His mom yells again, but a Mog reaches down and pulls Sam up by his shirt. I concentrate and uproot the rusty swing set, but before one of its metal poles can spear the Mog in the chest, he tosses Sam over the fence.

With an intensity I’ve never seen in her before, Six slices through the remaining Mogs. She’s covered in ash when she jumps over the fence after Sam. I leap onto Bernie Kosar and we follow.

Sam is on his back in the neighbor’s yard. Motion sensor lights flood over him. I jump off Bernie Kosar and pick him up.

“Sam? Are you okay? Where’s my Chest?”

He opens his eyes halfway. “They got it. I’m sorry, John.”

“There!” Six points to several Mogs running through a field towards the forest.

I set Sam on Bernie Kosar’s back, but he pushes himself off. “I’m okay. I swear.”

From the other side of the fence, Sam’s mom yells, “Sam!”

“I’ll be back, Mom! I love you!” And then he’s the first to run towards the Mogs. Six and I catch up easily, but she veers right to plunge her sword into an approaching Mog. Four more are thirty yards ahead of her; and with the large pendant bouncing around her neck, she charges, with Bernie Kosar at her heels.

Sam and I enter the muddy field, and two Mogs cut off our path. Over my shoulder I see two more separating and marching in our direction at strategic angles. The others have entered the forest at two different sections, and I can’t see who has the Chest. I pull the dagger out of my back pocket. The handle wraps around my hand.

I run ahead, and the two Mogs in front of me run, too, their swords bouncing and cutting into the empty field behind them. When we’re less than five yards apart I leap with my dagger above my head. As I start to fall, a huge tree zips underneath me, ramming both Mogs and killing them. Six. As I hit the ground again I turn to see her running towards Sam and the two Mogs who circle him.

The one on Sam’s left tackles him around the waist. Six tears the Mog off and throws him far into the field, where he immediately gets back on his feet and charges.

I sneak up behind the other Mog and hammer my dagger into the back of his neck, pulling it out at an angle that slices down through his shoulder blade. He falls to a pile of ash that blows onto my shoes.

Bernie Kosar pounces on the other Mog and quickly he has a tongue coated in thick ash.

“We have to get back to the car and get out of here,” Six says. “There must be more on their way—they were waiting for us.”