She was hurt. He was about to pull the piece of wood out of her neck and stopped himself. What if it was like pulling your finger from a dike? Would she immediately start to bleed out?

In movies, when people have knives stuck in them, they always say to leave it in until they get to the hospital. This isn’t a damn movie, but in this case, I think they got it right.

He almost felt guilty at the relief of Nikki being knocked out. But this was beyond knocked out. She could die, and that was what drove a dagger of guilt into his heart.

That hadn’t been Nikki before. If they made it out of here alive, he wondered if the Nikki they all knew could ever return.

Most likely not. That Nikki had died right alongside Ryker.

Kate gasped, pulling on his arm.

Emerging from within the swirling dust came the creature.

It was in the cottage!

What remained of its mangy coat was covered in dust. It turned to Andrew with pus-colored eyes. It seemed bigger than before, if such a thing were even possible. Bigger and stronger, despite looking as if it had contracted a flesh-eating bacteria.

It swatted Andrew off the bed, sending him through the broken doors and onto the porch with the ease of flicking a crumb off the table. Andrew couldn’t catch his breath, his diaphragm hitching.

He watched in helpless horror as it lifted Kate off the bed and draped her over its shoulder like a rag doll. She was too weak to even slap it with her fists. Andrew’s mouth bobbed open and closed, trying feebly to call her name.

Buttons, who had disappeared when the front of the house caved in, padded out from behind a pile of rubble. He growled at the creature. It slowly turned to look at him. Buttons gave a sharp yap, and then whimpered. The beagle kept his distance from the monster, but he also didn’t seem afraid.

Because he has nothing to fear from Kate, Andrew thought. Neither did Ryker or Nikki. But look what it’s done to them. Why?

The creature settled its yellow eyes on Nikki, knowing the dog was no threat. It straddled her, rust-colored drool splattering on her face. It saw the knife she’d meant to kill Kate with, and its lips pulled back in a depraved sneer.

Andrew fought for each breath, straining to get his legs back under him.

It reached down to run a clawed finger across Nikki’s body, prodding the wood sticking out of her neck. A spurt of blood stained its finger.

“Kate,” Andrew wheezed.

She lifted her head but was unable to hold his gaze for long. She collapsed against the beast’s back, arms dangling.

He didn’t know how he was going to get it to let her go, but he had to do something.