They were almost to the community centre. Most of the mudmen followed, but they were too slow. Their plan had worked. They were victorious! Alex watched as Nicole and the girls reached the door. He was just seconds away from safety!
Why aren’t they opening the door?
Nicole slammed on it with her fists, her board discarded a few feet behind them. The two girls huddled in the frame, shivering.
“What’s the problem?” Alex asked as he joined them. “Open the door!”
“I’m trying, stupid!” Nicole yelled. “It’s stuck!”
“Oh crap, crap, crap!” said Alex as he looked back into the parking lot. The mudmen were coming closer and closer. One dragged Alex’s only defence from its bleeding neck.
“David!” Nicole yelled. “David! Open the door!”
She had to know it was a pointless request. David was still yelling from the back of the building.
“David!” Nicole continued to holler as she pounded on the door.
Alex picked up Nicole’s weapon. In the alcove leading to the door, he wouldn’t get much room to swing, especially with three other people around him, but on open ground he’d be open to attacks from all sides.
“David!”
Shadow barked like mad, just ten feet above them. She was as helpless as they were.
“Open the door! Please!”
Alex could read the name on the sleeve of the closest mudman’s coat: “Doug.”
Doug is going to kill me.
NICOLE
Nicole gave one final pound on the door, her arms and hands throbbing with pain. “No one is coming!” she yelled, in a choked voice. She was furious at herself for this major flaw in their plan. Tears ran down her face, as she turned away from the door. “We’ll have to ... run for it.” The last words almost caught in her throat and came out as just a whisper as she saw the mudmen, already so close and getting closer. They couldn’t run away. Not all four of them. She was behind the other three. She stepped away from the door, not quite sure what she was going to do. Part of her wanted to run; part of her wanted to grab her weapon from Alex and start swinging; part of her just wanted to give up.
CLICK.
The door behind them popped open. Nicole spun on her heels. “GO!” she screamed, as she bolted inside, the two girls close behind.
Alex followed, running straight through and knocking the three girls over. As they lay in a heap on the floor in the darkness, a tangle of limbs and couch cushions, the mudmen scratched at the door just a few feet away. They had come so close to being caught. They watched the door tremble as the weight of the mudmen slammed against it. But it was secure: closed and locked as soon as they passed through. They were safe.
Ryan stood beside them.
Alex and Nicole scrambled to their feet, rushing to the boy—their saviour. Nicole wanted to grab him, to throw him into the air in celebration. She stopped herself and Alex when the small boy backed away, pushing himself tightly into the corner near the rattling door.
“Ryan!” Nicole said, her voice raspy and weak. “You saved us! You—David!” She turned and bolted up the stairs. “We have to get David!”
ALEX
Alex fell to his knees in front of Ryan. “Thanks,” he said as he wiped away a tear. “You’re ... awesome.” He tried to stand, but his whole body ached; he hadn’t noticed until that moment how sore he was. It had been a rough morning. Pulling off his gloves, he looked at his watch.
7:24.
The whole thing had taken less than ten minutes.
Using Nicole’s weapon as a crutch, he got to his feet. “Ryan? We should—”
He stopped when the boy ran past him and up the stairs. Alex took a breath into his aching lungs as the door continued to rattle in front of him. He’d had enough of the mudmen. At least for the day. He slowly turned and dragged himself to the stairs.
“You guys coming?” he said, turning to the girls still huddled on the floor. He didn’t wait for an answer.
KAITLYN
Hannah and Kaitlyn sat on the lobby floor, not sure what to do next. The past few hours—the past few days—were too much for them to handle. Kaitlyn only knew she didn’t want to sit next to the rattling door anymore. Hannah clung to her as they both stood and headed to the stairs. Above them they heard a loud thud.
“That was the worst thing that ever happened!” Kaitlyn heard someone yelling from upstairs. “Don’t ever do that to me again!”
“David,” the girl named Nicole said. “Shut up, okay? I’m serious. Shut up.”
Kaitlyn was walking up the stairs, holding Hannah’s hand, when the younger girl stopped suddenly. She turned back to see Hannah’s face contorted in pure terror. Possibly the most terrified she had seen her yet. A chill ran through her. What if these people are the intruders? What are they going to do to us?!
“Hannah?” The girl seemed so distant at that moment.
Hannah’s watery eyes were frozen on something at the top of the stairs. Slowly Kaitlyn turned, expecting to see one of the kids she they had just come in with carrying one of their sticks, ready to use it on them. Or one of those monsters—
But when she turned, she saw a black tail move swiftly around the corner out of sight.
“Hannah?” she said again, calmer now. “What’s wrong? The dog?”
Hannah turned to run back down the stairs. Kaitlyn had no doubt that if she hadn’t been holding her, the girl would have run right back outside with those things rather than go upstairs with the big black dog.
They stayed on the stairs for a few minutes. Kaitlyn calmed Hannah down enough to not run outside, but she couldn’t convince her to go up.
“It’s probably a nice dog,” Kaitlyn said, trying to hide the doubt in her voice. She wasn’t even sure if the people that had rescued them were nice, let alone
