"Get out of the hall."
Celia's voice cracked across the corridor so hard it snapped everybody loose.
Idris yanked the Maintenance Office door wider. Cold fluorescent light spilled through the gap and cut a bright strip across the carpet runner.
"Move Rosa," Priya said.
Lucía and Idris drove the cart forward.
The front wheels hit the threshold lip and stuck.
Lucía cursed and lifted. Idris got a shoulder under the side rail and heaved. Rosa's body rolled toward the head end of the cart and knocked softly into metal. Her mouth opened. A wet breath came out.
Down the left branch, one of the guest-room doors swung wider.
Not fast.
Not dramatic.
A slow inward drift like somebody inside had put one hand on the knob and leaned back with patience.
The first thing Joshua saw was a bare foot on the carpet.
Then a second.
Then the edge of a white robe.
Nia gave another thin cry against his neck.
Priya heard it and turned. "Joshua."
He was already moving.
He stepped backward toward the Maintenance Office opening, keeping Nia high under his chin and his body between her and the left branch. The hole-punch sat in his right hand. His knuckles had gone stiff around it.
Another door opened down the hall.
Then another.
Little clicks. Hinges. Soft air.
A woman's voice floated out of one of the rooms.
"Can somebody help me with my bags?"
A man's voice from farther down asked, "Hello?"
The one nearest them stepped into the corridor.
Woman.
Mid-forties, maybe.
Hotel robe tied wrong at the waist.
One side of her hair wet and flattened against her cheek like she had just gotten out of the shower and forgotten how long ago that was supposed to be. Her mouth hung open a little. Her eyes were fixed on Nia.
Not on Joshua.
Not on the group.
On the baby.
She moved one bare foot forward.
The skin on the top of it had been rubbed off in a wide raw patch. Dark fibers from the carpet runner stuck to the wet red shine underneath.
No one in the group made a sound.
Not even Tomasz.
Lucía and Idris got Rosa's cart over the lip. The rear wheels dropped onto concrete inside the office with a hollow clack.
"Next," Priya said.
Hoodie kid dragged the crawling woman by the arm. The businesswoman shoved the teenager ahead of her. The surviving college boy stumbled after them, both hands up at chest height like he was trying to catch himself before he had even fallen. The old man in the coat nearly clipped the doorjamb and had to pinball off it to get through.
The woman in the robe took another step.
The right side of her robe opened at the knee.
Her lower leg had a hotel room keycard still hanging from it on the little elastic door-tag loop, flesh swollen around the plastic. Each step knocked it softly against bone.
From another room farther down, somebody laughed.
Soft. Breathless. Human.
The service bell rang again.
One ding.
Then two more, closer together.
The nurse made a broken sound behind Joshua.
Priya caught her by the back of the shirt and shoved her at the door. "Inside."
The nurse went.
Tomasz tried to slip in right behind her.
Joshua put his forearm out and caught him in the chest.
"Not before them."
Tomasz glared at him. "What, you wanna play hero with a baby in your arms?"
"Get the girl through."
The teenager was frozen halfway to the door, staring at the woman in the robe.
The woman smiled at her.
Too much gum. Too many teeth. Lip split at one corner, dried and reopened.
"You can come in here," she said.
The teenager whimpered.
Tomasz swore and grabbed the back of her sleeve, hauling her toward the office more to clear his own lane than to save her. It still moved her. The businesswoman shoved after both of them, one hand flat between the teenager's shoulder blades.
The woman in the robe turned her head toward that movement. Not her whole body. Just the head.
Then it turned farther than it should have and kept going until the side of her face was nearly toward them.
Hoodie kid saw it and went pale.
"Move," Joshua said.
Hoodie kid dragged the crawling woman the last steps to the door. Priya got under the woman's other arm and shoved both of them through. The old man stumbled after them.
Another guest-room door opened across from the first one.
A man stood in that doorway in hotel boxers and one sock, room-service tray still balanced in both hands.
His throat was dark all the way around, purple-black like something had cinched there and never been cut off. His tray trembled. Little condiment jars rattled against the porcelain plate.
