Henna jolted awake, embarrassed that she had wrapped her arm around Cas in her sleep. Something was happening and, while sleeping in the tactical vehicle had muffled much of the eerie screams that still penetrated the solid concrete of the precinct, it sounded as though someone was attempting to get through the roller doors, outside.

Leaving Cas to her much-needed sleep, Henna returned the ear defenders to her head and opened the heavy rear doors of the van. The screaming was louder, as though the Screamers had moved closer to the building, and she could see the big, roller doors shudder and move as something, or someone, pushed against it.

Attaching the gun belt as she moved, she ran back upstairs, to the main floor of the police precinct, about to head to the roof, and stopped as she passed the door to the cells. The noise had increased in there, too. Something was happening, but she didn't want to open that door. Not yet. Instead, she headed through the door that led to the stairs to the flat roof of the building.

She stared down to the ground, outside the garage door, and couldn't believe her eyes. Dozens of Screamers had moved. Not only moved, but now pressed against the garage door, hammering at the metal, their upturned heads emitting screams far louder than she had ever heard before. Their open mouths gaped up toward her, but they didn't see her, if they could see at all. They only seemed to care about the door. The door behind which Cas slept.

Returning to the main floor, she ripped the mattresses away from the door to the cells and looked inside. Both prisoners and police officers reached out of the bars, some slamming their heads and bodies against the sturdy metal, breaking bones and skin, though little blood emerged from the damage they caused to themselves.

Heart racing, Henna could do nothing but return the mattresses to the door, taping them tight and then leaning back against the unforgiving blue plastic. Cas was right. Henna had thought Carla an aberration. A blip, or a glitch that only happened to her, but, it seemed clear now, it was not an isolated incident. The Screamers could move. They were moving and Henna had a gut instinct that they moved to find Cas.

"Wake up!" Henna almost dragged Cas through the open door of the van. "Wake up, Cas! Get your guns ready!"

They had packed much into the back of the van, all the weapons and ammunition, but there were still a couple of things Henna knew they could use. She waited until Cas opened her eyes, knowing that her ex needed far more rest than she had managed to have that night. As Cas rubbed her eyes, looking around, still half-asleep, Henna left her to finish waking up.

"Why didn't you wake me?" By the time Henna had reached the armoury cage, Cas had heard the commotion outside. She yelled to be heard, not in anger. "How bad is it?"

Cas ratcheted the shotgun in her hands as Henna prepared what she needed. They couldn't use the motorbikes, though they could have proven faster if they hit one of the jams of abandoned vehicles on the highways, but she could use some of the cops' equipment. She tossed a helmet toward Cas and indicated for her to put it on, even as she did the same with another helmet. They wouldn't keep out as much noise as the ear defenders, but they had other benefits.

She plugged the radio wire into the available socket on Cas' helmet, attaching the battery to her belt, then did the same for herself. Cas didn't even attempt to stop her, only watching with a detached curiosity, making occasional glances back toward the door that now bulged inward.

"It's bad." The radio made it easier to talk as she gathered a couple of brand new gas masks from a rack. "I believe you now. There're dozens of them, right outside that door. Moving! Screamers moving! With Carla, I ..."

"I know. I didn't believe it myself until I saw it with my own eyes. It's this ..." She patted her chest where the package sat, still taped there. "I don't know how, but they sense it. Then it's like they can somehow tell others. It spreads. It's why I didn't want to stay in one place too long."

"Well, we can't stay here. Those doors are holding, but they won't last forever." She hoped Cas had a plan, because she had no idea what to do, short of wasting all the precious ammunition they had found. And she didn't want to kill any Screamers. "Any ideas?"

Cas didn't reply. She looked toward the roller doors as they bulged inward and even Henna could see the strain the Screamers were putting on the doors would soon cause them to buckle. She pinched her thumb and forefinger against her eyes, still struggling to awaken after her deep sleep. Henna hoped Cas would say something soon, before the doors broke and they had no other option.

"You need to open the doors." She shook her head as Henna began to protest. "They'll ignore you. Well, I think they will. Open the doors, let them in and I'll lead them upstairs. As soon as it's clear enough, you get outside in the van and wait for me."

