THE VAMPIRE UNDERGROUND

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Paul stayed close behind, tugging Chace and the slow, portly Anaya with all his might, as Brin pushed through the double doors of the rehearsal area and started winding her way through the thin corridors underneath the Underground.

“Come on, guys,” Brin said. “You have to move faster.”

Lavender was almost back to normal, but Dylan was still dragging behind, still acting like he wanted to go back to his chair and fall asleep. Brin wouldn’t allow it; she hadn’t come this far to let that happen.

She turned left, and then made another left, and thought, for a moment, she had made a wrong turn.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. She hadn’t heard any vampire activity since she charged through the doors, but now she could hear a rumble of footsteps and a chorus of screaming, and it was coming not from behind, but from the front.

“Crap,” Brin said.

She had stopped, only for a second, when she heard another stampede of vampires, this one coming from behind.

“Over here!” Paul shouted from across the way. He was still tugging the sleepy Anaya, but Chace was now running on his own. “Brin, over here!”

“You saved us,” Lavender said softly, as she yanked herself away from Brin and started running on her own. “I can’t believe you saved us!”

“Now’s not the time,” Brin said, grabbing hold of Dylan. “Let’s go!”

The vampires were ten seconds behind them, maybe even five. Brin raced as fast as she could toward Paul, who was on the right track, headed to that small opening in the cement wall. 

When Brin and the others reached the space, Paul was already pushing Chace inside.

“He’s in!” Paul shouted. “Who’s next?”

“I’m goin!” Lavender said. She was so freakishly thin that she was able to push herself inside faster than what seemed humanly possible. 

Brin turned around. She could see a horde of vampires racing toward them.

“Shit!” Brin shouted. “They’re coming! Dylan! Hurry!”

Paul took one foot and Brin took the other, hoisting Dylan into the air and toward the opening in the wall. Paul pushed him hard and Brin pushed him harder, and in under the wall he went.

“OK!” Paul said. “Now you, Brin!”

“What about you?”

“No time! Let’s go!”

Brin looked to her left to see dozens of agitated vamps rushing toward them. She turned to her right to see Anaya, still lethargic, leaning up against the wall with a glazed look in her eye.

She won’t fit, Brin thought. There’s no way.

“Move!” Paul shouted. “Now!”

He kneeled down and pushed Brin up toward the wall opening. She struggled, like the time before, to scoot her way in, but she managed.

She was halfway in when Paul said, “OK, I have to go!”

“Go?” Brin shouted. “Where?”

The vampires were five seconds away, four seconds away.

“Do you have it? Can you get in?”

“I’m fine! Where are you going?”

“There’s another way out. I’ll take Anaya there.”

Three seconds. Two seconds.

“No! But… wait!”

“Goodbye,” Paul said as he grabbed Anaya and started dragging her up the stairs and out of sight.

One second.

Brin pushed herself through the slit and turned over on her stomach, ready to kick her feet up and start running down the hall toward Paul’s little shack. She heard the vampires crashing against the wall behind her, all wanting to rip her from end to end.

She brought her left foot up.

She couldn’t bring her right foot up.

Her right foot was stuck.

No. Oh no, no, no.

Before she could scream, a vampire grabbed her foot and started pulling her back through the opening.