“How do you know that?” Lauren asked her.
“Educated guess.” She’d dealt with stuff like this a lot of times before. Cassie’s jaw was thrust out and her eyes were burning brightly. “Stick with me and do what I do, okay?”
Which was mostly a matter of playing things by ear, and figuring precisely what was what.
The first thing that she did was fire an exploratory shot at an approaching grinder. The saboted slug hit the rings of teeth. And did them no slightest harm. It was simply chewed up, like everything else.
A shock ran through Cass, but she recovered rapidly.
“The front of the head’s no good. We’re gonna have to come in on the sides of these things.”
Cassie darted around, Lauren following. She got within twelve feet of a grinder that was heading westward, and pumped another round into its side.
And at first, she thought that had achieved nothing either. But then the whole purple body shuddered and began to tremble. Cass squinted and fired again, making it her business to hit the same spot. The huge shape exploded, spraying mauve gelatinous goo every which place.
So Lauren did likewise, picking a target and then firing two triple-bursts into its flank. And with the same result.
The rest of the grinders stopped moving for a breathless instant, then began heading in their direction, rather faster than before.
“Well,” Lauren managed to get out, “at least they’ve stopped attacking the civilians.”
Cass was never fond of backing off, but now was the right time. She whirled around, grabbing Lauren’s arm as she did so.
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere more defensible!”
The grinders were closing the distance easily, massing together as they came. The women went along a side street, looking desperately for a place to make a stand. And found it when they reached a house with a massive pair of aged conifers out front, their branches interlacing. The trunks were no more than ten feet apart. So Cass and Lauren got between them.
“What if they chew through the wood?” Lauren pointed out.
She was shaking and her voice was quavering slightly.
“They don’t look particularly smart to me. My guess is, they’re only interested in us.”
The grinders had already caught them up and – proving Cassie’s point – began to circle. Which gave both women plenty more exposed flanks to take aim at. Each of them had taken down four more of the creatures in another minute. Lauren couldn’t help but wonder if it was going to be quite this easy.
She took a clip that Cassie handed her, reloaded.
One of the beasts abruptly changed direction, coming straight at her. Lauren emptied half her ammo at its face, with no obvious effect. So she yelled out.
Cassie – who’d been firing the other way – took in what was going down. She cursed, then threw herself across, rolling several times till she was underneath the massive purple shape.
A tail came lashing down at her, but missed. Lying on her back, she pounded several rounds up. The grinder exploded, showering her with purple mucus.
When it went across her eyes, it stung. And she writhed around, temporarily blinded. The next thing she felt was Lauren grabbing hold of her by the collar and hauling her back to relative safety.
Cass managed to get her eyelids open again. She could make out more of the creatures coming at them. All of them head first. They appeared to be learning – slowly – which might be the safer course of action.
There were a couple of grenades inside the bag she’d brought. But this was too close range. And when she glanced over her shoulder, she could see that some of the grinders behind them were copying the ones out front.
Firing at their mouths was not an option. And how many times could she roll under them before one caught her out?
So maybe do the opposite?
“Stand up straight!” she shouted.
“Cassie?”
“Stand up straight and very still. And get ready to drop.”
They did that, side-by-side again, their shoulders pressed together. Cass could feel how badly the homicide cop was trembling. But, to give her credit, Lauren refused to panic and was staying put.
The leading grinder was practically on them. Six feet away from their faces. Then four feet. Then three.
Directly behind her, Cass could hear another closing in.
Two feet. The sound of their whirring teeth was blasting through her skull, making the bones there jangle.
The distance halved again. And it was time.
“Drop!” she bellowed.
She and Lauren let their knees buckle and hit the snow.
There was an awful crashing noise above them as the teeth of the grinder out front and the one behind went slamming into each other, unable to stop.
That was followed by an awful, writhing interval during which both of the mouths struggled to consume each other. Then the creatures burst apart, and more thick goo came slopping down. Cass covered her face this time, and so did Lauren.
And then Cass was scrabbling ahead, keeping flat, with Lauren right beside her. They rolled onto their backs again, to see that the grinders were in disarray.
Several more had collided with each other, and not all of them head first. Big, ragged chunks had been bitten out of some of their sides, and those creatures throbbed and spurted for a short while before breaking up.
She and Lauren fired continuously after that, selecting the closest targets, and then getting to their knees and picking on those further out.
And in another two minutes, you couldn’t see the snow around them any longer. The entire surrounding area was a mess of viscid purple.
The street had fallen silent. Cassie wiped enough glop off her chin to manage a weak smile.
“Is that it?” Lauren asked her wearily.
“I think we got all of them,” Cass confirmed.
When the homicide cop nodded back, it was more of a reflex action than a conscious one. The woman’s eyes were wide and sparkling, adrenalin still coursing through her.
