I’m certain I’m about to meet my death when the sudden blast of a shotgun splinters the air. Something whistles past my face and immediately the arms that were latched tightly around me release. The crazy who’d been holding me falls into the wet, muddy earth, dead, with a neat bullet hole in the side of his face.

I touch my cheek and feel warm blood mingling with the ice cold rain drops. The bullet grazed me. Whoever just fired that gun was a millimeter from blasting my face off.

I don’t have time to think about the fact I’m still alive or how. I dart forward with my gun, spin on the spot, and start shooting the crazies. I free Molly first, knowing full well that she’s a better shot than either of the guys. She looks completely startled as she wriggles free from the dead crazy who’d been holding her. She’s soaking wet from the rain. Her uniform weighs her down and her ginger hair is plastered to her head.

“Save Emmanuel!” I shout at her.

She nods and splashes through the muddy puddles as she races toward the jetty, where the small boat is rapidly disappearing across the water. It’s only then that I notice the other boat, the one that’s coming toward us, the one containing three silhouettes, one of whom is holding a gun.

Out the corner of my eye I have time to see the silhouetted figure shoot his gun. Again, the bullet just skims me. For a second, I wonder if I was the intended target. But then a dead crazy flops to my feet and I realize I’d been mere seconds from being attacked by him. Whoever it is in that boat, they’re trying to help us.

I have no time to think about the mysterious people who are helping us; I have to focus on freeing Zeke and Ryan, on neutralizing the threat. I turn back and see that Jack is attacking the crazy holding Ryan, gnashing with his jaws. The crazy tries kicking him off but it’s no use. He finally lets go of Ryan and falls down in the mud.

Ryan, now free, grabs his gun and fires a vengeful bullet straight into the man’s head. When he looks up at me, his jaw is set firmly. The expression on his face chills me to the bone much more than the pounding rain that soaks me. It’s a murderous look.

As though fueled by revenge, Ryan grabs his gun and begins firing round after round at the crazies. They begin dropping to the rain-drenched ground, falling face first into the mud and dying undignified deaths. My heart pounds as I fire too, and kill the crazy holding Zeke.