I.D. of Goss on the floor and sped down the emergency staircase, which Sister swung open for her. She was flabbergasted to read that Goss’ real name was Fred Beaver.
“A dorky name,” Poe said to no one in particular.
“I’d change my name, too.”
“Who’s a dork?”
“Goss’ name, Sister. Very funny sounding.”
“Can’t help that. In any case, you’ve done fine, Poe. You’ve done me proud,” said Sister Ann, accepting Poe’s arm as they made their way down the stairs. She patted the stake in her pocket she’d found at Goss’.
“Shoot! This whole booby trap thing is confusing!”
“Just remember not to step on the first, third, sixth, and eleventh steps between landings,” warned Sister.
The trek down was difficult since they were on the thirteenth floor, and the one energy saving light bulb per floor made the journey dark and perilous. One false step and she and Penny were goners. She had to 63
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rescue Penny and Sister so she could redeem herself in Goss’ estimation.
An explosion two flights above let her know that vampires and leeches were in pursuit. Soon after, a halfdead or leech tripped a booby trap a few floors beneath. The enemy was above and below them. The feeling of panic burgeoned, getting more pregnant by the second.
“I’m going to be sick,” she said to the nun, swallowing a heave. “I try to only battle sleeping vampires.”
“You did a damn fine job a few weeks back,”
muttered Sister, breathing erratically. Twice she’d paused to vomit and steady herself. “Not to mention today.”
The darkness, smoke, and explosions were making it horribly difficult for Poe to concentrate on counting the stairs accurately, let alone practice her breathing exercises while swallowing bile. Twice they had to retrace their steps to start the count all over again. She was almost hyperventilating from sheer terror.
Penny stopped squirming inside her pack. “Please don’t be dead.”
She prayed to whoever was listening to keep the little dog alive and Sister conscious. It was vital to have friends during trying times.
“I need a reason to stay alive,” Poe gritted under her breath. “Watching all the movies ever made and killing vampires doesn’t cut it.”
On the eleventh floor, a raging halfdead missing a nose nearly sliced Poe open with a twenty-inch machete. She wouldn’t have seen him had his blade not reflected the weak glow of the light bulb.
“Watch out!” cried Sister Ann as she slipped on the landing.
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Poe hung left to avoid the menacing steel as Sister Ann let a torrent of bullets hit the creature. If he wasn’t dead yet, the trip-switch his body fell on did the job, exploding a round of puncturing nails and broken glass.
“No!” Poe shrieked as an errant nail lodged into her left thigh, causing her to almost fall back onto the rigged stairs. She waited for the ringing in her ears to stop then dug out the rusty four-inch nail and shoved it in the left eye of a dwarf vampire that abruptly appeared from between the stairwell grates. “What’s this? A Fellini hallucination?”
The little creature covered his eyes and shrieked,
“Fuck you!” to Poe over and over. Poe had the urge to give Sister Ann a hug for the nun had insisted that she forget her needle phobia and get rabies and tetanus shots, all good for ten years.
Sister Ann plugged the dwarf with her remaining bullets to shut him up. “I need more bullets, Poe.”
With shaking hands, Poe handed the nun a Ziploc full of .22 bullets.
“What the heck do we do now?” Poe asked, lightly smacking her ears to get the ringing to go away.
“Let’s hope that’s the last of the little people.”
“Crap. I forgot the count.”
Either the explosion or the pain in her leg distracted her enough to forget the stair count. It was too dark to count the steps up and the steps down below. She gripped her Uzi, briefly thinking about strategy, when Penny’s whimper prodded her to keep going. The dog was still alive! The little mite was encouraging them.
“Hold on, little Penny. I’m gonna get us out of here real soon. Sister, do you think you can slide down the handrail without toppling over?”
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“No. But we don’t have a choice now, do we?”
The nun looked spectral in her bloody wimple and habit in the tiny light of the staircase.
“I’ll go first so I can stop you from falling over.”
“With my bulk? It’ll take a miracle.” She straddled the railing after Poe and slowly, shakily, made her way down the next level.