26

26

I frantically swiped open my phone and scrolled down to Laurence’s number as Patrick peeled out of the parking lot. “Someone needs to call the police,” I said.

“Already on it,” Noah said, his phone against his cheek.

I pressed my phone to my ear and listened as it rang. I closed my eyes briefly, willing Laurence to pick up. Edan reached around and buckled my seat belt for me.

“The weapons packs are in back, right?” Dorsey asked, twisting around in his seat to try and see in the back of the van.

“Yes,” Maddie said.

The phone was still ringing. Edan was watching me worriedly. Patrick was driving incredibly fast.

“Hello?”

I let out a huge whoosh of air at the sound of Laurence’s voice. “Oh my god, Laurence, are you OK? Where are you right now?”

“I’m outside my apartment. Clara, there are scrabs everywhere.” He was breathing heavily, like he was running. I could hear screams and a siren in the background.

“I know,” I said. “Julian did it, he—” I shook my head. “Not important. Are you in a safe place?”

“A safe place? I don’t even . . . I don’t have anywhere to go. I just got back home, and there were scrabs crawling through the window of my apartment. They weren’t going in any other windows! Just mine!”

“That . . . Thank god you weren’t home. Listen, you need to try and get somewhere safe. And you need to be on the lookout for Julian, because it is not a coincidence that all those scrabs targeted your apartment.”

“Jesus. Seriously?”

“Yes. We are on our way, but we’re still, like . . .” I looked out the window. “Maybe five minutes away. Get in your truck and start driving north on Iris Spring. You’ll—”

“I can’t, the scrabs completely destroyed the street. I couldn’t get my truck out of the parking lot. I’m just running—wait, do you think he sent scrabs over to Mom and Dad’s too?”

“Maybe,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm. It seemed like he would start panicking if I did. “We’ll go straight there once we pick you up, OK? Are you running north or south?”

“South.” I heard screams in the distance. “Holy shit, there—” His voice suddenly cut out. I lowered my phone to see that the call had ended. I cursed and redialed.

“He’s running south on Iris Spring,” I said to Patrick. I listened to the ringing until it went to voicemail. “He’s not picking up.”

“He can’t talk and fight scrabs at the same time,” Maddie said, turning around in the passenger’s seat to look at me. “He told us he had combat class in high school, right? He’s probably just finding a weapon, like they taught him.”

I knew she was just trying to make me feel better, because we both knew that most people, when faced with their first scrab attack, completely panicked. But maybe Laurence would be different. He never was one to lose his cool.

Dorsey grabbed the weapons packs and started distributing them. I took mine, pulling out a sheathed machete and putting the pack on my back.

Patrick turned the corner and gasped. A pickup truck was on its side in the middle of the road.

He hit the brakes hard, turning the wheel as fast as he could to avoid it. The van scraped against the tires before coming to a stop.

“Oh shit,” Patrick breathed.

The truck was mangled, only a few feet away from several big holes in the ground where scrabs must have tunneled out from the earth.

“Can you get around it?” Maddie asked.

“I think so. Going to be a tight squeeze, though.” He backed up and then edged around the truck, bumping it lightly.

There were several more scrab holes in the road, and Patrick weaved around them as he headed down Iris Spring. The holes weren’t a great sign—Julian would have released the scrabs aboveground, so it meant that a bunch of them had tunneled under and would pop up anywhere around the city.

I spotted several dead bodies as we neared Laurence’s apartment. I knew that they couldn’t be him—he was farther down the street when I talked to him—but my chest still clenched painfully.

Patrick slowed the van, and I leaned over to look out the front window. The road in front of us was completely destroyed. A huge number of scrabs had all popped up in the same place. In the distance, I could see people running. A fire hydrant spewed water into the air.

