Contents
Book Three: Double Feature — 25.
Overview
In blackout and chaos at Cherokee, a rocket assault and King Sorrow’s roar tear through the facility. Donna frees herself, smashes out of confinement, and navigates gunfire and smoke. She abandons a mortally wounded guard, discovers Dr. Patrick’s suicide, and chooses to climb toward the battle, committing fully to the conflict.
Summary
Amid distant automatic fire, Donna searches Valentine’s body, finds the glove key, and frees herself, lightheaded but alert. Explosions shake the building, emergency lights fail, and King Sorrow screams somewhere above as rockets detonate. Donna retrieves a pistol and shoots out the picture window to escape her locked room.
In the hall, she passes a polo-shirt guard whose leg has been torn off and ignores his pleas, choosing survival over aid. Smoke thickens as fleeing personnel collide with Donna; a mechanic and two guards trample her, and she loses her gun in the chaos.
Seeking the stairwell, Donna blunders into a closet and confronts Dr. Patrick’s body, hanged by an electrical cord with a pinned note reading “jesus forgive me.” Donna rejects the plea, closes the door, and finds the dark stairwell.
With gunfire and crashes pounding from above—and recalling the earlier thud of her brother’s fatal fall—Donna resolves to move toward the fight. She ascends into the assault as King Sorrow’s roars and fresh detonations rattle the facility.
Who Appears
- DonnaEscapes restraints, breaks out under fire, abandons a dying guard, finds Dr. Patrick hanged, and heads upstairs.
- King SorrowRoars and rampages through the facility amid rocket strikes, driving chaos and blackout.
- Dr. PatrickFound hanged in a closet, leaving a note; her death hardens Donna’s resolve.
- ValentineCorpse searched for keys; his death precedes the ongoing assault.
- SalemUnseen here; Donna calls out while chaos erupts nearby.
- Injured polo-shirt soldierLeg torn off; begs Donna for help, which she refuses.
- MechanicFleeing worker who crashes into Donna, causing her to drop the gun.