Page 4 (1/2)

Chapter 1

I ducked low and spun away as the snapping tentacle zipped by ainst the concrete wall resonated within the quiet alley The creature, frustrated atrowling hiss that made my blood run cold Whatever it was, it wasn't a sound that had ever been heard on our planet before their arrival

Taking up the shooter's stance that Darnell had taught me I didn't have much time, but even so I fired off five quick rounds into the s noise erupted from it as it curled into itself but I didn't intend to stick around and make sure it was dead

Keep o

Leaping forward, I darted in and out as I atte me I'd been hit once before by one of those tentacles and there was no way I was ever going to have that agonizing experience replayed Grabbing hold of long forgotten trashcans and bicycles, I threw the and bolted through the shadowy and cobwebbed lobby

I could barely hear over rabbed hold of a dead potted plant and spun to heave it behind h distance between ht it off The creature ain as the pot connected with its opalescent and e as some of the others I'd encountered, but it was faster and able to get through the building better than the bigger ones would have been able to

My legs were burning as I jumped onto a sofa in the lobby and cleared the back of it in one single bound There had been a time when I would have tripped over raceful heap on the floor, but things were different noasn't the ungraceful, uncoordinated girl I'd been before The Freezing had occurred

Cade had h his blood had resulted in consequences he hadn't expected and soon inside me

I heard the creature coe the tentacle's deadly trajectory The snake-like appendage struck the ith a sickening slap that caused my stomach to twist I didn't knohere everyone else e'd been separated when these things had eed fro enough, I'd be able to get the upper hand on this thing

The entrance to the stairwell loo askew on its broken hinges as I dove under it I cleared the bottoloomy stairway I launched back to my feet and took the stairs two at a ti sounded like a horse that had just won the race by the time I made it to the second floor, but I didn't slon as I shoved through the stairwell door The creature was only twenty feet behind ht into an abandoned office

My footsteps echoed through the cavernous space as I ran by the receptionist's desk, through another open doorway, and into a roo dead and gone for too long noas co from somewhere within the rooing pattern I was hoping would help nore the blood streaked over the floor and smeared on the back wall but my eyes were draard it repeatedly The life of huotten, coated these walls