“What the hell happened to you?”
“Piss off,” barked Trace. A fresh set of squishing footsteps pounded down the hall right for us.
We bolted up the stairs, checking each of the classroom doors along the way as we darted through the main hallway on the second floor. Everything was locked.
Bolton’s voice boomed from the lower level. “Check all the exits!”
“We already did,” replied his companion.
“Do it again!”
Carly motioned to us, pulling one of the dual doors open.
The library.
All the lights were off, so we only had the small flashlights from our phones to help illuminate the vast space.
“Waterproof, my ass.” Mark hit every button on his cell to no avail. It was clearly dead. “Well, there’s four-hundred bucks down the toilet.”
Silence greeted us as we headed through the computer lab department. Mark motioned to a nearby cubicle, but Reese shook his head. “EMP knocked out the internet too.”
Taking refuge in the librarian’s station, we locked ourselves inside Mrs. Hastings’s office. Between the hysteria and wasted energy, we either collapsed into empty chairs or right onto the carpet.
Mark ambled over to the wall, sliding down to the floor. Reese and I came to his side, immediately seeing the blood coursing down the nape of his neck from his hair.
“I’m fine,” McDowell grumbled, cringing as he dabbed the beaten spot on the back of his head. “Some of us are worse off.” He nodded to Reese, noting his gashed shoulder.
“Thanks,” Blackburn muttered, “for everything back there.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Reese nodded.
“Seriously, don’t mention it. I can’t have people thinking Bolton bested me. I have a reputation to uphold.” The two chuckled as Reese took a seat beside him.
Catching my breath, I snatched up the landline receiver sitting on Mrs. Hastings’s desktop, dialing in the phone number for Mr. Reynolds’s bar. It was the only other landline I knew that could be reached.
“….Hello?” A thick wave of static overwhelmed the voice on the other end.
“Adam?” I tried speaking as loud as I could without shouting. “Adam? Can you hear me?”
“K…Kat? Is that…?”
“Adam, we need help. It’s Daniel. He’s a Hellhound. We’re trapped in the school-”
“Hello? Hel...”
The static roared, drowning out Adam’s voice entirely. “Can you hear me? Hello!” I bellowed. “Hello?” The call cut out. It took everything I had to not slam the receiver down.
“What the hell’s going on?” asked Mark. “What happened to Bolton in the pool?”
“He’s a Hellhound,” muttered Reese, applying pressure to his injured shoulder. “He and Daniel were infected with a demonic virus. It’s kind of a long story, but the cheat sheet version is that they’re raving, shape-shifting lunatics now controlled by an even worse raving lunatic who wants to kidnap Kat.” He handed Mark his only other longer blade and instructed on what to do with it before giving Carly a small dagger.
Silent tears trailed down her cheeks. “What’d we do now?”
“We go to the north wing,” muttered Mark, using the other towels in his hands to mop up his dripping frame as best he could. “If we can find a way inside one of the classrooms with a window, the bushes lining the building just might help break our fall.”
My throat double-clutched. “You want us to jump?”
“You have a better idea?”
We all startled, instinctively ducking down as the main doors to the library slammed open with an ear-splitting bang. Everyone buried their phones into the carpet and shut off the lights. Windows lined the whole front of the office, so Reese was able to steal a quick look between the slatted blinds at the bottom of the sill.
He held up two fingers, signifying how many people he had seen. “We have to move,” he mouthed.
Things crashed and slammed and banged and boomed in the front departments of the library as whoever ransacked the place. By the sounds of it, they were toppling over bookshelves.
“The Boss is gonna flip shit if we don’t find her before he gets here,” one of the intruders barked.
A female sighed. “It wasn’t our job to babysit her. Daniel’s the one who let her get away. But regardless, he already called in the rest of the troops for support. The whole gang should be here in ten minutes tops. We’ll find her.”
“Gang?” Mark mouthed. We all shuddered. It was hard enough fending off Bolton, let alone an entire mob.
Reese waved at us, slowly easing the office door open as the voices trailed off into what sounded like the computer lab. We each slinked out, keeping ourselves low to the ground. Stalking over to the closest aisle, we froze. The talking had abruptly stopped. The four of us practically army crawled into the History section, ducking behind the towering shelves. We strained to hear anything, but the entire place was silent with the exception of our panicked breathing. Carly even pinned a hand to her mouth to try and suppress the sound.