6
“Torch him!”
Loch’s voice broke through Jayde’s reverie and she looked over at McCready. His face poured sweat and he looked like he had seen a ghost. Jayde looked back at Gavin and knew what had to be done. There was no saving him, no cure for what he had become. He came at her, snarling like a wild animal. Yet as she tried to pull the trigger, she found the same fear from when she was a child had overtaken her senses. She couldn’t move.
Jayde opened her mouth to tell McCready to do it, to immolate Gavin in flames, but words failed her. Loch appeared between them then and fire roared from the barrel of his flamethrower. Intense heat and the smoke of charred flesh enveloped Jayde and she snapped out of it. She jumped backward, away from the danger and watched in horror as Gavin’s melt
