羊毛战记 Part 4 The Unraveling 46

　　46,　　I dreamt my lady came and found me dead,　　Juliette stood perfectly still and listened to the sound of footsteps retreating down the stairwell. Shecould feel the vibrations in the railing. Goose bumps rushed up her legs and down her arms. Shewanted to call out, to yell for the person to stop, but the sudden surge of adrenaline made her chestfeel cold and empty. It was like a chill wind had forced itself deep into her lungs, crowding out hervoice. People were alive and in the silo with her. And they were running away.,　　She pushed away from the railing and dashed across the landing, hit the curved steps at a dead runand took them as fast as her legs could take her. A flight down, as the adrenaline subsided, she foundthe lungs to yell “Stop!” but the sound of her bare feet on the metal stairs seemed to drown out hervoice. She could no longer hear the person running, dared not stop and listen for fear they would gettoo far ahead, but as she passed the doorway on thirty-two, she worried that they might slip insidesome level and get away. And if there were only a handful of them hiding in the vast silo, she mightnever find them. Not if they didn’t want to be found.,　　Somehow, this was more terrifying than anything else: that she might live the rest of her daysforaging and surviving in a dilapidated silo, talking to inanimate objects, while a group of people didthe same and stayed out of sight. It so stressed her that it took a while to consider the opposite: thatthis might instead be a group who would seek her out, and not have the best intentions.,　　They wouldn’t have the best intentions, but they would have her knife.,　　Images of casts on arms and legs and stories of the unfortunate elderly with broken hips came tomind. Still, she pushed her limits, positively flying. Thirty-three went by in a blaze. Half a spirallater, over her footfalls, she heard a door slam. She stopped and looked up. She leaned over therailing and peered down. The footfalls were gone, leaving just the sound of her panting for air.,　　Juliette hurried down another rotation of the steps and checked the door on thirty-four. It wouldn’topen. It wasn’t locked, though. The handle clicked down and the door moved, but it caught onsomething. Juliette tugged as hard as she could — but to no avail. She yanked again and heardsomething crack. With a foot braced on the other door, she tried a third time, yanking sharply,snapping her head back, pulling her arms toward her chest and kicking with her foot—Something snapped. The door flew open, and she lost her grip on the handle. There was anexplosion of light from inside, a bright burst of illumination spilling out the door before it slammedshut again.,　　Juliette scrambled across the landing and grabbed the handle again. She pulled the door open andstruggled to her feet. One broken half of a broomstick lay inside the hallway; the other half hungfrom the handle of the neighboring door. Both stood out in the blinding light all around her. Theoverhead lamps inside the room were fully lit, the bright rectangles in the ceiling marching down thehall and out of sight. Juliette listened for footsteps but heard little more than the buzzing of the bulbs.,　　The turnstile ahead of her winked its red eye over and over, like it knew secrets but wouldn’t tell.,　　She got up and approached the machine, looked to the right where a glass wall peeked into aconference room, the lights full on in there as well. She hopped over the stile, the motion a habitalready, and called out another hello. Her voice echoed back, but it sounded different in the lit air, ifthat were possible. There was life in here, electricity, other ears to hear her voice, which made theechoes somehow fainter.,