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they hadn’t fed in months. The hungrier the biter, the more desperate it would be.
    “Wisteria!” Melissa wailed as three more flesher children descended on her.
    “Run.” Wisteria bolted as Melissa’s screams filled the air.
    Intending to circle back to the front door, Wisteria ran around the makeup counters and clothes racks. She checked if she was still being followed. There was no one behind her, no biters, and no Amanda. She desperately looked around for her.
    Amanda was heading up the stairs, deeper into the building, with two little biters hot on her heels.
    Wisteria’s instinct was to run away, but Amanda was unarmed and no match for the two biters chasing her. Praying, she took a deep breath and ran to the stairs. She aimed her rifle at the one of the biters and fired. The biter dropped.
    “Ah,” wailed Amanda. “Wisteria, help me!”
    Wisteria sprinted toward the girl’s panicked screams, heading up another flight of stairs. She cured the second biter by the time Amanda reached the fourth floor. Out of breath, Wisteria found Amanda, crouched in the fetal position, sobbing and hidden in the electronics section.
    “We need to go.” Wisteria tried to help Amanda to stand up.
    “We’re going to die.” Amanda didn’t move.
    “Maybe.” Wisteria crouched next to her. “But my mother and Lieutenant Andrew are outside. We’ve got a chance as long as we’re quiet.”
    Amanda wiped at her eyes.
    Wisteria helped her up and noticed the puddle of urine on the ground where the weeping girl had sat. This was a mad time.
    “We’re going to go down stairs and head straight out the front door.” Wisteria reached for her radio, but it was gone. She’d dropped it.
    “Okay.” The frightened girl sniffled.
    The coast was clear, so they silently crept back to the stairs.
    “Argh.” A full-grown man staggered toward them.
    “Oh!” Amanda squealed.
    Wisteria shot him with a dart rifle and he dropped, but four more children biters appeared.
    More howls and snarls came from the floor below.
    “No, no, no,” Amanda bawled. “Wisteria, shoot them!”
    “I can’t. There are too many.” Wisteria seized Amanda’s hand and started back up the stairs. She stopped at the sight of six biters ambling down toward them.
    “Wisteria!” Amanda screeched.
    They ran back through the music section. Weaving through the shelves, the girls made it to the fire escape.
    Wisteria kicked the door open and they ran in. She closed the door after them, but the door had no lock. It was a fire escape. “Go,” she yelled at Amanda.
    The girls raced down the stairs and the biters soon followed.
    Almost reaching the ground floor, Amanda tripped, falling on Wisteria. The girls tumbled down the last flight of stairs.
    The biters were less than three flights behind them. By the chorus of groans, there were more than two or three.
    “Let’s go.” Amanda sprang up and dashed to the door.
    Wisteria attempted to get up, but found her right ankle was hurt badly. “My ankle’s sprained.” She hobbled as she tried to walk. “You’ll have to help me. If we barricade them inside, once we get out—”
    Without a word, Amanda grabbed Wisteria’s rifle and sword. She turned and ran away.
    “Amanda! Are you joking?” She limped out onto a fire exit.
    There was no sign of Amanda.
    Her mother and Andrew could still be parked out front or circling the High Street, so she staggered through the alley and saw Amanda fleeing down some steps.
    The moans of the biters became louder as they got closer. Wisteria moved as fast as she could, but each step on her right foot was agony. Coming to a long flight of stairs, she stopped. This was the way back to the High Street and to where the SUV was, but in her state, the biters would reach her before she was halfway down.
    The fire door opened and shut.
    Glancing back, she saw six biters advancing. Looking around, she saw her sword lying at the bottom of the steps.
    There was only one option. She’d