"Hey, I might," Thomas said, laughing quietly. "I ran pretty damn fast when we were being chased by Grievers and trust me, you've got nothing on them."

Derek was his own kind of predator. He was quick where Grievers were slow, controlled where Grievers would run over anything in their path. Grievers were nightmare material. Derek was not.

"And if you catch me, you're not gonna roll over me and pretty much swallow me up," Thomas said, shivering at the thought. He'd let a Griever stab him intentionally and that had been enough. Too much. He couldn't even imagine what it was like to see lightness change to dark as you were sucked into the blubbery flesh of a Griever. Thomas could imagine a lot of terrible deaths and that topped the list.