The vector crouched down, looking at the flashlight. From the back, it looked like a man in his late forties. He wore baggy gray overalls with the word JANITOR at the back. The problem was...he was a big guy. At least six-foot-five and large, probably around 250 pounds of meat and muscle. Our only advantage was that he didn't saw us first.

Luke, Yousef, Logan, and I surrounded him at least twelve paces behind. I looked behind me, and Bobby and Jonas were staying further back; their weapons raised. However, Natalie remained hiding underneath the table.

No one wanted to make the first strike. Logan stared at me, and I realized he was waiting for my signal, and so were the others. I sighed. I caught sight of Yousef's fire extinguisher again, and an idea popped up. I pointed at him and the fire extinguisher.

"Stun," I mouthed, miming to spray the contents onto the vector.

It took him a second, and Yousef paled. He pointed at the pin attached at the top.

I frowned. If Yousef took it out, the vector would hear it. I raised my shotgun. Luke and Logan did the same for their weapon. Yousef's shoulders slouched. He hesitated that much I could see, but then, he made a curt nod and slipped his finger into the pin's hole. He stared up at me, waiting for a signal again.

I raised one finger, then another. "One. Two. Three."

I swiftly pointed all three at the vector, and Yousef pulled the pin. A faint stinging ring resounded, and the vector's ears perked up. He quickly turned to Yousef's direction, and upon seeing him, he sneered menacingly.

He opened his mouth to shriek, but Yousef stepped forward, aimed the nozzle of the fire extinguisher, and blew a large amount of sodium bicarbonate right on the vector's face. The vector held his hands up to his face, blocking the onslaught, and the rest of us dashed for the offensive.

Luke got to him first. He raised the ax, aiming for the head, but the vector moved to the right. Luke drove the ax forward and hit the vector's back. Logan stepped in, but the vector suddenly stood up, towering over him as he tried to claw out the ax still attached to his flesh. Blind and wounded, the vector swiped against nothing, but it caught Logan square on the chest, sending him flying back against the wall. The vector continued swinging.

Natalie screamed.

I glanced back, ready to push her back in case she would recklessly step into Logan's side and within the vector's reach. Instead, she made a dash for one of the carts at the foot of the wheelchair ramp and pushed it up to the second floor.

In a split second, Bobby saw her, followed after, bringing the other cart with him.

Yousef kept on spraying the canister on the vector as Luke scrambled to look for a weapon. I dodged one of its swings, and I drove the butt of the shotgun right on his jaw.

It didn't even make him budge.

He grabbed the collar of my vest. I tried to pry his hands off. He pulled me close, and I lost the grip of my shotgun, trying to push him back. The vector slammed me against the floor and clamored on top of me, his mouth open and ready to take a bite. Suddenly, Jonas jumped on his back, wrapping his arms around his neck in a chokehold. The vector yelped, climbing back up on his feet as he tried to pull Jonas's arm off. I coughed up the air stuck in my throat when the vector slammed me against the floor, and I could hardly breathe.

Although Jonas held on, the vector was much stronger. He grabbed hold of Jonas's right arm, and with a slight turn of his head, and with hungry baring teeth, the vector clamped onto his wrist, sinking his teeth in.

Jonas screamed.

I roared, pulling any strength left inside me to pull me up to my feet, and ran through the vector. I tackled him to the ground, and all three of us scrambled on top of chairs and tables. The vector let go of Jonas's wrist. With the ax still impaled on his back, the vector landed on it, sinking it deeper right on his spine. The vector cried out.

Jonas quickly crawled away. The vector squirmed and thrashed on the floor, but it couldn't get back up on its feet. We broke and severed its spine. Then, Luke dashed out of the kitchen carrying a meat mallet. He ran to the vector's side, and without hesitation, started smashing the mallet on the vector's head.

Guts and blood splattered everywhere. Yousef ran to his side, and with the bottom of the fire extinguisher, started bashing the vector's head, too. They didn't stop until the skull had completely caved in and the janitor unrecognizable in a blanket of meat and copper-red.

Yousef took one glance at the aftermath. His eyes widened suddenly, and he ran to the side of the hall and puked his guts out. Luke lay sprawled on the floor. Jonas sat against the wall, clutching his wounded wrist. Our eyes met, and the boy began to cry.

Then, a shriek came.

"We gotta move," I said.

I ran to Logan, sprawled against the wall. He was barely conscious, and I feared he must've hit his head. I looked behind it, but I didn't see any wound or blood.

"Logan, we need to go."

"Did we kill it?"

"Look for yourself."

Logan looked past me and gaped. "Holy shit!"

"Come on! There's no time!"

We grabbed one of the carts still left behind while Yousef and Luke grabbed the other. We ran up the wheelchair ramp pushing the carts in front of us. I could count probably two or three distinct shrieks from the vectors, and they were coming closer. It took five of us to kill a big one. I could only imagine if there's three of them that size.

Yousef and Luke reached the door first. Yousef dashed to open it.

It didn't.

The door was locked.

Yousef slammed his fist against the door. "Bobby! That asshole!"

Luke seethed. "They fucking padlocked us!"

Logan scowled. "Oh, we're done. We're so done. Natalie!" He shouted against the small gap between the door.

The shrieks and howls of the vectors were getting closer.

I tried the door, and the results were still the same. Fury welled inside, and I had a flashing vision of me pulling Bobby's arm out of their sockets and feeding it to him. Maybe shooting him repeatedly with my gun.

My gun.

Then, I realized why I felt so naked. I looked at my hands and then to the cart. The shotgun was nowhere in sight.

"Shit. I left my gun back there," I told Logan.

I turned around to make a run for the main cafeteria. As much as it was risky going back down there, a weapon like that was like a holy grail. Plus, it still had enough ammunition to save our asses. We had limited resources of weapons, and I didn't think a fire extinguisher or a searing pan could save us from a horde.

Something stopped me from my tracks.

At the top of the stairwell was Jonas, holding my shotgun. His eyes were puffy from tears. His chest heaving as he tried to push down on the panic raging within him. His wrist continued to bleed. He slowly walked toward us, leaving a thin—trail of blood behind.

"Jonas...could you please hand my gun back?" I asked, extending my hand out.

He stopped in his tracks and looked at me. The others paused from trying to pry the door open and watched us. Jonas stared at the gun in his hand.

"Thanks for picking it up back there," I said. Hairs all over my body rose, tingling.

"It's too late," Jonas mumbled.

"Hey, let's not worry about it now. We had to find a way to get out of here. Now, hand me back my weapon. Please." I moved closer.

Jonas pried his eyes away from the gun and back to me. "I don't want to die."

"We'll get out of here," I said. I took another step.

"I saw what happened to that boy. Back in the bookstore, how he ate that woman..."

"We don't know if it's gonna happen to you."

"But we do. I'm not turning into one of those."

Jonas watched my move, and he took a step back.

I raised my hands. "Jonas. Don't. No one's dying today, okay?"

"Do you really believe that?"

"I do."

Jonas was about to say something, but he held his tongue.

"Can I have the gun back now?" I asked.

"Okay." Jonas turned the barrel of the gun right under his chin and pulled the trigger.