Shadows (Page 95)
- Page 1
- Page 1
- Page 1
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 2
- Page 2
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 3
- Page 3
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 4
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 5
- Page 5
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 6
- Page 6
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 7
- Page 7
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 8
- Page 8
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 9
- Page 9
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 10
- Page 10
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 11
- Page 11
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 12
- Page 12
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 13
- Page 13
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 14
- Page 14
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 15
- Page 15
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 16
- Page 16
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 17
- Page 17
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 18
- Page 18
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 19
- Page 19
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 20
- Page 20
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 21
- Page 21
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 22
- Page 22
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 23
- Page 23
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 24
- Page 24
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 25
- Page 25
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 26
- Page 26
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 27
- Page 27
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 28
- Page 28
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 29
- Page 29
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 30
- Page 30
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 31
- Page 31
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 32
- Page 32
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 33
- Page 33
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 34
- Page 34
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 35
- Page 35
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 36
- Page 36
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 37
- Page 37
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 38
- Page 38
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 39
- Page 39
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 40
- Page 40
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 41
- Page 41
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 42
- Page 42
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 43
- Page 43
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 44
- Page 44
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 45
- Page 45
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 46
- Page 46
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 47
- Page 47
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 48
- Page 48
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 49
- Page 49
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 50
- Page 50
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 51
- Page 51
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 52
- Page 52
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 53
- Page 53
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 54
- Page 54
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 55
- Page 55
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 56
- Page 56
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 57
- Page 57
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 58
- Page 58
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 59
- Page 59
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 60
- Page 60
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 61
- Page 61
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 62
- Page 62
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 63
- Page 63
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 64
- Page 64
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 65
- Page 65
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 66
- Page 66
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 67
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 68
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 69
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 70
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 71
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 72
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 73
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 74
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 75
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 76
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 77
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 78
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 79
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 80
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 81
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 82
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 83
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 84
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 85
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 86
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 87
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 88
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 89
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 90
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 91
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 92
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 93
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 94
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 95
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 96
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 97
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 98
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 99
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 100
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 101
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 102
- Page 102
“What’s happening?” Luke dropped beside him, and then Tom felt the boy’s hands on his arms, trying to tug him back. “God, Tom, be careful! You’re going to fall in!”
He paid no attention. “Alex!” he bawled. “How far down are you? Can you see me? Can you see my light?”
“Who’s Alex?” Luke said.
“Quiet.” There was a very long pause, and he felt like he would burst, but he shoved a knuckle into his mouth and waited. He heard Weller thrash his way over but didn’t look around. He said she was in Rule, but she’s here, she’s—
“Far.” Her voice was like those silver bubbles that had boiled from his lungs to break into empty air and they were the last of his life, and he was drowning. “Can’t . . . see . . . you.”
But I hear you, I hear you, oh God, I hear you. “Hang on! I’ve got rope! I’m coming for you! Can you climb? Can you—” He broke off as Weller grabbed his right arm and twisted him around.
“You can’t,” Weller grated. “Tom, she’s got to be a couple hundred feet down. We got twenty feet of rope and that’s it! She’s too far, and we don’t have time!”
“No, give me the goddamned rope!” Tom shouted. “You and Luke go, but I’m staying!”
“To do what? You think you can help her?”
“We came together; we leave together!” Luke cried. “I’m not going without you, Tom! I’m staying!”
“You hear that? You’re gonna kill this boy.” Weller was right in his face. “You want to be responsible for that? You want his blood?”
“Don’t put that on me!” Tom shouted. “No one’s telling you to stay! Both of you just go!”
“Then you might as well put a bullet in your brain for all the good you’ll do that girl! This whole rise is gonna go! Even if it doesn’t, those Chuckies aren’t going to stop, and they’ll be here!”
“Then I’ll kill them!” Tom roared. His face was wet, but he didn’t care. One more second and he would murder this old man. He twisted away with a curse. “You said she was in Rule, you said she was in Rule!”
“I don’t know about that!” Weller shouted. There was a high crack that was not a bullet but the sound of wood shattering, and then Luke was screaming something about trees breaking and Weller was shouting: “You hear that, you hear that? You’re gonna kill this boy and yourself for nothing!”
No, no, not for nothing. For her. She was calling him again, but her voice was so faint. He wasn’t sure now if what he heard was real or an echo. Or maybe he was trapped in some endless flashback from which he would never shake free, because there was now also dust and hot sun and gray rock and Jim’s voice: Cut the wire, cut the wire and get out, just grab the kid, grab the kid and go, go, go!
“But, God, please, which one?” he shrieked. He was on his knees, in snow, on a dirt road, under a weird moon, beneath the blazing sun, and there were voices in his head and the pop and bang of weapons fire and the wail of men and women somewhere close and the voices of his friends—all dead now, all gone—and sweat that stung and tears that ate his eyes. “How do I choose?”
Because there was, in that road and on that day, not just one child with a bomb strapped around her tiny waist.
