“Stay close,” I whisper behind me and they all pick up the pace to get closer to Max and me. We jog down the stairs and don’t stop until we reach the bottom floor, the basement.

“Come on,” Max starts to pick up the pace and the little girls are struggling to keep up.

“Max,” I say and he looks back to see them, he slows down a little but not too much.

“We have to keep moving, quicker,” Max says quietly to me and I nod. I knew we would ...