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Almost instantly, the camera shifted. It zoomed in closer and started replaying Craig and Laura's last moments in slow motion.

The whole thing was a thousand times worse at this speed. Every twitch and spasm was intensified and dragged out.

I watched, almost gagging, as their skin began splitting apart, peeling away, bubbling up underneath, like their whole bodies were dissolving. They were boiling alive, disintegrating, bodies eating themselves from the inside out.

Jordan snapped the laptop shut. She gave a shuddering gasp, tears streaming down her face.

I leant forward, arms wrapped around my stomach, breathing unsteady.

There was a retching sound behind me. Luke was hunched over, throwing up in the mud.

I slumped down against the nearest tree, sliding to the ground with my head in my hands. I couldn't move. Couldn't think. Couldn't do anything but watch that video replaying itself over and over in my head.

The retching stopped. Jordan had the closed laptop under one arm and was steadying Luke with the other. Touching him again. And I was too far gone to even care.

The rain spattered around us. I watched the droplets drumming onto the cashbox at my feet, streaming down over the barely legible
Tabitha
scraped into the lid.

Luke coughed a couple of times, wiped his mouth on his sleeve and said, ‘I don't – What could
do
that to a person?'

I leant forward, gathering the strength to get up. ‘It's – It's got to be some kind of … I don't know. Like a virus or something, right?' I said. ‘Some kind of biological weapon.'

‘Whatever it is, that's what's going to happen to everyone on the outside unless we can do something to stop Shackleton,' said Jordan.

She watched me getting to my feet, a searching look in her eyes.
Are you with us?

I straightened up and moved to stand next to her again.

‘Yeah,' I said slowly. ‘You're right. So we'll do something. Tomorrow.'

‘Tomorrow,' Jordan repeated, eyes still red with tears.

Luke let go of her. He rubbed his face and took a deep breath, like he was psyching himself up for something. Then he pulled the laptop out from under Jordan's arm.

‘We should watch the rest of it,' he said.

My stomach lurched. But he was right. As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. If there was anything else here that could help us, we needed to see it.

Jordan looked as miserable as I felt, but she didn't look away when Luke opened the laptop again.

The image on the screen skipped a few times, then started playing again.

And we watched in silence as the bloodied bodies of those two innocent construction workers writhed and squirmed and chewed themselves into nothingness.

And in the middle of all of that horror, even though there was nothing we could do to change any of it, at least now somebody knew the truth about what had happened to them.

Somehow that felt like it meant something.

The shredded remains of Craig's and Laura's clothes hit the concrete in slow motion.

And then it was over.

The clip faded to black and the DVD whirred to a stop.

And the three of us just stood there silently for a bit.

Silently enough for me to hear the sound of ragged breathing behind us.

Breathing I recognised.

Cat.

She was right behind us, backing off slowly, trying to get away without being seen. Her mouth opened and closed, failing to form words.

How long had she been standing there?

Long enough.

She turned and ran.

I sprinted after her, bashing through the undergrowth, between the trees, sliding in the mud, snatching at the air behind her back.

A shout and a crash rang through the bush behind me. Luke taking a dive. I kept running.

Cat hit the top of a little rise and vaulted over an enormous fallen tree. I leapt after her, glancing back, expecting to find Jordan right there with me. But either we'd got separated or she'd gone back for Luke.

It was just the two of us now.

Cat took a sharp right. Too sharp. Her right foot lost traction on the wet ground and she went slipping backwards.

I reached out and grabbed her with both hands, pulling her to her feet.

She jerked around, dragging herself free. ‘Y-you … you g-get away from me, you … y-you …' she stammered, her whole body shuddering.

‘Cat, no!' I said. ‘You don't – that had nothing to do with us!'

But she was beyond hearing it. ‘Get back!' she screamed. ‘Don't – don't you
dare –
'

She stumbled off into the bush again, and this time I let her go.

