Page 12 of Lagoon

And the blood. Oh, God, theblood.

He—

CHAPTER FIVE

RILEY GOT TOher feet as she saw Dr. Greyson barreling toward her, running fast.

“Dr. Stine, go!” he shrieked.

She looked up to see that Bub was coming around the bend, running even faster, gaining on Dr. Greyson. She paused for too long, trying to make sense of what was happening.

“Run!” he cried.

And then she did. She took off running down the dirt path toward the cabins, and she didn’t even look back, not until she was in sight of the angular buildings.

When she did, she saw Dr. Greyson, just on her heels, but she didn’t see Bub.

“Run! Don’t look back at me!” Dr. Greyson screamed at her.

“He’s gone,” she said, coming to a halt, panting, looking around.

Dr. Greyson stopped too, looking behind him. He scanned the area. No Bub in sight. He caught up to her, hand on her back again. He was panting. “He slashed his neck! He killed Nick. Bub killed Nick.”

“Oh, God!” she said, horrified.

“I know,” said Dr. Greyson, pulling her along with him. Still panting, he tugged her down the path and then up the steps of one of the cabins.

At the door, he swore liberally under his breath, and then put his palm against the keycard sensor. “Override, code red,” he said. “Authorization, lagoon.”

The door opened.

Dr. Greyson pulled her inside.

He shut the door behind them.

She gasped for breath. “Is this your cabin?”

“Yeah,” said Dr. Greyson, crashing through the place to the kitchen, where he grabbed two coffee mugs and filled them with water from the tap. “Shit, shit, shit. All ruined, everything ruined. It’s all gone. I can’t believe it. And Nick, for fuck’s sake, Nick.”

“He was going home to his daughter,” she breathed.

“Right?” Dr. Greyson turned around, holding out the mugs. He staggered across the room and handed one to her. “They’ll kill him. They’ll shoot him down like a rabid dog.”

“You mean Bub.”

“Gone,” said Dr. Greyson, shaking his head. “Years of research, gone.”

“W-well, they can’t kill him,” said Riley. She gulped at the water. “No, he’s the only one of his species. You can’t wipe out an entire species—”

“He killed a person,” said Dr. Greyson. “Security will have done it before we can say anything.”

“No,” she said. “No, who’s in charge here, you or them?”

“What kind of monster do I look like if I’m telling them not to kill Bub?” said Dr. Greyson.

“You said there’s a tank,” she said, fierce. “Tranq him again and get him there. That’s the job of security.”

Dr. Greyson rubbed his forehead. “You’ll agree with me on that?”

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