Gretchen McNeil - 3:59

Nick turned to Josie. “What would she want with your mom?”

Tony walked faster this time, his dark silhouette a metronome’s pulse between the two walls of the shed. “The antidote. They’d want the formula for the antidote.”

“But Dr. Byrne didn’t develop it,” Nick said.

“Yes, but she was the last one with it. There were two vials of it on her desk when we began the experiment. After the explosion, only one.”

“It passed through the portal,” Josie said. “With Dr. Byrne.”

Tony caught his breath. “How do you know?”

Nick pulled the vial out of his pocket and handed it to Tony. “Because it passed back through.”

“Amazing,” Tony said.

“Yeah,” Josie added. “And Dr. Byrne is desperate to get it back.”

“With two breeding Nox, a swarm large enough to threaten the human existence could exist in just a few years.” Tony handed the vial back to Nick. “There, as here, whoever controls the antidote would be very powerful. That’s why I’ve been trying to re-create it here, in secret. I figured that way, no single government entity would have control over it. I’m only missing a powerful enough laser to make a real test. If it works, it would be enough to kill for.”

Something clicked in Josie’s brain. “Enough to kill for? Enough to send a swarm of Nox to attack?”

Tony stared at her, the faceless black giving no hint of emotion. “Yes, absolutely.”

“They were sent after us?” Nick asked.

“Like I said, it was a coordinated attack,” Tony said. “The generator was disabled. Someone knew where you would be and when.”

Nick touched the back of his head and winced. “But how could they . . .” His voice trailed off and he turned suddenly to Josie.

She came to the same realization at the same time. The three of them were supposed to meet at the warehouse that night: Nick, Josie, and Penelope. “If they came after us, then they’ll go after Penelope too.”

Nick sprang to his feet. “Then let’s get there first.”

10:15 P.M.

THE ONE GOOD THING ABOUT HAVING A POPULATION terrified to go out at night was that there was no traffic after the sun went down. Not that there would have been an abundance of joyriders out for a late-night drive in Josie’s version of Bowie, Maryland, but in this world, there weren’t even cops on the street. No all-night gas stations, no twenty-four-seven convenience stores with their bright red-and-green neon signs warming the night sky. Nothing. Even the streetlights were dimmed in areas with a low density of houses, or perhaps just areas that weren’t as affluent. Money was power. Literally.

Nick raced through the suburban landscape, blasting through stop signs and blackened traffic lights. He hit a drainage ditch and the SUV jumped with such violence Josie’s head smacked the roof. But she didn’t say a word. She wished he could make the car go faster.

If anything happened to Penelope, it would be all Josie’s fault.

Nick screeched to a halt in front of a large, well-lit tract home just a few miles south of town.

“Lights are on,” Josie said. “Good sign.” She started to open the door.

Nick laid a hand on her knee. “Maybe you should stay here.”

“Why?”

Nick didn’t even blink. “Just in case.”

Josie jerked her leg away from his hand. “If something happened to her, it’s my fault. I got her into this mess.”

“This isn’t all on you,” Nick said firmly.

Josie looked away. She couldn’t help thinking of her own friend Penelope back home. How, in the end, Penelope had been the only one there for her. This Penelope had done almost the same thing, and how did Josie repay her? By making her a target in a very dangerous game.

“Come on.” Nick reached across Josie and unlatched the passenger door. He practically lay on her lap as he pushed the heavy door open just an inch, and held it there. The wound on the back of his neck—the price of his own role in helping Josie—was still red and swollen from the makeshift stitches. “Hurry up,” he grunted. “Can’t hold it all night.”

Josie kicked the door open with her foot. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.” Nick sat up straight, wincing as he tossed his hair out of his face. “Let’s go find her.”

Everything seemed normal at Penelope’s house. All the lights were on, including the one over the front porch. Nick rang the doorbell and waited. After a few seconds he tried again. They could hear the soft melody of the bell echoing through the house, but no one answered the door.

He tried the handle in case it was unlocked. No luck. “Come on,” he said, grabbing Josie’s hand. “Let’s check the back.”

Light streamed out of the kitchen and dining-room windows that faced the back of the house, and Nick and Josie had no difficulty staying in the bright swath of safety they provided. Josie could see dirty dishes in the sink—cleared from dinner, no doubt. But no one was home.

“Try her cell,” Josie suggested.

Nick had called her a dozen times on the way over, but no one had picked up. “You think it’ll be any different now?”

“If she’s inside, we might hear it.”

“Good point.” Nick pulled his phone out of his jeans pocket and hit redial.

They stood still, ears straining against the deafening silence.

“Listen!” Nick heard it first. The harsh electronic ring of Penelope’s phone. He turned to his right. “Over here.”

He followed the ringtone around the corner of the house to the garage. The light from the windows ended there, and Nick and Josie had to backtrack around to the front of the house. He dialed again, and this time they could clearly hear the phone ringing from inside the garage.

“Maybe she left her phone in the car?” Josie said hopefully.

“Maybe.”

Nick tried lifting the roll-up garage door, but it wouldn’t budge. Without a word, he opened the rear door of his SUV and rummaged around in the back, emerging with a wire coat hanger. He unwound the hanger, and then stood on his tiptoes in front of the garage door. Gazing through one of the windows, he threaded the hanger up through the top of the door and used the hook to pull the emergency release lever.

“Voila!” he said, pulling the door free. It rolled up easily. “There’s no door I can’t—”

Nick froze midsentence, staring straight ahead into the garage.

There, huddled beside the car were two corpses, arms linked around each other. They were little more than skeletons, splattered with bits of gore. Their faces were unrecognizable; the flesh had been ripped off, exposing their skulls and empty eye sockets. Clumps of hair still clung to their scalps, and Josie could easily recognize Penelope’s long, thick black mane. The body beside her, skeletal arms wrapped around her in an act of futile protection, was larger and heavier. Her father.

Josie tried to look away, but her eyes were locked in place.

The Nox had left very little. A hole in Mr. Wang’s skull where they’d ripped into his brain matter. The clothing had been shredded in the mad frenzy to pick every last ounce of flesh from their bones. Blood splattered the side of the white minivan and pooled around the bodies, streaming down toward the driveway by the sickening force of gravity. It threaded its way toward Josie, who stood rooted in place. Her eyes followed the stream of blood as it seemed to have an intelligent route in mind: right to her. Like Poe’s tell-tale heart, it pointed out their killer.

“Don’t look.” Nick slipped a strong arm around her waist and pulled her away from the garage.

She turned on him fiercely. “Don’t look? How can I not look? How can I not picture their last moments, clinging to each other as the Nox overwhelmed them?” She pounded on his chest with both of her fists. “How can I not think of that? How can I not hear their screams?”