“Are we all safe?” I snapped, patience worn thin. “No. Didn’t think so. Now stop fucking asking me that and move!” I glanced at the steps by the end of the dock, then wrangled him straight toward the edge. No time to waste.
Andrew opened his mouth to protest, but a moan from Philip cut him off. I looked over in horror as Philip’s legs buckled.
“Philip! Shit!” Could the MegaPlague possibly have worse timing? Muffled shouts and banging on the warehouse double doors sent my heart soaring into my throat, even as I swayed from the wave of plague fatigue that rolled over me. Though it only lasted a couple of seconds, it was all Andrew needed.
He slammed a fist down on my forearm, sending the tranq gun tumbling to the pavement below, and I yelped, more from surprise than pain. Taking advantage of my brief shock, he shoved me off balance, then jerked out of my grasp and spun toward the shouts. I didn’t fall, but my brief stagger gave him enough time to dash back to the door. Recovering, I launched myself at him in a flying tackle as he yanked the door open, but I only managed to knock him into a stumbling sprawl halfway through the doorway. I crashed hard into the wall and went down, my breath rushing out in a painful whoosh. As Andrew scrambled to get up, I struggled to suck in air, to shift to my hands and knees.
A heavy thud followed by a screee of metal on concrete echoed from inside the warehouse as the pallet jack barricade gave way. We had only seconds before the Saberton guys were on us. My mind whirled. Maybe it would be better to cut our losses and let Andrew go? But we still weren’t out, and though we couldn’t count on Nicole Saber’s motherly priorities, having Andrew as a hostage had kept us whole to this point.
Even as I came to that conclusion, Kyle bounded up in a blur of zombie speed, flung the door fully open with one hand and grabbed the back of Andrew’s suit jacket with the other. In a smooth, swift action, he shifted his grip, hauled Andrew up by collar and waistband and flung him like a sack of potatoes toward Philip.
Andrew let out a strangled cry of shock but managed to keep his limbs tucked in as he landed. He’d be bruised and banged up but not broken.
“Philip!” Kyle cried out. “Grab him and get to the car!”
“That’s Griffin!” a voice said from inside the warehouse.
Kyle yanked me fully upright and shoved me hard between the shoulder blades to propel me toward Philip and Andrew. “Go!” he ordered, then wheezed a sharp cough.
“What’s wrong?” I tried to turn and look at him, but he shoved me again as the door clanged shut behind us. Philip shook off the MegaPlague greyout enough to drunkenly grab Andrew and roll with him off the edge of the dock.
“Go,” Kyle gasped as he staggered into me and gave me a hard double-handed push that sent me careening over the edge.
I tumbled down and only avoided a faceplant because Naomi was right there and helped break my fall. She’d pulled the car closer to the dock, and I saw that Philip and Andrew were already in the back seat.
“Kyle! No!”
I jerked my head up at Naomi’s anguished cry. Kyle lay crumpled on his stomach, partially body-blocking the door like a meat doorstop. Two darts protruded from his shoulder and neck, and I realized he must’ve tried to go back to block the door when he realized he wouldn’t make it off the dock before collapsing.
He still had enough control to shift his head to look at us. “Go.” I couldn’t hear it, but I saw it on his lips.
“Kyle!” Naomi screamed and lurched toward him, but I grabbed her and wrapped my arms around her to drag her back.
“You can’t!” I yelled. Already the door opened and crashed into Kyle, and I knew the Saberton dudes would be happy to tranq the rest of us as well. A heartbeat later, Edwards squeezed out, tranq gun in hand. Naomi stopped fighting me, and I released my bearhug, though I kept a hand on her arm. “We’ll come back for Kyle,” I told her as I pulled her toward the car. “We have to go. Now!” A dart whined past my ear as if to punctuate my words, and I clamped down on a shriek.
She ran with me to the car, eyes full of anguished determination. “Get in!”
I didn’t need any more encouragement. I dove into the passenger seat and slammed the door as another dart whacked against it. A second later Naomi took the driver’s seat, shoved the car into reverse and squealed tires out of the dock area. I set my foot against the dash, bracing myself as she threw the car into drive and gunned it toward the exit.
“Sonofabitch!” Naomi yelled, and I looked up to see three cars blocking the exit. Her face twisted in a storm of rage. “Hang on!”
I clung to the seat as Naomi slammed on the brakes. Cold dread wrapped around me. “Now what do we do?”
“Everyone get seatbelts on, NOW,” Naomi snapped out as she yanked her own on. I hurried to obey and hoped Andrew was smart enough to do so as well.
Naomi shoved the car into reverse and hit the gas again, then did something with brakes and the wheel and who the hell knew what else, and suddenly we were going forward in the other direction, down into the garage.
“Did you just do a bootlegger turn?” I yelled in a weird mix of terror and excitement.
“Sure did,” she yelled right back, then did a sweet as hell high-speed drift around a corner before accelerating again.
“That’s too fucking cool!” Damn, this chick knew how to drive. I clung to my seatbelt as she took another tight turn at obscene speeds. From the back seat I heard manly cries of alarm. “Where the hell are we going?” I asked.
“To the bottom,” she told me, eyes narrowing in grim focus. “There’s a hatch with access to service tunnels. We should be able to get out that way.”
I didn’t see any vehicles in pursuit yet, but that was probably because a) Naomi was driving like a well-trained maniac, and b) Saberton likely figured they could take their time since they had the only exit blocked. Still, it wouldn’t take them long to determine we’d found a way out.
“I know the tunnels really well,” she said after another turn. She opened her mouth to say more but stopped. I had a feeling she’d been about to spill how she knew the tunnels then remembered Andrew was in the car.