“We’re going to have to get out and run,” Maddie said, unhooking her seat belt. “Everyone has their phone on them, right?” We all nodded. “Try to stay together, but if we get separated, head back to the van if you can. The cell phone towers are probably going to be overloaded on and off, so no one panic if we can’t get in touch. OK?” She climbed out of the van. “Let’s go kill some scrabs.”

We piled out of the van, and I broke into a run, Edan beside me. We skirted the edge of the giant holes in the ground and ran faster. There were more dead bodies on the road, and I tried not to panic every time we approached one that looked even vaguely like Laurence.

I spotted three scrabs suddenly. One of them tossed a woman like she was a doll. I spotted a dark-haired man dart out from behind a car and make a run for it. Laurence.

I pointed. “There!”

“I see him,” Edan said, picking up speed and pulling slightly ahead of me. Patrick, Laila, and Priya cut in front of us, making a beeline for the scrabs.

“Laurence!” I yelled. He didn’t turn.

He was nearly at the end of the street when he skidded to a sudden stop, arms flailing out as he almost fell. He whipped around and started running back in our direction. I could see the moment he spotted me, when he was close enough that I could make out his expression. A flash of relief crossed through his terror.

Several scrabs came screaming around the corner, making it clear why he was running back in our direction. I gripped my machete in my right hand, using my left to point to an overturned car on the side of the road. Laurence veered to the right and made a dash for it. The scrabs followed him.

Beside me, Dorsey whistled loudly and stomped his feet, drawing the scrabs’ attention away from Laurence and to us instead. They all changed course.

My heart pounded a frantic rhythm in my chest as I took my first swing, ripping open a scrab’s throat. I realized too late that in my panic, I’d forgotten to put on my leather arm coverings.

I moved to help Edan take out a scrab. In the distance, I could hear faint sirens. Noah had given the police my parents’ address and Laurence’s address, though Julian couldn’t be their top priority at the moment. Even finding him among the scrabs was going to be a challenge.

A scrab claw ripped across my forearm, and I gasped, darting backwards. Edan jumped in, swinging his ax directly into the scrab’s belly.

“Are you OK?” he asked. Blood had started pouring from the gash.

“I’m fine.” I heard a thud and glanced over my shoulder to see two scrabs fall. Another broke away from the team, galloping straight for the car that Laurence was hiding behind.

“Laurence!” I yelled. I broke into a run.

The scrab slammed into the car, sending it skittering into the bushes. Laurence was sprawled out on the concrete, and he scrambled backwards on his hands and feet as the scrab lumbered toward him.

I darted in front of the scrab just as it was about to strike. I drove my machete into its side, and it lurched away from Laurence, swiping at me. I ducked the claws, slashing my blade across its throat. It fell.

I whirled around to find Laurence getting to his feet. “Clara.” He was breathing heavily. “Thank you.”

I practically launched myself at him, grabbing him around the waist and pulling him into a hug. I tried to keep my bloody machete from touching his clothes.

“Don’t die, OK? Please don’t die.”

He made a sound almost like a laugh—a laugh tinged with panic—and hugged me back.

“Thank you for coming,” he said breathlessly.

“Anytime.”

I smiled as I released him, then took a quick glance behind me to make sure there weren’t any more scrabs. They were all dead, the team standing over their bodies.

“Are you OK?” Laurence asked, his gaze on my bloody arm.

“Yeah. It’s just a scratch.”

His eyes flicked over the rest of the team, and he lifted a hand. “Hi.”

“Hi, Laurence!” Priya said, waving enthusiastically.

“Did you call Mom and Dad?” I asked Laurence.

“I tried, but they didn’t answer, and then I got a busy signal.” He squinted down the street, where the fire hydrant was still spewing water into the air. “It’s not that far . . .” He trailed off, turning back to me. “I understand if you don’t want to go.”

“I think we’re going that way anyway,” I said, looking at the rest of the team. “Right?”