Chapter 24

W
EDNESDAY
, J
UNE
3
71
DAYS

When we got to school the next day, Cat showed no sign of ever having run into us.

Maybe she convinced herself that she'd imagined the whole thing. It would've been a perfectly understandable reaction. But somehow I didn't think that's what was going on.

She'd caught us out, up to our necks in apocalypse. And I had a feeling we'd be paying for that before long.

The rain had eased up overnight, but it was back with a vengeance by the morning.

Mr Larson took pity on us at lunch, and let everyone hang out in his room instead of freezing to death in the playground. Jordan, Luke and I sat up the back and made what little plans we could for that night.

We decided Pryor's office was the safest way in, once Reeve took care of the cameras. At least we could be pretty sure there'd be no-one around. We'd meet at the back gate at 11.45 p.m., sneak inside, and then …

Well, the rest was pretty much up for grabs.

To no-one's surprise, the perfect storm didn't keep Pryor from sending us out with our clipboards. I doubted I'd have much trouble convincing Staples to let us off early again, but Jordan and Luke didn't want to take any risks today.

When 4.30 p.m. finally arrived, we went our separate ways.

After following Luke halfway across town to make sure his and Jordan's separate ways really
were
separate, I went home to my room, searching for some way to pass the next seven hours.

For a while, I tried reading to take my mind off things. It always used to help me. But that was back when the things I was taking my mind off didn't liquefy people's insides.

I gave up and turned to video games. Then email. Then ice-cream. Then video games again.

Eventually I gave up altogether and lay on my bed, staring up at the ceiling.

It wasn't the first time I'd faced death since all of this started. But it was the first time I'd actually known going in that that's what I was doing.

If we got caught up there tonight, that would be the end of it. There'd be no weaselling out of trouble. No escaping. No playing dumb or pleading innocence. You don't
accidentally
wander into a place like that.

I skipped dinner.

At about 8 p.m. Dad knocked on the door.

‘You all right, Pete?' he said, walking in and seeing me lying on the bed. He was better on his feet now, but still not great.

‘Yeah,' I said, sitting up. Fear and suspicion and pity all combining into one dull lurch in the pit of my stomach. ‘Just tired. Think I might be getting a cold or something.'

‘That's no good,' Dad frowned. ‘Anyway mate, I'm off to a meeting in town. Could be a late one. Take it easy tonight, all right?

‘Uh-huh. See you.'

He was out of the house before I realised the full weight of what he'd just said.

Dad had a meeting tonight.

Calvin was out tonight too, overseeing a ‘special project'.

Whatever was going on with this cage thing of Crazy Bill's, it was happening
tonight.

I rolled over on the bed and buried my face in the pillow. As if I needed
that
to worry about on top of everything else.

I got up, walked around the room for a bit, went out and said goodnight to Mum, came back in, changed into some dark-coloured clothes, and got into bed.

I lay there in the dark, eyes open, waiting.

A hundred years later, it was time to go.

I got up, walked halfway out the door, then doubled back.

Crouching on the floor, I reached under my bed for where I'd taped Pryor's phone. I ripped it down and stuck the phone into my sock.

Just in case.

I crept down the stairs and out of the house, keeping watch for Mum coming out of the bedroom, or Dad coming in from his meeting.

It was still raining outside. Not as heavy as before, but enough to soak through my clothes.

I took the path along the back streets into school, staying well clear of the Shackleton Building. It was slow going. Even in the middle of the night, there were a dozen security officers patrolling the streets – and no cover anywhere, except the shadows and the tiny picket fences.

When I finally got to school, I thought I was the first one there. But then I saw movement a few metres away. Jordan was sheltering under the awning of the maths block.

‘Hey,' I whispered, jumping the gate and walking across to join her.

‘You ready?' she asked.

I pulled the hood up over my head. ‘I don't really know how to answer that question.'

Jordan smiled.

‘Are you?' I asked.

