The shadows looked even more solid in the direct light. Not good.
They continued to move and shift, keeping no particular shape for more than a few seconds. The wall behind them barely showed through.
A few high-pitched, thin voices at the bottom of the stairs squealed, 'Forgive us!' A few more whined in, adding, 'It's not our fault!' to the chorus.
Tiny feet scampered to reach the first step.
The lady and the kid crowded up next to me.
I sweated what to do. Rats are more suited to shotguns than pistols.
I fired into the shadows ahead. They made bigger targets than whatever was closing in on us from behind. The round went through the one in the middle and spattered against the wall.
I should have expected as much.
I fired again. This one marked the wall with a silvery splash. The shadow continued its wavering motions, unbothered.
The things below us gained a couple more steps. They shrieked like a thousand fingernails on slate.
I was getting more than nervous. Just to have something to do while I thought things out, I aimed a third time.
'Out of the way!' shouted the blond and blue-green form shimmering past me. She almost shoved me over the side of the escalator to charge up the stairs straight at the wraiths.
She screamed like bad opera and swung her arm.
The little beasts behind us gained a few more levels. I pulled Isadora in front of me, lifting her up from the steps with my free arm.
Ann's blade passed through the first shadow. It drew away from her, seeming to fold in on itself. The others pulled away toward the walls. She jabbed at each one. They vanished at the touch of her knife.
'
' she yelled, pointing to the padlocks on the doors. The screaming, pleading things behind me jumped up to my step a heartbeat after I'd started to run to the top of the stairs. It was a very quick heartbeat.
'Get behind me!' I shouted, handing the kid to Ann. I didn't know what good being behind me would do in the event of a ricochet, but it seemed the courteous thing to say.
The door's rusted hasps looked far weaker than the locks. I leaned the muzzle against the lower one, shielded my eyes, and squeezed the trigger.
The bullet tore through the hasp and ricocheted twice. Fragments of mirror exploded from the opposite wall to cascade down the escalator steps.
Loud animal cries rose up from below. They were even closer.
I reached up to shoot off the other hasp. The round went straight through the ceiling into the lobby. I hoped that no one was sitting right above us.
Blondie and I pulled at the door and managed to open it a crack. A sheet of light trickled in, along with a dozen or so years of accumulated trash.
Into that light swarmed the squealing terrors. Little rat heads and little rat paws. Attached to little human bodies.
I jammed my legs on one side of the opening and my back alongside the other. Old bones popped in surprise with the strain. The doors creaked and parted another foot or so. I shoved the kid through. My muscles felt like old rags stretching beyond their limit. I pushed Ann through just as she was getting ready to go at the little horrors with her knife. Enough is enough.
I squeezed past the opening. Debris clogged the fire-door channel, jamming the doors.
The three of us stood in a recess in the lobby at the base of another escalator. People rimmed the edge and stood at the top of the stairs, peering at us. They were the same old lowlifes I'd seen in the tower for years. I didn't even
