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“Move!”

But it was too late.

By the time the pedestrians moved out of our way, the creatures were on them.

One of the creatures staggered as gunshots rang out from Hunter’s truck, followed by shots from Connor. But the bullets didn’t deter the second creature, who stretched its jaw past a comfortable angle—razor-sharp teeth and claws tearing through those that weren’t able to make it inside.

“We have to help them!” Sarah screamed.

I looked at her in my rear-view. “There’s nothing we can do. We have one gun, and it’s not doing shit against them.”

A coward’s response.

But I was a coward now.

Aaron had made me one.

I gripped the steering wheel, twisting my hands around the rubber to the point of pain. There was no room for thoughts of Aaron right now. Only half a mile left, and we would be at the base’s entrance.

A loud screech, like talons being scraped down a chalkboard, replaced the sound of bullets as claws met steel and aluminum.

“It’s on Hunter’s truck!” Connor yelled from above, shooting toward the truck.

I grabbed at his pant leg. “Are you insane? You’re going to kill someone!”

But he only stopped to reload the gun, firing it at the creature bucking in the bed of the truck. The second creature galloping close behind.

The gates of Fort Gray appeared, fastened securely to the base’s perimeter wall.

We were so close.

“Almost there.” I gritted my teeth, honking to alert the guards to open the gates.

Hunter pulled his truck up next to mine, riding alongside us in the opposite lane. He pointed toward the gate, then signaled, closing his fist then opening his palm face down.

My eyes widened.

I pulled Connor back inside the truck and pressed the button to close the sunroof. “Buckle up!”

Connor and Sarah stared at me like I was insane, but I knew what was coming. They must have realized it too because they fastened their seatbelts and braced themselves right as a small black object flew over our trucks and slammed into the creature in the road behind us, detonating on impact.

The missile’s blast threw the remaining creature off Hunter’s truck and pushed our vehicles forward, rear tires lifting, front tires skidding left, then right. I held on to the steering wheel, working to level us out as the rear tires crashed back down to the ground.

I blared my horn one last time as the fort gates opened, Hunter dropping back into formation behind me.

“Holy shit,” Connor said quietly, looking back to watch a second missile strike the creature that had been thrown from Hunter’s truck.

It exploded to pieces.

“We made it,” Sarah whispered.

I nodded my head, not quite believing it.

We arrived at the auditorium with our group from Rusty’s still intact. We’d been trained to meet here in the event of an emergency, but I never thought I’d see the day it happened.

Judging from the size of the space, roughly two hundred soldiers were seated waiting to be debriefed.

There were closer to six hundred soldiers assigned to our specific base, our base one of hundreds of bases The Guard had spread throughout the country, but between the soldiers standing guard outside, and those who were home for the night with their families in the city, the numbers inside this room would be all we had for our counterattack.