Page 77 of Such a Feral Little Lamb
It’s not just that the people here have been killing teams of hunters. It’s that we were sent hereat all.
The would-be sacrificial lamb…
My stomach drops. Mason knows something. Far more than he should.
Blake is silent for too long, so I keep those thoughts to myself, as well as what Rae said about the conversation she had before she came here.
I don’t think Mason’s behind Otto’s death and Dane’s and Autumn’s disappearances. Truthfully, I don’t think any of the townspeople are. And to take out an entire team—which I think is what they’ve been doing, until now—they’d have to strike quickly. Not reveal themselves and let us stay here.
What’s different about us?
“We need to go back,” Blake says. His face is pale, and his hands tremble a little when he closes the cupboard door. “We need to tell Rae.”
I nod. I open the door and keep my eyes fixed on the corridor as he locks the cupboard again, then the door behind us. It only takes us half as long to find our way back, and Rae scowls when she sees us, axe in hand.
“I didn’t know where the fuck you two went. What—”
“We’re not safe here,” Blake says, and I nod quickly. There’s no sign anyone’s come back, but they could at any time, and we don’t need them to work out what we know. Even if they let uslive so far, there’s nothing to say they won’t turn on us if they find out what we know.
My stomach twists painfully. Mason said he wouldn’t lie to me. He was lying when he said that, wasn’t he?
“What do you—”
Voices drift towards us and I shake my head sharply, cutting Rae off. She gets to her feet and wanders over to the hall that leads towards the stairs.
Nia comes to us first. “No sign of them,” she says. “We’ll send some more teams out in a bit. We need to coordinate what we’re doing.”
Callum and Emma are behind her, and I try to read their faces. Are they going to kill us all now? And, for that matter, whyarewe still alive?
I’ve no doubt that they killed the other hunters. Or that they’re dead, at least, however it happened. No hunter would willingly give up their weapon.
Others enter the room, and soon it’s all of us, with the obvious exceptions of Otto, Autumn, Dane, and…
“Where’s Mason?” I ask.
Sal frowns. Nia glances around the room.
“He was just…” she begins, then trails off.
“He was with me,” Sal says. “We left the school and he was next to me.”
“And then?”
Sal opens his mouth and closes it again. “I—” He shakes his head. “I don’t know.”
The room descends into quiet chaos. I struggle to catch my breath. There’s an edge of panic to the air that makes things worse because Masonismissing, and that seems not to be part of anyone’s plan at all.
“Enough!” Nia shouts. “Sal, go upstairs. Check if you can see him.”
Sal leaves. I drag air into my lungs and push it out again. He’ll be fine. He has to be. He destroyed all those zombies and barely broke a sweat. He said he’d kill Dane for me.
Sal returns a few minutes later. “He’s not there,” he says, face bleached of all colour. “Mason’s gone.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Niastartsissuingorders,but I don’t listen. I can hardly listen to Rae either, who’s trying to convince me to sit down and take a moment.
Mason’sgone.
