Found

We hauled ass as soon as the falling guy's dirty feet touched the sidewalk. Low men were pounding down the lobby and we were in trouble. This place, this building was some place of power for Sombra or for the Crimson King. It felt like the Dixie Pig. Inside there'd be at least dozens of can toi and quite possibly doors.

I gripped my thompson tightly and waited. I wanted to catch them all together as they came out the revolving doors, drop as many as I could to thin out pursuit. To my surprise, Ashleigh hung back with me. I never took him for a coward, but he was barely on his feet after his Todash detour. I was damned glad to have him at my shoulder when the glass shattered from the gunfire, then flew back together. He held them there as long as he could, giving the others time to escape before the strain was too much and the glass came crashing down. So we backpedaled, firing as we went.

We got clear of the building without being chased, which was more than I'd hoped for. But something was helping us and I had an idea of who. As we pelted across the street I knew that a blue Ford El Camino was going to come around the corner just a second before he did. The driver was looking down, snubbing out his cigarette in the ashtray and not watching the road. I reached out to hold Ashleigh back, but he had already pulled up short. The driver looked and saw us. He's going to say "Criminy," I thought. Not Christ or Fuck, but criminy. "Criminy!" He yells and hits the breaks. We dart in front of the car. I was reminded of Jake's deja vu when he was supposed to die, but I had no idea why I - and Ashleigh (and I had a feeling the others too) - would be feeling it. But as I said, I thought I had a pretty good idea who it was. Carrie was running not far ahead of us, staggering drunkenly - or like someone wounded. But maybe she wasn't. Maybe she was just concentrating on seeing the next few seconds for all of us...

Alistair was leaning over his map, even as he ran, looking for a way out. We had to go quickly, since even though we'd gotten away from the building, I knew we'd be seeing the low cars canvasing the streets before long.

I held my guns out of the water as best I could as we swam across a park lake to an artificial island with a groundskeepers shed on it. It looked abandoned and old, forlorn. I could feel the wanderlust tug of the highways. I wasn't sure how badly my guns had gotten wet and didn't have time to check so I was glad to be on our way out.

We stopped for a moment to check our wounded, every second spent here making me itch. But it wasn't a good idea to take to the back roads of the highways in hiding with walking wounded. This new Eden looked us all over quickly and I thought of the word triage. Later on I realized that's exactly what she was doing and what's more, that I'd picked the word up from Eden.

She went to the guy that Sayre'd tried to fling from the building. He was the worst off of all of us, even Ashleigh. He looked up at us and smiled. I could see his face relax like he'd not only gotten somewhere safe, but like he'd been expecting rescue. From us. And he knew my name. All of our names probably, though he spoke to me. His name was Guy Parkinson, though I've never met him.

I'm not sure how he found this out, not sure how he fell into the hands of Sayre, but I knew now we had to get back, it was even more important than before. The big bad red dude was setting a trap for the Gunslinger. A door of some kind, big enough to drive one of the low cars through, maybe two abreast. And they were calling up harriers to throw in his path. I'd read of Roland and his ka-tet. I didn't think he'd be taken so completely unawares, but numbers and surprise would tell. It was the duty of the Tet Corporation to keep him safe so he could get to the Tower.

Guy died there on the island. We left him in the shack there on the little hill. There was no time to bury him and no way to take him with us. We took Eden and Carrie's Haystack with us and went into the shed that wasn't a shed. Long before there was a park here with a man-made lake and a man-made island there must've been some kind of road and we walked it.

We tread the darkness carefully, linked by ropes from the start, not taking any chances. But as we traveled we began to hear singing. Thousands of voices. We all paused to listen together, and I knew we had to see what it was. Ashleigh flat-out refused. He said it was the voice of the dark, the voice of something terrible trying to deceive us. Like some todash pilot fish dangling sweet music instead lights. If I hadn't been distracted I'd have wondered how I knew that he was thinking of pilot fish, but I was listening to the song.

I knew it wasn't the vice of the Rose. I've felt that presence and I know that longing and this wasn't it. I knew that this was good (white) but not in the same way. This wouldn't destroy me. The sounds was coming from off the path, so I didn't blame Ashleigh for not wanting to go, even if I did think his head was just still ringing from the todash chimes and he couldn't hear this. Perhaps if he could it'd wash some of that haunted look from his too-pale face.

We argued about it, but I wasn't budging. I don't know why I let myself think for a second that they would trust a vampire. After a few minutes of debate, they even forgot that I was the first one to ask to go and find the voice. But in the end they let me go, tethered by rope. I was the only one who was healthy enough to go and not expendable. When I didn't fall, we set out slowly into the darkness.

And found the light. At first I thought I'd fucked us all. I felt like someone sank a hook in my guts an yanked. We went flying, but the moment of panic passed quickly. There was that crazed sensation of movement, like we were moving way too fast, like we should have been crushed by the g-force or something. But at the same time, I felt safe, protected. Like we were being carried in the hand of a giant, yes, but of a giant that meant us no harm. And we saw things. I wonder if this is what it's like to be Carrie.

We saw the doorway. The place they'd chosen to lay their ambush. Getting an accurate count was impossible, but I got a sense of their number anyways. Delah. I could feel the itching in the backs of my eyes and smell the burned metal tang of the low men. I saw beast-headed taheen. And I could see the blue shrouds of vampires.

But not just mosquitoes like me. There were twisted, corpse-like shapes in a cluster near the back, the dark blue auras deeper and thicker. I thought that these might be vampires as well, but maybe they were like Barlowe. I had to wonder...if I live long enough, if I drink enough blood...will I become like them?

Then we were shown something else. We saw a demolished lot. Not an empty lot, no as much I crave to see the Rose, I'd have shied away from that vision. There was once something here, something that was knocked down. Somewhere under all that mess was something...white. But there was something else there too. Something we couldn't see but could damn well feel. Something old and powerful there. Getting to whatever was hidden under all that rubble wasn't going to be easy.

And then we were put down. We were in New York of '99 again. Nice shortcut.