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The us; a lipless ain, seeing the face explode into bits of bone and dried flesh; it hissed and fell back through the

Now the rear door was buckling Schiller forced his legs to s back He could feel the incredible force of whatever was behind the door

Abreaking, another, two risly brown scalp glistening with glass Jana hefted a wicker chair and struck at it, but then the arms were in and it was too late

Threetheir way in now through all the s, and it was only ive way Moore felt the wild touch of panic grip hieance There was no tiet those shells from upstairs, but was there a chance they could make it to a terrace and leap from the porch before the zombies reached theht back It shrieked and collapsed, sliding through the

The rear door split; Schiller stepped away froh But others reached through as well, and they would be inside within seconds

With a tre wood the front door caved in, and hideous shapes ca a ha crowbars and wrenches Moore fired into their midst and knew he&039;d hit one of them, but even as he prepared to fire his final bullet, he heard Schiller shout that the rear door was down as well A stench of rot wafted over hi a blunt object down on Moore&039;s right shoulder He cried out in pain; the gun slipped fro and biting, the teeth grinning and terrible; a hand flashed out, clubbing hiht back, his teeth clenched, not willing to let them take him without a battle He was thrown backward over a chair and lay sprawled on his back They huddled over Jana in a corner, their claws and fangs flashing; Moore crawled toward her as one of thean to twist his head to one side, about to rip it from the neck

"GOD HAVE MERCY!" Schiller shrieked in Gerainst a wall at their approach "GOD HAVE MERCY!"

And a voice hissed, "Stopppppppp" The sound was as cold as the touch of the grave

The thing strangling Moore released its grip and stood up Moore coughed violently, shaking his head fro the field of his vision They released Jana; she crumpled to the floor in a heap

Schiller stood where he was, pinned to the wall, his s stood er for blood

A shadowflashed, illu a face destroyed by the ruin of rot, a face that had seen its own horror in a mirror One arer pointing The hand ca Schiller&039;s chin, but when Schiller recoiled in stark terror the thing paused Its head cocked to one side, it exa eyes

Moore crawled toward Jana; she was se in shreds He huddled beside her and watched

"Nein" Schiller whispered "Nein"

The figure before hi Then, with a treray lips moved "Schillerrrr?"

The German shrank back, his shoulders pressed into the wall

"Mein Gott" the thing whispered, its voice a dry rasp that made Moore&039;s skin crawl

Schiller blinked, screa within his head He couldn&039;t believe it, wouldn&039;t believe it, but he seenize the o Another life "Nein" he rasped, shaking his head "Not you! You should be dead all of you should BE DEAD!"

Korrin held Schiller&039;s eyes for a aze to Moore and Jana He raised the ars from the exposed bone, and pointed toward them "Feindlich Teufel" he whispered

"Nein," Schiller breathed "Nein, nein"

Korrin turned froainst hi corpse towered over them, and Moore could feel the touch of its fetid breath

"ALL OF YOU ARE DEAD!" Schiller shrieked, his voice breaking, slithering into awhorls of destruction They seared through Moore&039;s flesh and muscles, into the bone and the brain The ar, filthy nails, came down for Moore&039;s throat He held his own arms up weakly to ward it off, but he was powerless to move

And then suddenly, in a blur ofon the floor He fired without aie pierced the shadows

Moore saw Korrin&039;s head jerk to one side, saw the lower jaw hang on threads for an instant before being ripped away, leaving a ragged edge of flesh Korrin staggered backward, al his balance He put his hands to his face, and the screah that broken mouth cast Schiller over the brink of insanity Still screa; Schiller squeezed the trigger again, ai between the eyes, but the hammer fell on an empty clip

At once the other crewmen had turned on Schiller; one of them struck out with a crowbar that smashed across the Ger for his eyes Korrin reached hi doard the offered throat

"RUN!" Schiller screas covered him over "RUN!"

Moore hesitated; Schiller had saved them, but now the man was beyond hope, and the instant they finished with him they&039;d craveher to h the shattered rear door toward the kitchen Beyond the broken opening where the back door had been was the jungle&039;s blackness

Moore turned back They were shredding the flesh from Schiller&039;s body

Then he pulled Jana after hi underbrush She was still dazed and tripped across vines He picked her up, ignoring the sharp protest of his injured shoulder, and struggled into the walls of foliage, feeling thorns grasp at his trousers and scrape across his arm

There was no time to think, no tiet them as far away from the hotel as he could The terror still throbbed within hi of a second heart He moved deeper into darkness, heedless of their direction, only knowing they had to find a place of safety His feet sank into the soft earth, slipping in standing puddles of water On the next step he lost his footing and crashed to the ground with Jana still in his arms; the shock on his injured shoulder made him cry out in pain Jana shook her head dazedly, the scratches livid on her face She tried to craay but Moore reached out and caught her

And he heard the terrifying noises he had expected all along They were following; he could hear brush being crushed down beneath boots Closer Closer

He pulled her up and went on, as though he were running headlong into a deep pit from which there was no escape He tore frantically at the vines which blocked their way A wild bird cried out and burst fros were still co When he looked back over his shoulder he thought he could see a dozen orother shadows The entire jungle was aout for hiers Panic exploded within hiirl with him, the muscles of his injured aro, nowhere to hide, nowhere to find safety

The things were al quickly Don&039;t stop! Don&039;t weaken! DON&039;T STOP! He lost his footing, staggered to his knees, pulled hirip Thorns whipped into his face, his chest heaving with the exertion; around hih their piercing cla breath His skin crawled, already sensing the claws that would reach for the back of his neck

And then the shadows rose up in front of him

He opened his mouth to screa roar of a shotgun blast

The muzzle flare exploded past Moore and Jana into the shapes that reached toward theht back the way they&039;d co it against his bare shoulder; the gun bucked again, but the forht

Moore collapsed to his knees, his body racked with pain, and retched into the brush When he looked up he saw perhaps six or seventorches A fir him to his feet

The un in the crook of his muscular arm He was completely bald but had a full white beard and littered in the light of a torch, and a golden a about his thick neck But it was the face that both commanded Moore&039;s attention and repelled hilowered froh forehead, and the nose was as hooked as an eagle&039;s beak One side of the face was terribly scarred and thickened, the scars streaking pink across the tawny skin, crisscrossing that side of the neck, as well as a large gouge across a shoulder He wore a T-shirt and dark trousers which had been ripped in numerous places by thorns The an to uns or wicked-looking knives

The man turned his attention to Moore and Jana "Follow," he ordered, and without waiting for thele from the direction he&039;d come