Chapter 49 Section 48

D'Agosta sat up amidst the broken glass on the ground, reached for the walkie-talkie, watched the backs of the last few guests running away, and the screaming and shouting gradually weakened. "Deputy Captain?" Constable Bailey got up from under another broken display case.The exhibition hall is in a mess: broken utensils are scattered all over the floor, broken glass is everywhere, shoes, handbags, and fragments of clothing abound.Except for D'Agosta, Berry, and the corpse, the exhibit was empty.D'Agosta glanced at the headless corpse, and noticed that there were several open lacerations on the chest of the corpse. The clothes of the deceased were stiff with dried blood, and the internal organs were exposed, like stuffing.Apparently dead for a while.He looked away, but immediately turned his face back.The deceased was wearing a police uniform.

"Berry!" he yelled. "Police attacked! Who's this guy?" Bailey came over, his face was as white as paper under the dim light. "Hard to say. But I remember Fred Beauregard had a graduation ring like that." "Damn it," D'Agosta cursed in a low voice.He bent down to check the badge number. Berry nodded: "The deputy team is indeed Beauregard." "Oh my God!" D'Agosta straightened up, "Didn't he go off for two consecutive days?" "Yes, he was last on duty on Wednesday afternoon." "He's been here, then, since—" D'Agosta paused in the middle of the sentence, his expression turning fierce: "Damn Kofi, refuse to let me search the exhibition site. I'm going to give him a new asshole .”

Bailey helped him up: "You're hurt." "Bandage when you have time," D'Agosta replied. "Where's McNitt?" "Don't know. The last time I saw him, he was stuck in the crowd." Ippolito turned a far corner, speaking into the intercom as he walked.D'Agosta's respect for the chief of security has risen slightly.This guy may not be particularly smart, but he still has courage when encountering things. The lights dimmed. "Panic broke out in the sky hall," Ippolito said, putting his ear to the intercom. "They say the security wall has come down."

"Idiot! That's the only way out!" D'Agosta picked up his walkie-talkie. "Walden? Got it? What happened?" "Sir, there's chaos here! McNitt just came out of the exhibit. He's injured enough. We guard the entrance of the exhibit, trying to control the flow of people, but it's completely useless. Deputy captain, many people have been trampled." The lights dimmed for the second time. "Walden, has the emergency door at the Rotunda exit been lowered?" "Wait a moment." The walkie-talkie sizzled for a moment, "Damn, yes! It's already halfway down, and it's still going down! People are blocked under the door like a herd of cattle, and they have to crush No. 12 to death—— "

The exhibition hall was suddenly dark.The blunt blunt sound of heavy objects falling to the ground temporarily suppressed the cries. D'Agosta pulled out the flashlight: "Ippolito, you can raise the emergency door with a manual override, right?" "Right. And the backup power will be plugged in at any moment—" "We can't wait, let's go out first. God, be careful." The three men backed cautiously toward the entrance to the gallery, and Ippolito led them through a sea of ​​broken glass, broken wood, and debris.Artifacts that were once priceless are now reduced to fragments lying casually on the ground.The closer you get to the Sky Hall, the louder the shouts and screams become.

D'Agosta stood behind Ippolito, who could see nothing because the Sky Hall was dark and even the votive candles were extinguished.Ippolito shone his flashlight around the entrance.Why did he stop and not go?thought D'Agosta angrily.Ippolito backed away suddenly, retching.The flashlight fell to the ground and rolled away in the dark. "What's up?" D'Agosta yelled, rushing up with Bailey.He also stopped abruptly. The vast hall was in ruins.D'Agosta raised his flashlight and shone into the darkness, and what he saw reminded him of earthquake footage on the evening news.The rostrum was broken into several pieces, and the pulpit was broken into pieces.The orchestra pit was empty, the seats were overturned, and crushed instruments were piled up in a pile.Food, clothes, brochures, fallen bamboos, and ravaged orchids littered the ground, trampled and crushed by thousands of terrified feet, forming a grotesque scene.

