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"She's gone!" he said again.

"That's bullshit!" You didn't shoot someone three dozen times just to have them get up and walk off. That shit didn't play.

"She fell right here and now she's gone."

"Look at this," Alice said. "It's blood—but not much."

The cop squatted down to take a closer look. "Looks like it's coagulated. But that's not possible."

J.D. sounded pissed off when he asked, "Why not?"

Rain already knew the answer, but let Matt the Wonder Detective take it.

"Because blood doesn't do that till after you're dead."

Spence looked bored. "Can we go now?"

"We ain't going anywhere till the rest of the team get here." As Rain spoke, she loaded another clip into the MP5K. She was for damn sure not getting caught without a full load.

Then she saw the look on Kaplan's face. He looked like someone strangled his favorite pet.

For that matter, Alice and Spence looked all uncomfortable now, too.

Finally, Kaplan said, "There's no one else coming."

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Wait." J.D. grabbed her shoulder. "Quiet."

Then Rain heard it, too. Metal scraping against metal.

Raising her rifle, she turned and saw it: a tall bald guy dragging a fire axe on the floor behind him. He was wearing a white lab coat and white outfit under it, too, though his was all wet and filthy. The guy's shoulder was all fucked up, and his right foot was perpendicular to his leg—like he'd broken his ankle. But he didn't seem to feel it.

Behind him, she saw more. Just like the crazy lady, they all kinda shuffled, they all had milky eyes, and they all had fucked-up teeth.

And some of them were injured.

Fatally injured.

This was in the next county after fucking nuts.

One guy had half his head carved out, another was missing his right eye and his entire nose.

Nobody was bleeding, though. Any blood she'd seen was coagulated.

"Fuck," J.D. muttered.

"Don't come any closer." Kaplan sounded like a total moron.

"They're behind us!" Spence pointed out.

"Jesus," Kaplan muttered.

"They're everywhere," Alice added, stating the fucking obvious like it was some kind of revelation. "Guys, they're everywhere, they're all around us!"

Then the crazy lady, lab coat and white outfit full of bullet holes, jumped Rain.

This time Rain grabbed her by the head and twisted until she heard the snap of her neck bone.

Bitch didn't get up this time.

Then she flipped the MP5K to semi-automatic—she was gonna need to conserve ammo with this many people—and fired on the big bald guy right in the chest.

He fell to the floor.

Then he got back up.

Fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

Kaplan, still in total moron mode, yelled, "I said stay back!" Then he took a few shots with his Beretta.

"Watch the tanks!" Alice cried.

Rain didn't give a rat's ass about the fucking tanks, she just wanted these whatever-the-fuck-they-were dead.

Or deader.

Damn, this was fucked up.

These things kept getting back up. She and J.D. exchanged a look. Without even having to speak, they knew what to do: can't kill 'em, at least clear a path.

So they switched their rifles to automatic and concentrated their fire on one area, plowing down these shuffling bastards one by one.

"Let's go!" J.D. yelled even as Rain cried, "Hurry up!"

Then one of the tanks exploded…

EIGHTEEN

MATT ADDISON HAD BEEN TRYING TO unlock himself when the tank exploded.

At some point during her struggle with the woman who bit her, Rain's keys had fallen off her person. Matt noticed the keys lying there on the floor as soon as he, Kaplan, Alice, and Spence joined J.D. and Rain.

His opportunity came when Alice pointed out the blood. On the pretense of squatting down to take a closer look at it—and to show off his knowledge as a "detective" by imparting his brilliant bit of wisdom about coagulated blood, even though that was something he remembered from high-school biology—he palmed the keys and had been working to free himself ever since.

At least he'd convinced the security goons that he was a legit cop. The hazing