Chapter 11: The Worst Place on Earth

“Did you have a good nap?”

The voice was cold, snapping Mike out of his slumber. Tink’s arms clutched him tightly, and he pushed the blankets off of his head, staring at the dark figure in his room. He reached out to touch the lamp, warm light bathing the angry figure in the doorway. She stood with her arms crossed and a messenger bag slung over her shoulder.

“Uh ... hi Beth.” Mike slid sideways out of the blankets. “So, uh, I’m sure you have some questions.” Sitting up, Mike tried to keep himself covered with the blankets while pulling his pants back up. Tink rolled over, pulling the blanket with her causing Mike to fall face first onto the floor, his bare ass in the air.

Scrambling to his feet, Mike faced away from his estate agent. What would he tell her? She didn’t look happy, and he wondered what sort of trouble she had run into in the Labyrinth. Turning around, he smiled sheepishly. Why was he so nervous around her?

“So. Apparently there’s a Labyrinth under your house.” Beth shook her head. “Do you want to take a stab at explaining to me why I am in it?”

“Well, uh...” Mike looked at Tink. He frowned, knowing that Tink was pretending to be asleep. “It’s complicated. You don’t happen to have a doll on you, do you?”

“Really? That’s the best you can do?”

“Well?”

Beth sighed. “Yeah, I have her.” She reached into the bag, pulling out Jenny. “She and I had quite the conversation a while ago, but she’s been silent since.”

“Oh thank god.” Mike felt a sense of relief. “I was afraid that she got lost in the river.”

“I’m giving you ten seconds to give me an explanation before I walk out of here.” Beth tucked Jenny away. “Last thing I remember, I was in a car accident and my intern dragged me into your house. Suddenly, I’m floating down a river.”

“Okay, look, I had a good reason for everything, I promise.” Mike’s shoulders slumped. “I was going to explain everything to you, but you fell unconscious. Jenny needed your body to show me how to get into the Labyrinth, but we got trapped. I never meant to endanger you, or to do anything without your permission, but there’s a crazy witch on my front lawn trying to break into my house and I didn’t have time to wait for you to wake up.”

“Why is there a Labyrinth under your house?” Beth crossed her arms.

“We’re not technically under the house. We’re between walls.” Mike shook his head. “Never mind that. Okay, your intern is a succubus named Lily who tried to kill me last week, but now we’re friends – well, kind of. After I moved into the house, I found a nymph, and she took part of my soul, and now I’m married to a goblin. Oh, and there’s also a banshee. And a gargoyle. And a centaur.”

“Sounds like quite the story.”

“It’s all true, I swear! I just need to help a snake-woman destroy a magic artifact and we can all go home.”

“A snake-woman? You mean that lady who hypnotized me?”

“Yes! She’s one of the good guys, she just has some trust issues on account of my great aunt.”

“You are shit at telling stories.” Beth said, her body relaxing. “The gargoyle bet me fifty bucks that you wouldn’t sound like a mental case.”

“Abella has fifty bucks?”

“Not anymore.” Beth sat on the edge of the bed. “I have no idea how we got to this point, but here we are. Guess I’m a shit estate agent.”

“How do you figure?”

Beth leaned across the bed, inspecting something. “Somehow, a house full of monsters slipped by me. It’s one of those disclosures I should have mentioned.” Beth touched a green toe that had slipped out from under the blanket. Tink immediately pulled her leg back under the cover and growled. “I want to be mad at you for getting me involved, but I would feel like the world’s biggest hypocrite.”

“You would?”

“Mike. Monsters are real. Do you realize what this means?” Beth’s eyes were shining with excitement. “Think about it. We grow up in a world of order and logic. As children, we are allowed to have fantasies that take us outside the box. We get to believe in dragons, and Santa, and Bigfoot. But when we get older, we are told that’s it’s time to stop imagining, to stop believing in magic. And I think, in a way, that makes that wonderful part of us die.”

“I hadn’t thought of it like that.” Mike looked at the goblin-shaped lump next to him. “For me, I was just happy to meet someone who didn’t care that I have my own issues. It’s strange, but they feel more real to me than anyone else I know.”

Beth nodded. “I think I know what you mean. I never forgot what it meant to believe, and to see all this unfold before me...” she shivered. “It’s so damn exciting!”

“So ... you’re not mad?”

“I’m more mad that I thought I was going crazy.” Beth tossed her hair over her shoulder, then stood up. “You’ll have to fill me in on why my memory from last week has major holes.”

“Uh...” Mike looked down at the foot of the bed. “That’s a pretty long story. I should probably go see if Ratu is done with her preparations. How is Abella?”

