As Sienna skidded into the kitchen, she realised their school friend wasn't with them. "Where's Ellie?" she asked.
Ethan's wide-eyed shrug wasn't comforting.
"Stay here," Sienna instructed. "Find somewhere for us to hide. I'll bring her back."
Ethan nodded as Sienna ducked back into the dining hall. It took only a second to register where the girl was - her heaving sobs giving her away. She was curled up under a table, clearly terrified. She flinched as Sienna skidded down next to her.
"Hey Ellie. Wanna come with me?"
The girl's big, dark eyes spilled tears. "I - want - to - stay - here." Her words came out as independent hacks.
"It's just not so safe here. You saw how easily I found you, right? Let's go find Ethan in the kitchen. I think he'll have found the perfect hidey hole for us.
"Do you think?"
"I sure do."
In the distance, they heard the sound of the outer door slam closed. "Ready to go?" Sienna;s voice quavered. She knew exactly what that slamming door meant. Ellie slid out from under the table and climbed to her feet with unbearable slowness. Sienna had to refrain from grabbing her by the pig tails and hauling her to her feet.
The door at the entrance to the food hall slammed open, hit the wall and bounced back again.
Sienna couldn't hold herself back any longer. Grabbing Ellie by her armpits, she dragged her across the hall. Her powerful legs crossed the distance quickly, even dragging the extra weight.
As she dove through the kitchen door, Sienna glanced back to glimpse the creature leaping across the room, table top to table top.
"Here!" Ethan threw a metal rod at her, which she deftly caught and thrust through the door handles securing them.
"That's not going to hold for long." Sienna cried, backing away from the door as the creature smacked up against it.
"That's just part A of my plan." Ethan sounded confident, so she waited to hear the rest. "Ellie, come over here. Sienna - to the freezer."
Ellie didn't need convincing. She ran across the kitchen and tucked herself into the small cupboard he had open, waiting for her.
Sienna was less convinced. "You want me in the freezer?" The door to the kitchen thudded under the creature's weight.
"No. By the door."
Sienna looked at the floor by the door of the freezer and sure enough there was a large metal canister sitting there, open.
"Spill it in front of the entrance." Sienna understood straight away. She tipped the oily contents across the entryway. It was now seriously slippery.
But Ethan wasn't done. "Now grab the laser cutter."
That instruction took her a second. The object sitting on the bench was no longer a laser cutter. It had been dismantled. She had grasped it just as the door handles popped off the door with the sound of distressed metal, and clanged to the floor. The creature was already hurtling inside. Hurtling, then slipping. The oil on the floor made it impossible for its feet to grip and it started wheeling across the floor. Neither kid had the will to laugh at it though. It was still a deadly predator.
"We need it between us for the laser to work." Ethan called. He needed to use his really big voice to be heard over the stumbling monster.
That was easy. Ethan had planned this manoeuvre carefully so that they were both already in a pretty good position.
"Are you sure this will work?" Sienna asked, more terrified than dubious.
"It worked at a short distance." He nodded towards a carrot that lay in two pieces on the counter by his elbow. It was now too late to test. The creature had managed to pierce a countertop with a claw and it was using it to lever itself upright. "Now!" Ethan yelled.
Sienna raised her device into the air, and saw that Ethan did likewise with his own device. At first, they couldn't tell if the laser had reached the relay Sienna held, but Ethan had that sorted too. He blew a fist full of flour across the room. Sienna altered her position until the green line of the laser stretched between them. She froze, maintaining the position of the beam. The creature had no idea what they were doing. What it saw was Ethan standing, helpless in front of itself. It lunged. Right into the path of the laser cutter. And it did work at this distance. Ethan initiated the slicing function. A single haunting shriek pierced the relative silence of the kitchen and was cut suddenly short. The beast slid to the floor. Sienna didn't stop to look to see if it had been cut in two like she imagined or something worse. She was too focused on just getting out of there. Ethan paused only long enough to open Ellie's cupboard and grab her hand, pulling her along as the three of them ran through the door out the back of the kitchen.
