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"I don't see anything," I growl. "You're delaying."
"No, I am not. It's an underground place."
"What sort of place?"
She turns toward me, her pale face colored by the glow of a fireball streaking across the sky. "There are tunnels under the city. I guess we'd be relatively safe there, at least for a while."
"If it's underground, how can you see it from here?"
"Can't. But I do see the remnants of the stockyards, and the tunnel is under that, under what was East Exchange Avenue. Don't know what it is now."
I gaze down at the remnants of buildings ahead of us. "What city is this?"
"Used to be Fort Worth, Texas. Why do you care what city this is? You're a monster from another dimension or something."
"Or something, yes." I don't care if she calls me a monster. That belief serves my purposes. I'd never visited America until I was thrown into this city. "Take us to the tunnel."
"I've had enough of you pushing me around. If you want me to take you to a good hiding place, better start being at least marginally polite to me."
"Polite?" I slant toward her, bringing my face to within millimeters of hers. "This is only the beginning of the apocalypse. Etiquette is a bygone concept, you stupid chit. Haven't you noticed the world is being torn apart around us?" I grab her bound hands roughly and force her to bend all the fingers on her right hand except for one, the smallest digit. Then I bring out my knife, holding its long blade to her hand. "Your choice. Do what I say, or lose a finger. Afraid I can't bandage it with clean gauze or disinfect it with alcohol. You will develop an infection and die slowly while in great agony."
"You're evil. Do you know that?"
I chuckle like the beast she thinks I am. "Of course I'm evil. But so are you."
"Me? I—"
A roar erupts behind me, reverberating off the remnants of the buildings. I glance back, searching the darkness but not seeing the source of the animalistic sound.
I seize Allison's arm and start dragging her toward the location she'd indicated a moment ago. "Something is coming. You'd better take us to that underground hideaway now, or we might both wind up as puddles of blood and pulverized bone."
"Please untie my hands. I can't move very fast this way."
She does have a point, though I dislike admitting it. With at least one creature approaching us from behind, we need to find sanctuary, fast. I remove my leather belt from her wrists and stuff it into my pocket. "If you try to run, you lose two fingers."
Though she puckers her lips, and I'm certain she wants to curse at me, she doesn't do it.
I grasp her arm again and urge her to move.
Allison struggles to keep up with my pace as we scramble down the other side of the rubble mound, but she doesn't complain or fight against my hold on her arm. Whatever creature had roared before issues the same noise twice more, sounding closer every time. Soon, we reach a street that has less damage than in the other parts of this city that I've seen. The human carnage seems not to have reached this area yet, since I haven't noticed any bodies, alive or dead. None of the buildings look sturdy enough to qualify as a safe hideaway, so I let Allison lead me toward the place she had called the stockyards.
We pass by structures I can't identify, and I don't ask her what they are because it doesn't matter. She stumbles twice as we navigate more rubble. My hand on her arm is the only reason she doesn't fall, and I keep hold of her strictly because I need her alive to answer my questions, not because I give a toss about her well-being. At last, we come to a place where the ground slopes downward, leading us into a gloomy space beneath the city.
Allison stops near the entrance to the tunnel. "It's dark in there. Don't suppose you have a flashlight or something."
"You think I had time to grab a torch before the Echo thrust me into this world?"
"The Echo? What are you talking about?"
As if she doesn't know. She must. Once I have her in a reasonably secure location, I mean to interrogate her and get the answers I know she must have.
I drag Allison back over the rubble mound we had just scaled and head for a large structure on the other side of what's left of the street she called East Exchange Avenue. The building seems like a shopping mall. Allison trips and crashes to her knees, hissing in a breath when her kneecap strikes a sharp piece of broken asphalt. Her entire face wrenches with pain. I start to reach for her, to help her, but stop. I shouldn't care if she's injured. I don't care. Let the cow get herself up off the ground.
She clambers to her feet, favoring her knee, and glowers at me. "Thanks so much for the assistance."
"Better get used to helping yourself."
I clamp a hand around her upper arm once more and haul her toward the building. One half of it has collapsed, but the other side seems to have minimal damage as far as I can see. One pillar of the portico that leads to the mall's entrance has been shattered, leaving the roof tipped at a precarious angle. We hurry toward the glass doors. Some of the panes have cracked, and the frames have been warped, but I manage to yank one door open.
