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He mouthed back to her: Stop it! She resisted for a second, even sneered at him, but he got his feet under him, then leaned away until her hands finally snapped free.

Out in the store, another rack fell over, the sound punching through him, shaking his atoms, letting him know the cannibals were coming and this panicking woman was going to get him killed.

He leaned in again, pressed his lips against her ear.

“Calm the f.u.c.k down. Just stay quiet, they’ll leave, they’ll—”

He felt Sofia’s right hand on his hip, sliding around to his back …

The gun.

He leaned away hard, lost his balance. His a.s.s. .h.i.t the floor and he skidded into the heater, sending it clattering loudly into a wall.

Sofia scrambled to her feet. She tore off Jeff’s coat and reached for the door handle, her open, b.l.o.o.d.y s.h.i.+rt flaring out behind her.

Cooper pushed himself to his knees and dove — his fingertips closed on the s.h.i.+rttail, then slipped free. He landed on his stomach as she opened the door and hobbled out into the store.

He jumped to his feet, drew the pistol as he rushed after her, just in time to see Sofia trip over an overturned rack. Her face bounced hard off the metal shelves. Blood poured instantly from a long gash across her forehead.

The blow staggered her, took away whatever adrenaline-fueled energy reserve she’d found. She flopped to her back, the tilted rack beneath her, the top of her head on the tile floor, her legs dangling off what used to be the rack’s bottom.

She looked at him with glazed eyes.

But Cooper Mitch.e.l.l didn’t really see Sofia. What he saw were the six people standing there, three on either side of her, all staring at him, all hunched forward in clear aggression.

The same people who had killed that woman in the street.

Killed her, and eaten her.

Six people … and by the revolving door, mostly hidden by the racks of merchandise, that hulking form Cooper had seen coming across the bridge, head still wrapped in the blue scarf.

Five bullets; he couldn’t get them all.

He was going to die.

They all held weapons: long knives, a fire axe, a machete, a tire iron. The woman in the blue snowsuit had a chrome-plated revolver in her left hand.

Cooper was too afraid to move. His pistol was pointed down … he had to raise it, had to do something …

The tall man in the red jacket took a small step forward, then stopped. The knife he’d used to kill the woman in the blouse caught the store’s fluorescent lights.

Clean. The blade is clean. He took the time to clean it …

The man stared at Cooper. He lowered the knife. The others stood still. They weren’t attacking.

Cooper looked at them. They looked at him, but they also looked at the gun in his hand.

“Help … me …”

The thin voice came from the floor, from Sofia. She weakly tried to roll to her stomach, but she didn’t have the energy to even lift her legs. Blood coursed down her face, made a puddle on the floor.

Six people, one thing, five bullets …