Noah had already taken a few steps down the road, in the direction of the scrabs. He turned to look at us. “Yeah. I have to try and help. It’s going to take the cops at least another twenty or thirty minutes to get enough officers down here, and that’s assuming they don’t run into roadblocks like that.” He pointed at the giant holes behind us.

“Yeah, we’re going,” Laila said, striding up beside Noah.

I looked at Laurence. “We were in a van, but we couldn’t get it down the road. I can give you the keys, if you want, and you can make a run for it.”

He shook his head. “I’ll stay with you.”

I smiled at him, and then pulled the foldable ax out of my weapons pack. I unfolded it and handed it to him.

“The neck,” I said, touching my own neck. “Or the stomach, if you can see a soft spot. But the neck is the most reliable place to hit a scrab. Don’t just swing wildly—the ax will get stuck in the scrab’s hide or bounce off and you’ll lose your balance. OK?”

He gulped. “OK.” We took off running behind the rest of the team.

I spotted evidence of more scrab attacks as we headed down the street. An old convenience store had completely cratered, and a trail of blood formed a path where the scrabs had apparently run away after demolishing it. I spotted a few people standing on the roof of a three-story building in the distance, which was a smart idea. Scrabs could usually make it up a one-story building, but not much higher.

A scrab staggered into the road not far ahead of us, and Noah, in the lead, came to a stop. The scrab must have been injured, because its body lurched as it walked, its head ducked into its neck. Drool poured out of its mouth.

I frowned, moving closer. “Noah, wait,” I said, as he aimed his blade at the scrab’s throat. The scrab toppled to the ground and made a gurgling noise. Noah hadn’t touched it.

I walked to it, motioning for Dorsey to come look. Brown mucus poured down the scrab’s eyes.

“It’s like the one in London,” I said, pointing. The rest of the team had gathered around. “The MDG scrabs we saw in London were sick like this.”

“It is,” Dorsey said, wrinkling his nose.

“Is that stuff coming from its eyes?” Patrick asked, leaning down to get a better look. The scrab squeaked like it wanted to protest.

“No, it’s from the stuff they put in its head,” I said. The scrab had the usual MDG sensors across its forehead, though one had fallen out, pus oozing out of the hole.

Screams sounded from in front of us, and I quickly sliced my blade across the scrab’s throat. We broke into a run again.

I could hear the occasional scrab roar, but the majority of them must have had their vocal cords cut, because mostly the only sound was humans screaming. I could tell where the screams were coming from—the busy four-lane road a block over.

“That way!” I yelled, pointing to an alleyway between two buildings. “We can cut through!”

We raced through the alley, and I skidded to a stop as we crossed into the street. It was chaos. There was a huge pileup of cars in the middle of the street, blocking traffic both ways. Looking south, the line of cars was already wrapped around the block, and scrabs galloped in between them, headed for us.

“Clara?” Laurence called, a note of panic in his voice. I turned to see several scrabs coming for us from the opposite direction, leaping over dead bodies and cars.

“Edan, Clara, Maddie, and Priya, go that way,” Noah said, pointing north. “Everyone else with me.”

We split, breaking into a run as we headed north.

“Stay behind me, but just in case,” I said to Laurence.

The gash on my arm burned, but I barely felt it as I swung my machete at the approaching scrab. It was slower than scrabs I’d encountered in London, and it went down easily with a grunt. It also had brown liquid seeping from its sensors.

There was another scrab right behind it, this one at full strength, and then another. Laurence swung his machete at a third one and missed. Edan jumped in to help us.

I stepped back as we finished off all the scrabs in the immediate area, surveying the scene. It was noisy, the air full of screams and car horns and the sounds of people’s feet hitting the pavement as they ran. All the scrabs in the general area would be attracted to this exact spot.

A scrab leapt over a car and made a beeline for me. I swung, but the scrab dodged it, and I barely escaped a swipe of claws across my good arm. Laila jumped in front of me, swatting the scrab away and digging her machete into its stomach.

