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"You were right," she says to Henri. "They've destroyed every car in the lot, and have somehow moved the wreckage to block every door from being opened. And Sarah is right; they've overlooked the stage hatch. I counted seven scouts outside and five inside walking the halls. There was one outside this door but it's been disposed of. They seem to be getting antsy. I think that means the others should have been here already, which means they can't be far."
Henri stands and grabs the Chest and nods at me. I help him open it. He reaches in and pulls out a few small round pebbles that he sticks in his pocket. I have no idea what they are. Then he closes and locks the Chest and slides it into one of the ovens and closes the door. I move a refrigerator up against the oven to keep it from being opened. There really is no other choice. The Chest is heavy, it would be impossible to fight while carrying it, and we need every available hand to get out of this mess.
"I hate to leave it behind," Henri says, shaking his head. Six nods uneasily. Something in the thought of the Mogadorians getting ahold of the Chest terrifies them both.
"It'll be fine here," I say.
Henri lifts the shotgun and pumps it once, looks at Sarah and Mark.
"This isn't your fight," he tells them. "I don't know what to expect out there, but if this thing goes badly you guys get back in this school and stay hidden. They aren't after you, and I don't think they'll care to come looking if they already have us."
Sarah and Mark both look stricken with fear, both holding their respective knives with white-knuckled grips in their right hands. Mark has lined his belt with everything from the kitchen drawers that might be of use-more knives, the meat tenderizer, cheese grater, a pair of scissors.
"We go left out of this room, and when we reach the end of the hall, the gymnasium is past double doors twenty or so feet to the right," I say to Henri.
"The hatch is in the very middle of the stage," Six says. "It's covered with a blue mat. There were no scouts in the gym, but that doesn't mean they won't be there this time around."
"So we're just going to go outside and try to outrun them?" Sarah asks. Her voice is full of panic. She's breathing heavily.
"It's our only choice," says Henri.
I grab her hand. She is shaking badly.
"It'll be okay," I say.
"How do you know that?" she says in a more demanding tone than a questioning one.
"I don't," I say.
Six moves the fridge from the door. Bernie Kosar immediately starts scratching at the door, trying to get out, growling.
"I can't make you all invisible," Six says. "If I disappear, I'll still be nearby."
Six grabs hold of the doorknob and Sarah takes a deep, shaky breath beside me, squeezing my hand as tightly as she can. I can see the knife quivering in her right hand.
"Stay close to me," I say.
"I'm not leaving your side."
The door swings open and Six jumps out into the hall, Henri close behind. I follow and Bernie Kosar races ahead of us all, a ball of fury speeding away. Henri points the shotgun one way, then the other. The hallway is empty. Bernie Kosar has already reached the intersection. He disappears. Six follows suit and makes herself invisible and the rest of us run towards the gym, Henri in the lead. I make Mark and Sarah go ahead of me. None of us can really see a thing, can only hear each other's footsteps. I turn my lights on to help guide the way, and that's the first mistake I make.
A classroom door to my right swings open. Everything happens in a split second and, before I have a chance to react, I am hit in the shoulder with something heavy. My lights shut off. I crash straight through a glass display window. I'm cut on the top of my head and blood runs down the side of my face almost immediately. Sarah screams. Whatever it was that hit me clubs me again, a hollow thud in my ribs that knocks the wind from me.
"Turn your lights on!" Henri yells. I do. A scout stands over me, holding a six-foot-long piece of wood that it must have found in the industrial arts classroom. It raises it in the air to hit me again, but Henri, standing twenty feet away, fires the shotgun first. The scout's head disappears, blown to pieces. The rest of its body turns to ash before it even hits the floor.
Henri lowers the gun. "Shit," he says, catching sight of the blood. He takes a step towards me and then from the corner of my eye I see another scout, in the same doorway, a sledgehammer raised over its head. It comes charging forward and, with telekinesis, I throw the nearest thing to me without even knowing what that thing is. A golden glinting object that speeds through the air with violence. It hits the scout so hard that its skull cracks on impact, and then it falls to the ground and lies motionless. Henri, Mark, and Sarah rush over. The scout is still alive and Henri takes Sarah's knife and thrusts it through its chest, reducing it to a pile of ash. He hands Sarah back her knife. She holds it out in front of her, between thumb and forefinger, as though she's just been handed a pair of somebody's dirty underwear. Mark bends down and lifts the object I had thrown, now in three separate pieces.
"It's my all-conference trophy," he says, and then can't help but chuckle to himself. "It was given to me last month."
I stand. It was the trophy case that I crashed through.
"You okay?" Henri asks, looking at the cut.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's keep going."
We rush down the hall and into the gymnasium, sprint across the floor, jump up onto the stage. I flip my lights on to see the blue mat being moved away as though of its own volition. Then the hatch is thrown up. Only then does Six make herself visible again.
"What happened back there?" she asks.
"Ran into a little bit of trouble," Henri says, climbing down the ladder first to make sure the coast is clear. Then Sarah and Mark go.
"Where is the dog?" I ask.
Six shakes her head.
"Go on," I say. She goes down first, leaving only me on the stage. I whistle as loudly as I can, knowing full well that I'm giving away my position by doing so. I wait.
"Come on, John," Henri calls up from below.
I crawl into the hatch, my feet on the ladder, but from the waist up I'm still on the stage, watching.
"Come on!" I say to myself. "Where are you?" And in that split second when I have no choice but to give up, but just before I drop down, Bernie Kosar materializes on the far side of the gym and comes sprinting my way, ears pi
"Come on!" Henri yells this time.
"Hold on!" I yell back.
Bernie Kosar jumps onto the stage and into my arms.
"Here!" I yell, and hand the dog to Six. I drop down, close and lock the hatch and turn my lights on as brightly as they'll go.
The walls and floor are made of concrete, reeking of mildew. We have to walk in a low crouch to keep from hitting our heads. Six leads the way. The tu
"Where does this open?" I ask.
"Behind the faculty lot," Sarah says. "Not far from the football field."
Six presses her ear to listen in the small crack between the closed doors. Nothing but the wind. Everyone's face is streaked with sweat, dust, and fear. Six looks at Henri and nods. I turn my lights off.
"All right," she says, and makes herself invisible.
She inches the door up just enough to stick her head out and have a look around. The rest of us watch with bated breath, waiting, listening, all of us wracked with nerves. She turns one way, then the other. Satisfied we've made it u