“Where do you think it is?” As they reached the junction to North Hall, Pablo contemplated if all this hero shit was nonsense. But he knew deep down, if he lived through this, he wanted history to count him among the heroes. Because of her.

Lynn peered around the corner, checking right, then left. Nothing. She asked, “When this first started, did you hear someone shouting orders?”

He nodded, admiring her face with her braids tied back. They framed her beautiful brown eyes—

Pablo dug his fingernails deep into his palms. He had to quit thinking like that. Treating their injured classmates had kept him distracted in the Med Lab. But out here they were on their own and facing certain death. His more primitive instincts wanted to focus only on her.

Lynn inhaled deep and cleared her throat. The smoke got thick, fast. She headed left down North Hall. “I think they came from down here. Maybe the gym or the library?”

“Oh.” Pablo wished he had more to contribute, but he was running on fumes here.

Lynn walked around the next corner, and he followed closely. When their hands brushed, he snatched his back to prevent himself from holding hers.

She was all business, searching the library through glass doors. Dark with no sign of movement. She waved for him. “C’mon…”

Why does the sign say Media Center? It never made much sense. It wasn’t like students could check out videos or anything.

“I wonder why the sign has always said ‘Media Center?’” Lynn asked.

That was it. If they survived this and she would have him, Pablo would ask Lynn to marry him.

He made a guess, “The computers, maybe?”

She scoffed, “What media can they run? Eight-bit porn?”

Pablo barked out a laugh, and Lynn snickered.

Pablo and Lynn deserved this inappropriate laugh in the wide open. The sun was eclipsed, and their friends were fighting aliens to save humanity.

Cautiously, they pulled the library doors open and walked through the theft detectors. Shelves lined the walls stuffed with musty books. A long table of student computers occupied the middle. The librarian offices were off to the right. If anyone wanted to speak to them, they could tap the large, glass windows.

Pablo and Lynn searched carefully, trying hard to stay quiet. Both of them gripped their weapons firm in hand. They’d made it past the checkout counter when something caused Lynn to whimper.

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“What?” Pablo rushed over to her, but stopped short when he glimpsed the cause. “Oh, god…”

They found Ms. McGreen, the librarian. Dead and on display like a warning.

The entire room spun. Pablo crouched to the floor and spilled the scant contents of his stomach. He suppressed a sob when Lynn started rubbing his back in soothing circles.

She said, “It’s okay.”

Pablo was definitely marrying her. When he finished, she offered him a bottle of water. He took it with a nod of gratitude.

Lynn asked, “Are you all right?”

Pablo swallowed hard and choked on the air. “You know? I’m really starting to hate that question.”

|______|

“Are you okay?” Kyle asked Sagan as he offered her his hand.

She nodded and let him lift her off the floor. After all the wet, slippery shit Sagan had touched today, she still wiped her hands on her skirt and grimaced. “Why are you all wet?!”

Kyle shrugged and said, “I got my first swirly, and I don’t recommend it.”

Okay. Sagan was not asking for those details. Instead, she assessed the situation in the cafeteria. Only four Icari were left to fight, and Rayne had yet to return from Nox.

Sagan hated this. It took every ounce of her self-control not to run and help Rayne, but staying away was the right thing. After listening to Rayne’s dreams about Nox, Sagan knew he’d simply torture or even kill anyone who came to help Rayne. He’d get off on her misery all because his hatred for Celindria made him blind to anything else.

Besides, the fight wasn’t over yet.

John favored his right leg as he faced down a Russian soldier. Andrew stood over his latest kill after putting a large blade through its back. Nikki running off and not returning weighed heavily on Sagan’s mind. Tameka fought off two Icarean soldiers. Alone.

With no time to mourn the lover she’d slain, Sagan burst into action. Tameka’s curling mass of red hair bounced from the table where one soldier held her arms down. Another straddled her with a knife raised high. Tameka snarled in his face.

Sagan retrieved the axe Korac had thrown at her and rushed over. She kicked off a wall and vaulted at the soldier holding Tameka down. She swung the axe mid-fall. The monster’s head landed on the ground before she did.

Two more to go.

Andrew took out the Icarus with a knife on Tameka. Both crashed to the floor, and he stabbed the soldier with his own knife. It wailed as cobalt arterial spray drenched Andrew’s already messy face.

Andrew shouted, “Aww, nasty!”

Sagan’s head snapped up, and Andrew bolted upright as John cried out across the cafeteria.

An Icarus was dragging John away by his bad leg.

Kyle leapt from the nearest table onto the soldier’s back hard enough that he rode it down to the floor. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?! John, are you okay? John?”

John made achingly slow progress to stand on his good leg. The agitated Icarus threw Kyle and retrieved him from his landing site, only to throw him again.

John called out, “Hey, you blood-sucking son of a bitch!”

The Icarus snapped his teeth at John and rushed him. “Yeah, you know? You shouldn’t turn your back on an enemy.”

Kyle hit the Icarus over the head with a toilet seat he’d pulled from god knows where. He threw the soldier up against the wall, and John staked it.

Sagan surveyed the room. By some miracle, they’d killed all the invaders, and the unit had stayed alive. A twinge struck her as she wondered about Nikki.

Kyle searched the space. “Is that all of them?”

“Yeah, it is…” Sagan answered with a smile spreading across her face.

They did it.