Beth frowned. “She’s injured. Ratu, is that the snake-woman’s name? She gave me this nasty smelling cream and had me rub it into Abella’s injuries after she released us from that obedience spell. She has to sit downstairs until it cures. We did have a pretty good talk about the state of things between you guys.”

“Uh...” Mike looked over at Tink, then back at Beth. “Between us how?”

Beth winked. “It’s none of my business, but I find it fascinating that they don’t seem to mind sharing you.”

Mike blushed, and Beth left. Once he was sure she was out of earshot, he pinched Tink’s ass, causing the goblin to squirt out from between the sheets onto the floor.

“Lawyer woman talk funny,” Tink said, finding her dress. “Tink think she hide secret.”

“What kind of secret?” Mike asked.

“Don’t know. Not bad, not good. Just secret.” Tink adjusted her hair, then tugged her dress into place. “Go see snake lady, get goggles, smash witch. Plan okay?”

Mike laughed. “The plan sounds great.”

Mike stared at Ratu, his jaw open in disbelief. They stood at the edge of the frozen lake, fog rising off of the surface and spilling across the rocky shore. Up above them, the chained gem burned silently, its rays gently melting the surface ice into a thin layer of water that was perfectly still. It had taken them almost an hour to get here, bypassing several trapped corridors in the process.

“So you threw it in the lake,” Mike said, “and then froze the whole thing.”

“I did.” Ratu was holding a stack of golden disks in her hands. They were all roughly the size of a vinyl record. “I was worried that Emily would eventually snap and come for the artifact herself.”

“Still seems like overkill.” Mike looked at the others. Tink stood by his side, followed by Abella (who had insisted on coming) and then Beth. If not for the heat source above, he would be shivering. The fairies circled the edge of the lake, their lights chasing each other through the rising fog. Sofia stood to the side, the dagger tucked into the waist of her pants. He didn’t want to have something that sharp if his mind was going to be played with.

“I assure you, it was worth the risk. Asterion?” Ratu handed the disks to the minotaur, then pulled a large crystal from the sleeve of her kimono. Pointing it at the gem, the Labyrinth rumbled as a fiery beam lanced its way into the top of the ice, cutting downward at a gentle angle. “We may have to go digging a bit for it, I’m afraid. Shouldn’t be hard to find, but unless you want a fifty foot drop straight to the bottom, that won’t do us any good.”

The gem melted a sizable tunnel, the tight beam giving off plenty of warmth. Ratu took the disks from Asterion.

“Shall we?” Walking carefully, Ratu moved down the tunnel. Mike followed behind her, stepping carefully on the ice. The melted water made it slicker than usual, and Mike had a horrifying vision of slipping into the beam and cutting himself in two. Ratu was about twenty feet ahead – she tossed one of the discs in the air, and it hovered in the air, moving into the path of the beam.

“Cool,” Mike muttered, watching the beam deflect and cut into the side of the tunnel. He stayed behind Ratu, watching her repeat the process several times.

“How do you know where to go?” Mike asked.

“Easy. I listen to my instinct, and then do the opposite.”

“How does that work?”

“You try.” Ratu stopped in the tunnel, holding up one of the discs. “Use your gut. Which way do you think we should go?”

Mike frowned, looking left then right. He felt a strong urge to go right. “That way.” He pointed at the ice.

“Then we go the opposite.” Ratu tossed the disk up, and the beam carved left. “The artifact is a perversion of the natural world. Every fiber in your being wants to avoid it. When we get closer, you will probably begin to feel sick.”

“Yikes.” Mike wiped sweat off his brow, wondering if Ratu was right. His body was hot and cold, a result of the beams heat and the cool ice around them, causing him to feel feverish. Yet the feeling of unease increased the farther they went, a nauseous feeling in his gut that spread out across his body. Placing a hand on the wall to steady himself, Mike’s balance suddenly shifted, and he slipped on the ice.

“Fuck!” Mike slid several feet, putting his arms and legs out to steady himself. Finally coming to a halt, he sat up, expecting to see Ratu right in front of him. His eyes widened when he realized that Ratu was farther down the tunnel then she had been when he slipped. Somehow, he had slid uphill.

“We are very close.” Ratu told him, a frown on her face. “The effects are fairly strong. Now I worry I might accidentally damage the case it is in.”

“Could the beam destroy it?” Mike asked.

“No,” she said. “Put the goggles on. Just in case.”

“On it.” Mike held the goggles up. He hadn’t put them on yet because they limited his peripheral vision quite a bit. The goggles themselves looked like they had walked out of a steampunk wet dream. Several lenses could easily be flipped into place, revealing untold secrets to the wearer. Sliding the band over his head, he took a deep breath before sliding them into place.