“Thank you,” I said breathlessly as the scrab toppled over.

“No problem.”

I heard a scream, and I turned to see a scrab with a woman in its teeth. It tossed her and lumbered toward a family climbing out of their smashed car. There were two more scrabs just behind it.

Noah shot forward, whistling to distract the scrabs. He swung his machete into the first one. We’d finished off all the scrabs in our area, and I broke into a run, heading for him.

He took out two scrabs and then dove in front of the third, which was lumbering toward the family. A fourth approached from his left. Beside me, Laila gasped.

“Noah, watch out!” I yelled.

The scrab lunged at him. Noah turned, but not in time. He was on the ground. I couldn’t see him anymore. The scrabs swarmed around him.

Maddie got to him first, taking down one scrab. Then Patrick was there, and so were Laila and I, but I had a sinking feeling that it was too late. I blinked back tears as I drove my blade into a scrab’s neck.

“Noah?” Maddie whirled around as the last scrab fell. She scrambled to him. “Noah?”

He was motionless on the ground, blood dripping from a gash on his neck. And another in his chest.

Maddie put her fingers to his neck, her face crumpling.

Tears spilled onto my cheeks, and I had to turn away. I could hear the rest of the team realizing Noah was gone, and I couldn’t look at them. I couldn’t look at Noah. I surveyed the general area instead, looking for more scrabs. I could hear the pounding of their feet somewhere to the north, but I didn’t see them. Edan’s fingers intertwined with mine, and I took in a shaky breath.

In the distance, I heard sirens. The police would be here soon. I hoped, anyway. I couldn’t handle losing anyone else.

The thumping of feet grew louder, accompanied by screams. Beside me, Laurence’s eyes widened.

A swarm of people were headed our way. They were panicking, weaving in between cars and clearly trying to outrun something.

“Quick, move him!” Patrick yelled, reaching for Noah. Edan dropped my hand to help. They grabbed him by the shoulders and legs and began hauling him to the side of the road.

The crowd reached us, bumping against me and nearly knocking me over. A woman tripped when she passed me, and I had to shove several people out of the way as I helped her to her feet.

I felt an arm around my waist as I straightened. It was Maddie, trying to pull me away from the thick of the crowd. I grabbed her arm and let her lead me out.

“What were they running from?” I gasped, whirling around to look for Laurence and Edan. I found Laila and Priya stumbling toward us as the crowd thinned, and then Dorsey, on the other side of the street with Laurence and Edan. In the distance, I spotted several scrabs galloping over the cars, chasing the screaming crowd.

The ground between us began rumbling, and Edan’s eyes met mine. He put his arm out in front of Laurence and nodded once. I gave him a grateful look. If there was anyone I trusted to keep Laurence alive, it was Edan.

A scrab split the earth, blocking them from my line of sight. Dorsey raced forward, swinging his ax.

The ground beneath my feet shifted, and I gasped, grabbing Maddie and pulling her out of the way. We both stumbled as the scrab burst up through the earth. I scrambled to my feet, but Laila and Priya were already there, slashing a blade across the scrab’s throat.

“There’s another one,” Priya said, eyes wide. “Feel that?”

I did. The ground was moving. In the distance, I saw Edan and Laurence running.

“Move back, move back,” Maddie said, pulling on my arms. We began running too.

I heard yelling behind me suddenly, and I turned to see men and women in military combat uniforms flooding the area. Behind them were dozens of police, all dressed in riot gear. Several scrabs burst up from the ground.

“Everyone clear the area,” a voice on a bullhorn said from somewhere.

“I vote we let the National Guard handle those,” Laila said.

“Seconded,” Maddie said. She pointed past them. “Edan and Laurence went that way, but I don’t think we should try and cut through those scrabs.”

“They’re headed to my parents’ house,” I said. “Come on, it’s only a few streets over.”