Cassie eased herself up to her feet and strolled back to the tree trunks, her sharp gaze still going round.
“Yep,” she remarked. “A job well done.”
Then she heard a crackling above her, followed by a churning noise. It took her startled mind a split instant to work out what was happening.
A final grinder had either retreated, or had simply wandered higher up. And was now on its way down through the branches at her.
By the time she looked up, it was directly above her. She went to lift her shotgun, but there wasn’t time.
A long burst of carbine fire rang out. The grinder jerked and trembled and then flew apart, another solid mass of goop descending on her.
And she would have thanked Lauren again pretty much immediately. The lieutenant had saved her skin – of that, there was little doubt.
But, Christ almighty, this stuff reeked!
Cass went to wipe her face again, then grimaced and gave up.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The radio started blaring in Saul’s car, and he hurried over to it. Something was already going down.
And me, I got the worst of feelings in my gut, and not an unfamiliar one either. The feeling that everything was starting to go very quickly sour. And there’d been such cause for optimism, not so long ago. It wasn’t even dawn yet, and our hopes for the future were already going belly up.
Saul yelled something to me, and his Pontiac span away, taking the judge along as well. I stared at its retreating shape, and then focused my attention on Woodard Raine’s translucent image.
“You’ve got to go back into that other universe,” I told him.
“But I’ve already said –“
“No, Woody. This is not a crossword puzzle. You don’t just have a casual go, then give up when you think that you can’t do it.”
His golden eyes squinted back at me. I was talking about being persistent, an
d his febrile mind was struggling with that concept.
“You have to go back in that place and assert yourself,” I told him. “Make those beings listen to you. Make them understand they need to cut it out. And when you’ve got them listening, turn on the old Raine charm. You’ll have them eating out of the palm of your hand.”
“Well …” And Woody faltered. “I suppose I do have a certain charisma.”
Which proved that, when you wanted something from the guy, buttering him up was usually the best way to go.
He vanished. And I forgot about him immediately. Whether he succeeded or not was in the hands of Fate. In the meantime, this town required protecting more than ever. So I started heading back to my car, with a mind to following Saul.
A violet flash ahead of me – followed by several more – changed my intentions on that score.
Something was occurring right ahead of me, a block away.
By the time I’d gotten there, things were going very wrong. I reached the intersection, and there should have been a row of houses facing me. But the first few – by the gaps they’d left, I would imagine the first three – were missing. There were front and back lawns, flowerbeds and children’s slides, cars parked out on driveways. But the homes had disappeared.
And the next one along was glowing purple.
As I watched, it popped out of existence. And I juddered with alarm, knowing – at this hour of the morning – it had probably had people in it.
The next in line began to shimmer. And sure enough, it had lights on inside. Nobody had noticed what had happened to their neighbors yet. This whole street looked like it was drowsily oblivious.
I started running, pulling out my cell phone as I went. And quickly thumbed 911.
“Emergency services,” came a voice.
“We need as many people here as you can get!” I shouted. “Elm Avenue, off Regis Green!”
“Can I have your name?”
I put the thing away, staring around. I had already figured out what might be coming, and I didn’t think that I could do this by myself.
I reached the house in question. If I banged on the front door, then it would take these people whole ages to answer. I would be too late. But by the shapes inside, they looked like they were in their kitchen, and most likely making breakfast. I could only hope that the whole family was there.
They had a rockery out front. I snatched up a heavy chunk of granite and – taking care to angle it away from them – pitched it through the glass. A woman screamed. A baby started crying. I could hear a man shout, “What!”
But I ignored that. Simply shoved my arm in through the hole, found the window’s latch and yanked it open.
“Get out!” I yelled at the people’s gawping faces.
There were four of them.
“Who the hell are you?” the man of the house asked.
And then he finally noticed that the outside of his place was glowing. Even taken unawares, he got the measure of that fast enough.
A boy of about four years old was handed out to me. And then a woman scrambled over the sill with a baby in her arms. The man came last, and barely in time. The walls made a sucking sound, and vanished.
Its occupants were still in their nightclothes, standing in their bare feet in the snow and trembling with fright. And more people along this street would be that way in a few minutes time. The emergency services needed to get here quickly.
The next house along had already begun to shine bright violet. I hurried to it. There were no lights on, no way of telling where its inhabitants might be. So I opted to kick the door open.
The muffled gasps of people woken violently from sleep were audible above me. The owners here were still in bed. I didn’t have the time to make it to them, so I started shouting up the stairs.
But that turned out to be a bad mistake. It only served to terrify them.
“Who’s down there?” I heard a woman’s high voice quaver.
The insides of the walls were already turning mauve. I realized that I only had a few more seconds left. The sand had run out of the glass in this particular case. And so I stepped back through the doorway, though it pained me terribly to do so.