D'Agosta shone the flashlight on the exhibit entrance itself.The huge wooden pillar surrounding the entrance had collapsed and crumbled, and D'Agosta could see several arms and legs protruding from beneath the finely carved pillar. Bailey rushed forward: "At least eight people are under the pressure, deputy captain. I don't think anyone is alive." "Are there any of us?" D'Agosta asked. "Sorry, there is. Like McNitt and Walden, and a plainclothes cop. Two more in guard uniform and three civilians." "All dead. All dead?" "As far as I know, yes. I can't move the pillars at all."

"Damn." D'Agosta looked away, rubbing his forehead.There was a loud bang from the other end of the hall. "The safety gate is closing," said Ippolito, wiping his mouth.He knelt beside Bailey. "Oh no. Martini...Jesus, I can't believe it." He turned to D'Agosta. "Martini's guarding the back stairs, must have come running to help control the crowd. He's my best of the men..." D'Agosta stepped through the broken wooden pillars and into the Sky Hall, skirting overturned tables and broken chairs.His hands were bleeding profusely.There were several motionless figures lying on the ground, and D'Agosta could not tell whether they were dead or alive.He heard screaming down the hall and raised his flashlight to shine it.The metal emergency door was completely closed. A group of people lay on the door, knocking and shouting. Some of them saw the light and turned to look at D'Agosta.

D'Agosta ran over, ignoring the creaking intercom: "Everyone calm down! Please step aside, I'm Deputy Captain D'Agosta of the NYPD." When the crowd quietened a little, D'Agosta called for Ippolito to come.With a quick glance, D'Agosta recognized Director Wright, Ian Cuthbert, the perpetrator of the farce, and a modest woman named Rickman—roughly the four who walked into the exhibit first. About ten people.The deeper you go in, the later you get out. "Listen," he yelled, "the chief of security is here to open the door. Everyone please stand back."

The crowd parted, and D'Agosta groaned involuntarily.Several limbs protruded from under the heavy iron door, and the slippery floor was covered with blood.One limb was still swaying slightly, and he could hear faint cries coming from outside the door. "By God!" he cried in a low voice, "Ippolito, open the damn thing." "Show me a light." Ippolito said, pointing to the keypad at the door, and then knelt down to enter a series of numbers. Everyone waited with bated breath. Ippolito looked puzzled. "I don't understand—" He typed the numbers again, more slowly this time.

