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Chapter 12

"Got the bastard" Willie said, between shootings.

"Chris?"

"Lead bullets do nothing to Chris, you know that."

The dogs were around the house, some jumping at the windows, trying to shatter the glass.

"We are surrounded" Willie tried to stay calm "Do you have a cellar?"

"It isn't any good. The door to it is rotten."

"Just our luck. Well, let's go up the attic and try to hold on there."


The Empress did not have the same expression as the High Priestess - Barnabas realized - Somehow the High Priestess was softer, calmer.. Did that mean anything?


"Damn it!" Willie cursed "that's the sixth bullet that Chris makes me waste by shielding the dogs with his body!

"You are shooting at Chris?"

"Before he went out the told me to protect you. I that means shooting him, I will do it. Anyway, unless it is silver, he doesn't even feel it."

Fear began growing into Willie. Chris was keeping the dogs from being killed. Chris was pointing the weak spots in their defenses. And when the bullets were gone, there would still be enough dogs to...

He didn't what to think about it. Not that way. Please God, not that way.

He looked out of the window. He could see the chickens massed against the wire fence.

Why hadn't the dogs gone after the chickens? They made easier prey. And why weren't the chickens afraid?

The looked like...like cheerleaders, those chickens, and it wasn't him that they were cheering for.


Phillip carried the bag of groceries to the car.

"Phillip! Phillip Todd!" somebody said behind him.

"Alma!" he recognized her 'It is you! How's Elsa doing?"

"Growing up fast. Too fast for me, I think sometimes."

"You look wonderful."

"And you haven't changed a bit."

"Everybody tells me that. I don't know whether to say 'thank you' or apologize."

"Don't apologize. You've been through enough trouble already."

"I am not sure I am out of it."

"What do you mean?"

"I wish I knew where I was between 1970 and now. And as for my job..."

"You'll do all right, you see." She wiped the hair off her forehead and Phillip saw a fresh wound there.

"What happened to you?

"A gull with a bad sense of direction."

The chatted a bit more, then they parted. Phillip started to load the groceries in the car..

There was a scream being him. A woman grabbed her forehead as a gull flew away.

Another gull with a bad sense of direction...he thought.


Louella ran barefoot over the cold grass, trying to escape Jenny's laughter.

"Go on, Beth Chavez. Run. Don't stop until you reach Widow's Hill."

Derek ran after Louella, not caring if he was seen by her or not. Not that she was in state to notice anything. He considered flying, but he was carrying her robe and shoes, which she would need, and she could not outrun him anyway.

Gulls screeched over him. They must be getting close to the seaside. Close to Widow's Hill.

He had to run faster.

Then the gulls came down. One by one they skimmed over them. One of them hit him on the shoulder. Another grazed the top of Louella's head..

Louella kept running, unaware of being hit. All she could feel was Jenny's laughter.

Two more gulls came down on her. And one more, and one more. Blood ran down her arms, but she continued running.

Derek tried to run faster, but one gull hit him across the face and made him stumble.

As he tried to get up, five of them began digging their beaks on his back.

And one of them was aiming for his eyes...

Scared, he turned into a bat.

And before his wings spread, his mind went blank...

Louella ran, trying to shake off the gulls from her shoulders, then something tore at her cheek.

Her hand closed on it. Something small and furry. Something that wasn't a gull. She stumbled as her fingers tried to crush that little furry body.

"You can stop running" Jenny laughed. "Widow's Hill is too good for you. The gulls are much better."

She tried to get up, but the gulls were now tearing at her calves. She tried to shake them away. And when she did so, she threw away the small furry body..

In pain, Derek automatically changed shape to break his fall. And when he did, he saw Louella stretched on the grass, whimpering, trying to protect her head with her bleeding arms.

He threw himself over her, shielding her with his body.

"At least I got a heavy coat on." he thought as the gulls tried to get at him. "It will be a while before they get to flesh."

Louella whimpered.

"Keep looking down" he told her. "make it difficult for them to get at the eyes."

Louella shook.

"We have to get up. Have to find cover somewhere" He made her stand up and walk, protecting her as best he could. And he knew that his best was not good enough.


In the shopping center gulls crashed against the glass windows. And each time they did, the people inside shuddered, thinking that this time the glass would break and the gulls would get in.

Many were wounded. They tried to stop the bleeding with whatever they could find. Some just found their bare hands and used them.

"Why? Why are they doing this to us? " A girl in half-shock asked. She was seventeen. A cashier at the supermarket, this was her first day on the job.


Derek looked at the road. If only a car passed by...for how long would his coat hold?

...For how long would Louella hold?...


"I managed to kill several of them" Willie said between clenched teeth " the object of this game is to have them run out of dogs before we run out of bullets."

"We are getting low on these." Amy said quietly.

She had resigned herself to it. Even to the thought of being killed by her own brother.

Downstairs the dogs jumped on the furniture and toppled it, so they could use it as shields.

"That's Chris all right." Willie's knuckles went white a he held the rifle. "Why couldn't he have stayed inside?"


They were now tearing at his calves. Derek tried not to think of what would happen if they managed to topple him down.

Louella didn't move. Was she paralyzed by fear? Had she gone into shock? Or...he didn't want to finish the thought.

Two car lights came up the road. His heart leaped. There was a way to take Louella to safety...

It wasn't the time to be cautious. He stood holding Louella in front of him, straight into to path of the incoming car. If the car did not stop, in time, Louella could die.

If the car did not stop at all and take her away, Louella would die anyway.

At least Louella had a clear nightgown. As it flapped in the wind, it made a nice flag.

He knew that there was a gull working the back of his neck. He hoped that the car got there before it managed to cut off his head...

Phillip saw the clear material flapping in the wind What was that? - he thought - something Collinsport hadn't yet heard about?

They he saw her face. Dead white face. And blood on her nightgown.

And Derek Pearce was holding her.

"The bastard" the thought "the bastard"

Then he saw the gulls. Throwing themselves over both of the. Saw Derek trying to chase them away.

...Alma and the other woman at the shopping center...

"No, God, not that" he prayed silently as he stopped the car. "We have enough trouble without that."

He unlocked the back door while the gulls hurled themselves at the windows.

Derek pushed Louella into the backseat. He gave a vicious pull at the gull tearing at the back of his neck and shook the other ones from his arms and legs. Then he slipped by Louella's side.

There was still a gull with Louella. It was perched over her face.

He twisted its neck and threw it on the floor.

"Go to the hospital" he told Phillip. "She may have gone into shock."

"The gulls did it?" Phillip asked as he drove through the cloud of gulls covering his windshield.

"Yes.' He took off his coat and threw it over Louella. It had deep gashes in it. And what they had done to the flesh underneath..

His teeth began to chatter as he began to wonder how badly injured he was.

"That blood on her, that's all the gulls' doing?' Phillip couldn't resist asking that.

"Yes." said Derek, holding himself.