He's right behind her, close enough he could take her hand.

It's stooped over, crawling after them, not as fast but not slow either.  It's oozing copious amounts of thick, tarry black blood.

Not ideal but certainly could be worse! Okay back to fleeing.

They make the right turn down Ambush Hallway together.  He does in fact reach out to grab her hand, as they're running.

She's still holding the paint can which now in retrospect seems foolish but she can get it into her other hand without breaking stride.

They're gaining distance on their pursuer.  By the time they're almost halfway down the hallway, Bryce spares a glance to check on it; it's only managed to reach the hallway's beginning -

"Wrong way!" she yelps, yanking him to a halt by the hand he's holding.

There's another one, a mad frantic scramble of too many limbs moving too fast, barreling down the hallway toward them, in the direction they were just headed.

" - yeah, ambush," he mutters.

But he thinks his instincts were telling him that - while he can't get them un-lost if they're chased down an unmarked corridor - he can take a couple of these things down.

He plants himself in front of her and takes aim.

She backs off a bit toward the injured one, keeping a wary eye on it.

It growls wetly and drags itself up off the floor, and starts loping toward her, lurchingly, ichor welling in spurts from its wounds with every lunge.  It's closing the distance, focused not on her but on Bryce.

Aaaaaa okay nope! We are not freaking out, we are problem solving!

...pretty big problem!

But -

- it's going for Bryce, right, because it wants to hurt Bryce, and not her. Her it wants to save for later.

And, also, she is still holding a paint can.

She takes another couple of steps, bringing up the paint can on the way with a quick shake for luck, and then as soon as the monster looks to be in range she sprays it directly in its big squiggly face.

Lucky her, it was just opening its mouth to scream.  Instead it hacks, and spits, and works its jaw like a dog trying to swallow peanut butter.

(Three shots, meanwhile, and the ambusher tumbles over with its own momentum.)

He turns to check on Kimberly, and - 

 - laughs, one quick bark before he snaps out firmly, "duck - "

She ducks down and to the side, pressing herself against the wall and looking back to see how Bryce's end of the ambush is doing.

Bang, bang.  Peanut butter muzzle no longer has a muzzle.  It slumps heavily to the ground.

He looks at her - 

"—third guy!!" she says urgently, and for sheer lack of a better idea she's bringing up the paint can to spray that one too.

Third - ?

Third.  As he turns, it pounces, leaping through the air with fangs bared - 

 - it misses her entirely - like it was aiming for something else altogether, though she can't place anything else in the hallway it could have been aiming for - and goes tumbling, clumsily.

She no longer remembers quite why she's doing what she's doing but now is not the time to stop and extensively question her planning. She tracks the monster's face with the paint can and sprays again as it's landing. If it has eyes, she doesn't want it seeing out of them.

With no one else around there's also no social inhibitions to stop her from snapping, "A pretty face is no excuse to be such a meanie pants!"

(It does have eyes!  Three of them are on the side of its face pointed at her.)

Its thrashing, on the ground, as though tangled up in its own limbs - 

Nothing in particular happens.

It happens three times, in quick succession, and it's loud enough to leave her ears ringing.