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"Somehow I don’t believe them," said Emma

"Definitely not," said Horace

"Don’t even think about it, Mr Portrine

"I wasn’t," I replied "Is everyone ready?"

Murmurs of assent I reat jaws hinging open, tongues at the ready I was about to launch h a PA in the hallway: "They have control of the hollows! Fall back, men! Defensive positions!"

"Da boots filled the corridor Our surprise attack had been spoiled

"It doesn’t ot twelve hollows, you don’t need surprise"

It was ti-up of tension before the strike, I felt the opposite, a loosening of my full and present self asthe hollows And then, whiletheed, blasted door into the hall, running, snarling, jaws gaping, their invisible bodies carving tunnels in the curling bo, then fell back Bullets whizzed through the open doorway and into the roo into the wall behind us

"Tell us when!" Eo at your word!"

My mind in a dozen places at once, I could lish in reply I was the in syues reached theh and the brave-but-foolish ones who’d lingered to fight We pummeled them, smacked their heads into the walls, and a small number of us stopped to--here I tried to disconnect uns, silencing their screa

Bottlenecked at the stairs at the end of the corridor, the guards fired again A second curtain of bullets passed through us, deep and painful, but we ran on, tongues flailing