Mr. Patton appeared to hear Sally. Quickly he raised his M16 again. This time he let the whole clip of bullets fire. The ammunition tore at the creature’s blue suit, but still it did not stop. Mr. Patton began to back up, dazed. Again Sally shouted at him.

“Try your grenade launcher!” she said.

“I think he should get back here,” Cindy said anxiously.

“We may already be trapped ourselves,” Bum said. “Remember, we can’t outrun them.”

Mr. Patton turned and ran back toward them. But it was then that the cold woman decided to chase after him. It was as fast as the one who had grabbed Watch. A glance over his shoulder showed Mr. Patton that he would be caught before he could reach the store. Finally he took Sally’s last piece of advice. Dropping to one knee, he raised the grenade launcher and took aim. To his credit, he kept his hands steady, something Adam doubted he would have been able to do with one of those monsters bearing down on him.

Mr. Patton fired the grenade.

His aim was perfect. The grenade hit the creature’s right shoulder.

There was a flash of fire and a loud bang.

Its right arm was gone. Shattered splinters.

The gang howled in delight.

“They can be stopped!” Sally yelled.

But Sally spoke too soon. The creature had lost a limb but there was no blood. In fact the wound didn’t even slow it down. Looking closer, Adam saw that the arm appeared to have cracked off the way it would have from an ice sculpture. Mr. Patton had not destroyed it. Adam suspected these creatures could keep coming with both their legs blown off. Certainly they’d never bleed to death.

They didn’t have any blood.

The cold creature fell on Mr, Patton.

He dropped his weapons and screamed.

They didn’t hang around to see what the creature did to him.

“Back in the store!” Bum yelled.

They raced to the surplus store and closed the door. They were in luck. The doors and windows not only had strong locks, but heavy metal gratings as well. They pulled the steel bars over and snapped them shut just as the whole group of Cold People reached the front door and started pounding on it.

The door held.

They were safe, for the moment.

But they were also trapped.

6

In the gloom of the surplus store, they stared at one another, their faces pale with fear. The creatures outside continued to circle the building. They had cut off the power, and the lights were out. The pounding on the front door had stopped but Adam knew the next attack would be worse.

“What are we going to do?” Cindy whispered.