“Run, Nicole!” She shouted again.
From somewhere in the darkness, heavy footfalls echoed seconds before something metal and heavy swung and struck the Geek in the head.
An enraged bellow was followed by a second hit. And a third.
The Geek crumpled to the floor, skull cracked open and oozing.
Standing over the body, Booker gulped for air and dropped the aluminum baseball bat.
“Jack?” Caitlin gasped, scrambling over the bench.
“Y’all alright?” He asked, voice barely more than a growl.
Blindly, she reached for him, clutching his forearm.
“Nicole?” Caitlin called, trying to peer through the darkness.
“I’m okay.”
Turning towards Booker’s shadowy face, she asked, “How did you…?”
“Together,” he said hoarsely. “Or not at all.”
Caitlin’s heart pressed against her ribs in a swell of emotion.
But the reality of what happened wasn’t lost on her.
A Geek.
A Geek had been locked inside that tiny closet.
Caitlin stared down at the creature, squinting at the mangled profile.
“Oh God…” She bent over, pushing the thing onto its back. “It’s Donna.”
Too many questions flooded her mind, rendering her silent and petrified.
“Caitlin, we still have to help Scott,” Nicole said faintly.
Nodding, she stood up, numbly moving towards the closet.
“Y’all hear that?” Booker asked, turning in a small circle.
Handing Nicole two heavy fire extinguishers, Caitlin frowned.
“Hear what?”
“That clangin’…” Booker strode towards the far corner of the locker room.
“Is that coming from the boiler room?” Nicole asked.
With their arms loaded with bright red cylinders, they hurried out of the locker room and down the short hall towards the source of the noise.
Pushing open the heavy door, the clanging got louder.
A small, frustrated grunt was followed by more metal against metal.
In the yellow beam of a flashlight, they spotted Desi on top of a ladder, jumping to reach for a pipe.
“Jesus Christ,” Booker breathed, running after her. “Desi, what are you—”
“I can fix it,” she cried, arm high above her head, swinging a wrench. “I just have to reach it.”
Grabbing her around the waist, Booker caught her before she could fall from the top rung.
“No, wait,” she pleaded. “I can fix it!”
“Fix what, Des?” Booker asked, scowling.
“The sprinklers,” she said, twisting in his hold. “They’re not supposed to be turned off! I can fix them, please!”
Thin lines of smoke snaked under the door, filling the room.
“Desi, it’s too late,” Booker told her, trying to calm her. “We gotta go, okay?”
“No, no, no,” she wailed, wrench still in her hand. “Please, Booker, I can do it!”
“It’s alright, Desi,” he murmured, cupping the back of her head. “You tried. C’mon, we gotta go.”
With Booker carrying her from the boiler room, they ran up the stairs, coughing as more smoke filled the air.
There was no fire in the gym, but as they made it out into the hall, crackling flames had taken over the library.
A whole room with nothing but kindling went up fast.
“Scott!” Nicole shouted as they ran.
Through the dark clouds, Scott rushed for them.
Nicole coughed. “We got them, we—”
“It’s too late,” Scott told her. “The fire’s too big, it’s spreading. We gotta go.”
Defeat kicked in Caitlin’s chest like a donkey.
It was all for nothing.
Running for the front door, they heard screams coming from the western side of the school.
Caitlin froze.
There were still people inside, trapped by the blaze.
“Cae.” Booker grabbed her by the arm with his free hand. “C’mon.”
He refused to let her go and deep down she knew why.
Together.
I don’t care if you kill a hundred men, you come home.
We did what we had to to survive.
Flaming ceiling tiles and drywall fell down around them as they ran.
Nathaniel ushered them out just as more windows blew, the glass too hot to hold in the frames any longer.
In a daze, Caitlin followed Nicole and Scott across the parking lot, with Booker and Desi at her shoulder.
She stood there, in the freezing night air, covered in ash, staring up at their home going up in flames.
When her arms continued to ache, she finally glanced down, and realized she’d been hugging two fire extinguishers to her chest like a life preserver.
Caitlin dropped them on the curb with a useless clatter.
Grief stricken and shattered, the group—what was left of them—watched the flames grow higher until the starry night sky glowed red and gold.
Chapter Twelve
The Geeks came soon after.
Drawn in by the heat and the light, they found their way to the school within the hour.
They’d seen the herds moving in the faint light, and everyone was forced to abandon their burning home.
Nathaniel ran to get the bus in hopes it was still in driving condition.
Passing Desi off to Caitlin, Booker took off for the Jeep.
It all happened so fast.
Shoving people and their meager belongings on to the bus, filling it to the brim.
Getting Scott, Nicole, and Desi into the back of the Jeep.
Caitlin remembered firing off several shots, clearing a path for the vehicles.
It all felt like warped déjà vu.
She’d done it before, her muscles remembered very well.
She’d done it all before, and she would do it all again.
And again. And again. Until her last breath probably.
Dawn broke over the plains of Kansas, blood red streaking across the sky.
They drove until they couldn’t see the smoke any longer.
It wasn’t until the land around them was illuminated pink and soft yellow that Caitlin wept silently into the sleeve of her sweatshirt, material reeking of smoke and death.
Passing a sign on the side of the road, she spotted a familiar mark scrawled on the corner and a fresh sob wracked her body.
“Stop,” she muttered. “Stop the car.”
“Y’alright?”
