“After everything, Alan, how can you be so cavalier?”
“We are survivors. That’s what we do,” he said.
“We didn’t even find any stakes,” Liz said. “Amber said to have a stake and I trust her.”
“We’ll be a lot faster if we just run instead of trying to attack anything we find.”
“Wait,” Ricky said. “Amber? You mean like that sharpened stick she had?”
Liz nodded.
“Hold on,” he said. He jogged back towards the desk.
Nick cupped his hands around the glass to see past the glare of the flashlight that Alan was holding. “I swear that I saw something out there before. Where did you park?”
Liz pointed out their car.
“Well, on the other hand, Ricky and I just walked right by there and nothing happened to us. Of course that was before the lights went out. There are a lot more shadows now.”
Ricky crossed the lobby and disappeared through a small door. When he came back out, he was holding a mop. He unscrewed the handle from the head and tried once to snap it over his knee. Grimacing at the pain, he propped it up on the ledge under the window and then stomped on it to break it in two. He handed the jagged halves to Alan and Liz.
“Thank you,” Alan said. He turned to Liz and asked, “What do you think?”
She made a practice jab with her new weapon. “It’s not ideal, but it could work. Okay—no bags, run to the car, jump in, drive the flashlight back over to this door, pull up on the sidewalk, hand it over, and then get out of here.”
“If you’re close, we can pass the bags to you,” Ricky said.
Liz shook her head. “Not worth the risk, but thanks.”
Alan handed her the light. “You hold flashlight and a stake. I’ll hold keys and a stake. I’ll unlock the doors when we’re close.”
“Perfect,” Liz said.
They began to walk towards the door.
# # #
“Are we doing the right thing?” Liz whispered as she pressed her back to the glass door.
She scanned the ground in front of them with the flashlight.
They started to move slowly, crossing the traffic lane on the way to the rows of cars. The moonlight put a shimmer on the vehicles, but the shadows were incredibly deep and dark between them. The flashlight did very little to probe those shadows.
“We’ve talked about this, Liz. At least one of us has to get back to safety for Joe’s sake,” Alan said.
“Right—at least one. Maybe you should go home and I’ll stay here,” she said. “We didn’t even tell Ricky and Nick about the disappearance of Jennifer.”
“They’ll find out,” Alan said. “They’re probably already headed upstairs.”
Liz glanced back. “No, they’re watching to make sure that we make it safely to the car.”
“Let’s just get to the car. We can argue about ethics then.”
Something moved at the edge of Liz’s flashlight beam.
Alan raised his jagged broom handle. He and Liz squared themselves to the car that the shadow had disappeared under.
“Maybe we should…” Liz began to say.
They both said it together.
“Run.”
As soon as Liz bolted, Alan was right on her heels. The car was at the end of the row. The flashlight beam rose and fell with Liz’s pumping arm. She veered to the right, away from the shifting shadows, uncertain if they were moving because of some creature or just because the flashlight was swinging. Alan followed, raising the key fob as they got closer, ready to hit the button.
When Liz stopped, Alan was looking at his thumb to make sure that he hit the right button. He twisted his hand at the last moment to avoid stabbing her with his stake and stopped just short of knocking her over. The flashlight beam was steady. It was pointed in the direction of their car and reflecting off of one of the rear windows. There was another light though and Liz was staring right at it.
“It’s beautiful,” Liz said. Her left arm went limp. Her fingers barely held onto the broom handle.
“Liz, what…” Alan began to say.
# # #
“What are they doing?” Ricky asked Nick. They were watching through the plate glass windows of the hotel’s lobby.
“I don’t know. They were so intent on getting to the car. Now they’re… They almost look like Riley did when he froze up out on the…”
Ricky didn’t wait for the end of the sentence. He sprinted for the glass door, tore it open and yelled out into the night.
“Get back here! Don’t just stand there!”
The woman behind the desk leaned over and asked, “Sir? Is everything okay?”
Ricky ignored her and ran out to the curb. He shouted again.
Nick moved to the door. By the time he stepped out into the night, Ricky was already running across the parking lot. A cold breeze seemed to push Nick back towards the safety of the hotel. The lobby was barely illuminated by the emergency lighting, but it suddenly seemed infinitely safer than the parking lot. The door was almost shut again when Nick cursed himself and went back outside.
Ricky had his head down as he ran towards the couple. He only slowed when he saw the circle of light from the flashlight. It was hanging limp in Liz’s hand, pointed almost at the ground.
“Wake up!” Ricky said, grabbing at their coats. Liz kept her balance, but Alan stumbled back into Ricky and the two of them almost went down. Ricky heard Liz gasp and then the flashlight was swinging around, sending the beam every direction as she shrieked. With that sound, it appeared that the hypnosis was shattered. Liz turned back towards the hotel and dropped her stick so she could help her husband stay on his feet.
“Go,” Ricky said when Liz glanced over her shoulder, back to the car. “No, back to the hotel.”
Ricky snagged Alan’s arm and pulled. Liz followed.
Lighting them from behind, she sent a big, complex shadow out ahead of Ricky and Alan. They had four legs and were joined at the torso. Alan was still a