That place disappeared from view, with its occupants still inside. I cursed through gritted teeth, but had to face the facts here. It wasn’t going to be possible to save everyone.
Several more homes had started shining, simultaneously this time.
But it was only the case on this side of the street. The homes across the way were unaffected. And some of their inhabitants had noticed what was going on at last. Doors were coming open, figures rushing out.
Bells were being rung, windows being hammered on. And gradually, as more inhabitants escaped, the crowd on the street grew. I could see the residences further down were all being evacuated. And there were sirens coming this way too.
And so I was finally able to stop, dropping to my haunches on the sidewalk, panting heavily.
God, the children of Elm Avenue were certainly going to remember this particular Christmas.
Back in Vernon Valley, the exact same thing was going on. As soon as they thought they’d got everybody safe, a row of houses started shining and then popping from existence.
They were no longer near Pam’s street, and Cass thanked God for that. She and Lauren sprinted from one doorway to the next, ringing bells and pounding.
Lauren thought her heart was going to burst, but she pushed herself on. She went past Cass, who was carrying some kids out, and skidded to a halt on the next porch along. Before she could do anything, the door came swinging open.
“What’s all this commotion?” she was asked.
The person asking the question – a woman in her early thirties, thin and in a housecoat, with her light brown hair mussed up – had obviously noticed something bad was going on. But she frowned puzzledly when she realized that the figure on her porch was drenched in purple gunk.
The wooden frame around her was already shining violet. And she jolted with fright when she saw that.
“You need to get out of there, ma’am,” Lauren told her.
She started reaching for the woman’s wrist. But it was pulled away from her.
“Davy!” the woman blurted. She stared back desperately, her face lifting. “My little boy! He’s still upstairs!”
The inside walls were starting to take on the same hue as the ones out here. Everything looked crooked in their purple glow. And Lauren was not sure how many seconds she had left, but she knew she had to try.
She completed her grab for the woman’s arm, bundled her out, then went hurtling up herself. If this place vanished with her still in it, would she wind up someplace else, or simply cease to be? But worrying about such matters didn’t help. She reached the upper landing, staring around. Every door was closed.
But then she heard a murmur from the one to her far left.
Her first impulse was to go slamming through it. But the child might be standing on the other side. She opened the door carefully, every instinct screaming at her to move faster. Saw that she’d been worried about nothing.
Davy – about two years old and with the same hair as his mother – was standing at the center of the carpet in his Ninja Turtle peejays. His eyes were wide, his small round face bemused rather than frightened. He was pointing at the glowing walls. And Lauren could see that their intensity had grown a good deal brighter.
How much longer? She could pick him up and run back down, but that might not be fast enough.
Over by the kid’s bed was a two-drawer nightstand. She snatched it up, then – going past him – hurled it at the window, taking care to put herself between the boy and any flying glass. As soon as the last shards dropped away, she snatched him up and carried him across.
Cass was standing underneath, and could see what was required. She raised her arms and nodded. And when Lauren let go of the child, she caught him.
The mauve glow was dazzling her, by this stage
.
Lauren took a couple of rapid steps back, then flung herself at the opening. As she hit the outside air, she heard a soft pop directly behind her. She’d cut it down to the very last moment. The house she’d just been in had disappeared as well.
The ground rushed up. Lauren folded her arms in front of her face, to absorb some of the impact, and her eyes closed of their own volition.
But when she landed, there was only a soft thump, and no pain in the least. She’d wound up in a snowdrift.
Her eyelids came back open slowly, tiny fragments of ice stinging at them. Cass’s boots moved up to her.
“Did I do okay?” Lauren mumbled.
“You were like a true Raine’s Landinger,” Cassie said approvingly
“That even a word?”
Cass gave her a light pat between her tautened shoulder blades.
“It is now.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“What in heaven’s name is that?”
Judge Levin gawped out through the windscreen, as Saul pulled his car onto Blake Crescent in East Crealley. It looked like a new batch of snow was falling, a great flurry of tiny dots. Except the dots were mauve. And since there was no wind, the way that they were moving simply wasn’t natural.
Some people came running past, winter coats pulled on hastily over their nightclothes. Saul and Levin both got out. A fizzing noise they’d not been able to hear before reached their ears, when they did that. Presumably, its source was those clustered points of brightness.
The things were not only whizzing around. They were passing through everything that got in their way, going in one side and coming out the other. The judge felt his face go numb when he took that in. Absolutely nothing, however solid, appeared to be stopping them.
They went through walls, through roofs. Through parked cars, trees and lampposts, vanishing briefly and then reappearing without even slowing down.
And at first it looked like they were doing no damage. Simply gliding through, and leaving what they’d passed intact. But then there was a rattle. And a chimneypot on a nearby rooftop fell apart.
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