"No electricity," D'Agosta said. "It shouldn't matter!" Ippolito entered the password for the third time frantically, "The system has a redundant backup power supply." The crowd began to whisper. "We're trapped!" a man yelled. D'Agosta turned his flashlight on the crowd. "Everyone, please calm down. The corpse in the exhibition hall has been dead for at least two days. Understand? Two days. The murderer has already left." "How do you know?" the same man yelled. "Shut up and listen," D'Agosta said, "we'll get everyone out. If we can't open this door, we can open it from the outside. It'll only take a few minutes. Now, Please leave the door, don't run around, and find a good chair to sit down. Is that okay? It's none of your business here." Wright walked into the flashlight beam. "Listen, Inspector," he said, "we must get out. Ippolito, for God's sake, open the door!" "Wait a moment!" D'Agosta shouted, "Dr. Wright, please return to the crowd." He scanned the frightened faces, "Is there a surgeon?" Silence answered him. "Nurse? Who will give first aid?" "I know some first aid." Someone volunteered. "Excellent. Are you—" "Arthur Pound." "Pound. Get a volunteer or two to help you. A few people look trampled. I want to know the number and their condition. There is one of my men at the entrance of the exhibition hall. His name is Berry. He has a flashlight and will help everyone. .I also need a volunteer to help collect some candles." A tall, thin young man in a rumpled dress came out of the shadows.He chewed something, swallowed it, and said, "Leave it to me." "what is it call?" "Smithback." "Yes, Smithback. Any matches?" "certainly." The mayor stepped forward, his face covered in blood and a large purple bruise under one eye. "I'll help too," he said. D'Agosta looked at him in surprise, "Mayor Harper! These people are left to you, keep them calm." "No problem, lieutenant." D'Agosta's walkie-talkie creaked again, and he picked it up. "D'Agosta, Kofi is calling. D'Agosta, do you hear that? What's going on in there? Report the situation immediately!" D'Agosta spoke quickly: "Listen, I won't say it a second time. We have eight or more dead and an incalculable number of wounded. You must have seen the man under the door too? Epo Lito can't open the damn door. There's thirty or forty people in there. Wright and the mayor." "Mayor! Damn it. Listen, D'Agosta, the system is totally down. My manual override doesn't work either. I'll get someone to gas weld the door to save you. It'll take a while, the bank vault door That's all it is. Is the mayor okay?" "He's all right. Where's Pendergast?" "Not at all." "Who else is trapped in the security circle?" "It's not clear yet," Coffey replied, "We're listening to reports. There should be people in the computer room and the security command center, Garcia, etc. There may be people on other floors. There are a few plainclothes policemen and guards outside. Pushed by the crowd, two of them were seriously injured. D'Agosta, what happened at the exhibition?" "The customer found the body of a police officer hanging on the top of a display case. Like the other victims, he was also disembowelled." He paused, and then said viciously, "If you agree to my search request, None of these things will happen.” The intercom creaked, then fell silent. "Bond!" cried D'Agosta, "how are the wounded?" "One is alive, but dying," said Pound, looking up from a lifeless figure. "The others are dead. Trampled to death. Maybe one or two died of a heart attack, but I say No." "Try to help the one who's still alive," D'Agosta said. The intercom buzzed. "Deputy Captain D'Agosta?" A harsh voice came, "Sir, this is Garcia from the Security Command Center. We have..." The voice was drowned in the sudden static noise. "Garcia? Garcia! What's wrong?" D'Agosta called into the intercom. "Sorry, sir, I'm using a portable transmitter and the battery is dying. Got Pendergast and I'll pass it on to you." "Vincent." A familiar southern drawl came from the intercom. "Pendergast! Where are you?" "The basement of Sector Twenty-Nine. I know the entire museum is without power and we're stuck in Quarantine Two. I'm sorry, but I have worse news for you. Find a quiet place, I have a message to tell you." D'Agosta walked away from the crowd and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?" "Vincent, listen to me. There's something alive down here. I don't know what it is, but it's huge and I don't think it's human." "Pendergast, don't make fun of me. This is not the time." "Vincent, I'm very serious. That's not bad news. The bad news is that it's probably going your way." "What do you mean? What kind of animal is it?" "You'll know when it's nearby. You'll never mistake that smell. What weapons do you have with you?" "Let me see. Three twelve-gauge shotguns, some police revolvers, two rubber-bullet shotguns. Maybe some other odds and ends." "Never mind the rubber bullets. Listen, we've got to keep this short. Get