The kids scream as one when the lights go out. Reid can still see a flicker from the main room but where they are is now blanketed in darkness. Shadows play across what little light reaches them and Reid curses himself.
He’s gotten them trapped, cornered like rats, their only choices now death from the hunter’s attack or drowning. No choice at all.
Something skitters close to them and the pack erupts into another group shriek.
“Back!” Reid takes a step himself, feeling the cold water close over his sneaker. “Into the pond.”
“It’s cold!” Someone gasps right next to him. It sounds like Cole.
“It’ll be easier to kill the critters,” Reid says. That does it. The kids splash their way deeper, their panic driving them into a knot of terror in the middle of the pond. Reid moves more slowly, still facing the entrance, his sneakers sliding over wet rocks. Water climbs to his knees, making them ache even more, then over his thighs. Someone takes his hand and he turns his head long enough to see it’s Leila.
A hunter calls. The sound bounces around the room, cut off by the shrieking of the terrified kids. They only have seconds, now. Reid sees the first of the hunters enter the room, back lit by the faint glow from the room beyond, a shadow in the darkness. Something small and furry squeezes past its feet and scuttles into the black.
Reid is already feeling the effects of the icy water, way worse than the night he rescued Drew. At least then he was a little stronger. Now he is at the very end of his endurance, his weary muscles seizing in the intense cold.
“I can’t!” Reid’s head snaps around, sees one boy still standing at the edge of the pond. A strip of cloth is just visible where it is wrapped around his head. The boy with the concussion. Brandon, Leila’s voice whispers in his memory.
“Come on, you have to.” Milo is splashing his way toward Brandon but Reid already knows it’s too late, sees the spot of black darker than the shadows leap and land on the boy’s shoulder, followed by a second and a third. Brandon chokes once, not even able to speak one last word. Black fluid gushes from his throat as the creatures tear him open. It spills into the water, so dark in the very faint light, just enough for Reid to see the boy’s shining eyes turn toward him as he collapses at the side of the pool, lifeless.
Reid can’t stand the smacking, tearing sound of them feeding. The pack moans in sympathy and splashes deeper into the water.
The first hunter reaches the edge of the water and snarls at them, lunging forward, drawing out more squeals of terror. But it stops at the lip, shaking one foot when it gets wet, backing away and hissing. A second joins it, crouches and dips its claws into the pool, pulling away with a howl of rage.
“They won’t come in the water.” Milo sounds so relieved Reid doesn’t have the heart to tell him it doesn’t matter. A few more minutes and none of them will care anymore. Once hypothermia sets in, they’ll drown.
But the excitement of that knowledge gets passed around anyway. The kids actually laugh their relief out, in a place where laughter shouldn’t have a place to live.
Reid’s legs are going numb, but he can still feel Leila clinging to his hand and he hasn’t gone so far in he’s in trouble yet. As long as he keeps his upper body out of the cold he figures he’ll last a little while longer.
He turns to tell the kids but doesn’t bother. Let them have their little celebration, their moment of hope. And let them die peacefully, rather than as food for these hunters who treat them like meat.
The cold is the kindest death he can offer them.
Reid turns back to face the hunters and squeezes Leila’s hand. He smiles at her and she smiles back.
“Almost there,” he whispers. “I won’t let them take you.”
“Thank you,” she whispers back. “Same here.”
Reid backs up another step. Another. He doesn’t want to last longer, has no desire to drag out his death. Not anymore. It’s time for this to be over.
His right foot slides sideways in the current, the tug of the undertow making him stumble. As he rights himself, he realizes what he just felt.
A current. There shouldn’t be a current. Unless…
Reid pulls his hand free of Leila’s and dives, not thinking about it, just acting. He finds the draw of moving water easily and swims in it. The cold water numbs his hands so much the pain fades as he forces his legs to kick and his arms to move.
He finds it quickly, a hole in the wall of rock. Large enough to swim through. And when he presses himself to the bottom and looks out the length of it, he sees a glimmer of light on the other end.
Reid surfaces with a gasp of air and a spray of water. He is freezing but his excitement is stronger than the cold.
“Reid, are you okay?” Milo is next to him, trying to support him as though Reid had only fallen. He pushes his friend back and grins at him.
“There’s a tunnel.”
“What?” “What did he say?” “What tunnel? Where?” They chatter their questions as they gather around him.
“Right there.” Reid points under the water at the far wall. “Near the bottom of the pond. There’s a current. And light at the other end. All we have to do is follow it.”
“Can we make it?” Leila is there next to him, her hand in his again.
“Do we have any other options?”
They all look so scared standing there, shivering in the freezing water.
“We need to try,” Reid says.
“I can’t swim.” Marcus. Reid almost comments. Almost. But he holds back. They all do. No one wishes the hunters on even him.
“I’ll help you.” Leila’s eyes don’t leave Reid’s but she lets him go. He stuffs down that now-familiar stab of jealousy and turns to the others.
“We help each other,” he says. “But we have to go now. Before we’re too tired to swim.”
Reid glances over his shoulder. The hunters are milling at the edge, the five of them snarling and fighting among themselves.
“We’ll drown.” Reid turns back to Megan who is shaking so hard she is shedding water like a shaking dog.
“We won’t,” he tells her. “Just hold your breath, you’ll make it.”
She is tossing her head, her little face pinched and terrified. Reid sees a handful of others doing the same and knows he is losing them. If he doesn’t get them moving now, there’s a good chance they will drown, if only because they’re too numb from the cold to swim all the way to the other side.
When Alex screams, Reid is so shocked by the sound he turns completely around and stares at the boy. His skinny arm is raised, index finger pointing. Reid follows his gesture and freezes.
One of the hunters has entered the water and is making its way toward them. It flinches and snarls and barks at the others of its kind over its shoulder but it is advancing and that is enough.
They don’t hesitate any longer. Lungs fill with a gulp of air and heads bob below the surface. Reid waits until he sees Leila and Marcus disappear, the last to dive before turning to the advancing hunter.
“Hey,” he calls. “Fuck you.”
He laughs, a sharp and horrible sound before filling his lungs.
Reid dives.
***