I broke into a run, and the girls followed me. I’d been trying not to think about my parents, and what I was going to find at their house, but now, with the streets quiet, it was hard to keep the thoughts at bay.

I didn’t want to see Dad, and my feelings about Mom were complicated, but I didn’t want them dead. It was an especially cruel move by Julian, to send scrabs after them. It would be hard not to feel guilty about their deaths forever. He probably knew that.

My phone rang suddenly, and I pulled it out to see Edan’s name. I pressed Accept. “Edan? Are you OK?”

“I’m fine. Clara—I’ve got them. Your parents.”

I came to a sudden stop. The girls stopped as well, all of us breathing heavily.

“What?” I said.

“Laurence spotted them on the street. They’re with us now. They’re fine. Dorsey’s with us too. Patrick stayed with Noah’s body, but the police were helping him get to an ambulance. We’re all fine.”

I nearly crumpled with relief. “Where are you?”

“We’re . . . I don’t even know. But the soldiers aren’t letting us go back the way we came. They’re putting us all on a bus and taking us to some church. They don’t want anyone on the streets until they can get the scrabs under control.”

“OK,” I said. “Text me the address of the church, and we’ll meet you there. Have you heard anything about Julian?”

“No, nothing. With any luck he was killed by his own scrabs.”

“Now, there’s a nice thought.”

“Listen, one question before you go.” His voice was quiet, and I had to strain to hear him. “Am I supposed to be nice to your dad? He’s being overly friendly to me and it’s weird and I want to tell him to go throw himself into traffic but that seems like the wrong thing to say to my girlfriend’s father. I feel very confused about how to act in this situation.”

I let out a surprised laugh that turned into a moan. “I’m so sorry. You shouldn’t have to deal with this.”

“No, it’s fine, I just don’t want to make things weird if you’d prefer that I keep the peace.”

“I want you to act however you want. You don’t have to play nice if you don’t want to.”

“I really don’t want to. I have this very strong urge to practice my confrontation skills.”

“Then go nuts. Make things super awkward. Laurence will love that.”

“He does look kind of terrified right now.”

“Thank you, Edan.”

“For making things awkward with your family? Anytime. Happy to do it.”

“You know what I mean,” I said affectionately.

“I do. I’ll text you that address. Come quick, OK?” His voice turned serious, and I knew he was thinking the same thing as me. We’d already lost one team member.

“We will.” I slipped my phone back in my pocket and looked at the girls. “They’re all OK.” My voice wobbled a bit when I said it, because when I said everyone, I no longer meant Noah. Maddie, Priya, and Laila all had looks on their faces like they knew exactly what I was thinking. I took a deep breath. “The cops are shuttling everyone to a church. I say we hightail it out of here—” I heard a woman scream, and I stopped, turning to look for the source of the noise.

“That way, I think,” Maddie said, pointing to the next street over. We broke into a run again, rounding the corner onto the street. It was a mess, the road completely destroyed by multiple scrab holes. One of the homes was leaning dangerously to one side, something clearly damaged structurally.

Another scream, and I turned to find the source. A few homes down, a girl was high up in an old tree, squatting on a branch. A scrab was clawing its way up the trunk. It roared, and I couldn’t see any MDG hardware on it.

We ran for the tree, Maddie whistling as we approached. The scrab, distracted, lost its hold and tumbled to the ground. It sprang to its feet, healthy and fast like a normal scrab. I drove my machete into its exposed belly while Laila slit its throat.

“Clara?”

I stepped back, squinting through the sun and leaves at the girl. “Adriana?”

Her mouth dropped open. “Oh my god! What are you doing here?”

“You know her?” Maddie asked, tilting her chin up to look at her.

“Remember how I told you I had friends in middle school who I sort of abandoned?”

“Oh, right. This is one of them?”

“Yep.”

Maddie waved to Adriana, then pointed to the dead scrab. “They can climb trees!”

“I see that now!” Adriana called.

“Do you need help coming down?” I asked.

