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Piper remembered that part
very
vividly now that the memory of what she’d seen on screen
(witnessed in person)
was getting clearer. The man’s arms had come off first. Then he’d bled out and died, ruining all the hat-man’s fun.
 

“I remember something really hideous,” Cameron said, seeming to think. “About someone being … drawn and quartered? And you’re right, there were people chanting that word. ‘
Andreus.
’ Like a cheer. Or an anthem.” He shook his head, disgusted. “I’ve never seen a movie like that. I never
would
see — ”
 

A gunshot crashed through the quiet.
 

Piper and Cameron looked up, halting in their tracks. The stream had its own music, and the horses’ footsteps had vanished into its flow. But they’d been talking. The ravine wasn’t all that deep. Ground level was maybe five feet above their heads.
 

“
Get down!
” Cameron whispered.
 

Heart beating hard, Piper dismounted. Cameron led his horse toward the steeper embankment. He leaned back, trying to stay out of sight. More gunshots echoed above.
 

Piper heard two sets. Someone near the bank above and a second round of reports, farther off. Two people in a gunfight. Piper’s head swam, suddenly sure that whoever was above would be interested in knowing there were a pair of people below, hearing everything. Being where they shouldn’t be, nearly seeing what they shouldn’t see.
 

She heard a great, inarticulate cry. A sound like animals stampeding — with human voices. The far-off shooter fired twice more in rapid succession, but Piper could sense their panic. He or she was being chased by a horde, and there weren’t enough bullets to end them all.

Cameron’s eyes were on Piper’s. The sound of water combined with the shouting above would drown anything out. But his eyes were wide and round, flicking between Piper and the ravine. His lips didn’t move. Yet distinctly, she heard him say,
We
’
d have walked right into that.

There was no question. If they’d stayed on their current path, they’d have ended up in the melee. They couldn’t have hidden if they’d wanted to. Their horses were too big to miss.
 

There are hundreds of them,
Piper thought. Not only because she could hear the tumult of shouts as the large group chased the runner, but because she’d seen this before. Quite clearly. In something like a memory.
 

Cameron nodded.

From above, there were more shots. More struggle. Whoever was being chased
 

(Simon, his name is Simon, and he should have kept his mouth shut)

(traitor liar greedy little shit, get back here)

(go around. I should run around to the far side, but then what if they think I
’
m running too)

(HAIL Andreus!)

Piper closed her eyes. Tilted her head down. Put her fingers to her temples. Words and high emotions were now a live show instead of a movie. She could sense Cameron beside her, probably watching with concern, but he wouldn’t ask what was wrong because
 

(oh my God, we
’
d have walked right into that what if we
’
d done that. I
’
d have been responsible, all my fault)

because he surely had his own problems. And because she was sure he knew damned well what was wrong with her; no need to waste breath, risk drawing attention.
 

The sounds came closer, the runner driven back around, funneled along the ravine’s lip and back into his pursuers like draining water. There was no easy way down into the ravine

(unless he jumps)

(Simon, you shit, you
’
d better not jump, you coward, you greedy fucker)

but he wouldn’t jump because it was still a good fifteen-foot drop with rocks at the bottom, and if he broke his leg and they fell on him, he’d be done.
 

Piper squeezed her eyes tighter shut. She was having problems keeping her bearings and remembering where she was. Was she running from the others? Was she chasing Simon?
 

No, she was down here, in the ravine, praying they’d stay hidden.
 

A single gunshot almost
directly
above preceded a voice: “I surrender. Take me back to the stockade.”

Then: “I’ll go quietly.”
 

Then: “Donna. Help me out, Donna.”
 

Donna, whoever she was, didn’t or couldn’t help.
 

Piper gasped at the sound then again when something struck the stream behind them.
 

A head.
Just
a head, no body attached.
 

A new voice above: “You two. Drag the body.”
 

Then: “You. Go get the head.”
 

Loose rock spilled down twenty tense seconds later. Maybe two dozen yards back, where the slope into the ravine was shallower. A tangle of roots gnarled behind Piper and Cameron, but not enough to shield two people and their horses.

Cameron climbed into his saddle so fast he nearly spilled over. He didn’t need to tell Piper to do the same. “Go!” he hissed.
 

The group was headed away, apparently dragging a headless body. The sound of the stream, if they were lucky, might drown their hoofbeats.

Still, Piper saw the man descending the bank before she turned forward and kicked her mount. She saw his head turn and heard him shout.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

“GODDAMMIT, TURN THAT OFF!”
 

“I’m trying. Hang on.”
 

“FASTER, TERRENCE!”
 

“Almost. Almost.”
 

“JESUS FUCKING—”

Vincent stopped midsentence. Trevor, watching, thought he looked almost comical. Vincent slept in boxers and a sleeveless white tee. He didn’t have a hair on his head, and his frame was intimidating. Yet he managed to look like a flustered old man with his hair in tousles, wearing a flapping white nightgown: utterly baffled, standing in the room’s center with his legs wide as if bracing for something. His eyes were wide, his hands out. His last words had come out after the alarm had ceased its blaring, and in the quiet, they were shockingly loud.
 

“Is it off?”
 

