A skeletal claw closed over Nick’s sneaker, stripping it off as Patrick ripped him free. The shoe moved back across the throng, hand over hand, held high like some kind of relic. The sea of Hosts pooled at the base of the barricade. In the darkness I couldn’t see where they ended.

Nick’s sock dangled from the end of his foot. He stared at it in disbelief before Patrick hurled him around onto the stacked tree trunks of the barricade.

“Move it!” Alex screamed down.

I was high on the barricade, straddling the top log, my palms sticky with sap. On the far side, the open road of the pass waited, rising up, clear of Hosts and obstacles.

Patrick scrambled up the face of the logs, side by side with Nick, one arm around the younger boy’s waist, practically carrying him.

The Hosts surged over the station wagon, flaring up the jumble of trees like a flame. Fingernails scraped at Nick’s feet. Turning, Patrick pistoned a leg down into the face of the Chaser with the tattered skirt.

She plummeted, taking out several Hosts beneath her, but where they’d fallen, six more surged in their place, scrabbling up the trunks like spiders. Nick awkwardly climbed the fallen trees, his bare foot slipping on the wet bark. He nearly fell, but I lunged down and caught his arm.

Behind me Cassius barked and barked, and for once no one hushed him.

As I hauled Nick up, the log rolled between my legs. Patrick kicked and thrashed, freeing his legs from the upthrust hands. A big male Host seized my brother by the calf and started to drag him down.

Gritting his teeth, Patrick swung around, one-arming the shotgun and firing down into the Host’s face. I could see blood on his foot. The choke was set wide, and some pellets must have peppered through his boot. The guy rocketed down, taking a dozen other Hosts with him.

It wouldn’t be enough. More scaled the wall all around us. Alex swung her hockey stick, knocking a few back, but they kept on, scaling and lunging. It was like an old-fashioned battle from that movie, orcs trying to storm the castle wall.

Patrick shot up toward us, leaping like a rock climber scaling a cliff face.

I stood, the log wobbling beneath me. Unstable. “Step back!” I shouted at Alex.

She hopped away, sinking into a bramble between logs on the back side. Patrick flew up the wall at me, throwing his shotgun before him. It sailed over my head and landed somewhere behind me.

Below, the barricade creaked with the weight of countless bodies. Another few seconds and they’d swarm him. I leaned over the top of the log, praying it would hold, and lowered my hands, screaming, “Jump!”