Beyond the Gate by Mary SanGiovanni

Author:Mary SanGiovanni
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lyrical Press
Published: 2019-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

The lobby room seemed much longer than it had as they ran across the floor. Behind them, she was sure the creatures were dropping silently to the floor. She could only hear them when their bone-claws scraped the tiles. They could have been twenty feet away, or ten, or maybe ten inches. They could have been close enough to grab her by the hair and yank her back, sinking those flesh-rending talons into her body. She wanted to look back, but she didn’t. She couldn’t afford to lose any ground.

After what seemed like a disproportionate amount of time, the doorway loomed ahead of them. Kathy and the others shot through it—she wished there was a door to close behind them–and tumbled out into the street. They staggered away from the building, and only then did they finally turn to see the progress of their pursuers.

There were dozens, maybe hundreds, of the creatures clamoring toward the doorway.

“Shit!” Rodriguez shouted, nearly tripping himself over street debris as he backed away. “Shit! Shit!”

Then the creatures stopped short in the doorway. Kathy and the others held their breath, waiting for the outpouring…but it didn’t come. They crowded the top of the doorway, a whirlwind of flailing, multi-jointed limbs and twitching, cratered heads of waving jagged skin and spiny teeth.

“What are they doing?” Hornsby asked.

A few of the creatures reached around the door frame to move out into the night, but then they skittered back, as if the outside air hurt them.

“They stopped. They…I don’t think they can come out here.” Kathy took a step toward them and their keening rose until it was deafening, the shrieks of a multitude. They didn’t come out, though.

“Let’s go. Whatever’s holding them back might not be permanent.”

“Good idea,” Markham said. He looked pale, and was bleeding through his bandage a little.

They took off away from the library, following the moonlit street until it banked to the left and they found themselves on a side street. It was hard for Kathy to shake the feeling that they were still being followed, and as they leaned against a wrongly-slanted building to catch their breath, she watched for signs of those creatures, but there were none. Whatever kept them in the city library seemed to be holding.

“Think we’re okay for now,” Jose said, panting, his hands on his knees. He straightened up. “Where to now?”

Kathy peered down the long side street. It was devoid of debris; there was no one there to leave any. She gestured toward the other end. “That way, I guess? You said you found the city center when you got lost, right? So let’s get lost.”

In agreement, Hornsby and Jose made a move to follow her suggestion, but stopped when they saw Markham. He was leaning heavily against an obtuse angle of the building across from Kathy, almost laying on it, cradling his bad arm. His forehead had broken out into a sweat and he looked even paler than before.

“Sergeant, you okay?”

Markham, whose eyes had been closed, opened them suddenly.

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