Andrew ran, his own heart feeling as if it was going to burst.

Shut the fuck up, he said to his heart and any other part of his body that even thought of protesting or giving up. He had Kate back, and he was taking her home.

* * *

For a while, he could actually feel the tremendous footfalls of the beast as it followed him. Andrew plowed on, determined to outrun it.

He couldn’t believe it had been able to get on its feet, much less chase him.

No matter. It couldn’t match his speed. Sooner rather than later, it would fall. If there was any shred of luck left in this world for them, it would collapse and melt into the earth, food for the insects and critters.

Did that also mean that Kate would die as well?

Not if he could help it.

There was a canoe tied to a dock on the next parcel of land over. He’d seen it during his trips around the lake. It wouldn’t take him very long to kayak there and bring it back. He’d get Kate and Buttons in the canoe and paddle to the end of the lake. It would be close to a three-mile trip. Round Lake might as well have been called Long Lake from the sheer size of it. No matter, he’d make it. At the mouth of the lake was the Bridge Mills Park and boat slip. There would be people there. People who could get them to a hospital, fast.

The key to Kate’s survival, he had convinced himself, was distance. The farther he got her away from that thing, the more tenuous the connection between them. Distance would snap their tether, leaving the creature to die in the woods while he got Kate the medical attention she desperately needed.

“Just hold on for me, honey,” he said between ragged breaths. It was so hard to talk, but he needed her to know he wasn’t ready to let her go. “Remember that time the doctor told us you had a week to live? That the infection wasn’t responding to the medication and they were out of options?” Buttons was moving faster than he’d seen the old dog run in years. Even he could sense they were close to emerging from this nightmare. “The doctor, I can’t remember his name, he asked if you wanted to speak to a priest. And you, you were so out of it, but when you heard him, you said, ‘I’ve already tried last rites. It didn’t work. Tell him to find someone who’s really sick instead.’ I knew at that moment you were going to beat it, Kate. I need you to hear me now. I’m not calling any priests. You hear me? If I so much as see one, I’ll tell him to hit the road.”