He looked at Joshua and said, very politely, "Can I get fresh towels?"
The woman in the robe started walking toward them.
Not fast.
The man with the tray stepped into the hall too.
Then a third shape leaned out from a farther room. Small. Maybe a child, maybe not. Hard to tell with only the forehead and nose and fingers showing around the frame.
Celia shouted from Room 814, voice ripping itself raw now.
"Shut the maintenance door!"
Lucía was inside already, one hand on Rosa's cart, the other braced on the inner side of the door. Idris had vanished farther in for half a second, probably clearing space. Priya turned back and looked at Joshua.
He was still in the hall with Nia.
Tomasz, the teenager, the businesswoman, Hoodie kid, the crawling woman, the old man, the nurse, the college boy—all through.
Just him now.
The woman in the robe raised both hands a little like she was about to ask for a dance.
Nia cried louder.
That changed the whole hall.
Every guest-room shape on the left branch twitched at once.
The man with the tray lowered it. Porcelain slid and shattered on the carpet. The small shape farther back came out enough to show a child-sized hotel sweatshirt soaked dark down the front.
Joshua moved.
Not back.
Forward, one hard step to meet the woman in the robe before she could close the distance clean.
He drove the hole-punch into her mouth.
Not elegant.
Not deep.
Enough to break teeth and jerk her head backward.
She made no sound.
Her hands caught at his wrist with fingers cold and damp as bathroom tile.
Joshua ripped the tool free and slammed his shoulder into her chest. She hit the wall and folded halfway around the housekeeping station corner.
"Door!" Priya shouted.
The man with the tray was already coming, silent now, throat bruising turned toward them like a second mouth. The smaller shape from the far room broke into a run with those short fast child steps that made the body seem even lower to the floor.
Joshua backed toward the office.
Nia screamed against his throat.
The woman in the robe came off the wall again, blood and spit down the front of her robe, teeth pink and broken.
"Close it!" Celia screamed from 814.
Priya grabbed the outer edge of the Maintenance Office door and pulled.
Not yet enough room.
Joshua was still in the threshold.
The man with the tray lunged, tray forgotten, both hands reaching.
Joshua pivoted sideways, keeping Nia tight to the wall-side of his body, and kicked low.
His sneaker hit the man's knee sideways with a wet pop. The leg folded under him. He went down hard on one hip and skidded, fingers clawing at the carpet runner.
The child-sized one got closer.
Too close.
Hoodie kid came out of nowhere from just inside the office and hurled the metal drinks-cooler bucket down the hall like a bowling ball.
It hit the child-sized thing square in the face.
Metal rang.
The thing spun sideways into the wall and dropped.
"Inside!" Hoodie kid shouted.
Joshua went through the doorway backward.
Priya hauled the door in.
The woman in the robe hit it with both hands before it fully shut. Her fingers came through the narrowing gap. Lucía slammed Rosa's cart into the inside edge of the door with all her weight behind it. Bone cracked under steel. The hand vanished.
The door shut.
Idris got the lock.
The deadbolt turned with a hard clean throw.
Everybody in the office stood there listening.
No pounding.
Not right away.
Just the soft drag of something outside moving along the other side of the door.
Then the service bell rang once.
Right outside.
Then a woman's voice, muffled by the steel, said, "Housekeeping."
Nia cried once more and then buried her face under Joshua's chin.
Joshua looked up.
The Maintenance Office — Upper Level was bigger than he expected.
Worktables.
Tool boards.
Dust-covered monitors.
Electrical maps pinned to corkboard.
A breaker wall with tagged sectors.
And at the far end, under a live strip light that buzzed overhead, a second terminal glowed blue.
Idris was already staring at it.
Lucía had both hands on Rosa's cart and blood up to the heel of one palm.
Priya stood by the door, chest rising hard.
Hoodie kid leaned with both hands on his knees, breathing through his mouth.
The nurse was crying again, but quieter now, like she had run out of volume.
The old man in the coat slid down the wall a second time.
No one told him to get back up.
From the corridor outside, the service bell rang again.
Then the voice said, softer now, "Can somebody get her?"