The building goes up in an instant inferno. Reid watches the group of hunters split in two, half circling to the back while the rest wait outside the glass door.
There is only the crackling of flames at first and Reid starts to wonder if the kids were smarter than he thought after all. Perhaps they set this up as a lure for the hunters, to make them think it was their hiding place, while they huddle elsewhere, ready to run.
Reid’s hopes are destroyed as the front door bursts open and a handful of screaming kids run out.
Right into the waiting claws of the hunters.
Reid hears laughter, deep and guttural, rough around the edges. The hunters. They are enjoying this. That lights a different kind of flame inside him. One fed by fury and the knowledge that he has to take a stand, even if that means it’s a last stand.
He runs for the station and the back door. There’s not much he can do for the kids going out the front, but maybe he can slip through the creatures in back and rescue a few, at least.
When Reid reaches the back door, there are no hunters in sight. He knows this is a ruse, they are watching for certain now, but he has no other options. Reid pounds on the door, yelling for someone, anyone.
It is yanked open in front of him. Cole’s terrified face is on the other side. He grabs Reid and pulls him in, slamming the door closed behind them.
The building is full of smoke and darkness, the only light coming from the flames now licking inside the roof and around the open glass doors.
“Leila!” Cole drags Reid forward as his heart constricts in worry for her. He finds her crouched over Alex, trying to get him up, but the boy is unconscious, blood running from a gash in his forehead.
She looks up, sees Reid and bursts into tears. “Help me!”
Reid doesn’t stop to think or even consider this act of compassion will probably kill them all. He scoops the boy into his arms and heads for the front door.
Cole tries to stop him. “We can’t go that way. The hunters!”
“They’re everywhere,” Reid says through gritted teeth. “Come on!”
He feels them close behind him, spots a handful of other kids crouched in terror behind empty shelves. They see him and run to join their growing pack.
When Reid reaches the doors, the flames there have dissipated enough he can see past the glow. The ceiling overhead groans as the roof starts to melt under the intense heat. Breathing is difficult, the choking smoke and super heated air taking his oxygen away. Reid sees the hunters on the other side, knows they are waiting, but has no choice.
There is a great roar behind him and he runs just as the roof of the station collapses inward. He has no idea how many kids have escaped with him, if any. He can’t worry about them now.
Reid runs right at a hunter who looks so surprised by the frontal assault it lets Reid pass. He knows it can turn on him at any moment but hears a shriek from behind him and assumes it’s found other prey.
He makes a straight dash for the forest, amazed to be alive and still running when his feet leave the smooth asphalt and hit the roughness of grass and dirt, at last lunging into the dense undergrowth. But he doesn’t stop, just keeps running as best he can with Alex groaning in his arms and someone chasing behind him. He can hear whoever it is right on his trail, making so much noise it has to be another kid.
Reid changes course suddenly and goes another thirty or so seconds before dropping to his knees and sliding into the bushes with Alex still in his arms. Reid leaves the boy there, carefully covered and only then turns to look and see who made it with him.
Leila. He breathes a choking sigh, heart unclenching, only then noticing his lungs ache from the smoke and the forced run. She’s not alone, either. Cole huddles with her. Another relief. Four more kids scurry up and hunch low, trembling and terrified all over again, but alive.
Something approaches from the right. Reid holds up one hand, that gesture enough to keep the kids from running off. Again, whoever it is makes too much noise to be hunters. Reid relaxes as a familiar face pokes through the brush.
Milo dives for him, hugs him. Reid hugs him back. And looks up, right into Marcus’s eyes. Three more kids straggle along behind them. Two more.
Reid does a quick head count and wishes he hadn’t. Thirteen of the seventeen remain. Four are lost, Megan among them, her tiny face missing from those that watch him with their eager need to be gone.
He is shocked. Only four? Reid is up and running, back toward town, knows they are following him and can do nothing to make them stop. Besides, it’s not like they are in any danger. He understands that now. This wasn’t about killing kids.
It was about fear and intimidation. And they’ve done a damned good job of it.
Reid pauses at the edge of the trees and watches, feeling the others form up around him. The station is a roaring inferno but there is no explosion. The tanks have to be empty. This town is a construct then, as much as the fence and this whole experiment. Reid wonders if the creators will rebuild the station for the next group of kids.
The hunters quietly circle below, a graceful pack of fluid and terrible beauty, while a handful bend over four still bodies and have their fill. When one rises, wiping its lips, another takes its place. Their guttural conversation and laughter carries, as Reid knows it is meant to carry.
“We can’t stay here anymore,” Reid says softly. “Or anywhere. Our only safety is escape.”
No one says anything. They don’t have to. Instead they simply stand there and watch their hope burn to the ground while the hunters eat their friends.
***