I turned and lifted Abomination. The rapidly moving fog was so wet that rather than raining, water just accumulated out of the air and soaked you. Gusts were like being smacked with a damp towel. The water picked up the blood and ran off me in pink rivulets. The mist swirled. I was ready. The instant a bit of orange broke the fog I shot it to death. Its companion pushed by, only to have a pile of silver rip through its thorax, spilling it in a wet heap.

“Clear. There was a tree in the way. Didn’t have an angle.” THWACK. “That time I did.” Julie was an absolutely lethal shot. “Hit the deck!” I did exactly as she said, diving forward and landing on the soft grass. Several spines passed through the air where I’d been standing. There was a series of loud impacts as Julie opened up on them. “They’re down. Move.”

I got up and ran. Blood kept running into my eyes. It turned the fog red, then pink as I blinked it away, then clear. Repeat every few seconds. I vaulted a low iron fence. Hitting the ground hurt so bad it nearly made my legs buckle. The wall of the hotel came into view. I was right under Julie. She must not have realized she was still transmitting. “Edward, hold onto my belt. I’ve got to lean over to see. Don’t let me fall.” I had a sudden vision of Julie toppling over the edge of a twenty-story building while trying to keep the demons off my back. There was a sudden impact off to the side and my heart jumped into my throat, but it was only another monster catching a .308 round right through the top of its bulbous skull. “Door should be straight ahead of you. Two dozen monsters coming your way.”

There was the door. I tried the handle but it was locked. It was a fire exit. Of course it was locked. It opened outward so I couldn’t kick it. I didn’t have any breaching rounds, so being really hopeful that I wouldn’t kill myself with a ricochet, I stuck Abomination’s muzzle next to the frame and blasted the lock into shrapnel. There was enough metal still engaged that it still wouldn’t open. So I overreacted and jerked the trigger twice more. That did the trick, but a chunk of metal ripped a tear in my armored sleeve and drew more blood. The movies always made it look so easy.

“Going in,” I said as Julie killed a few more of the demons chasing me. The interior of the fire-escape stairwell was nothing but plain concrete walls and metal stairs. I looked up. They seemed to go up forever.

“Climb fast. Ed, get ready to toss that black backpack over the side…Yes. That one. Careful. It’ll go off on impact…Yes, boom…Yes, it is heavy…Owen, climb really fast.”