“I’ll go after the ones in the library,” Stephan said.
“I’ll go with you.” Damien sent a signal to John. “We’ll catch up to you but if we can’t we’ll barricade ourselves in the reference room. I know the entry code.”
John bumped his fist then grabbed Megan’s and Sherry’s hands and pulled them in the direction of the dock.
Grace grabbed Susan’s hand and ran with her. They’d only gone a hundred meters when something charged out of the shadows and tackled Susan to the ground. Grace grabbed the hockey stick Susan dropped and attacked the creature, hitting it so hard it rolled away. In a blur, it attacked again. Grace hit it over and over. It swiped at her legs but she jumped out of the way and kept hitting it. Several more creatures ran out of the shadows swarming Susan, biting and clawing at her, tearing away large pieces of her flesh. Blood sprayed into the air, turning the snow pink as Susan’s screams joined the screams of the cadets who’d fled into the trees.
John grabbed Grace’s arm and dragged her away. “It’s too late. You can’t save her.”
She struggled to break free and return to Susan, but in her heart she knew it was too late. She allowed him to push her to the front. He grabbed Megan’s and Sherry’s hands, forcing them to keep up with him. The cadets’ screams of pain and the howls of the creatures’ rage came from the woods increasing their terror
At the dock, she opened the sliding doors and waved John, Megan and Sherry into the elevator ahead of her. Looking back, she saw the creatures were only a few meters from reaching them. The smell that accompanied them and the clicking, popping sounds they made terrified her in a way she never experienced before.
The largest one, the one that had attacked Susan clambered onto the far end of the dock. Beneath the lights its skin was pale with thick blue veins snaking over it. Its mouth was round, puckered and covered in blood. When it howled, it exposed circular rows of sharp jagged teeth. It skittered toward them, its joints clicking with every step and its mouth making a sickening popping sound as it opened and closed.
Mesmerized by its strangeness, she fumbled for the pad and keyed in the code. The steel door began to descend. The creature glanced up. She saw rage in its eyes when it looked back at her. It sped up, scurrying toward them. She instinctively moved back, her arms out to either side, forcing the cadets to move back until they bumped into the wall.
“Come on, come on, close,” Grace chanted, as if her words could make the door drop faster. Megan screamed when the creature leapt the last two meters toward them. John pushed passed her, grabbed the door and using all his weight and strength he forced it down. The lower edge locked into the groove at the bottom of the frame, sealing it just as the creature crashed into it.
Everyone screamed, including Grace. She collapsed against the wall, her head down, her heart beating out of control. The sound of scratching and banging came from the other side of the door. “What the hell are those things?” she asked, her voice shrill and filled with the hysteria she didn’t even try to control.
John tried to close the sliding doors. “How do I close these?”
Grace keyed in the code. They closed, and she pressed the down arrow. A few seconds later they reached the lower floor and the doors behind them opened. She waved them out then locked the elevator on the lower floor, secured the doors and took several deep breaths, forcing herself to speak calmly. “Come with me.”
In the dining hall, Luke, Neal and Mark looked up from the tables where they sat wolfing down bowls of dessert.
When Luke saw Megan and the tears on her face, he jumped to his feet and hurried toward her. “What’s going on?” He grabbed his sister and glared at John.
John held his hands up. “We were attacked by something at the dorm.”
“What do you mean attacked? Who attacked you?” Luke asked, holding Megan away from him, examining her for injuries.
John stepped closer to Luke. “Your uncle called Megan. He made her put him on speaker so everyone could hear him. He said an infection like Ebola, but much worse, is in Chicago. It’s spreading rapidly and is turning people into monsters that hunt and kill other people.”
Megan dried her tears. “I told him you were here at the cafeteria where the shelter is located. He told me to get to you and for all of us to stay here until he sends someone to get us.”
“They killed Susan.” Sherry’s voice trembled with fear and her body shook from exposure to the cold. “Ms. Walker tried to help her but more of the monsters came out of the trees and swarmed her.”
“I think it was the same thing that I almost hit on the road earlier. Another one was in the faculty garage when I parked my car. I closed the door so it might be trapped in there.” Grace pulled a chair out for Sherry then took the one next to her. “Luke, how does your uncle know so much about what’s going on in Chicago?”
“He works at the CDC,” Luke said.
“He said he’s in Chicago,” Megan said, the love and fear she felt for her uncle in her voice.
“There are over sixty cadets left on campus. Where are they?” Mark asked.
“That arrogant prick Jefferson Mitchell refused to believe Dr. Matthews. He talked most of them into staying in the dorm,” Sherry said.
Grace rested her chin on her fist and watched Sherry. It always surprised her when the young girl spoke her mind. Stunningly beautiful with black hair and soft gray eyes, she was model perfect, tall and always well groomed. She spoke boldly and sometimes with a quirkiness Grace found amusing. She likened her to a character in an Oscar Wilde novel. Very proper on the outside with her real character hidden on the inside.
“Megan, Sherry and I only managed to talk seventeen cadets into coming with us but they panicked and ran when we heard howling coming from all around us. Most of them ran into the woods but four of them ran into the library.” John set the hockey stick he carried on the table. “Stephan Greco and Damien Moretti went after the ones in the library. They’ll try to get here if they can. If not, they said they’ll lock themselves in the reference room.”
“We heard screams coming from the dorm when we were less than a hundred meters away from it.” Megan dropped the bat she carried. It made a loud clattering sound then rolled away in an arc.
John stepped on it, quieting it before he picked it up and put it next to his hockey stick.
Sherry rested the end of the bat she’d carried on the top of her shoe. “Your uncle warned them if they stayed behind we couldn’t let them in later. He said they’d become infected and expose us. Jefferson didn’t believe him and he made fun of the younger cadets for being scared. You know how it is—the younger ones want to impress him until they figure out what a jerk he can be.”
Grace had heard enough. “Luke, we need to lock this building down. Right now.”
“Yes, I agree.” Luke pulled out a chair and helped Megan sit down. “Stay here.” He sent a silent signal to his friends, and they returned it.
Grace stood up. “We’ll be back in a few minutes. While we’re gone, I want all of you to try to call 9-1-1. If you can’t get through, try to contact your parents.”
TWO
“WE’RE GOING TO secure the building and I’ll show you the rest of the shelter.” Grace led Luke to a door near the elevator and unlocked it, revealing a stairway that led up to another locked door. She climbed the steps ahead of him, opened the door and stepped aside so he could enter her office first. “I know I secured the outer doors and lowered the shutters before I left yesterday but Mr. Rogers has the codes to open them and so does Mr. Edgar. We need to change them.”