Alex would have laughed at the other boy’s blunder, but the moment was far too dark for that. Plus, something was wrong—even more wrong that it was to begin with. David wasn’t letting go of the board. He was just getting pulled in.
Alex remembered when he found a loose power line in the street years ago. It jumped around like a fitful python. He asked the power crew when they arrived if they would blow off when they touched it, like in movies. They said no. The shock would hold them until they died. At the time, he thought the guy was just messing with him; teaching a weird lesson about not touching dangerous stuff. Watching David holding the board, unable to let go, he knew it was the truth. David was in shock, and the shock would hold him there until he died.
Grabbing another board—this one with a screwdriver jutting out the end—Alex took a breath and smashed it through the mudman’s skull. The point went straight through the top—handle and all— and back out its nostril.
When the thing went limp, David fell back, screaming. Even after Alex pulled him to his feet, he wouldn’t stop screaming.
Nicole stood in the doorway as Alex dragged her brother through it.
“What are you doing? Close the door!” he yelled, when he noticed that she too was stiff with shock.
“What am I doing?” Nicole shouted back. “What are you doing? There’s still one left!”
“What?” Alex asked, kneeling beside the still-screaming David.
Nicole’s face tightened, and she spoke very slowly. “You left one out there. Alive.”
From where they were, Alex couldn’t see the last mudman, but he knew she was right. David hadn’t even killed one, let alone two. “David was supposed to—”
“Yeah, well, David can’t right now, Alex.” Nicole bent low to put her face very close to his. “He’s wigging out. Now you have to do it.”
“But—”
“Now!”
Alex almost jumped up, fear of Nicole greater than fear of the creature outside. He stopped and looked down at David, writhing on the floor. “I need to take care of him.”
“I can take care of him,” Nicole said. “You have to—”
“I just killed two of those things! If you want to get rid of the third one, do it yourself!”
Nicole started to say something, then stopped. She straightened, still glaring at Alex. She picked up one of her boards—the screwdriver one—never taking her eyes off him. “Make him stop screaming. He’s going to bring more of them.”
She stomped off without another word.
Alex was shocked that it had worked. He jumped up and watched Nicole march across the parking lot. She stopped in front of the last mudman, weighed the board in her hands for a few seconds, then lifted it over her head. She left it hanging there for a moment. David must have stopped screaming on his own, because all Alex could hear was the sound of the wind, and the moaning of the last creature.
With a yell that harkened to a battle cry, Nicole brought the board down into the mudman’s head. It fell limp against the pike, then with a crack, fell to the ground, half of the pike still protruding from its chest, the screwdriver poking out from one side of its caved-in head.
Both Alex and David watched Nicole as she stared at the thing and then turned back and slowly walked to the door. When she got there, she sped past the boys, with tears in her eyes.
Later, Alex, Nicole, and David sat in silence in the hallway outside their bedroom.
In the faint, remaining light, Alex looked at his new friends. “Did ... did we do that?”
David didn’t look up. “Oh my God. Oh my God. We did. Oh my God.”
Nicole looked up. At first Alex thought she was going to burst into tears, but then she said, “We did it! Holy crap, we totally did that!”
For a moment, Alex and David sat in silence, unsure how to react or what to say next, but soon the three laughed and cheered, celebrating their accomplishments. Part of them, deep down, was ashamed of what they had done. The things outside that they had “made dead-dead” were once people. Very recently. The three of them had ended their lives. But the feeling they celebrated was not the fact that they had killed the things, but that they had taken control of something. They had succeeded. Those things could be stopped. They could take care of themselves, and knowing that made them confident that others would be doing the same. They saw a chance to live through this situation. People in the world were fine. People were hiding, just as they were in the community centre. They could take care of themselves, and they were just four kids! When this was all over in a few days, everyone would come out and everything would be okay.
That is what they celebrated.
Shadow joined them as they discussed the things outside, ideas for more traps they could set, and what they could do while they waited for the situation to end. None of them noticed Ryan come out of his fort to watch them, nor did they see him slip back when they entered the room.
When they went to bed, they continued talking and joking and laughing. One by one, they all fell asleep knowing that it would all be over soon.
Everything was going to be okay.
KAITLYN
Knock, knock, knock.
Kaitlyn lifted her head from her folded arms.
“Anybody home?” came the cheerful voice from the other side of the door. Her mother’s voice.
She grinned and looked at Dave and Hannah, who smiled back, though neither of them moved from Dave’s comfy chair. They would let her answer the door.
She twisted open the locks and
