“I’ll bring up the rear!” his partner shouts.

And still on and on goes that ear-piercing alarm. It has my nerves jangling. It’s hard to think, much less to come up with a plan.

“Okay, come on! Follow me down!” the Wolf barks like a drill sergeant. But he is nervous now, too. Even with all the other people around, I can make out the hint of it. He’d be okay doing whatever it took to stop us from getting out of line, but he’s not interested in consequences. “No one leaves the building. Stay behind me!”

We move in an orderly single-file line, Becca and Ramona way up near the front. Much too far away to tell them that this was part of a plan. And what does it matter anyway? It’s not like we can get past the Wolf. I am pretty sure he would kill any one of us, just to prove that point. Not to mention: Where the hell is Kelsey? And Teresa? It’s a risk to draw attention to Kelsey being missing if she’s the one who started the fire, but what if she started it, only to get overwhelmed by the smoke? I need to make sure she’s okay.

I turn back to the other guard, the one bringing up the rear. The less asshole-ish one.

“I think there could be people still back there,” I tell him. I don’t want to mention Kelsey—in case she’s responsible. But it’s not practical, not if she truly needs help. “Maybe two girls. Teresa and Kelsey. Somebody has to check.”

“What?” he asks, still encouraging me ahead, waiting for me to move through the door and on down the stairs.

“There are at least two girls missing!” I shout. “They could still be trapped back there.”

“Okay, okay,” the guard says, glancing back over his shoulder. “Follow everyone else down. I’ll go back.”

I STARE AFTER him, breathless, as he leaves me there alone. There is no one watching me as he disappears through the doors. All the other girls are on their way down. I keep following them, inching slowly until I am through the doors and into the cool, concrete stairwell. And then, suddenly, the answer is clear. Up.

The déjà vu makes me shudder. All those weeks ago when Agent Klute showed up at our door, I did exactly that: ran up. It didn’t work then. Maybe because it was supposed to work now.