“One problem at a time,” Riley muttered tiredly, and pushed himself off the wall. “First thing, let’s try to get off this floor before the rest of the bastards arrive. Any ideas?”

“There’s another stairwell at the west end of the building,” Ava said, surprising us. She stood beside Faith, looking pale but calm in the face of approaching death. Unlike the other hatchling, who was frozen in absolute terror, her eyes huge and staring. “I saw it when we first came here. We could try to reach it before St. George does.”

A hollow boom echoed from an adjacent hallway, followed by a gruff “Clear!” The soldiers behind us were kicking in doors, systematically checking each room before moving on. Riley winced.

“Stairwell it is,” he whispered, beckoning Ava to the front with him. “Let’s go.”

We raced for the end of the hall, Riley and Ava leading this time, me bringing up the rear. I didn’t know if the soldiers heard us and were giving chase, and I didn’t pause to look back. We fled down narrow concrete hallways, ducking beams and scrambling over rubble, praying we wouldn’t turn a corner and find the way blocked by soldiers and guns.

As we approached an intersection where two hallways crossed, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Four armored, masked men rounded the corner at the far end of the corridor we’d been moving down. Hissing a warning to Riley, I grabbed the two closest bodies—Ember and Faith—and yanked them into the cross section of hall, just as the scream of M-4s filled the corridor.

Faith wailed, hands flying up to cover her ears, as the roar of gunfire tore through the air and bullets ripped chunks of wood and plaster from the walls. Pulling her back from the edge, I looked up to see Ava and Riley on the other side of the corridor of death, streams of bullets zipping between us. The soldiers were advancing, firing short, continuous bursts as they marched forward in unison. From the sound of the guns, they would reach our position in a few seconds.

I met Riley’s gaze, and he gestured at us frantically. “Split up!” he shouted over the howl of carbines. “Take them and get out of here, St. George. We’ll meet back at the hotel. Go!”

I nodded and turned to the girls. “Come on,” I said, and Ember stepped toward Faith, still huddled against the wall.

“Faith.” She pried the girl’s arms away from her head. “Hey, we have to go.”

“No!” Faith looked up, gaze frantically searching for the other hatchling. “What about Ava? We can’t leave them.”