I try to think of what to do next, of where to go, of how to save these people. As Dr. Ortega and I carry Akimi toward the bathroom, the shoulder that I’m holding on to disappears and she falls to the floor.

“Wait!” she screams. “Not yet, not yet, you have to make it stop.” Her wide eyes watch the nothingness creeps toward her neck. And then she falls silent as she disappears.

We stand there, watching the last of her being eaten by the light.

“She was a little girl,” Dr. Ortega says, absentmindedly taking a half patch of Ebb out of her pocket and placing it on her wrist. “She was just a little girl.”

I walk back to the group. Kina is cutting Sam out of her trousers while Pod and Igby try fruitlessly to reassure her that everything is going to be all right.

“Luka, you can make all of this go away,” Tyco calls from the doorway.

I ignore him.

“Igby, the panic room, is it big enough for everyone?”

Igby looks around at all the people. “Yes, just.”

“Let’s go.”

“I’m not going anywhere!” Sam screams. “I’m in labor!”

“Where’s Akimi?” Igby asks.

I shake my head, hardly able to believe what I’m about to say. “She’s … gone. She’s dead.”

“Oh, she’s dead all right,” Tyco screams from the doorway, “and in ten seconds, the rest of you will be too.”

“We need to move, now,” Kina says, grabbing Sam by the ankles as I grab her under her arms.

“Ten, nine, eight …” Tyco yells, his voice distorted by the rain.

Why isn’t he just killing us?

I help Kina carry Sam toward the panic room.

“Oh, leave me alone,” Sam moans.

Igby leaps over the checkout desk, throws the small rug over his shoulder, and then begins to remove the loose floorboards revealing the trapdoor beneath.

“Seven, six, five, four …” Tyco continues.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, this might be a bad idea,” Igby says.

“Igby, we’re literally surrounded,” Pander yells.

“Yeah, but if we go in there we’re surrounded and trapped in a small metal box!”

“We’ll be alive,” Kina reminds him.

“Three, two, one, zero,” Tyco finishes.

A Deleter round, bright and cold, zips across the library, striking the center of the sci-fi shelf. A hole appears and grows as books fall to the ground.

Igby’s eyes grow wide. He opens the trapdoor, grabs the laptop from the desk, and climbs down into the darkness.

I hear the Alt soldiers who were hiding in the tunnels run through the bathroom door and enter the library.

“Go, go, go,” Pod calls from behind me.

Another Deleter round speeds toward us as I turn to help Kina carry Sam down the wooden stairs, and I feel it rushing over my head. It clips the laptop in Igby’s hands.

I watch the erasing light eating the laptop.