In the blink of an eye, Mrs. Monique dove forward and speared Miriam's waving hand. The tip connected with the girl's palm, punctured through, and struck the wall beside the door with a loud clang. "That's enough!" shouted the librarian.

Miriam stared at her skewered hand. It was pinned to the wall. Blood dribbled from the wound, and her green eyes blinked. The corners of her lips twitched, and her face distorted like she was about to cry. She let out a loud, haunting wail, turning slowly to look at everyone, her eyes wide and full of tears as if silently asking, Why would you do this to me?

She pulled on her hand, and Susan winced because it looked like the girl was trying to rip her hand free of the spear. The skin stretched. The fingers stretched. More blood gushed out and ran down the wall, but Mrs. Monique yanked the spear free before it could get worse.

Miriam hiccupped, wiped her eyes with her ruined hand, smearing fresh blood across her cheeks, and then smiled. She pursed her lips as though she were blowing a bubble with chewing gum, and another dark green bubble expanded outward. Mackenzie dashed forward, about to follow up on Mrs. Monique's attack, and Susan tried to grab her arm.

"Wait!" said Susan with a shout, but she was too slow to catch her. The bubble snapped free of Miriam's lips and exploded with a dazzling flash of green light.

Screams echoed up and down the stairwell. The shockwave threw Susan down the flight of stairs. The dead bodies erupted, limbs and pieces scattered all over. She couldn't see where the others had gone, and she landed on top of something large and hard.

It took her a moment to pull herself up, and she realized she was on the chest of a Wretched Angel. Its head was split open nearly down to its mouth. Its purple covering was cracked. Susan scrambled to get off, breathing hard. Her body ached all over, but it could’ve been worse. Her ears rang. Her head spun. But at least she wasn’t badly hurt. She’d even managed to hold onto her cattle prod.

She leaned against a partially collapsed wall and stared up the stairwell to the second-floor door. The walls had been blasted so that their insides spilled into the stairs. What was wrong with Miriam? Why had she become this? Why did it remind Susan of what happened to Jenny?

Had the girl lost her mind? The way she'd attacked the babies... the way she ate one of the babies. Miriam had always been quiet and reserved, keeping to herself to avoid getting teased or harassed. One time, some kids from the football team had taken to yanking on her hijab, pulling it back and ruining the folds. And Miriam had snapped, swearing at them in Arabic, but that had only made them tease her more. Susan had always tried to be nice to Miriam, but it wasn’t like she’d stepped in to stop the harassment. And what was she supposed to do now?

Dust swirled. Something creaked overhead, and Susan heard coughing. Dule emerged. His helmet was missing, and a nasty bruise had formed on his forehead, but he held Oliver in his arms. He opened his mouth to say something, but all he managed was more coughing, and he had to place Oliver down, propping him up against the dead Wretched Angel that Susan had landed on.

From the corner of her eye, she saw some bodies move, and her heart sped up instinctively. Panic surged through her. But it was only the dead.

Mackenzie pushed several bodies off her and sat up. She summoned her knife back with a flash of light. Her ruined armor had crumbled away, revealing a torn gray sweater. She looked murderous. Her face softened when she spotted Oliver and Dule. Susan noticed that her arms were mostly bare now, burnt-looking and raw, and she imagined that was how Mackenzie protected herself from the explosion.

But where was Mrs. Monique? As Mackenzie tended to Dule, Susan searched the rubble, fear spreading through her with each feeble step. She tripped once or twice and stepped on a few things that squished under her feet. But there was no sign of the librarian until she heard shouting overhead. Followed by wretched cries that had to be Miriam’s.

Mackenzie shot Susan a look before dashing up the stairs two at a time. The steps were clear of bodies, and Susan followed slowly, trying not to twist her ankle on any loose chunks of the wall. She clicked her cattle prod on so that it crackled and vibrated in her hand. She might not be able to shoot lightning again, and she didn't particularly want to after that reaction with one of Miriam's bubbles, but if she could stun the girl, maybe the others could stop her. Permanently.