“Do you hear it, Vincent?” Terrence asked.
 

“
Permanently
off.”
 

“I silenced it. But don’t worry; I’ll keep an eye on it.”
 

“‘Keep an eye on it?’”
 

“In case it wants to go off again,” Terrence explained.
 

Dan emerged from the bedroom, rubbing his face with his palm. Dan had the old man thing going on even more than Vincent. He was probably in his fifties, by Trevor’s estimation, and his hair was going gray at the temples, curly and too long, sticking up like a rat’s nest.
 

“The fuck was that about?”
 

“Environmental alarm,” Terrence said.
 

“Environmental? What, did someone forget to recycle?”
 

“Why would it go off again?” Vincent demanded.
 

“It won’t. I’m watching it.”
 

“But if you didn’t watch it.”
 

“Well, sure.”
 

“Sure
what?
” Vincent sounded stressed and furious. They’d all been woken from a dead sleep. All but Lila. She was already in the control room, wedged up against one wall. It looked like she’d stepped aside to let Terrence in. He stood scrolling through menus and checking monitors in the small space. Why had she been out here so late? She looked almost guilty. Maybe she’d caused the alarm. She or Christopher, who was outside the room but looked like he’d fucked something up as well. Trevor looked toward him, but his eyes flicked away.
 

“It’ll go off again if I don’t watch it,” Terrence said matter-of-factly, as if this had been no big, loud, panic-inducing deal.
 

“What
happened?
” Dan said.
 

Heather sprinted from her room. Trevor had come out the moment the alarm began to blare but had cast sidelong glances at the bed and other cot beforehand. His mom had been sleeping, twitching, seeming to miss the whole thing. Lila’s cot had been empty.
 

“What’s going on?” she demanded.
 

“Get in line if you want
that
question answered,” Dan mumbled.

“It was an
environmental alarm,
” said Terrence, his voice patient.
 

“Where did it go off?”
 

“Where the fuck do you
think
it went off, Vincent?” Terrence answered.
 

“
Topside!
Did it go off in the house?”

“I have no — ” Terrence stopped midsentence and turned back to the controls, tapping screens, scrolling frantically.
 

“What’s the big deal if it went off in the house?” Terrence was talking to Christopher, but Christopher was looking at Raj, who, ironically, seemed the most composed.
 

“He’s thinking it gave us away,” Raj said.
 

“Won’t they just assume it’s a house alarm?”
 

“Maybe.” Raj shrugged. “But then again, the house has been open for months. And supposedly, the house doesn’t have any power.”
 

“Wouldn’t an alarm have batteries?”
 

“It was only down here,” Terrence said to Vincent.
 

“Yes, it would have batteries,” Raj told Trevor, rubbing his face and yawning. “But Vincent hasn’t figured out that the alarm not going off in the house is a bad thing.”
 

Vincent’s head snapped toward Raj. He looked like he was about to say something, but Terrence seemed to get whatever Raj was saying immediately. He was staring at the monitor feeds, tapping and zooming.
 

“Shit.”
 

“What?” Vincent said.
 

“Shit. Shit mother
fucker.
”
 

“
What?
”
 

“They heard it.”
 

“What did they hear?”

Terrence swallowed. “The vents. The skylights.”
 

“What the hell are you talking about?”
 

Terrence pointed at the monitoring screen. Vincent crowded in to look. Trevor pressed in behind him, Heather at his side. They were packed enough that he noticed his mother shivering. How could she be cold?
 

The screen was expanded to show the east lawn. The people camping there were moving slowly forward. Trevor was reminded of encroaching zombies.
 

“What are they looking at?” Heather asked.
 

“They heard it!” Vincent snapped. “The alarm. The goddamned alarm!”
 

“You said it didn’t go off up top,” Christopher said.
 

“Exactly.” All heads turned toward Raj, and he took a half second before speaking to bask in his earned attention. “An alarm going off up there might be strange, but whatever. There’s no power. An alarm would have a battery. Going off somewhere else, just loud enough to be heard from an unknown place? That’s
much
more interesting.”

“Where is this shot?” said Vincent.
 

“East.”
 

He reached forward and flicked through screens. “They’re all looking. Every camera. So they can’t tell where it came from.”
 

“Maybe they’ll figure it out,” Raj said.
 

Vincent ignored him. “The door is concealed. Locked. They can’t get in.”
 

“But now, maybe, they know there’s something here. Another place, with an alarm.”
 

“We knew there was a bunker,” Vincent said.
 

“But you were also trying to get in here alone, while keeping the others at arm’s distance. What did you suggest you were doing, if not breaking into a bunker hidden under the house? Did you let them think you were cracking a safe?”
 

“Nobody’s getting in here.”
 

“I’m not so sure.” Raj pointed at the screen. Some of the people were getting closer to the cameras in their various locations, looking up, pointing. “They must all be hungry. They’re clearly scared. They used to wander around, but now they’re clustered. Since those big thumps, they’ve seemed scared shitless to me. Desperate maybe.”
 

Lila shook her head. “You’re not helping, Raj.”
 

“Maybe we should go up,” he said. “Plant something. Even if it’s just a rumor.