Once.
Twice.
We shoved tables and chairs against it, hands shaking, breath ragged.
Someone sobbed openly now.
Someone else whispered a prayer.
I pressed my back to the barricade, breathing hard. A fist pounded once—hard enough to rattle the glass. Then another.
Then so many I couldn’t count.
“They’re—” one student whispered. “They’reeverywhere.”
I looked at the small group huddled in the lounge—Ethan, Lila, Lane Strong, and two younger students. Blood smeared shoes. Torn clothes. Shock written across every face.
Five students out of the more than fifty that had been in the gym.
I pulled my phone from my pocket.
One bar.
I typed fast.
School compromised. Multiple attacks. I’m barricaded in the lounge with students.
Send.
The message hung for a breathless second.
Then—
Nothing.Shit!
I’d just have to keep trying. Sometimes, with a text, it would stay in the cloud until it had enough signal to send.
I took a deep breath and lifted my head, reminding myself that I was the adult here and needed to step up. I was determined not to let the five lives in this room be lost to whatever the fuck this was.
“Listen to me,” I kept my voice steady, even though I felt anything but. “We stay silent, assess our supplies, and try to clean up. It’s crucial that anyone exposed to bodily fluids washes them off immediately. I’ve sent a text, so help is on the way." I prayed that Adrian would get my message.
“What about Jerry?” Lila whispered.
My chest tightened. “I’m sorry.”
I knew my words weren’t enough, but it’s all I had at the moment.
Lila started crying, and Ethan put his arm around her.
The pounding on the door suddenly stopped. Yet somehow, the quiet felt more threatening.
CHAPTER TWELVE
ADRIAN
I’d been driving for several hours when, in the distance, I saw flashing lights.
Red and blue washed across my windshield as I drew closer. A patrol car angled across the road, steam rising from the hood. An abandoned sedan sat nose-first in a nearby ditch, hazard lights blinking uselessly, with no sign of the driver.
