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SAMPLESAMPLESAMPLESAMPLEGETGETGETGET THE PAPERBACK OR THE EBOOK AT AMAZON, BARNES AND NOBLE OR SMASHWORDSTHE PAPERBACK OR THE EBOOK AT AMAZON, BARNES AND NOBLE OR SMASHWORDSTHE PAPERBACK OR THE EBOOK AT AMAZON, BARNES AND NOBLE OR SMASHWORDSTHE PAPERBACK OR THE EBOOK AT AMAZON, BARNES AND NOBLE OR SMASHWORDS
“My coat’s behind the front door,” she said, and pushed past me. I had expectedstonewalling or tantrums, but not only had she got dressed faster than any woman I haveever met, she was out of the front door before me. I had just turned towards her when Iheard a car horn…our Land Rover horn, blaring out…three short, three long, three short.On the last beep there was a crash from the front of the flat and a roar…as if an animalhad come through the window.“Come away,” the old lady said to me. “Come away now.” She grabbed at my arm and pulled me out of the flat, slamming the door, just seconds before a heavy weight crashedinto it from the other side. The door held, but didn’t look like it would last long…largecracks already ran up its length, and they widened as the weight once again crashedagainst the other side, the noise as loud as a gunshot in the confines of the hallway.The lift bell pinged behind me, and once more the old lady dragged me away and into thelift cab.
 
She hit the ‘down’ button, and we stood there for what seemed like hours while whatever John Mason had become tried to pound its way through the flat door. The door of the flatnext to the old lady’s opened, and an ancient man stared out, wide-eyed and confused.“Is it the Germans?” he said, “Have the bastards come back to bomb us again?”“Go back to sleep, Davie,” the old lady shouted. “It’s just a film.”The old man smiled, waved, and went back inside, while we waited. The lift seemedmore interested in playing piped musak to us than actually moving, and I hit the down button, again and again, while the cracks in the flat door grew into ever bigger gaps in thewoodwork and the frenzied banging went up a notch.“Come on!” I shouted…and somebody finally took notice. With a ping the lift doorsstarted to close, just as the flat door finally gave in, large pieces of splintered wood flyinghalfway across the hall. I caught a glimpse of a hunched, hairy figure coming towards us,then the door shut and we started down. I hoped so, for the image had reminded me of one of the worst things I’d ever seen…of a chimpanzee pack on a hunt, chasing a smaller monkey through the forest canopy, squealing and howling, just before they caught their  prey and tore it to bloody shreds. The shriek that came from above us soundedterrifyingly familiar.It was still howling through the stairwells as we left the lift on the ground floor.“I hope you have a car,” she said to me as I hurried her to the door.“It’s more like a tank,” I said, “And I think we’ll need it.”An old lady came out of a flat near the main door.“I’d go back inside,” I said to her. “It’s not safe.”“I’ve already called the Police,” she said. “I always knew you were trouble, Jessie. Thisused to be a nice block until you came.”“Oh go fuck yourself,” the old lady said, and cackled as the other woman’s face fell inshock. We left her to her outrage.As we left the flats the Land Rover lights came on and Doug drove it over across the car  park towards us.His face was still pale behind the windscreen, but as he got closer I could see that he borean expression of grim determination. But he wasn’t thinking straight…he parked facingus, almost blinding us with the headlights.“Quick. Get in!” I shouted, but the old lady needed no prompting. She scuttled around the passenger side and got in beside Doug. I saw her fiddling with her handbag, as if trying toget something out of its depths. I had a last look around, back into the darkness of thehall, but there was no movement.
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