The frozen lake around him unfolded in his eyes, bright yellow lines criss-crossing through the ice. Staring in awe, Mike looked all around him. He was seeing flaws in the ice, lines that bent and adjusted to account for the hole they had tunneled. He could see the bedrock at the end of their tunnel, a vein of quartz buried several feet within. Looking at his hands, he saw the blood flowing gently through the veins on the back. There was a spot on one of his shoes where the stitches had come loose, and would eventually become a hole.

“Mike.”

Shaking his head, he adjusted the lenses. Through trial and error, he was able to eliminate most of the distractions, though now he was able to see pockets of warm air floating along the ceiling above them like giant bubbles. Walking just past Ratu, he tapped the ice at a slight upward angle.

“If you hit here, you’ll miss the object but get us close enough,” he explained. He had seen it through the ice, a dark block of nothingness that refused to yield its secrets to him. Nodding, Ratu used another golden disc to tunnel even farther. Following close behind, Mike noticed that Ratu’s kimono clung tightly to her body revealing a pair of shapely shoulder blades beneath her hair. Her slim figure swayed gently side to side while she walked, the beam casting thin shadows on the ice beside her.

“There it is,” Ratu said. Fidgeting with the crystal in her kimono, the beam of light disappeared, casting the lake into darkness. Waiting patiently in the dark, Mike heard the silent dripping of water, liquid that was flowing downhill and refereeing at the bottom somewhere.

“What now?” Mike asked. He was answered by a giant ball of fire, summoned into Ratu’s hand.

“We widen the room,” she said. “We need some space.”

“Sounds good.” Mike waited while Ratu cast the ball of fire out. She summoned several more, and water flowed freely around his feet while she created a circular room with a domed roof around them. In the middle of the floor was an object wrapped in a cloth. She walked toward it, her hands slipping in to her kimono. She withdrew a pair of sticks that unfolded themselves into a small table. Lifting the object, she set it on the table and let out a small grunt.

“Are you okay?” He asked.

“Naga are somewhere between divinity and humanity,” she explained. “This thing makes the human side of me sick in a physical sense, and it makes the divine part of me sick in a spiritual sense. The sheer act of its existence is a stain on reality, and it deserves to be destroyed.”

“What does it do?” Mike asked.

“Nothing,” Ratu answered. “It has no purpose. A hole was opened into the other side, the place where the Ancient Ones were sealed away. It was poor luck that one of the Ancient Ones was slumbering near the portal. It was only open for a fraction of a second here, but time doesn’t exist on their side. When the portal closed itself, it ripped away a small piece of flesh, leaving it behind.”

“How was the portal opened?” Mike asked.

“Men of science who made a mistake. They paid for their lack of caution.” Ratu slowly uncovered the box. It had strange lettering on the outside and looked extremely old.

“Is that ... Russian?” Mike asked.

“It is. When mankind entered the nuclear age, they tried to find a way to surpass the power of the atomic bomb. The Soviets found this, and got the crazy idea to try and use it as a power source sometime in the eighties. They had no idea what they were messing with, and many of them died. There was a huge cover up, and I hear that the land is uninhabitable.”

“So they put it in this box?”

“The box is an ordinary container. After the incident, a powerful forest deity wandered into the abandoned town and used her magic to seal the box. She then took it to her home, but a fox demon stole it from her and it has been bouncing from hand to hand since then.”

“Which deity?”

“Baba Yaga herself. She is a very old witch, but not the human kind. A vicious woman with a lot of magical power.” She stroked the box. “I have no idea how Emily got it here, but it was a very recent addition to the Labyrinth. It’s also the reason it started transforming on its own. The thing generates an aura of strange, alters the world around it in subtle ways that you don’t think about until after its been happening for a while.”

The story tickled a memory in Mike’s brain, but it slipped away. He was more enthralled by the fact that when Ratu held the box, part of her would disappear through the goggles. Even with them on, a cold pit of fear had opened in his stomach, threatening to swallow him whole. He wanted to run away and never look back.

“So what do we do?” Mike asked.

“You will open the box,” she said, tapping it with her fingers. She pulled a candle stick out of her kimono. “You will have to hurry. This piece of flesh is no bigger than the tip of your pinky. You will use these silver tongs to hold it in the flame until it has burned away.” She pulled tongs out of her sleeves, making Mike wonder what else she had stored in there.

“Is this a special candle?” Mike asked, inspecting the candlestick. Up close, the pearly surface looked more like clouds rolling across each other.

“It is. The wax is made from the rendered fat of a dead god, and its flame is capable of destroying anything it touches. However, it can only be used once.”

“And you had this just laying around?”

“It’s an old family heirloom.” Ratu said, taking it from him and setting it on the table. “I will be right behind you with my eyes closed. If something goes wrong, I should be able to withdraw to the surface for help. If you haven’t gone mad, we can try again. Otherwise, the goblin will be responsible for helping me.”