"That's not a plan!" She didn't like this plan. It had come in a half-asleep rush and it placed Cas in too much danger. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know. I'm making this up as I go." Cas shrugged, loosening her pistol in its holster. She picked up a screwdriver from the nearby bench, tossing and catching it. "Just ... as soon as they're all inside, close the doors again, trap them inside. Oh, and park near the wall."

Before Henna could even protest, Cas leaned in, kissing her on the lips before tearing away toward the doors leading upstairs. Henna touched her lips, hating herself for how good the kiss had felt, but happy knowing she hadn't instigated it, or want more. She hadn't cheated on Carla with that kiss, Cas had. Putting that kiss aside felt easy compared to what she needed to do now. Cas had jammed the screwdriver under the door, leaving it wide open for the Screamers to follow.

Now, Henna had to trust Cas' judgement that the Screamers wouldn't attack her once she opened that door. Though she had little time, by the looks of the door, she decided to watch out for her own safety. Finding the right keys, she started one of the cruisers and parked it at an angle beside the chains for the doors. If she needed to, she could hide behind the car.

That little extra security could prove the difference between living or dying, or it could mean nothing, but she had to do it. Now, standing on the trunk of the cruiser, she gripped the chains, and began to pull. At first, the rollers struggled to move, the weight of the Screamers pressed too hard against the doors, but then, little-by-little, Henna could feel movement and, soon, she had started to run the chain through the rollers at a faster pace.

Even before the doors had risen above knee height, the Screamers began to swarm through, dropping to the ground, scrambling on their bellies, their hands and knees, leaving fingernails and pieces of skin upon the ground, so desperate were they to enter the building. As they rose to their feet, screaming heads turning this way and that, one of them appeared to turn toward Henna, still stood on the cruiser, still winding the doors open.

That Screamer ran toward her, then stopped, it's chin and throat facing her as it screamed toward the garage ceiling. Almost as though it sniffed her, the tilted-back head bobbed and then inclined as the Screamer stepped closer. The doors were open enough, now, and Henna jumped down to the other side, drawing her pistol, aiming for the Screamer's head. She didn't want to shoot, but she would if she had to.

Still the Screamer edged forward as others began to pause in their race inside, turning toward that one Screamer, and toward Henna. She hadn't thought this through and neither had Cas. She began to rush through all the things she should have done instead, starting right back at the beginning. Not the beginning of the outbreak, but before that. The real beginning, where Carla had tried to get Henna to move out to the country.

Carla had always wanted to live self-sufficient. The solar panels on their house were Carla's idea, but she had wanted more. Or, more like less. Less of modern life. Less of the hustle and bustle of the city. Carla had wanted to go off-grid, to grow their own food, to adopt and bring up children in a safe, clean environment. But Henna hadn't wanted to leave. She couldn't say why, but she needed the city life. Now, she wished Carla had given her an ultimatum. Maybe, out in the wilds, Carla might not have succumbed to the Screamer disease.

With a bullet in the chamber, Henna pulled the hammer back and prepared to shoot the Screamer that still moved toward her. She should have moved the van here. Armoured, taller than the cruiser, she could have held off the Screamers, used the shotguns and the rifles inside. Maybe even tossed a few tear gas grenades, though she wasn't certain they would work against Screamers.

The Screamer stopped, as did the others that had turned toward her, and then something strange happened. The tone of its scream changed. Even through the motorcycle helmet, she heard the difference. The lead Screamer leaned its head back even further, as though looking up toward something above and now Henna could tell why. She heard shotgun blasts, not through the building, but over the radio in the helmet.

Like a whip cracking, the Screamer turned in one, swift movement, and began to race toward the stairs to the main floor. Other Screamers were already squeezing through that doorway, breaking arms, and legs and fingers to push themselves through as all the other Screamers did the same. Henna had no way to keep count, but it looked like hundreds passed her by, streaming continuously under the garage doors, racing to reach Cas above.

"You wanted them inside?" She knew Cas could hear her over the helmet radio. "Well, you got yourself a fucking shitstorm of Screamers coming your way. Be careful."

"No promises." The laugh that followed seemed out of place but Henna couldn't help but smile.

Whatever Cas had planned, she had more Screamers to contend with than Henna would like. As the last few Screamers made their way under the garage doors, Henna prepared to open them even more. She needed to drive that truck out of there and on to the extraction point. If Cas survived, that is.