the fast-approaching creature. Christ, it must weigh nearly four hundred pounds.

Hawkins turned. He saw it over Swain's shoulder. 'Holy Christ...'

Swain just stood there, feet spread wide, taking up the whole aisle.

The creature kept coming. It wasn't stopping.

'It's not stopping!' Hawkins yelled.

'It has to!' Swain called. 'It has to stop!'

The creature bounded forward, bearing down on Swain like a runaway freight train, until abruptly, three feet short of him, it reared on its hind legs and clasped the bookcases on either side of it with its clawed fore-limbs, bringing it to a sudden, lunging stop.

The four-sided jaw stopped just inches away from Swain's unmoving face.

The creature hissed fiercely, challenging him. Its saliva dripped down onto the floor in front of his shoes.

Swain averted his gaze, stared at a nearby bookshelf, keeping his eyes off the animal's oscillating antennae. The horrifying alligator-like creature, now standing up on its hind legs, towered over him, looming above him like an evil apparition.

Swain wagged an admonishing finger at the infuriated animal: 'Ah-ah-ah. No touching.'

And he began to walk backwards again, pushing Hawkins.

Hawkins stumbled down the aisle, looking back over his shoulder every few seconds. This time the creature didn't follow them, at least not immediately.

They reached the little white man and the girl, and were a good thirty feet from the creature when it began moving toward them again.

The little man spoke: 'Sequencing! She's sequencing! '

The man in the loose-fitting shirt and jeans looked at Hawkins, standing there in his well-pressed police uniform.

'We don't have time to talk right now, but my name is Stephen Swain, and at the moment we're all in big trouble. You ready to run?'

Hawkins answered without thinking. 'Yuh-huh.'

Swain looked back down the aisle at the large dinosaur-like creature. Twenty feet. He picked up Holly.

'You know the way back to the stairwell?' he asked Hawkins.

The young cop nodded.

'Then you lead the way. Just keep zig-zagging. We'll be right behind you.' He turned to the others. 'You two ready?' They nodded. 'Okay then, let's move.'

Hawkins broke into a run, the others close behind him.

With a great lunge, the creature leapt forward in pursuit.

Swain brought up the rear, carrying Holly on his hip. He could hear the pounding of the great weight on the floor behind him.