They ran, crashing through the trees and bushes. Through the foliage, more green structures were visible, more fenced-in creatures. They were a blur of fur and claws and skin and teeth and teeth and teeth, but Tess didn’t stop running. Behind them, a hum filled the air, a vibration that wriggled its way under Tess’s skin and made her itch. Another weapon? Some sort of device that produced sound waves? But she didn’t stop running until they hit the thin strip of scruffy sand at the edge of the island, the blue of the East River in front of them.

“Where’s the dock?” said Theo. “Where’s Aunt Esther?”

“Where’s Nine?” Tess said.

“We ran the wrong way! The dock is around there,” Jaime said, pointing to his left.

On the water, two shapes appeared. Boats, speeding toward them. The two boats split. One heading toward their left side, one heading right.

“They’re trying to trap us!” Theo said.

“Police!” said Tess. “We can’t be caught! Come on, we have to go back.”

“Go back?” said Jaime, his eyes wide and incredulous.

“Through the woods,” Tess said. “We can hide in there, at least.”

“With all those jumbies?”

“With all those what?”

They dove back into the trees, jumping over fallen branches, bumping into ancient fire hydrants covered in ivy, slipping on once-paved roads hidden by vast slicks of wet leaves. In the darkest part of the forest, a pile of bricks and rotting wood appeared, once a cottage or storage house. The fallen roof and rotting wood formed a sort of cave.

“In there,” Tess said. She crawled into the darkness. Theo followed, then Jaime. They hunkered as low as they could. The wood around them groaned, then settled. A million thoughts swirled and smashed in Tess’s head, and she quivered with the strength of the collisions. What was that thing in the fenced yard? Who had built this facility? Who had told them to run? Who had taken Nine? What was she doing here? How would Tess get her back?

“A giraffe-owary,” whispered Theo.

“Shhhh,” said Jaime.

Of course, Theo was right. A giraffe and cassowary, made vicious through genetic manipulation.

But what for?

The growling and the barking grew louder, men shouted. If those were dogs barking, even if they weren’t enhanced dogs, Tess and the others would be discovered. They would be captured. Maybe they would be experimented on themselves, turned into something else entirely, mixed with snakes or rhinos or lions or bears or spiders or lobsters or—

Jaime and Theo each gripped one of her arms to still her shaking. She closed her eyes and tried to breathe. When she opened them again, her gaze settled on scratches in the plaster in front of her. Crosshatches marking the days. So many crosshatches, years’ worth. Next to the crosshatches, words:

I WILL HAUNT YOU TILL

THE END OF TIME.