“Get ready to move!” Callan shouted, his voice hoarse, raw. “As soon as I stop, we’re going back inside!”
My heart dropped.
Back inside.
Back into the sealed building we’d just locked down, withits emergency generators, its reinforced doors, and its concrete walls.
We were trapped.
The realization hit me, settling into my chest.
The truck skidded to a stop beside the employee door, tires squealing. The headlights splashed against the concrete wall, throwing everything into harsh white relief.
In the side mirror, all four of them appeared. The teenager leading, that horrible grin splitting his face, his legs pumping as he sprinted across the lot toward us. Behind him, the others followed.
Behind them, in the far reaches of the lot, I saw something else that made my blood run cold.
The woman. The one we’d driven over.
She was moving. A dark shape on the pavement, pulling itself forward on its arms, dragging what was left of its lower half behind it, leaving a wide, dark smear in its wake. Still coming.
Callan threw the truck into park and killed the engine. The sudden silence was deafening. He grabbed his keys, looked at me once—hard, direct, no room for anything but what came next—and said a single word.
“Now.”
Ten
Callan
Iflung myself out of the truck, my body instinctively moving before my brain had the chance to catch up, pure animal flight—muscles burning, lungs already aching for more air.
My boots pounded against the pavement, every instinct screaming at me to move faster, to get inside, to put something solid between us and whatever the fuck was out there.
The employee entrance loomed ahead, dark and silent.
I yanked my badge from my pocket, hands slick with sweat, and slammed it against the scanner.
Red.
The small light blinked, cold and unforgiving.
“Fuck!”
I swiped the badge again, harder this time, as if force alone would make green appear.
Red.
Behind me, the sound of them.
Dragging. Wet. Grotesque.
My stomach turned. I swiped again, trembling so much that I almost fumbled the badge. I pressed the badge flat against the reader and held it.
For one horrible second, nothing happened.
Then—
Green.