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Message: <blockquote data-quote="arwink" data-source="post: 1795551" data-attributes="member: 2292">Exit 23, Part ThreeNick kept one hand tucked into his jacket, the tips of his fingers brushing against the grip of the pistol.  The other was holding up the flashlight, running the light over the doors to the bathrooms.  The other two were pressed up against the wall behind him.  The girl, Ammie, did a fair approximation of moving quietly.  She wasn't trained for this kind of thing, but she was light on her feet and moved fast.  The big guy, Zac, he was just two left feet and a nervous twitch.  If there was a shooter still around here, the odds of Zac being the first man down were pretty good.  Nick did his best to shut off the nagging part of his brain that whispered someting about duty of care and bringing civilians in the line of fire.  It'd been six years since the last time he went into the unknown without a full SWAT team, and after that...After that...Best not to think about it.“Ladies first,” Nick said.  He eased towards the door, keeping the flashlight trained on the wall so it didn't spill through the doorjam.  The door swung open smoothly, a quick glance showing nothing.  Nick leaned against the wall, glanced back at his two companions.  With a nod, he ducked through the doorway. Flashlights swept over the bathroom, shining against the pale blue tiles and the row of stalls.  Nick crouched low, checking the stalls for feet, but everything was empty. “Crouching on the seat?” Ammie suggested.  Nick glanced over his shoulder.“You keep watch for someone making a run for it,” he suggested.  “Don’t give them an out.”Ammie nodded, moving on the balls of her feet.  The golden glow of the Nemo flashlight scanned the row of stalls cautiously.“Empty,” he said, glancing into the first.  He moved up to the second stall, pressing his palm against the door.  It swung open easily.  “Empty.”The third and fourth were the same.  Everyone let out a short sigh of relief.“Mens,” Nick ordered.  He herded everyone out, pressing himself against the space between the two doorways.  One hand reached out to push the door open, prepared to take a quick glance inside before entering.  The door moved about a fraction of an inch, then caught on something.“What’s up?” Zac asked.  The light of his flashlight hit Nick in the eyes.“There’s something blocking the door,” Nick said.  “Not heavy, but heavy enough that we’ll need to shove it open.”“Right,” Zac said.  He shined a flashlight at the floor.  “There’s blood.”Another two flashlights dropped low, showing the red slick that seeped beneath the door.  Nick grimaced, put his hand on the pistol hilt and got ready to draw.“I think the best course of action…” Nick stopped mid-sentence, watching in horror as Zac pushed the door open without taking precautions.  There was a whispering slide and a soft thump as the door swung wide.  Zac let out a strangled cry, rushing into the room and turning to examine something behind the door.  Nick winced.“Check the room,” He told Ammie, then peered round the doorway himself.  The state trooper was slumped against the wall, blood pooling around her from a pair of wounds.The first was caused by an icicle plunged deep into her chest, an icicle long enough to put most knives to shame.  The second was caused by another icicle that protruded from her eye, the mixture of tears and melting ice running down the troopers face like tears.  Zac was trying to wake the trooper, shaking her in an effort to get a response.“Oh *&#%$,” Nick said.  The SIG-Sauer swept out of its holster and scanned the room.“We got another one,” Ammie called.  She was halfway across the rest room, shining Nemo into one of the stalls.  Nick left the trooper to Zac and moved down, the pistol sweeping across the room in a professional arc.  Ammie took a few steps back, getting out of the guns arc.The stall was occupied by a door that had been ripped of its hinges, and a tall businessman dressed in a suit that would have been fairly natty if it wasn’t for the huge bloody RENTS where he’d been ripped apart by some wild animal.Nick knelt next to him, checking for a pulse.  It was weak, but there.  God knows how he managed to live with his wounds.“Either of you know anything about first aid?”Nick started tending as best he could, binding wounds with torn shirt and jacket strips.  It wasn’t much, but he had never focused too much on the first aid side of things in the academy.  He thought he was doing the right thing, but in the darkness and the cold he was hard pressed to remember the correct procedure for anything more complex than CPR.“A little, but it’s been a while sinc…” Zac appeared by the entryway to the stall, light looking over the carnage.   “Oh *&#%$,” he said.  His Nemo light scanned the bloody walls, setting off a glittering sheen as the light hit layers of frost.  Then he stopped, pointing his light directly at the floor.“Oh *&#%$ me,” he repeated.  Nick glanced over his shoulder, looking at the tall mans discovery.In the middle of the floor, imprinted among the blood and frost, was the footprint of a creature that was almost definitely not human.  Nick paused in his tending, looking at the print a little more closely.  The moment he saw it, his heart leapt into his throat.“Looks like a wolf print,” he said, as casually as he dared.  “No big deal.”“Wolf print?” Zac was getting worked up.  “What kind of wolf has its paw split in the middle like that?  Hell, what kind of wolf leaves a paw print a foot and a freaking half long?”“Really, really big ones.”    Nick looked at the business suit, took his pulse again.  Still week, and not getting any steadier.“Grab his legs,” he ordered.  “I’ll keep his neck stable." The other two looked at him, slightly taken back.  Nick let out a small sigh of frustration."We need to move him or he’s going to die.”</blockquote>

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