Phillip twisted in the direction Simone was aiming, toward their ten o’ clock. He’d have to teach her to use clock-face directions later. A shadow figure had dropped down from a tree branch and was crawling toward them on all fours. No—all sixes.

M u U c h too late . . .

That goddamned voice again, the one that was both inside his skull and all around them, blaring like a pipe organ. Simone fired, striking it along its lengthy neck. The monster twisted toward them with a sharp hiss, but didn’t slow its crawl.

“You sure that’s how to kill them?” Phillip asked.

Simone ejected the spent bullet casing from her rifle and cocked the next. “It worked before!”

Phillip dropped his rucksack and quickly fished out gauze and the vial of camphor from the first aid kit. After snatching up a stick from nearby, he wound a strip of gauze around one end, then smeared camphor on it. Simone fired two more shots, but the creature was still advancing. Phillip struck a match and held it to the camphor-soaked end of the stick.

The hissing cycled up into a shriek.

“Not a fan of fire?” He waved the makeshift torch forward, warding the beastie off. It leaned back from him, reflected flame glistening in its dead eyes, but kept all its limbs firmly planted in the underbrush.

W I L L not stop—

“We’ll see about that.”

The monster watched him for a moment more, then turned and leapt at Simone.

She screamed, rifle firing, but it was too close for her to get a good shot. Phillip pitched the torch at the monster’s feet as its front claws slashed at Simone’s chest.

“GET BACK!” he screamed at her, not that she needed the encouragement. She twisted in the monster’s grasp and dove down, sliding easily out of her oversize hunting parka. The sea of dead, crackling leaves at the monster’s feet sparked and hissed as Simone scrambled backward.

THEY MUST PAY—

The monster bared its needle teeth at him—then howled as the flames crackled along its body.

It didn’t burn like he thought it would, like meat charring through. Instead its muscles turned stringy, dangling as it tried to scramble out of the rush of fire. A molten, limp arm flopped forward, claws swiping for Phillip, but then dropped to the ground and disintegrated into a tuft of acrid smoke.

“Congratulations,” Simone muttered. “You’re going to burn the whole forest down.”