“No we don’t,” Gilbert says.

My head snaps at him. “You don’t have to.” I look at Ethan. “You don’t either.”

“I’m ready to help,” Ethan says.

Hank nods and we are each handed a sharpened broom handle. “Just try to keep your kills as quiet as possible,” he says.

Ethan and I follow the group, leaving Gilbert fuming behind us. The broom handles aren’t much, but I’ve killed greyskins with less. It will at least keep a few feet between me and the dead.

“What was that all about?” Ethan whispers to me as we trail the others. “Telling him he will get bitten?”

“It’s just a feeling is all,” I say, but this time I think having a feeling will pay off. This time, I’m going to stay close to Hank so nothing bad happens to him. It’s up to me to keep him from dying. “Just keep your eyes on Hank.”

Ethan shakes his head. I know he thinks I’m crazy, but what else can I do? Hank won’t heed my warning so I have to do what I can to stop the future I saw. I know if I would have done something to stop it for Lucas, he would be walking next to us.

The man that had given Hank the report about the greyskins meets us at the first doors of the gymnasium.

“How did they get in there?” Hank asks.

The man shrugs as sweat drips down the side of his face. His arms seem to be shaking from nervousness. “I have no idea. They must have gotten one of the doors open.”

“How did we not see this coming?” Hank speaks with a harshness that I have yet to see until now.

The man shrugs again and Hank walks past him and cracks open the door. He lets out a sigh. “It’s manageable,” he whispers, “but we’ve got to get in there and stop it now before their numbers grow.”

He instructs part of the group to go around to the other side of the gym and the rest of us to follow him. We slip into the gymnasium without notice and I can see that we are at the top of the bleachers in front of stairs descending all the way down to the basketball court. I nearly gasp at the sight of the greyskins congregated at the bottom, some of them climbing the stairs.

“Spread out,”  Hank says to us.

The others move around the bleachers with steady holds on their weapons. Ethan stays close to me and I stay within feet of Hank, watching for any greyskins that might approach. Thinking back, I remember that Hank had been standing on the court in my vision. If I can just keep him from going onto the court, then perhaps he can avoid the bite altogether.