EMMET AND HIS FRIENDS RAN TOWARD THE DOOR where the mysterious figure had disappeared. The flying monsters were flooding into the hallway. So far, the pads and helmets had managed to keep any of the vicious beasts from getting a serious hold on them. But somehow everyone else had escaped the building. With just the four of them left, the Blood Jackets were refocusing their energies on the only available food source.

Emmet thought the hallway had somehow gotten longer. Why was the end of it so far away now? He realized he was growing tired. Adrenaline and fear would only carry them so far. They must either get out or find somewhere safe to hunker down and wait for a rescue.

“Uh, guys!” Raeburn shouted. “Look behind us.”

They slowed and glanced over their shoulders. Emmet immediately wished he hadn’t. Hundreds of the Blood Jackets were zooming toward them. They had abandoned their attempt to break through the front door and instead were in full pursuit.

“We’re not going to make it,” Emmet said. The door to the boiler room was a good thirty yards away, and the creatures were closing fast. This was it. Emmet looked around for anything that might help, or anywhere they could hide. There was nowhere to go. All the classroom doors were locked.

Then his eyes came to rest on the emergency fire equipment. Inside a locked thick glass case was a fire hose. Next to it, also locked behind glass, was a fire extinguisher. As quickly as he could, Emmet swung his hockey stick over his head and brought it down like an axe, smashing the glass covering. He dropped the stick and yanked the extinguisher free from the clips holding it in place. Using it like a battering ram, he smashed through the thicker glass encasing the hose.

“What are you doing?” Calvin asked. He and Riley and Raeburn swung their own hockey sticks back and forth in a mostly futile attempt to keep the flying beasts at bay.

Emmet thrust the fire extinguisher into Calvin’s hands. “Here,” he said. “Take this and knock the knob off that classroom door. We’re going to get inside the room and get out through a window.”

Emmet pulled the hose free from its berth in the enclosure. He twisted the valve and heard the hiss of water pressure as the hose immediately filled. He opened the nozzle, spraying water in a wide circle. The Blood Jackets reacted immediately. With shrieks and screeches, they turned and darted away. A few tried to circle back at him, until they encountered the jet of water again and reversed course.

Emmet kept the water moving back and forth like a protective barrier between them and the creatures.

“Hurry up, Calvin!” Emmet shouted. “This isn’t going to hold them off forever!”

Calvin swung the fire extinguisher like a club and connected with the doorknob of the closest classroom. It took him several attempts, but the doorknob finally popped free, and the door swung open.

“Come on!” Riley shouted.

The three of them scooted inside the room, and Emmet slowly backed his way toward the door.

“Get ready!” he shouted. “I’m going to drop the hose and jump inside. Get something to hold the door closed.”

He backed up closer to the doorway. Water was now covering the floor, and he had to be careful not to slip.

“Ready?” he shouted again.

“Ready!” Raeburn said.

Emmet tossed the hose away and jumped inside the room. He and Riley slammed the door shut and held it closed while Calvin and Raeburn pushed the teacher’s desk across the floor and up against the door. A small vertical pane of safety glass was cut into it, and within seconds it was covered with Blood Jackets still trying to get at them.

Emmet looked up at the vent on the wall. So far there was nothing there, but instinct told him it would not be long before they found their way through the vents and into this room. These things were everywhere.

“Let’s not wait around!” he shouted.

They crossed the room and cranked open a window. Riley and Raeburn went through first, and Emmet and Calvin followed. Landing on the ground, they tried to stand, but found they couldn’t, instead collapsing on the grass in an exhausted heap.

Within seconds police and firefighters surrounded them, lifting them off the ground and carrying them away from the building. Eventually Emmet was loaded onto a stretcher, and he soon saw his dad’s face peering down at him.

“Dad! Get Dr. Geaux!” Emmet said.

“It’s okay, son. You’re okay now,” his dad replied.

“No! You don’t understand.” Emmet sat up on the gurney and saw Dr. Geaux a few feet away, bent over Calvin.

“Dr. Geaux! It’s Dr. Catalyst. We saw him! He might still be in the building. He was headed out the back!”

She stood up and came to his side.

“Who did you see?” she asked.

“A guy in a black Windbreaker and black pants. It had to be him. Those things were swarming all over the place. He must have had some way of keeping them from biting him. Blood Jacket spray or something.”

Dr. Geaux pulled a radio from her belt and gave an order for the police to move to the back of the school and to secure all exits from the building.

Emmet lay back down on the gurney. The fire alarm was still blaring in the background. Over it all, he could hear the Blood Jackets shrieking inside the school.

“Dr. Geaux, there’s one more thing,” Emmet said.

“What is it, Emmet?” she asked.

“I’m quitting Service Club.”