Thirty feet to the stairs now. Twenty. Ten.

“Go first!” Sam shouted.

He wrenched his arm forward, pulling her ahead, almost dragging her right off her feet into a sprawl. Then she caught up with her balance and took the lead, vaulting over the near edge of the weeds and landing two steps down inside the recessed staircase. She caught herself against the side wall with her hands and forearms, pivoted and took the stairs down into the darkness in a few falling strides. Above her, she heard Sam helping Lauren into the staircase, and somewhere behind them, Pierce’s voice, screaming something incoherent.

She hit the door with her shoulder—its massive steel bulk barely registered the impact—and found the keypad with her right hand. Felt out its edges with her fingertip. Got her bearings on it.

Third row down. First button on the left.

She pressed it five times, heard the lock mechanism thud open inside it, and shoved on the door with all her weight. As she did, she felt Sam come to a stop behind her. His hands fell into place beside hers on the door, and together they pushed it inward.

All at once the darkness behind them came to life in spastic pulses of light. Little bursts of reflected glow off the concrete walls of the stairwell, as Pierce covered the last sprinting yards above.

“I’m holding it,” Sam said. “Get her through.”

Dani had already turned and grasped Lauren’s hands. In the frenzied light, she could see the girl’s silhouette against the stairs. Dani leaned back and hauled her through the doorway, and Sam pivoted through after them, turning and getting his hands onto the door from the inside. He heaved his weight against it, and in the last second as it swung toward its frame, Dani heard Pierce shriek like some kind of animal, no more than five feet away on the other side. Then the door slammed and latched shut, and the space around them went black—as perfectly dark as anything Dani had ever experienced.

“Don’t stop,” she said. “He’ll be through it right behind us.”

She blundered forward through the void, keeping hold of Lauren. She heard Sam’s footsteps scuff the floor, passing ahead of her, then heard him open the second door. He reached out to her, guiding her and Lauren through.

“Stairs are right here,” he said.

She felt for the metal railing, got a hold of it. Felt for the edge of the top step with her leading foot. The slow going made her nerves want to vibrate right out of her skin.

Why isn’t Pierce already through the door? He must know the code.

The answer flashed across her mind an instant later:

He’s reloading the gun.

She regripped the rail farther down, and took the stairs as fast as she dared.