Humans remaining: 12

"Oh," she whispered, pausing and squeezing the railing. It had come up subconsciously; she didn't want to know. Didn't want to see it drop by another number. Was Jenny one of the 12 left? And if they didn't stop Miriam, then their numbers would be subtracted from the total and...

Strength she couldn't explain flowed through her. It was like a second or third wind, and she climbed as quickly as she could, reaching the top steps just as Mackenzie slashed Miriam's leg.

Mrs. Monique jabbed toward the girl's face, but the tip of the spear only caught the helmet and knocked it off. It clattered to the floor and rolled toward Susan. The pink coloring was scorched to an ashy black. And it didn't look anything like the helmet she'd originally made. The top plastic was peeled and curled so that it resembled an ugly, twisted crown.

Miriam slapped Mackenzie hard enough to knock her into the door. Mackenzie's face struck the heavy metal, and she crumpled without a sound.

With a laugh, Miriam whirled around and tackled Mrs. Monique’s legs, bringing the librarian down with a heavy crash. Miriam tried to pin Mrs. Monique’s arms and bite her, looking oddly similar to the first Tarnished Angel that Susan saw.

But before Miriam's teeth could connect with anything, Mrs. Monique managed to roll to the side and knock her away. Miriam cried out in frustration, her head turning this way and that, as if trying to find a way out. But when she caught sight of Susan, her eyes lit up. She shoved the librarian and scrambled toward the steps, reaching out with stained hands.

Susan was shaking badly, but she let go of the railing and was just about to hit Miriam with the cattle prod when Mrs. Monique grabbed the girl’s hijab and tugged hard. Miriam’s head snapped back. She twisted and wailed, but the librarian attacked with her spear. The tip sliced through Miriam’s shirt, leaving a groove of red in her exposed pale skin. But that didn’t slow her down.

She leaped onto Mrs. Monique and pushed her against the wall. Her fingers found Mrs. Monique’s face, and this time it was the librarian screaming uncontrollably as nails raked her cheeks and her lips and clawed her empty eye socket.

"Stop!" cried Susan, diving for Miriam. She slammed the cattle prod into the gash Mrs. Monique had made, an ugly cut that went down her side toward her navel. There was a brief instance of resistance, and then the prod slid inside Miriam.

Electricity surged into her thin body, and she started convulsing. Her fingers curled into fists, latching onto Mrs. Monique’s face. She shook violently. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head till she looked just like the angels, a warbled scream lodged in her throat.

Mackenzie appeared next, shouting something that sounded like "Stupid bitch!" The side of her face was a mess, an ugly purple mark forming around her cheekbone. She was about to thrust her knife into Miriam's throat when green light bubbled out of Miriam's open mouth.

There was a series of cracks, and the light blossomed and shot upwards, illuminating the underside of the stairwell above for a hideous second before erupting. This time the explosion was overhead. All they felt was wind and searing heat, and then the steps came crashing down.

Large chunks struck the floor beside them. One clattered over Mackenzie's head. Her knife went flying out of her hands, and in the chaos, Susan's grip on the cattle prod slipped.

"It leveled up!” shouted Miriam. “It got stronger! I got stronger!"

As stuff crashed down around them, Miriam pointed at the floor. Green rings of light traveled down her arm in waves, gathering at the tip of her finger as her hand shook. It looked like a weapon charging up, and Miriam was struggling to hold on. Then it all released at once with more force than anything Miriam had shot at them before.

For a moment, Susan thought she was dead. The floor erupted, and everything went dark. Or was it too bright? She couldn't tell, but she was sure her face should've been burnt away. Her ruined armor should have evaporated, and there should be nothing left of her skin or her bones.

Instead, all she felt was a dropping feeling like she was falling. Then she hit the stairwell below, breaking through those steps as though the entire building was collapsing, and when she struck the floor, all she felt was the sudden shock of coming to a stop.

