I noticed light switches on the walls but didn’t dare flick them on, in case the teacher behind me spotted the light and came looking. I knew from seeing a map of the school that the gym was coming up on my left, and if I went directly through it and down another corridor, I’d end up at the back of the library. The teachers had come down here, and none of them wore gas masks, so the contamination couldn’t have beenthatbad.
I searched the gloom for obstacles, picking my way carefully down the corridor, using the wall as my guide. My nose itched as a musty, rancid smell wafted over my nostrils. Quinn wasn’t kidding about the toxic odor – it really did smell like rotting meat. I ran my hand along the wall, passing a row of lockers and then a wide rolling wooden door.
This is it.
I grabbed the heavy wooden handle and yanked it. The door’s wheels creaked, metal scraping against metal as a cloud of dust billowed up to meet me. I rolled the door open just enough to squeeze through, sucked in a breath of rancid air, and slipped inside the gymnasium.
The smell slammed into me, punching through my skin and seeping into my pores. It was a hot, fetid ichor that clung to my body like the embrace of a creepy uncle, tugging my throat closed and shriveling the inside of my nose. I gasped for air, but every breath I took only made my body fight the stench more violently. I staggered across the gymnasium, desperate to reach the other side as quickly as possible and get out of here.
Skylights on the roof cast squares of dull light across the court. My feet zigzagged over painted court lines, kicking up plumes of dust. I clawed at my throat, coughing and retching as I fought for air.Almost there, almost there, no point turning back.
One skylight illuminated the central circle, where basketball players met for the toss. My old school had one of the best teams in the state, but somehow I couldn’t picture guys like Trey and Ayaz shooting hoops. Foldable tennis nets in front of the bleachers seemed more their style.
The stench enveloped my body in thick, mucus-like air. I swung my arms and legs, but it was as though I was swimming through molasses. Slowly, achingly slowly, I dragged my weeping, protesting body across the court, scanning the darkened bleachers for the exit I knew was there somewhere.
Scritch-scritch.
What’s that?
I whirled around, straining my ears to listen for the sound I’d heard behind me.
Scritch-scritch. Scritch-scritch.
Now it was on the other side. I swung my body back around, just in time to see a low shadow dart behind the bleachers.
Someone’s here.
I tried to call out, but all I managed was a choking noise. It wasn’t a teacher, because they’d step right out and admonish me for being where I wasn’t supposed to be. If it was a student, how were they crouching so calmly in the shadows while this infernal odor attacked their nose and lungs?
Scritch-scritch. Scritch-scritch.The sound resolved itself. Tiny rat claws scraped against wood, scrambling for purpose.
It’s nothing to be afraid of, just the same rats you hear every night.
Only they sounded closer, their scrambling legs echoing in this cavernous gloom, as if… as if they’d escaped the walls and were coming for me.
Scritch-scritch. Scritch-scriiiiiiiiiiitch.
Something hot brushed against my foot. I wrenched my leg away, my body twisting and toppling to the ground. My knee cracked against the court, and pain shot up my leg.
Get up, get up, before they get you.Dust jammed my nose. My eyes wept. I planted my hands on the ground and shoved myself upright.
Beneath where I’d fallen, a faint light glowed on the floor. At first, I thought it was moonlight shining in from the skylights, it wasn’t late enough for the moon to be that high. The light wasn’t disturbed by my shadow. It seemed to rise up from the floor itself to cast an eerie glow over the central circle, illuminating lines drawn on the court.
As I watched, gape-mouthed in horror, the light shimmered and drew outward, forming lines that crisscrossed each other to make a five-pointed star and a glowing eye – the same symbol inside the school’s crest.
Scritch-scritch-scritch.Behind me, the scratching noises grew louder, trilling in my ears as they rolled down from the tops of the bleachers, hundreds of sharpened claws pounding on wood, scrabbling down metal, tiny teeth gnashing as they prepared for the first real snack they’d had in years…
I strained to see them in the gloom. Shadows crept from beneath the bleachers, stalking on all fours like animals – dogs with twisted limbs and clicking tongues. But these weren’t dogs, they couldn’t be. They were creatures of dark malevolence that only a diseased mind could conceive.
This can’t be happening. I have to be imagining this.
I froze, trapped by the smell and the thick air and the terror of my own mind. Shadows stretched and slithered along the court, and behind them the rats leaped over the bleachers, coming closer, closer…
One of the shadows reached out long claws toward me, scraping my cheek. I swung my fist in a tight uppercut, my fist connecting with hard bone. The creature grunted and lunged for me.
I found my voice. I screamed.
Chapter Twenty-Six