“No, I think I . . .” She trailed off, clinging to the trunk as she took a cautious step onto a lower branch. “I think I’ve got it.”

She climbed down the rest of the way, jumping off the lowest branch and edging away from the dead scrab. Her dark hair was loose around her shoulders, and she pushed it out of her face as she walked to me.

“What were you even doing up there?” I asked, glancing at the unfamiliar home. “Did you move?”

“No, it’s my boyfriend’s house,” she said. “I was waiting outside for him, and then there were scrabs, and I couldn’t get inside. Going up the tree seemed like the safest option. I thought if I was quiet it wouldn’t notice me, but I guess not.”

“The National Guard is evacuating people to a safer spot until they can get all the scrabs out,” I said. “We’re headed over there, if you want to come with us.”

She nodded, her eyes skipping from me to Maddie.

“Oh, sorry,” I said. “This is Madison, and Priya, and Laila. This is Adriana. We went to school together.”

“I know who you guys are. It’s nice to meet you,” Adriana said with a smile, then turned her attention back to me. “And it’s nice to see you again. I saw on the news that you were in Dallas and I was kind of shocked. It sounded like you were never coming back again in the emails.”

“Well, the scrabs,” I said, gesturing to the dead one.

“Sure.”

Somewhere nearby, a scrab roared. Laila and Priya exchanged a look.

“We’re actually going to let the army and the police take it from here.” I glanced down at Adriana’s shoes. Black boots. “You OK to run?”

“Away from the scrabs? Yes.”

We jogged in the opposite direction of the scrab roars, all of us silent as our feet pounded the pavement.

Maddie slowed as she pulled her phone out of her pocket, and then came to a stop. I called for Priya and Laila, who were slightly ahead of us, to wait.

“It’s Julian,” she said breathlessly. She swiped her phone to answer, putting it on speaker. “What, asshole?” Adriana blinked, clearly startled.

“Is Clara with you?” He sounded significantly less cheery than he had earlier.

“Yes,” I said.

“I want to talk to you. Take me off speaker.”

I sighed, reaching out to press Mute on Maddie’s phone. “Let me talk to him. Maybe I can find out where he is.”

“It’s up to you,” she said, offering me her phone.

I took him off speaker and mute and pressed the phone to my ear. “You’re off speaker. What do you want?”

“I’d like you to come talk to me.”

“No.”

“I’m in your old bedroom. There’s a very cute stuffed pink elephant here.”

“Yeah? Did they replace the door? I’ve been wondering.”

“There’s no door at all. Guess they didn’t think you were coming back.”

“Good guess,” I said.

“Come see me.”

“No.”

“Your parents aren’t here, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I know where my parents are. And Laurence. Nice try, jackass.”

“OK, I admit that sending those scrabs into Laurence’s apartment was a bit much. But come on, you wouldn’t be that upset if your parents died. You never would have admitted it, but I would have done you a favor.” I heard a rustling sound. “Listen, I don’t know if you already have Maddie calling the cops to come after me, but I’d put a pause on that.”

I should have told Maddie to call the cops. I hesitated, waiting for him to continue.

“I released half the scrabs. I’ve got the rest on standby in a very populated area. And I can release them from here. Come see me or I push the button.”

My breath caught in my throat, and I looked up at Maddie with wide eyes.

“If I see police outside, I’m pressing it. And please don’t bring Maddie with you. I do not need that right now.”

I paused, thinking about the destruction I’d just seen a block over. The holes where the scrabs had tunneled underneath the ground.

“Half is two hundred and fifty, right?” I asked.

“That’s right. That’s a lot of scrabs. Have you ever seen the destruction that hundreds of scrabs can do in a highly populated area?” His voice lowered. “Come talk to me. Just one more time. I have things to say to you, and I just want some time to say them.”

I blew out a long, slow breath, and looked up to meet Maddie’s eyes. “OK. I’m coming.”