‘Yeah,' she said. ‘I mean, too late to turn back now, right?'

Actually, now was feeling like the
perfect
time to turn back. But I figured that probably wasn't the response she was after.

I moved in closer to her, as though I was trying to get further under the shadow of the building.

‘Luke said you're still getting those headaches,' I said.

A flicker of frustration crossed Jordan's face. She looked at me for a minute, considering. ‘Not just headaches,' she said. ‘They're – I think they're part of … something else.'

‘What d'you mean,
something else?
' I said.

Jordan sighed, like I'd said something wrong. ‘This why I didn't –' She leant back against the wall. ‘You'll think I'm going nuts.'

‘Try me,' I said.

‘
I
think I'm going nuts. Or, I would if this whole thing wasn't already so out there.'

A clang of metal made us both jump.

I looked up and saw Luke clambering in over the fence.

Nice timing, idiot.

‘That was close,' he said. ‘I was halfway down the stairs when Mum came out to go to the toilet.'

‘She see you?' Jordan asked.

‘Nah, she was still half-asleep,' said Luke. ‘Good thing, too. Imagine if she'd caught me sneaking around the house like this.'

He was dressed all in black with a beanie on his head. He looked like a cat burglar from an old movie.

Luke checked the time on his phone. ‘Five to,' he said. ‘Should we head over?'

‘Not yet,' said Jordan. ‘There'll be guards all over the main street. No point getting any closer to them until we have to.'

We waited in the shadows until midnight, then for an extra five minutes on top of that, just to make sure we'd given Reeve enough time to do his thing. Then we left our hiding place and crept to the front of the school.

There were still a few lights on in the quad, shining gleaming circles down onto the wet asphalt. We splashed across to the front office and peered in through the glass door.

‘Now what?' I asked.

But Jordan was already reaching into her pocket. She took out a sharp, pointed rock as big as her palm and crouched down at the door.

Luke grabbed her arm. ‘Jordan, they'll hear you!'

‘Not if I do it quietly,' said Jordan, pulling away from him. She started tapping the rock gently against the wide glass panel at the bottom of the door.

Luke got up and started scanning the quad for any sign of movement. ‘They're going to know it was us,' he said nervously.

‘No they won't,' I said. ‘It's not like a window getting broken in a school is anything –'

SMASH!

I whirled around. ‘What happened to
quietly?
'

‘It was taking too long,' said Jordan, clearing the spikes of glass away from the edges of the frame.

That was one explanation. Really, I think Jordan just likes to smash stuff.

‘C'mon,' she said, crawling in through the hole in the door.

Luke followed right behind her. As soon as he was inside, he ducked across to the other side of the room and peered out at the main street.

‘Doesn't look like anyone noticed,' he whispered as I crawled inside and stood up.

‘See?' said Jordan, brushing the broken glass off her knees. ‘Nothing to worry about.'

We headed down the hall to Pryor's office. I shivered. This place was bad enough during the day. At night, it was a whole new kind of creepy.

‘Uh-oh,' said Luke, stopping at Pryor's door. A little red light was flashing up from the key card scanner. ‘Does that mean the security's still on?'

‘No, Reeve would've left the doors switched on deliberately,' said Jordan. ‘Otherwise they'd be stuck bolted shut, right?'

I cringed. ‘If you say so.'

She swiped Montag's key card and the door clunked open.

My eyes shot straight to the ceiling. No blinking lights. Reeve had got the cameras off.

‘You bloody legend,' I whispered, heading inside.

‘All right,' said Jordan, pushing the door shut and switching on the lights. ‘Let's get down there.'

‘Uh-huh,' I said. ‘Any idea how we actually do that?'

She bent down and started rolling back the rug on Pryor's floor. ‘The entrance has got to be down here somewhere, right?'

‘Here,' said Luke. He bent down and started tracing his finger along a tiny groove in the floor, between two lines of grey tiles. The groove ran around in a perfect, metre-wide square.