There was the boy, too.
“God, how do I choose?” he screamed again. He pressed the heels of his hands to his temples and squeezed. Get out of my head, get out of my head, grab the kid, grab the kid, cut the wire, get out my head, get out get out get out! “How can you ask that?”
“Tom!” Luke cried—but from another life, a different time. “Tom, please, come on!”
Oh God, Alex. Help me stay. He leapt for that crack in the earth, a distant hope, and thrust his head and then his arms into the dark. He felt quaking rubble and snow that melted beneath the heat of his hands. The roar was tremendous, as if there was something alive down there, bellowing, opening wide, ready to swallow them both. “Alex, please, try, try! Climb, Alex, climb!”
“Tom, don’t!” He felt hands grappling for a handhold around his waist. “Leave it,” Weller bawled. “Leave it, Tom! We got to go!”
Got to go, cut the wire, cut the wire, grab the kid, go, go! Kicking, cursing, he reached down the mouth of that tunnel as far as he could, straining so hard that his muscles shook and his joints screamed—and no matter what he did, it was still not enough. She was a voice in a vast emptiness so profound he might fall forever. But he had to try; he couldn’t stop. He had to reach her because they would touch, and then he would save her; he would pull her from this hell and into the light; they would save each other. “Alex!”
“Trying.” Her voice, so tiny. “Too far . . . no time.” Then: “Run, Tom, run. Get out . . . get away before—”
“No!” Tom bellowed. “Don’t give up, Alex, don’t you dare give up! I’m here, Alex, I’m right here!”
“No time. Tom, please, go . . .”
“They’re over the rise!” Behind, above, Luke was screaming: “They’re here, they’re here, they’re over the rise!” A crack and then two more, the bullets whizzing by in shrieks. “Tell me what to do!” Luke shouted, his voice notching higher with panic. “Somebody tell me what to do—do I shoot, do we fight, do we—”
Fight, Alex, fight; say my name again, say my name again, don’t leave me here, I’ll never get out. “Alex!” His fists closed, but there was nothing to grab but the trembling dark. He tried squirming even further, but Weller was battened around his waist and he couldn’t move, only teeter on the brink: nightmare above, his fate below. “Alex, Ale—”
With no warning at all, the ground suddenly heaved and swelled and then came down with a slam that socked him in the gut, straight through to his spine. From the tunnel came a great gasp as the earth shifted, and then he heard a hiss, a sizzle, a ballooning whisper as the rocks under his hands moved and wallowed and gave way. They bounced ahead, hurtling down the chute. Suddenly off-balance, with nothing under his hands but air, he lurched forward and might have tumbled in after . . . and maybe that was, really, what he wanted.
But Weller’s grip was too strong. The old man hauled him back from the edge and wouldn’t let go, and Luke was screaming: “Tom, please, we got to get out; I can’t leave without you. Please!”
- Page 1
- Page 1
- Page 1
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 2
- Page 2
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 3
- Page 3
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 4
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 5
- Page 5
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 6
- Page 6
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 7
- Page 7
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 8
- Page 8
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 9
- Page 9
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 10
- Page 10
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 11
- Page 11
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 12
- Page 12
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 13
- Page 13
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 14
- Page 14
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 15
- Page 15
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 16
- Page 16
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 17
- Page 17
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 18
- Page 18
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 19
- Page 19
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 20
- Page 20
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 21
- Page 21
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 22
- Page 22
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 23
- Page 23
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 24
- Page 24
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 25
- Page 25
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 26
- Page 26
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 27
- Page 27
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 28
- Page 28
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 29
- Page 29
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 30
- Page 30
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 31
- Page 31
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 32
- Page 32
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 33
- Page 33
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 34
- Page 34
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 35
- Page 35
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 36
- Page 36
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 37
- Page 37
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 38
- Page 38
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 39
- Page 39
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 40
- Page 40
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 41
- Page 41
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 42
- Page 42
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 43
- Page 43
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 44
- Page 44
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 45
- Page 45
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 46
- Page 46
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 47
- Page 47
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 48
- Page 48
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 49
- Page 49
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 50
- Page 50
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 51
- Page 51
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 52
- Page 52
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 53
- Page 53
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 54
- Page 54
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 55
- Page 55
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 56
- Page 56
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 57
- Page 57
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 58
- Page 58
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 59
- Page 59
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 60
- Page 60
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 61
- Page 61
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 62
- Page 62
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 63
- Page 63
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 64
- Page 64
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 65
- Page 65
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 66
- Page 66
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 67
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 68
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 69
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 70
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 71
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 72
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 73
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 74
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 75
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 76
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 77
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 78
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 79
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 80
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 81
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 82
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 83
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 84
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 85
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 86
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 87
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 88
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 89
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 90
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 91
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 92
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 93
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 94
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 95
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 96
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 97
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 98
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 99
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 100
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 101
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 102
- Page 102