I headed back through the doors. “The MGA is outside,” I said, sounding steady. “If I call Neven, they’ll hear me. I think they’re covering the exits and coming up.”
The other Hazels looked up, startled. “How did they find us?” Red asked.
“How do we get out?” Rainbow added.
I had an idea, but it might not work. I didn’t know the building like the others did—
“We could hide in another apartment,” Red suggested. “Wait them out.”
—and apparently, Red had the same thought. Maybe Rainbow and Four, too. I should’ve just said it.
Red went on. “If people evacuated in a hurry, maybe someone left their door open.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow said, nodding at the dirt remains near the coffee table, “but what if—Did that just move?”
As one, our heads snapped to look—even Casper, who’d been licking his wounds under the kitchen table.
For a moment, nothing happened. The dirt still lay scattered on the floor in a lumpy pile. A clawed finger was the sole recognizable part.
The finger twitched.
A shudder went through the pile. The dirt stretched into the same crooked mouth I’d seen on the creature. Grains of sand drew together and hardened into serrated teeth.
The finger stretched toward me. The heap grew taller, as though a shape buried underneath was climbing to its feet and shaking off the earth—except the shape was that earth. Clumps slotted into place, dirt rolling upward across its arched back. The creature’s head was bent. Its mouth stretched along the full width.
It stepped forward, dragging an oversized foot free from the dirt.
“We gotta—before it—” Red was saying.
Rainbow dashed forward. With a yell, she slashed at the creature with her bread knife. A diagonal cut sliced across its face. Even as it stumbled back, its skin shifted. A moment later, the crack filled up and the cut was gone.
“They heal?” Rainbow said. “They freaking heal?”
“We have to get out of here.” Four’s voice sounded high.
“Grab our stuff,” Rainbow said grimly. “I’ll keep it busy. Then we run like hell.”
Four bolted across the living room. Red seemed to hesitate. “I can help—”
“Go!” Rainbow yelled. The creature hooked its claws into her jeans, clambering up like it’d tried to do to me.
Red grabbed her cutting board from before and ran to help.
It felt cowardly to leave them, but if I could take down the creature by myself, the two of them would manage.
I ran to the kitchen and grabbed the weapons the others had left on the table. They’d apparently found a claw hammer while I was on the balcony. On the floor lay a cloth shopping bag, covered in cat hair. I took it, tossing in the weapons.
“It’s clear.” Four exited the bathroom. She must’ve seen my confusion because she added, “There’s no—no other dirt creatures in the bathroom. We can lock Casper inside to keep him safe. I just don’t know how long it’ll be before someone comes to help him. Maybe those agents?”
“My mom”—our mom, I thought uncomfortably—“is with them. She’ll take care of him.”
Four blew out a sigh of relief. “Oh, and earlier, Red had an idea about calling Neven. This morning we found a box of cat toys with a whistle inside, one of those dog whistles too high for us to hear. Red said her aunt Lina tried to teach Casper tricks once and—” Four’s face twisted, like she was trying to shut herself up or regretted talking at all. “Maybe Neven will hear and come help.”
“It’s dead,” a voice behind me said. I turned. Rainbow stood there, panting. “For now, at least.”
Even with a bigger knife and bigger numbers, they’d taken longer to take down the creature than me. If that thing got tougher every time it re-formed, we were in trouble.
“I’ll get the whistle.” Four disappeared into the bedroom.
Within moments, we’d gotten everything we needed. Four had clothes and the whistle. I had the weapons. Rainbow had grabbed food and water. Red had gotten Casper to safety (despite loud protests) and tossed us each a coat from Lina’s coatrack. She stuck two sets of gloves in a backpack she’d found to fit our things.
We gathered by the door as Four did a last whirlwind check of the living room. “I see Neven!” she said. “Must’ve heard the whistle. She’s not close yet, but—” A yelp. Stamping noises. “It’s moving again!”
We didn’t need to ask what she meant by “it.”
“Scoop it up,” I said. “The dirt, I mean. We can put it in the hallway outside.”
“It’ll slow down the agents,” Rainbow added, so quickly she must’ve had the same thought.
Red’s eyes lit up. “And we can wait for Neven!” She paused. “The creature could hurt the agents.”
“If we can beat it, they definitely can,” I said. “They’re armed. And they’ve probably seen a lot worse stuff than this.” What Red and I found in those cells in the barn probably wasn’t even the half of it.
Using food containers and a paper bin, we scooped up the dirt-thing in separate mounds. Rainbow and Red ran to the front door. The containers in their hands jerked from the movement inside, the creature struggling to re-form.
“This is weird this is weird this is weird,” Red whispered as she ran.
They yanked open the front door, tossed the containers into the hall outside, and slammed it shut again.
“It was even trying to re-form as it was falling.” Rainbow sounded simultaneously grossed out and fascinated.
“C’mon,” Red said. She had the balcony doors open, our two bags already outside.
I tried not to think of Mom, leaning against a van nine floors below us. I could be downstairs in minutes, explain what’d happened, let her tell me everything would be fine, let her wrap me in a big hug . . .
If she was even still there. Maybe she’d gone inside along with the agents—and would end up in the hall.
With the creature.
Oh, crap. I had to make sure she was still safe. I should—
Two loud bangs.
Four pulled the doors
