Watchers of the Night

by Matthew Keith

  * * *

  Almost immediately, they were jolted up into full alertness by the sound of an alarm.

  “This is it,” Parker said to him with wide eyes.

  Jumping up, Paul went to the door, but Nate was still standing in the center of the room, not moving. He just stared up at the speaker from which the alarm blared.

  “Nate!” Paul cried out in frustration, even though he knew the Sentinel couldn’t hear him. Growling in impatience, Paul focused his ability and bumped the heel of his hand against Nate’s shoulder, pushing him toward the door.

  Nate looked around wildly, “Paul?” he asked, still not moving.

  “Are you kidding me?” Paul exclaimed, and stepped over to the door. He focused his energy, pounding three times on the door.

  Finally, Nate snapped out of it. “The door!” he said. “Open it for ninety seconds. Yes! Sorry!”

  After Nate finally opened the door, Paul squeezed through to find the hallway in turmoil. Liz, Juliet, and Kenneth were already out of their rooms, standing in a group. Looking toward the lounge, Paul saw Hodge and his group of Walkers making a break for the stairwell.

  As for the Sentinels, aside from Nate and Kate they were all—both Hodge’s group and Paul’s—in the hallway outside the rooms, most of them in the process of closing the doors to the rooms they guarded. Alex and Rodrigo eyed the other Sentinels suspiciously, who returned their looks with equal suspicion.

  Steven was the only Sentinel on the move, running to his and Paul’s safe room to make the call that Paul had asked him to make.

  There was no sign of Hodge, even though Rex was there with the rest of the Sentinels.

  “What do we do?” Liz asked. “Do we go upstairs? Do we stay here? It doesn’t look like whatever’s happening is going on down here.”

  “We stay here,” Paul said. “This is what this area was built for. We’ll be safe here as long as someone is smart enough to get that blast door closed.”

  As if he’d heard him, Steven ran from their safe room and out through the blast door, disappearing into the stairwell. Paul had no idea where Steven was going, but he had to trust that whatever Steven had heard over the phone was what had motivated him to go. As if spurred by Steven’s actions, Rex went to the door and grabbed hold of the cog wheel to pull it shut until a voice stopped him.

  “Stop!” Hodge’s yell came from the other side of the door. “Not yet!”

  Rex stopped, looking around at nowhere in particular. He’d clearly heard and recognized Hodge’s voice. None of the other Sentinels made any move to encourage him to do otherwise.

  “Paul!” Hodge called out in a panic. “I need your help! They’re going to kill him!”

  Paul and Kenneth exchanged confused looks and moved toward the blast door where Hodge was waiting.

  “What do you mean?” Paul asked. “Kill who?”

  “Abrams, you dumb ass, who do you think?” Hodge was almost incoherent. “They kept saying they were going to do it but I didn’t believe them. But they’re going to do it! They’re going to do it now! You have to come with me! We have to stop them!”

  “Stop who? Who kept saying it?” Paul asked, looking back at the Sentinels. “They’re all here!”

  “You want me to write a frikkin book? Dittrich and his goons are headed to find Abrams right now and if we don’t get there—now—he is going to die!”

  Paul took a step forward and hesitated. Should he really consider trusting Hodge? Thinking frantically, he tried to remember a single time Hodge or anyone else had said that Hodge was involved with Dittrich’s plan, but he couldn’t. Not even Lisa or Dittrich had ever said anything about Hodge, not directly. Paul had always assumed because Hodge was so rude and was Lisa’s boyfriend, that he must be involved. But that didn’t necessarily mean Paul was right.

  He looked over at Kenneth and saw the same thing going through his mind.

  “I’ll go with you,” Kenneth said to Paul.

  “Perfect!” agreed Hodge impatiently.

  As the three of them ran through the blast door, Hodge took a deep breath and yelled, “Close it!”

  Rex didn’t waste any time. He slammed the door shut just as Kenneth got through.

  Paul raced for the stairwell but Hodge stopped him short. “Wait! No! Down in Abrams’ suite! That’s where we have to go!”