I didn't want to know whether they merely sank or vanished or danced out doing the cha-cha. All I knew was that I had blood coming out of various parts of me and that I ached like a second-place prizefighter.
Dell Ammo's a real hard man. He fights Heaven and Hell. Ammo's real tough. Ammo wants to lie down on dry sheets with an ice pack and a heating pad. Dell Ammo wants life to ease the hell up on him.
I looked up to see a dark shape snarling at the top of the stairs.
Dell Ammo gets all the breaks.
I snapped the Magna-Lite up at it. The thing hissed and pulled back. I drew my automatic, whipped it a couple of times to get water out of the barrel, and waited. 'Get behind me,' I whispered.
'Right,' Ann said. 'I'll guard the rear.' She wedged the kid between us.The thing stepped into the light, crouching low. It looked like a wolf, but I wasn't calling any odds tonight. It had lost its fur sometime in the past, but had made up for it with thick scales of blackened, flaking skin. From the way it crouched, it gave no sign of being weak or sick. Tiny droplets of foam dripped from its slavering tongue when it opened its maw to snarl.
'Oh, shit,' said a small voice behind me.
I took aim as it reared up to leap. The muzzle blast stung my hand. The report rang in my head like the bells of St. Mary's.
The kick nearly threw me off balance on the slick steps. A firm hand at my back steadied me, pushing me upright.
'Thanks, sweetheart,' I muttered through clenched teeth. I stared at the dog-or whatever it was. It had collapsed at the top of the escalator, dead before it could lunge toward us. The bullet had made a large, ugly crater in its crusted skin. This one bled, though, nice and normal from its mouth and nose. Its forequarters hung limply over the top step. Where there should have been paws, dirty, callused hands twitched reflexively a few times and grew still. They looked as if they'd once been slender, graceful hands, perhaps those of a woman.
I said nothing. Ann said nothing. The kid said nothing. We all kept saying it until we'd edged past the limp, lifeless hulk.
Ann poked it with her steel.
'Are you sure it's dead?' Isadora asked.
'It won't bother us anymore,' Ann replied. She poked it harder. It hissed slowly, languidly. Like an old woman recalling a pleasant memory. The sound stopped as abruptly as it began.
'Did you puncture it?' The kid looked at Blondie with a queer expression.
Ann looked back, her features calm. 'It's dead, Isadora. Gone for good. I just wanted to be sure it wouldn't... revive.'
I turned to face the next flight of steps. 'If you're through playing coroner, angel, we can try making it to the top. This escalator heads right up into the lobby of North Tower. The fire doors were locked from the inside before they began decontamination.'
Ann took the kid's hand to lead her past the corpse. 'I suppose you've got the key?'
I flicked the safety on my Colt back and forth, smiling. 'I have an Open Portal spell. Hasn't failed me yet.'
I couldn't coax a smile out of either one of them. I hadn't expected to. We were as raucous as a funeral home.
I beamed the Magna-Lite at the steel doors blocking the top of the escalator. Nothing there but some angular shadows and piles of rusty red dust. We started up the cluttered steps.
The stark shadows at the top shifted-with the bobbing of the light, I assumed, paying it no mind.
I felt that familiar shiver pass through me, though. Below us, I heard the scraping of tiny claws on steel. I froze.
The shadows above kept moving.
The footsteps below us slowed a few at a time. It sounded like rats.
'Just rats,' I said out loud, more for my sake than the others. I took another step up and beamed the fire door.
