“Bastard!” Lours growled, pressing against the wooden surface.
Dean unsheathed his knife, then ran it down the side of the door, neatly slicing off all five of the monkey’s fingers. Blood squirted from the injured appendages as its hand disappeared back inside. Shifting his grip on the knife, Dean rammed the blade into the jamb near the top of the door. He slipped a second knife into the jamb near the bottom.
“Hold them for a little while, mebbe,” Dean said.
Louis took the lead, trotting across the worn and stained carpet in the corridor.
Dean sucked in air, wishing his lungs weren’t so empty because he knew he was making too much noise. The sounds of combat were all around him now, and the open spaces were filling up with the haze of smoke, as if the building had caught fire somehow. He wondered where the others were, how they were doingif they were still alive.
Abruptly two bulky shadows stepped around the corner of the intersection ahead of them, little more than twenty feet away.
Then Dean noticed the wavering fires captured in the barrels of the misshapen pistols they carried in their gloved hands. Hoses curled from the weapon and around the men’s legs.
“Shit!” Louis said, backpedaling at once and streaking for the other end of the corridor. He bumped against Dean, pushing him back in that direction, as well.
Dean ran as hard as he could, understanding now where all the smoke had come from. He glanced over his shoulder and spotted the sudden mushrooms of orange-and-black flames suddenly gush from the spouts of the flamethrowers. A partially open door ahead of them only a couple steps on the left caught Dean’s attention.
He slammed into Louis, knocking them both through the door as the boiling fire rushed through the corridor, filling it. The two boys fell to the floor.
Gazing around the empty boxes on the nearly depleted storage racks, the stainless steel gleaming in the sudden glare of the flames, Dean realized there was no other way out of the room.
“Back out,” he told Louis. “It’s the only way.”
They got to their feet and poised by the door, checking their weapons as they waited for the flames to die down. When the flamethrowers ceased spitting fire, Louis took the lead around the doorway, breaking into a sprint at once across the corridor carpet. Fire pockets blazed on the walls and on the floor, some of them clinging precariously to the acoustic tile overhead.
Dean trailed after the other boy, sweating profusely, more scared now than at any time that he could ever remember. The corner of the next intersection was fifteen feet away when the harsh crackle of blasterfire started behind them.
Louis staggered abruptly, almost losing a step. Blood spread in a widening pattern below the armored vest on his left side, just above his hip.
As they turned the corner, Dean saw the other boy was definitely losing his stride.
“Go on, Dean,” Louis gasped, holding his side. His face was white with pain. “I can’t run much farther. Mebbe I can give you some more time.”
“No,” Dean answered. He hooked the boy’s arm over his shoulders. “We’re going to get out of this together.” Taking part of Louis’s weight, he guided the boy toward a door on the left.
Inside, the walls had been stripped to concrete. The low ceiling held broken conduit pipes and shattered fluorescent tubes. Overturned tables were in the center of the room, broken chairs all around them. They were metal and wouldn’t burn, which was the only reason Dean could figure they hadn’t been taken. It looked like a private gaming room for small groups.
“Stay in here,” Dean told Louis. “Try to find someplace to hide. I’ll see if I can’t get them away from us.”
Louis nodded, leaning against the back wall that dog-legged and took it out of immediate view of the door. Blood streamed out the side of his mouth. Wordlessly he offered Dean his rifle, indicating he only had the strength to manage his handblaster.
“I’ll be back,” Dean said. “I promise. Just hold on.” Slinging the rifle, he sprinted back out of the room and into the hallway, listening to Louis hack and cough until the door closed and cut the sound off.