everyone out of here. That thing just walked past me when the power went out. I saw it through a storage room window down there, and it was massive .crawling on all fours. I shot it twice and it fled into the stairwell at the end of my corridor. I've got an old set of blueprints lying around, I've looked it up. Any idea where that stairway leads?" "I don't know," D'Agosta said. "Only certain floors. You can also go to the lower basement, but you can't take it for granted that it will go that way. There is an exit on the fourth floor, and the other exit is behind the Sky Hall. Maintenance right behind the rostrum Area." "Pendergast, I can't keep up with your train of thought. What the hell do you want us to do?" "I want you to get a few people, who can use a shotgun, to line up at that door. If it dares to go through that door, give it a hard time. But it may have come in, I'm not sure. Wen Center, it ate an all-metal .45 at close range and the bullet flew away," If someone else said this, D'Agosta would definitely think that the other party was either joking or crazy. "Okay," he replied, "how long ago?" "I saw it a few minutes ago, and then the power went out. I shot it once, followed it to the end of the corridor after the power went out, and fired a second shot, but my lighting was not stable enough. The bullet missed... I just checked. The hallway ends in a dead end and the animal is gone. The only way out is the stairwell that leads to you. It may be hiding in the stairwell if you go far , it may have gone to other floors. I just know it didn't go back." D'Agosta swallowed. "If you can safely enter the basement, then come down. Meet me below. There seems to be a way out on the blueprint. You find a safer place first, and then we can continue to discuss. Do you understand?" "Understood." D'Agosta replied. "Vincent? One more thing." "what happened again?" "That thing knows how to open and close doors." D'Agosta put away the walkie-talkie, licked his lips, and looked back at the group of guests.Most were sitting on the ground, still in shock, and a few were lighting an armful of candles that the tall, thin man had collected. D'Agosta said to them as softly as possible: "Come here, everybody, and sit against the wall. Put out the candles." Someone shouted, "What's wrong?" D'Agosta recognized Wright's voice. "Quiet. Do as I say. You—what's your name?—Smithback, forget the candle, come here." D'Agosta's walkie-talkie sizzles, someone starts talking, and he sweeps the sky hall quickly with his flashlight.The far corners were so black that it seemed to swallow the beam of a flashlight.There was a motionless figure on the ground in the center of the hall, with a few candles burning beside him, and Pound and another person were bending over to look after him. "Bond!" he cried, "you two. Put out the candles, and come here!" "But he's still alive—" "Come here!" D'Agosta turned to face the crowd huddled behind him. "Don't move or make a sound. Berri, Ippolito, grab your shotgun and follow me." "Did you hear that? Why do they have guns?" Wright called. D'Agosta recognized the voice coming from the walkie-talkie as belonging to Kofi, and cut it off without hesitation.The three of them used flashlights to illuminate the darkness ahead, and walked lightly towards the center of the Sky Hall.D'Agosta peered along the wall, finding the dark outlines of the maintenance area and the stairway doors.The door is closed.He thought he smelled a strange smell, a very peculiar smell of decay, but he couldn't tell what it was.But the room was already stank.When the lights went out, at least half the damn guests peed their pants. He walked into the maintenance area first, then stopped, and whispered: "According to Pendergast, there may be a beast hiding in the stairwell." "According to Pendergast." Ippolito mocked in a low voice. "Stop farting, Ippolito. Listen to me, we can't just wait in the dark, we're going to grope in. Got it? Let's play by the rules. Open the safety, load the bullet. Bailey, you open the door, Then cover us with a flashlight. Ippolito, you go up the stairs, I go down. If you see someone, ask him to identify himself, otherwise shoot immediately. If you see anything else, shoot immediately. etc. My signal, let's act together." D'Agosta turned off the flashlight, pocketed it, and clutched the shotgun.He nodded to Bailey, and asked Bailey to light the stairway door.Then he closed his eyes, murmured a prayer in the cramped darkness, and ordered action. Ippolito moved aside, and Bailey flung the door open.D'Agosta and Ippolito rushed in, followed by Berry, flashing his flashlight half-circle. A horrible stench awaited them in the stairwell.D'Agosta took a few steps towards the darkness below, and felt a sudden movement from above. The hoarse and strange roar came to his ears, which made his knees weak in fright, and then came a sound like a wet towel being thrown on the ground. There was a muffled