The skin on the back of my neck prickles before my conscious mind knows that anything is wrong.
Running footsteps pound past the other side of the door.
Then the people in the waiting room huddle together like scared sheep, looking up with frightened eyes.
Someone screams outside.
‘What now?’ asks Dee. His voice is full of dread, like something is telling him to huddle up and hide too.
There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to open the door, but the twins pull it open to see what’s going on.
Outside, everything looks quiet and still. Junk is all over the place – overturned desks, chairs every which way, clothes, blankets.
As my eyes adjust to the dark, though, I realize the piles of clothes strewn about the lawn are actually people. It’s hard to tell with the bits missing.
Not bits as in bite marks, bits as in limbs. Some are missing heads too.
A woman runs from a car. A shadowy figure the size of a wolf chases her.
A couple standing in the shadows on a walkway jump and yelp in surprise as something else – or more accurately, several something elses – slink out of the darkness from the overhang above them and grab their hair.
Then, as if a signal has been given, shadows leap out of the night throughout the campus.
I catch a glimpse of one of them as someone lights it with a flashlight beam. It’s a hellion.
They’re smaller than the ones from the Pit, but still terrifying. Bat-faced, bat-winged, creepy little fiends with skeletal limbs and emaciated bodies.
Screams fill the school as hellions boil out of the night from all directions.
Two of them are especially large – spotted and beefy with red eyes. Cords of muscle flex along their elongated bones, making the other hellions look stunted. They’re the two who chased me from Beliel’s memory of hell.
They know I’m here. And they brought friends.
One of them lifts his mouth into the air and makes that same hyena call that I heard on Angel Island. If this is anything like the last time, we can expect a whole lot of company.
A guy jumps out of the shadows, writhing and screaming, with two hellions on his back. In his panic, he runs into a crowded building, bringing the two hellions with him.
A gunshot rings inside that building. I hope they shot the hellions and not the guy.
The hellions are after me, not them. I brought them here.
So it’s up to me to lead them away.
Without thinking, I sprint out into the night.
21
I pump my legs as fast as they’ll go. Screams shatter the air, interspersed by long gaps of silence. I imagine people holding their breath so they won’t be heard by the monsters. My skin breaks out in goose bumps at the thought of what might be happening.
My plan, if you can call it that, is to run like hell away from the school and find a vehicle with keys.
There ought to be plenty right in the parking lot. Obi and his men have been working hard to make sure all the cars have their keys in the ignition and are fully gassed up for emergencies like this one. Well, maybe they didn’t predict a situation just like this, but close enough.
Once in a car, I plan to honk that horn like nobody’s business and drive as far away as I can. Hopefully, the hellions will follow me.
I have no idea what I’ll do if they don’t. Or if I get caught on the way to the car. Or how to escape once they’re swarming around me. But that’s too much to think about in this panic.
And what about Paige and Mom and Raffe?
I shake my head. Focus.
A man starts screaming to my left.
If I keep running, the man will probably die. If I stop to help him, I’ll lose my chance to draw hellions away from everyone else. No good choices left in the World After.
I hesitate but keep on racing into the parking lot. Pooky Bear bumps against my leg on her straps, as though demanding to be part of the action. But I need to get to a car as soon as possible and start drawing the hellions my way.
I throw open the door to the nearest car. I can’t help but look behind me.
There are shadows already flying after me, getting closer with every heartbeat. Behind them, people are running every which way near the building.
I jump in the car and shut the door, hoping there’s a key. Hellions slam into my door and windshield.
Thank everything left that’s good in the world for Obi’s paranoia and preparation. The keys are there.
The little red Hyundai starts immediately. The engine roars to life.
I screech out of my parking spot, dislodging the creatures on my car. More pile on, though, as soon as I stop.
I honk the horn.
The hellions who hadn’t noticed me before stop chasing people to look my way. I’m tempted to run them over and smash their creepy bat faces under the tires.
But my job is to draw them away, not to waste time playing with them. I crack open the windows and scream, ‘Hey, you! Dinnertime! I’m over here, you scabby rats! Come and get me!’
The Hyundai is rocking with hellions as they pile on. I’m about to screech out of the lot – or at least make donuts until all the hellions head my way and leave the rest of the people alone – when I feel a thump. The car drops on one side. Then I see the shredded rubber of a tire being flung over the hood.
That was the front tire.
I stare dumbly at the ripped-up tire as it flops and wobbles to a standstill in the parking lot.
Then so many hellions pile onto my car that I can’t see the tire anymore.
I stroke the fur of my teddy bear. It’s all I can think to do.
Pooky Bear can’t help me in a vehicle. Not a lot of room to slice and dice.
That means I need to exit the car if I want a chance at getting out of this.
I sit in the car.
I wonder how long a person can stay in a vehicle.
But then, of course, the hellions begin pounding on the windshield.
Their bat faces and needle-sharp teeth scrape against the windows. How much force can a windshield take?
If they pound their way in, I’ll be in close quarters and won’t be able to use my sword or run. If I open the door, they’ll be on me before I can get my foot on the ground.
One of the hellions hops onto the hood, shoving the others aside. It’s one of the beefy ones who followed me from the Pit.
He’s carrying a rock.
He heaves the rock above his ugly head and smashes it against the windshield. The glass cracks into a million lines webbing across my vision. I take a deep breath as he lifts his rock again. I put my hand on the door handle and get ready to sprint my way out of here.
As the rock smashes down on the windshield again, I slam my door open as hard as I can.