Lucas had always been a natural protector. I knew he wouldn’t listen to my suggestion to leave the kids and save himself, but if things went as I expected, he’d have to make a change. We couldn’t save everyone, and Taryn was my first priority.
“Ready,” he said.
We moved.
The first ten yards were clean.
The next ten were fucked.
They came from a side hall—three of them, then two more behind. Too fast to avoid, and too close to ignore.
“Go!” I snapped.
Ben stepped into them, firing controlled pairs. One dropped, but another kept coming. I put one round through a skull at arm’s length.
“Keep moving!” Lucas shouted behind me.
Feet pounded. Breaths were ragged, but the students stayed together, close on our heels.
Good.
Then one stumbled.
The girl with the inhaler. She tripped on something on the floor and went down hard.
The line broke.
One of them was on her before I could turn.
“Grace!” Lucas moved, grabbing her collar and yanking her backward.
He put his body between her and the teeth that snapped inches from her shoulder. His forearm—wrapped in some kind of makeshift padding—took the bite that was meant for her.
He shoved her toward me. “Go!”
Ben fired, and the thing dropped.
We didn’t check whether he’d killed it.
We ran.
The service door was ahead, and I could see the daylight beyond it.
Freedom… and then movement coming from both hallways.
More of them, drawn by the noise, were converging on the exit.
“Change of plans,” I yelled. “We punch through.”
Ben nodded. “On you.”
“On three,” I said. “One-two?—”
The girl, Grace, stumbled again, slower this time, shock catching up to her.
She was going to get everyone killed if she didn’t pull herself together.
Lucas saw it the same second I did.