sound.Something soggy hit the surrounding walls, and a few globs of watery stuff splashed on his face.He turned sharply and shot at a huge black shadow.The beam of the flashlight was spinning wildly. "Damn it!" he heard Bailey wailing. "Berry! Keep it out of the hall!" He shot up and down until he emptied the magazine.The acrid smell of burning gunpowder mixed with the sickening stench, and the screams echoed in the Sky Hall. D'Agosta staggered up the landing, nearly tripped, and rushed into the hall.The flame from the muzzle just momentarily blinded him, and he yelled as he reloaded the shotgun? "Berry, where is it?" "I don't know!" cried Bailey. "I can't see!" "Did it go down or into the door?" Two bullets went into the shotgun.Three... "I don't know! I don't know!" D'Agosta pulled out his flashlight and illuminated Berry.The officer was covered in blood, with bits of flesh hanging from his hair and eyebrows.He is wiping his eyes.There was a horrible smell in the air. "I'm fine," Bailey said to D'Agosta, "should be fine. I splashed the damn thing all over my face and I can't see anything." D'Agosta clung the shotgun to his lap and scanned the room quickly with the flashlight.People huddled against the walls, blinking in horror.He turned back to illuminate the stairwell, and suddenly saw Ippolito—more precisely, the wreckage of Ippolito—on the landing, half of his body lying on the landing, his abdomen torn open, a dark pool of blood is expanding rapidly. The thing was lying in ambush just a few steps above the platform, but where was it now?He frantically waved the flashlight around the sky hall several times.There was no sign of it, and the spacious space was dead silent. No.Something is moving in the middle of the hall.The distance was too far and the light was blurry, but D'Agosta could see a huge black figure squatting in front of the wounded man on the dance floor, stabbing down one after another with sudden and bizarre movements.D'Agosta heard a wail from the wounded, followed by a faint chewing sound, and then silence.D'Agosta tucked the flashlight under his arm, raised the shotgun, took aim, and pulled the trigger. There was a flash of fire and a bang.The crowd who huddled together suddenly screamed.Second shot, third shot, and the magazine is empty again. He reached for the bullet, found nothing, dropped the shotgun, and pulled out the police revolver. "Berry!" he yelled, "come here, gather everyone, and prepare to escape." He raised his flashlight and shone it on the ground of the Sky Hall, but the shadows had disappeared.He approached the body cautiously.Standing ten feet away, he could see what he didn't want to see: the skull had been cracked open, brain tissue spilled on the floor.A trail of blood stretched to the interior of the exhibition hall.The thing rushed in to avoid bullets, and I'm afraid it won't stay there for long. D'Agosta ran over, bypassed the wooden pillars on the ground, and came to the entrance of the exhibition.He pulled up a heavy wooden door, slammed it down with a muffled grunt, and rushed to the other side.There were heavy but swift footsteps in the exhibition hall.He slammed the second door, and heard the sound of the bolt drop. Something heavy struck the door and shook it. "Berry!" he yelled, "take everyone down the stairs!" The force of the beating became stronger and stronger, and D'Agosta involuntarily retreated step by step.Cracks appeared on the wooden door. He raised his revolver to aim at the door, and there were screams and exclamations behind him: they had seen Ippolito's body.He heard Bailey arguing with Wright at the top of his voice.The door shook again, and a big hole appeared at the bottom. D'Agosta ran across the Sky Hall: "Get down the stairs! Don't look back!" "No," Wright screamed, blocking the stairs, "Look at Ippolito! I'm not going down!" "There's a way out down there!" D'Agosta shouted. "No. It's just across the gallery, and—" "There are monsters in the exhibition hall!" D'Agosta shouted, "Go!" Berry pushed Wright aside and pushed the crowd through the door, crying and trampling over Ippolito's body.At least the mayor is calm, D'Agosta thought: Maybe he'd seen worse the last time he held a press conference. "I'm never going down!" Wright yelled. "Cusbert, Lavinia, listen to me. The basement is a dead end. I know it well. Come upstairs with me, we hide on the fourth floor. Wait for that thing Go and come back." The crowd entered the door and stumbled down the stairs.D'Agosta could hear the wood continuing to split.He stopped for a moment.Of the thirty-odd people descending, only three hesitated on the landing.He said, "One last time, do you want to come with us?" "We're going with Dr. Wright," the PR director replied.In the dim light of the flashlight, Rickman's eerie, haggard features resembled a ghost.D'Agosta turned without saying a word, and ran down with the crowd.Wright called them up the stairs behind his back in a loud, desperate voice.