Setting Traps

Reid hears Ashley's footfalls before he sees her, his focus sharpening down the trail. With quiet deliberation, he unfolds his knife as the tall, slim girl appears through the canopy, running hard, her sneakers barely making a sound as she flies along the path, auburn hair streaming out behind her.

She glances up. Their eyes meet and she pumps a fist, fear written all over her face but a wild exultation there, too. She doesn't stop but continues on, while a flicker behind her draws Reid's attention to the hunter pursuing her up the trail.

Reid is tired of running, tired of hiding. It's time to take the fight to the enemy. No more picking the kids off one by one, wearing them down with terror and starvation. He is ready to act and so are his friends. But something is changing inside Reid, an effect of the strange dust the hunters dissolve into when they die, and he worries he is turning into one of the very creatures he despises.