She opened her eyes and found herself encased in something that looked like glass. Square panels of silvery light shimmered and encompassed her in a cube. A similar silver cube was around Mackenzie who was out cold, lying on her side with blood around her head. Rubble bounced off the protective cubes and clattered away.

Then she saw Mrs. Monique who was inside of her own cube, a strained expression on her face, the veins throbbing on her forehead. Her arms were raised with the palms facing Susan and Mackenzie, and Susan realized what had happened.

The librarian had figured it out. Her skill. The barriers! With a gasp, Mrs. Monique dropped her arms, and the barriers flickered away, leaving the librarian gasping for breath, sweat and blood running down the sides of her face.

Sound rushed back to Susan. Pieces of the stairwell clattered down around them in clouds of dust. Her heart thundered. Then she heard a wheezing and rasping coming from behind, and Susan turned to see Miriam stretched out on her back.

Her face was darkened. Her body was hit by a large chunk of the stairwell, several steps still attached together, and it lay over her hips and thighs. Her hijab had come nearly undone, trailing from her head like a cloth river winding through rubble.

"What the fuck?" Dule appeared, covered in dust and looking desperate and frantic and holding the unconscious Oliver in his arms. Susan exhaled a sigh of relief. She'd been half afraid they'd crushed the boys in the fall.

Before Susan could respond, Miriam started laughing. It was a choked painful laugh, but the girl shifted the rubble off her and struggled to sit up. “Isn’t it neat? I can do this now.” Green light surged back to her fingertip, and she pointed at Susan’s face. More rings of light flashed up Miriam’s arm. Her eyes widened with glee.

Susan braced herself for the worst, but Mrs. Monique raised her hand, and a silver sheet of light shimmered in front of Susan and the others. The librarian looked completely drained; generating the barriers must cost as much stamina as Susan’s lightning. And how did impacts affect the ability?

Miriam didn’t fire again. She cocked her head, blinking over and over. Then a blue light flashed, making Susan wince before she realized it wasn’t green. It wasn’t another exploding bubble, but she recognized the light. Fear flared to life in her head, and a desperate need to run seized her.

But it didn’t seem to affect Miriam the same. The girl’s smile widened as she got to her feet. Her legs were shaking. Her torn shirt flapped so that Susan could see the gash down her side; the cattle prod stuck in the wound. Her hijab trailed behind her, revealing her dark hair. The cloth was still attached by a clip, but she didn’t seem to notice. Instead, she licked her lips and lowered her glowing green hand. “They’re here,” she said softly. “Right here.” And she pointed ahead, through the blasted open doorway and down the hall. “In the lunchroom.”

Miriam straightened up, squeezing her eyes shut as she lifted her nose to sniff. “And there’s more... kids... weak and easy...” She laughed and shook her head. “Forget you guys,” she said, and she walked by them, her glowing hand raised as a warning.

The barrier moved around Susan, keeping a separation between her and Miriam as the girl left them behind. They heard rumblings and shouts. Something screamed, a hideous ugly scream, and a jolt shivered through the entire building, knocking more rubble and dust loose.

Blue light flashed over and over, and each time, a fresh ripple of fear cut through Susan’s chest like a shard of glass. She wanted to throw up. She wanted to rip out her heart and make it stop. She kept seeing the worst happening. Kept picturing Jenny’s death in every way imaginable. Decapitation via teeth. Claws buried in Jenny’s stomach. Her limbs ripped apart. Her jaw torn off. On and on it went, and it hurt each time, even though she knew it was the light causing this.

It hit the others just as hard. Mackenzie covered her ears with her hands, screwing up her eyes as if trying to hide from a terrible storm. Dule dropped to one knee, his head bowed, tears leaving trails down his dust-covered face as he struggled to breathe. Mrs. Monique dropped her barrier and slammed a fist against her armor, the sound ringing down the basement hallway.

Only Miriam seemed completely unphased by the light. She approached the cafeteria doors and turned to look back at Susan. “Just in case,” she said. “I want to level up some more.” Then pointed with her glowing finger and released another blast of green light.