"Turn back!" screamed Kayla.

But Justin couldn't hear, couldn't process. Run, his brain screamed at him, a cramp in his foot from pressing hard on the gas.

The sharks.

They just kept coming.

Free of the water. How was that possible?

"Justin!" Kayla screamed, reaching across Maddie. "You have to turn around! We have to go back for Joey!"

Justin's eyes flicked to the mirror.

"They're coming!" Maddie's voice was shrill, animal and Justin could see why -- two sharks beside the guard rail. "They're chasing us!"

Justin's foot pressed harder into the pedal and a hand clamped down on his shoulder.

"Justin!" Kayla's nails dug into the meat of his arm. "Go back. We have to go back for Joey."

DeStefano.

The guy who puked red slushie all over Justin's jeans after they'd stolen his dad's whiskey for their first experiment with drinking. The guy who always picked Justin first for teams. DeStefano, the little boy who memorized Justin's phone number before his own so he could call him over to play.

Justin glanced over at Kayla -- could they go back for him? It was too late now, wasn't it? Her brown eyes were focused, intense, her mind still working while his drowned in panic.

"Go back," she said.

And he listened. Kayla's mind was still working. Kayla knew what to do.

Justin slammed on the brakes and wrenched the wheel, tires screeching as the truck slung shot around. Justin drove his foot into the floor, speeding back the way they'd come, back to DeStefano, back to the sharks.

Justin's heart raged behind his ribs.

The sharks -- three of them -- were at the guard rail, gnawing at metal.

"There!" screamed Kayla, pointing into the distance.

DeStefano, vaulting over the guard rail while his shark, frothing and snapping, snaked its way up the sand towards him.

The truck careened right, exploding out of Justin's control as something slammed it hard on the left. Maddie shrieked, arms flailing while Justin ground his teeth, trying to right the truck.

Both girls whipped round in their seats to look out the back window at what had just rammed them -- but they knew.

Like Justin knew.

He glanced up at the mirror.

The first shark had broken free of the guard rail, snapping and thrashing on the asphalt.

Justin looked back at the road, at DeStefano barreling ahead as fast as his legs would take him, his shark gnawing on the guard rail close behind.

Kayla's arm reached across Justin, slamming her palm down on the horn.

DeStefano didn't turn around.

But his shark did.

The diseased monster raised its ugly head, the deadness of its eyes sending goose bumps up Justin's neck as he sped past.

Kayla wailed on the horn again. "Justin, slow down," she ordered as they closed the gap between them and DeStefano. Justin didn't want to. Not with the deadness of those eyes.

But DeStefano --

He raised his foot and the truck slowed down, not enough to stop -- never stop.

Justin leaned his head out the window. "Jo!"

And DeStefano didn't need instruction. He raced for the truck, hurling himself up onto the back bed.

When Justin looked up at the mirror, he could see them all now, thrashing where they'd been dead the night before.

Eight sharks.

Alive on the highway.