There was a narrow gap between the concrete and the dirt. Dozens of demonic limbs charged past, claws ripping up grass or elephantine feet smashing great circular tracks into the dirt. Bullets landed throughout the garden as the Hunters tried to hold them off.

Fall back. Get to a choke point. Come on, guys. Stay alive.

There were hundreds of demons. The first wave of black and orange bodies hit the breach only to be washed away by machine-gun fire. More arrived within seconds, clustered all around the hole, twitching and moving like bees on the surface of a hive. They were too occupied with the living to search the dead. Yet.

There had only been a handful of Hunters inside that area when the hotel had been hit. Not nearly enough to stop the tide of demons.

Milo must have left more of his explosives behind to slow them, because a few seconds later a final explosion rocked the breach, clearing the swarm off the wall and flinging demon bits in every direction.

By the time the gray smoke cleared, the fastest of the creatures had already swarmed in after the fleeing humans. The spine-flinging warriors continued inside after them.

But I wasn’t alone…Now the claws around my hiding place were moving more slowly, methodically. These feet were smaller. The workers had arrived. Like four-foot-tall, yellow, bipedal grasshoppers, their joints clicked and popped as they moved, and as I watched, horrified, they began pulling a body from the wreckage to systematically rip apart. Every direction I could peer through the gap, there were more twisted legs, dozens of them.

A grasshopper demon took hold of the limp arm resting on my back and began to tug. I was alone in the middle of them, but not helpless. I slowly moved one hand to Abomination’s grip. I’d take as many of them with me as possible.

Please let Julie escape. That’s all I ask.

There were demons everywhere.

So this is how I die…

“Not yet, Z. You don’t get off that easy.”

My radio was off, but I’d heard the familiar voice as clear as day.

It can’t be. He’s dead. Ray Shackleford killed him. I was fading in and out of reality. I was injured worse than I thought. Now I was hearing voices from my past.

But…Was that Copenhagen chewing tobacco that I was smelling?

“You’re not in the real world anymore, Z. You’ve all been shanghaied into a place between worlds. He’s killing you with things from your own pasts, things that are already dead and gone. Well, me and the other guys are sick of that shit, and here we can do something about it. This evil son of a bitch isn’t the only one that can cheat.”

A demonic claw wrapped around my boot and I was pulled from underneath the body parts and concrete. The worker demon grabbed the back of my armor and flipped me over. The creature loomed over me. Its pack of eyes flickered back and forth and then it clicked hungrily as it realized I was alive. It leaned over to slice my face off with one of its jagged mouths.