The library windows cracked.
One by one, the front panels splintered as bodies hurled against them, moaning, groaning, howling. The glass groaned back, ready to shatter.
Malik had already yanked open the office window.
Jay helped Chloe climb through first, hands shaking. She dropped into the overgrown bushes behind the building and crouched low while Jay scrambled out next. Malik came last, pausing just long enough to glance back at the door.
As they slipped into the trees, the window behind them shattered.
They didn't run. Not yet. Malik led them through the brush, hunched low, feet careful. Twilight crawled in above them, painting the sky with purple and orange. Every step on dead leaves felt like a firecracker.
Jay whispered, "You think they can smell us?"
"Maybe," Malik said. "They definitely hear us."
Chloe kept close, clutching Jay's hand in a death grip. She was silent now, eyes wide and alert. Jay had never seen her like this. Not when she broke her arm falling off the jungle gym. Not when their mom left. Not even when the dog got hit last year.
This was different. Everyone felt different.
They cut through an alley behind the school gym, then slid down into a wide drainage ditch. The place stank of mildew and standing water, but shadows blanketed it. Safe enough to catch their breath.
Malik sat on a slope of crumbling concrete and looked out toward the road. "We should head for the outskirts. That old hunting road past the high school leads south. We can stay off the main streets."
Jay sat beside him. "You think the woods are safer than town?"
"No one's in the woods."
"Except for, you know, the dead."
Malik didn't answer.
Jay rubbed his eyes. "Sorry. Just trying to process."
"You did good back there."
"I dropped the chips."
"You saved your sister."
Jay looked down at Chloe. She sat against the concrete, arms wrapped around her knees. "I don't know how we're going to keep her safe. I don't even know where we're going."
Malik stood and adjusted his backpack. "We don't need to know. We just need to move."
Jay sighed, then nodded. "Fine. South it is."
They climbed out of the ditch and followed a narrow trail that cut behind the baseball fields. The sun had all but disappeared now, and the streetlights flickered on, dim and sputtering.
Somewhere down the hill, fire crackled.
They passed the back of the school cafeteria, stepping over a chain-link fence that had already been flattened. Chloe pointed to a narrow gap in the trees.
"I used to take that shortcut when I skipped study hall," she said.
Malik raised an eyebrow. "Didn't know you were a rebel."
Jay smirked. "She gets it from me."
The trail led to a low ridge overlooking the center of town. From there, they could see most of Princeton.
Smoke curled up from the gas station. At least three cars burned along Mercer Street. Sirens echoed in every direction. Jay counted seven figures stumbling across the intersection below. One of them paused, sniffed the air, then wandered toward a smashed-up pharmacy.
"God," Jay whispered. "This is actually happening."
"No way to sugarcoat it," Malik said.
They moved down the hill, staying low. At the bottom, they passed a row of shuttered businesses. A diner. A vape shop. A dead laundromat. Windows shattered. Doors kicked in. It looked like a war zone, but quieter.
Then they heard it.
Footsteps. Rapid. Slapping the pavement.
Malik grabbed Chloe and pulled her behind a parked SUV. Jay hit the ground beside them just as five figures rounded the corner.
They weren't limping. They weren't dragging.
They were sprinting.
Full tilt. Arms flailing. Jaws wide. Clothes shredded. One wore a mechanic's name tag. Another had on a choir robe soaked through with red.
Jay held his breath.
They raced past the car and kept going, not even glancing their way. Just streaks of motion and noise and fury, disappearing into the dark.
When the sound faded, Malik whispered, "We move. Now."
They ran in the opposite direction, weaving between parked cars and smashed-out glass. Jay's lungs screamed. Chloe stumbled but stayed on her feet. They didn't stop until they found a chain-link gate with a broken padlock and ducked into the junkyard behind it.
Inside, silence.
Old cars stacked three high loomed in crooked towers. Tarps rustled in the wind. The air reeked of oil and dust.
They found an old tow truck with a busted window and climbed inside through the passenger door.
Jay collapsed into the seat, gasping.
Malik locked the doors and scanned the lot.
Chloe curled up on the bench seat, hugging her backpack like a shield.
Nobody spoke.
Jay broke the silence. "You remember when we used to come out here and throw rocks at the scrap piles?"
Malik nodded. "Thought we were going to find treasure."
"Closest we got was that tire full of snakes."
"Still better than today."
Jay let out something between a laugh and a sigh.
Malik leaned back, eyes half closed. "We sleep in shifts. I'll take first."
Jay nodded. His head tipped against the window. Chloe was already asleep.
Somewhere outside, something screamed.
Then another.
Then silence.