The Monster Apocalypse

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

"Oww! Mom!" Brin shouted, but Tessa already had a tight grip on her legs.

"You're not going anywhere, Brin!"

"Mom!" She tried to kick the woman away, but she wouldn't let her go. "Mom, what happened to you?"

"This is the only way. If I'm going to die, you're going to die."

Brin watched as another vampire jumped over the flames, then another, and another. When five more vampires made it over the fire, Brin knew she had no more time to waste.

"Mom? Mommy?"

"What?" Tessa shouted.

"I'm really sorry. Forgive me for this." Brin brought her leg all the way back to her chest, then kicked it forward and struck Tessa hard in the face. Brin's mom fell to her side and finally let go of Brin.

Brin climbed back up to her feet and raced back toward her friends.

"What do we do?" Ash said. "They're jumping over the flames! We can't fight them off forever!"

"And we're not going to," Paul said, appearing on Brin's left. He looked out of breath, still shocked he hadn't been thrown into the hole of impending doom, that the Grisly group had arrived just in time. "Even if we fired a thousand rounds of bullets, there's no way we could fight them off!"

"And the sword?" Anaya asked, pointing to the ground. Brin picked it back up again and held it close.

"Hang onto it," Paul said. He looked at the group of humans in front of him, plus the scary wolf. Then he looked out at all the vampires running toward them, including Brin's irked mother. "We need to get out of here. Let's follow my father. He'll lead us back out."

"OK," Ash said. "Sounds good—"

Ash's jaw dropped as he watched Paul take this opportunity to pull Brin close to him and give her a kiss on the lips, albeit brief and with little passion. "Thank you for saving me," he said.

"Of course," Brin said, obviously trying not to look Ash's way, and she and Ash and the vampire and the wolf started sprinting toward the back left corner of the auditorium, toward the exit where Droz sped out all by himself, like a coward, not wanting to stay and put up a fight.

Ash felt tears well up in his eyes, for an altogether different reason, but he blinked them away and stayed focused on the mission.

"What about your mom?" Ash asked Brin.

"I can't help her right now. She's beyond—"

Brin turned around. "Wait. Where the hell's my brother?"

"What?"

Brin looked around Anaya, just in time to catch Justin speeding in the opposite direction, straight toward the vampires. Brin wanted to scream for a second, but no sound came out. Then: "Justin! What are you doing?"

She waited for her brother's annihilation, but then he did something else entirely; Justin grabbed Tessa, and whisked her to the right side of the auditorium, so fast none of the other vampires tried to stop him. Brin watched her mother try to fight him off, but he kept a tight a grip on her, as they both disappeared from sight.

"Mom! Justin! Where are you—"

"Come on!" Paul shouted. "Keep running, Brin! There's no time!"

And there wasn't. The vampires were five seconds away from tearing Brin and the rest of the group to shreds.

"Shit," Brin said, wanting to run after her family but also knowing she couldn't leave her friends behind. She turned around and followed Paul out of the auditorium.