“This is …” Nicole didn’t bother finishing, but thought weird.
“Nicole? What’s happening?” Alex said, as he ran back into the room with his own board raised, ready to strike.
Nicole looked at him, then back down at the two huddled girls.
“Oh my God!” Alex exclaimed. He looked back at the dead girl lying on the floor. “Then who is—?” He stopped himself. “Oh.”
“What time is it?” Nicole asked. She knew they were way off schedule, and there was no time to dwell on this situation. Plus, guilt. She’d just remembered David, still outside creating a distraction for them.
Alex held his board as he fumbled with his gloves, panting. “7:20,” he said with a look of surprise.
Nicole thought about it, looking out through the window. “Has it really been—?”
“Five minutes?” Alex finished.
Nicole was exasperated. “How has it been—never mind. Never mind. We have to get back. David is still out there.”
Alex nodded as he came around the bed, making gross squishy noises as he crossed. He looked at the two girls: one crying, one just staring. “Are they—?”
“They’ll be fine,” Nicole said, pushing him back. “They just need to get out of here, okay?” The last part was directed at the two girls. She hoped that they were paying attention and had enough sense to follow directions.
More smashing, crunching noises from downstairs made her push them.
“Hey!” she said, a little sharper this time. There was no time to baby these girls, even if they needed it just then. “We have to go. You coming?”
Both girls looked at her. The younger one stopped crying for just a second, but then slipped back into it. The older one looked at Nicole and nodded. “I’m Kaitlyn. She’s—”
“Good, okay,” Nicole said, cutting her off. As if your names matter right now. Jesus. This is not going to be easy. “Can you help her up? And then help her out and across the street?”
Kaitlyn looked down at the younger girl. “I think so.”
“Well,” Nicole started, very slowly, “you’re going to have to, okay? Me and Alex will make sure none of those things get at you, so you’re in charge of her, okay?”
KAITLYN
Kaitlyn nodded. It was the first time that someone had actually acknowledged that she was in charge of Hannah. Feeling seeped back to her body.
“Good,” the girl—Nicole, the boy called her Nicole—said, helping her up. “Let’s go then.” She looked down at the girls’ feet. “You don’t have shoes?”
Kaitlyn shook her head. “We didn’t—”
“Okay,” Nicole said, cutting her off, looking around the floor at the mess that had come out of the little dead girl. “Um ... I’m pretty sure spaz found some shoes in the Lost and Found. You might get some there. Just watch where you step, I guess. In here, and outside. But, mostly keep an eye on me, okay?”
Kaitlyn nodded as she helped Hannah to her feet. It was not a simple task; Hannah had gone completely limp. Kaitlyn would have to carry her most of the way until the younger girl snapped out of it. Hopefully, she’d snap out of it.
“Ready?” Nicole asked the group.
“Yup,” Alex replied.
Kaitlyn nodded.
Hannah cried.
NICOLE
“All right,” Nicole said, shoving past Alex, again trying not to step in anything. “Me first, then you two, then Alex. Okay?”
Alex stepped aside to allow the girls to move past him, making more sticky noises as he did.
The sound was starting to get to Nicole. She had to get out of there.
At the bottom of the stairs, Nicole noticed three things. First, that she could still hear David yelling from across the street. Second, that she could also hear Shadow barking like crazy from upstairs in the community centre. Alex had initially wanted to take the dog with him—he argued that she had proven she could handle herself among the mudmen, but Nicole talked him out of it. She didn’t want to have to deal with his losing his dog. Plus, she liked having the dog around. The third thing she noticed was the three mudmen lurching toward them from the living room.
“Crap!” Nicole muttered. She didn’t want to fight them if she didn’t have to. The door was right at the bottom of the stairs, so she turned the locks and threw open the door as hard as she could.
“Crap!”
Two mudmen blocked the door and another three approached the broken living room window. Nicole stood, trying to reach a decision: through the living room against three somewhat gouged-from-glass mudmen? Or, through the door and face two less damaged ones?
The terrified girls stood behind her, offering no suggestions.
“Any time now!” Alex yelled from the stairs, clearly unable to see what had caused the hold up.
“Uh-huh!” Nicole mumbled in reply as she shoved the screen door open and bolted outside. “Two is easier than three!” she yelled, mostly to convince herself that she had made the right decision.
She smacked the first one on the side of its head with her board. The screwdriver went in deep, and the mudman toppled, but it wasn’t dead. It tried to grab at her as she ran by. She heard the girls screaming, but she could tell they were sticking close.
The four mudmen who were left all turned to her and she realized she was also yelling. A battle cry, she told herself, although it sounded more like the shrill fear coming from the girls behind her.
ALEX
Alex hit one of the remaining mudmen, his screwdriver driven deep into its neck. It stood in front of him, clawing at the air, apparently unaware of the fresh, oozing wound. The board kept it a good three feet away as it tried to reach Alex. Alex tried to yank the weapon free, but it wouldn’t budge. Each time he yanked, the mudman took a clawing swing at him. He decided to leave the screwdriver in the thing’s neck rather than risk it grabbing him. He shoved it
