Plague

indifferent to religion.
    But this was not the time. The sad creature that was Brittney was just a tool of the malevolent creature she had confused with God.
    In any case, why was Astrid defending Little Pete? She’d been ready to see him die if it meant an end to the suffering.
    “God doesn’t ask for human sacrifices,” Astrid said.
    “Doesn’t He?” Brittney smirked. “What am I, Astrid? What are any of us? And what was Jesus? A sacrifice to appease a vengeful God, Astrid.”
    Astrid had nothing to say. She knew all the right answers. But the will was gone. Did she herself even believe in God anymore? Why argue over a phantom? They were two fools arguing over lies.
    But Astrid still had her pride. And she could not remain silent and let Brittney have the final word.
    “Brittney, do you really want to kill a little boy? No matter what your so-called God tells you, isn’t it wrong? When your beliefs tell you to murder, doesn’t a voice inside you tell you it is wrong?”
    Brittney frowned. “God’s will . . .”
    “Even if it is, Brittney, even if that mutant monster in a cave really is God, and even if you’ve understood Him perfectly, and you’re doing His will, and He wants you to kill, to deliver a little boy to Him so that He can kill, isn’t it wrong? Isn’t it just plain wrong?”
    “God decides right and wrong.”
    “No,” Astrid said. And now, despite everything, despite her own exhaustion, despite her fear, despite her self-loathing and contempt, she realized she was going to say something she had never accepted before. “Brittney, it was wrong to murder even before Moses brought down the commandments. Right and wrong doesn’t come from God. It’s inside us. And we know it. And even if God appears right in front of us, and tells us to our faces to murder, it’s still wrong.”
    It was that simple in the end, Astrid realized. That simple. She didn’t need the voice of God to tell her not to kill Little Pete. Just her own voice.
    “Anyway, Brittney,” Astrid said. “If you want to get to Petey, you have to go through me.”
    She smiled then for what felt like the first time in a long time.
    Brittney, too, smiled, but sadly. “I won’t, Astrid. But Drake will. You know he will. The bugs are all around this building, waiting. And when Drake comes, he will take Little Pete and kill you.”
    The two girls had almost forgotten the swaying, bleary-eyed Orc.
    He moved now with surprising speed. He grabbed Brittney by the neck and waist and threw her from the window.
    “I don’t like her,” he said.
    Astrid ran to the window and saw Brittney lying flat on the ground.
    The bugs turned their blue eyes upward.
    Indifferent to Brittney—who was already picking herself up, unharmed—they surged toward the ruined front door of Coates Academy.
    “About time.” Orc laughed. “Let’s get this over with.”
    “Orc, don’t let them kill you,” Astrid said, putting her hand on his arm.
    “You was always nice to me, Astrid. Sorry I . . .” Then he shrugged. “Don’t matter now. Better get out if you can. Most likely this won’t take long.”
    He ran into the hallway. Astrid last saw him as he laughed at the bugs below him, vaulted the landing rail, and dropped down into the swarm.
    “You want Orc?” he bellowed. “Come and get me!”
    The boy, whose name was Buster, tried to get away, tried to stand up and run, but he was far too slow, far too sick. He coughed and stumbled and fell on his knees.
    The bug’s tongue attached to his neck and yanked him headfirst into flashing mouthparts.
    A girl named Zoey coughed, doubled over with the pain of it, and a second later was caught and eaten.
    It was a massacre.
    Brianna flew like a madwoman, her knife flashed, her sawed-off shotgun barked, but the bugs were up the stairs and pushing inside, smelling the fresh meat in the hospital.
    One of the bugs had grown so big it became jammed and blocked the doorway, but at least one of the creatures had made it inside already, and Brianna could hear muffled screams of terror from down below.
    She darted, bypassed a flashing tongue, leaped over scythe mandibles, and stabbed a bug in both red eyes. Then she stuck her shotgun into the gnashing mouth and pulled the trigger.
    The massive creature shuddered, but did not die.
    Brianna barely leaped aside in time to avoid being caught. And then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw one of the massive creatures rise, turn in midair, and land hard on