Suddenly, she was pushed toward the window.
“Go! Get out of here!” Ms. MacNeil yelled, shoving Ryan into her arms, then turning to stand between the kids and the monster on the floor.
Nicole hesitated for only a moment—only until she saw the other man finally free himself from his blanket and lunge toward the young couple. She bolted for the counter, heaving Ryan on top of it before her.
David, sitting half out of the window, held his arms out to her. “Pass him to me!” he yelled.
The boy was dead weight, but she noticed that his eyes were open. Did he turn too?! she thought, horrified. No, they’re his eyes. He’s in shock. In a quick motion, she hefted the boy to her brother who pulled him out the window. Nicole got the impression that David dropped him as soon as they were out.
She looked back around the room, her hands on the wobbling stack. The teacher now fought off the Ryan’s-father thing. She kicked against its hand, arm, shoulder, head—nothing made it let go. It climbed, taking bites out of her as it went.
“Go!” she screamed at Nicole.
Nicole climbed. The doctor-thing was now on top of the couple; they tried to fight it off, but it was crushing them—she wasn’t sure if the woman was even awake yet. She hoped that she wasn’t. That would be better.
Then it looked up and scrambled toward her. She grabbed at the window, feeling crates tumble beneath her. They hit the thing as they fell, slowing it down, but it kept moving.
As she slipped through the window, it grabbed her foot.
DAVID
David, still surprisingly calm, grabbed her, too. He could see the doctor-thing through the glass, trying to pull her back inside. He could also see that it had no leverage, just grip. He had to make it let go.
He kicked the next window over to startle it.
It worked. The thing let go of his sister, and she tumbled onto the gravel-covered canopy roof.
David watched Ryan calmly tilt his head, looking through the window as it if were an aquarium. David’s glance followed and he discovered what Ryan had found so curious.
Unfortunately, when he had kicked the window, he also cracked the glass.
Crap.
The thing on the other side started bashing its hands against the glass.
If anyone had asked him how he had made the stack to get to the window, or how he had been so calm, he wouldn’t have known what to say. He just did it, somehow through his panic. Now all of that dread came crashing down around him as he saw the thing looking at him. He was the new target.
He moved to the edge of the canopy. He had determined before Nicole came out that it was a ten foot drop onto grass. It might hurt, but it was escapable. But when he looked down now, he abandoned the option.
Below—on the lawn, on the sidewalk, on the street, everywhere—was chaos. Echoing what had broken out in the hall downstairs, people ran, screamed, pushed, fought; but also, there were people hunched over other people, sitting on them, pulling and tugging at them. These people were covered in blood. There were more of them.
Dozens of them. More.
He heard a loud snap.
The crack in the glass had doubled in size and the window was pushing out. The doctor-thing threw its weight into it, leaving smears of blood and spit as it smashed with its head and arms.
Another crack splintered across the pane. Waiting was not an option.
Nicole grabbed him by his sleeve. “We need to go up.”
She found a foothold on the frame of the next window over and started pulling herself up. David held his breath. It was very slow going as he watched her inch her way up until she could grasp the edge of the roof. She pulled herself up and over.
David panicked when she disappeared. “Nicole!”
She peeked back over the edge. “Grab Ryan and lift him up to me!”
This is not a good plan, David instantly thought. Nicole had struggled lifting Ryan to him before, and she was stronger than he was. He had little chance of even getting him off the ground, let alone the distance to Nicole’s dangling hands.
Crack.
But, it was worth a try.
He scooped up Ryan easily, as he looked through the now rippling glass at the thing inside, still clawing to get out. He stood in the frame of the window they’d climbed through below his waiting sister, planted his feet as firmly as he could, and hefted the boy over his head. He would have been impressed with himself if he weren’t so terrified. When Ryan, with eerie calmness, stretched out his arms to Nicole, she quickly pulled him up to safety.
Much to David’s relief, the thing had stopped pounding on the almost-broken window.
Unfortunately, it started on the window David now stood in. It threw itself against the glass, creating huge cracks, almost scaring him off the canopy. He scrambled up the frame, much quicker, he thought, than his sister had done. He was only half way up when the glass shattered and the thing tumbled out beneath him. It grabbed for him, and his hand slipped off the window frame.
As he tilted backward and saw sky, he felt himself yanked up by the arm. Nicole had caught him, by the wrist, and struggled to hold him up. He screamed, mere feet away from certain, horrible, bloody death. He continued screaming even as Nicole dragged him up and he pushed himself up frantically. Once his shoulders cleared the lip of the roof, he threw his arms over the edge and pulled himself up onto it.
The roof was empty, except for the three of them. Almost peaceful. It
