Morganville (Justin Bieber)

Chapter 55

I let Justin tow me along, and looked back over my shoulder to see the desks shuddering under the impact of bodies. They slid across the tile with another groan, and one of them cracked in half, drawers spilling out in a noisy clatter.

Justin waved to a big guy in black leather as they passed, and the three of them ran down the second-floor hallway. It was dark, filthy, and scary, but not as scary as the sounds coming from the lobby behind us. Justin had a flashlight, and he switched it on to pick out obstacles in the way—fallen IV stands, an abandoned, dust-covered wheelchair, a gurney tipped over on its side.

"Faster,'" I gasped, because I heard a final crash from the lobby.

I didn't think more than half the vampires had made it successfully across the sun-drenched parking lot, but those who'd been strong enough were inside now, and it was nice and dark for them. No contest.

Justin knew where he was going. He turned right at a corner, then left, yanked up a fire exit door, and pushed me inside.

"Up!'" he said. "Two flights, then go left!'"

There were things on the stairs; I couldn't see them very well, even in the glow of Justin's flashlight, but they smelled dead, sickly rotten. I tried not to breathe, avoided the sticky puddles of dried—whatever that was, I couldn't think of it as blood—and kept running up the steps. First landing, then another set of stairs, these clear except for some broken bottles I vaulted over.

I yanked the fire door two flights up, and nearly dislocated my shoulder. It was blocked.

"Justin!'"

He pushed me out of the way, grabbed the handle, and pulled.

"Shit!'" He kicked it furiously, looked blank for a second, then turned to the next flight of stairs. "One more! Go!'"

The fifth-floor door was open, and I darted through it into the dark.

My foot caught on something, and I toppled forward, hit the floor, and rolled. Justin's flashlight bounced a ball of light toward me, lighting up scarred linoleum tile, stacks of leaning boxes...

...and a skeleton. I yelped and scrambled back from it, then realized that it was one of those medical teaching skeletons, scattered out on the floor from where I'd tripped over it.

Justin grabbed me by the arm, hauled me up, and pulled me along. I looked over my shoulder. I couldn't see the biker guy, the one who'd been following us. Where had he—

I heard a scream.

Justin hurried me down the long hall, then turned left and pulled me after him. There was another set of fire stairs. He opened the door, and we raced down one flight.

This exit was open. Justin pulled me out into another long, dark hallway and moved fast, counting doorways under his breath. He stopped at thirteen.

"Inside,'" he said, and kicked it open. Metal gave with a shriek, and the door flew back to slam against tile. Something broke with a clatter like dropped plates.

I felt a chill take hold, because I had walked into what looked like a morgue. Stainless steel trays, stainless steel lockers on the wall, some gaping open to reveal sliding trays.

"This way,'" Justin said, and pulled open what looked like a laundry chute. "Annie.'"

"Oh, hell,no !'" Because if I hated tight spaces, there couldn't be anything much worse than this. I had no idea how long it was, but it was small, it was dark, and had he said something about morgue tunnels? Was this a body chute? Maybe there was a corpse still stuck in it! Oh God...