“Fuck,” Mike whispered. Could he really do this? Swallowing the lump in his throat, he switched places with Ratu, standing over the box. A tiny piece of some long banished god was inside this magic box, and his whole body was wracked with a sudden bout of chills.

“Whenever you are ready,” Ratu said, her voice tense.

“No time like the present.” Mike held up the candle. Ratu snapped her fingers, and the wick lit.

“Don’t put your fingers in that,” she said. “Your whole body will burn up like a moth in a bonfire.”

“I’ll do my best.” He set the candle on the far side of the table. Grabbing the lid of the box, he saw several runes appear over the Russian letters of the box, glowing symbols that rapidly swirled before him. Flicking through the lenses of the goggles on instinct alone, he quickly saw that most of these glowed an angry red. Five of them, however, glowed a soft blue with numbers next to them, and he touched these in order, avoiding the angry red runes. The runes disappeared, and a thin line appeared in the middle of the box. Mike grabbed the edge of the seam, taking a deep breath.

“Are you going to keep standing there?” Ratu asked.

“It just opened.”

“You’ve been standing still for almost half an hour.” Ratu squeezed his shoulder. “Time is already distorting. You need to act fast.”

“Jesus.” Grabbing the tongs, Mike pulled open the box. The room filled with the stink of rotting soil, a sinister wind wrapping itself around Mike. Ratu’s arms slid around his waist, holding him tightly. Her dark hair blew against his face, briefly obscuring his vision.

A black mist burst out of the box, clutching at him with spectral claws and swallowing them both in darkness.

Beth watched Tink running around on the shore. The fairies were flying in circles over the goblin’s head, and Tink was jumping in the air, trying to catch them. The fairies laughter sounded like the gentle tinkle of bells, contrasted heavily with the cackles of glee from Tink.

“How long will they be down there?” Abella asked Asterion. The minotaur said nothing, his eyes on the ice.

“I wouldn’t think too long,” Beth suggested. “I guess there’s probably some sort of ritual involved, and if it was going to take them a while, they would have brought it back up. Choosing to stay down there for hours would be...”

She was interrupted by a loud crack which ricocheted off the ceiling of the Labyrinth. The lake rumbled in front of them, and sections of the ice cracked and then crumbled. The tunnel in front of them shook, and Beth heard the collapse farther in. Standing there in shock, Beth realized that the ringing in her ears was Tink screaming at the entrance, Abella holding the little goblin back.

“What do we do?” Beth asked the minotaur. Asterion lifted his axe, fixing her with intense eyes.

“We dig.” Walking into the tunnel, he was soon followed by Tink and Abella. The fairies rushed in behind them, and Beth found herself bringing up the rear. About twenty feet down, a large block of ice had fallen down, blocking farther passage. Asterion was knocking giant chunks off with his axe, and Abella was lifting them away from the middle. The fairies circled near the top of the cave — Tink was handing them blocks of ice which they were melting into the cracks and then refreezing to keep the ceiling secure. Sofia’s eye would occasionally flash, and she would immediately redirect their efforts.

After a few minutes of this, they got through the first section. Tink slid ahead of them, her bare ass on the ice, then returned to declare a more serious cave-in up ahead. The others started to work again, and Beth stood back, marveling at how they all worked together.

I want to help.

Beth pulled Jenny out of the bag around her hip, running her fingers over the porcelain doll’s features. Looking at the others, she realized that she didn’t have the strength or magic to help them.

But Jenny would.

“Let’s do it.”

“Ow.” Mike sat up, blinking rapidly. Unable to see, he wondered if he had gone blind. Waving his hand in front of his face, he snapped his fingers. At least he still had his hearing. Standing carefully, he stuck his arms out, feeling around the edges of the room. He smashed his fingers painfully into the wall, cursing silently to himself. Moving around the room, he stumbled over something small and then crashed into a stack of objects that made a huge racket when it tumbled over on him.

“God damnit!” Pushing his way free of the pile of objects, he found the wall again. Moving across, he felt the knob of a door. Moving his hands around the door, he found the switch and flicked it. Blinking away the sudden intrusion of light, he saw that he was inside of a large broom closet with a drain in the corner. Stunned, he looked at the mess of buckets and mops he had tipped over.

Where the fuck was he?

A small groan came from beneath the mess he had made. Kneeling down, he pushed away the mess to reveal a young girl with long, dark hair. She opened her eyes, her vision slowly focusing on Mike’s face.

“Are you okay?” Mike asked. Something was wrong with his voice. It came out at a higher pitch.

“Mike?” The girl sat up, her hair falling across her face. Mike saw the scale patterns on her neck and shoulders. She wore a simple white dress with flowers on it that reminded him of lotus blossoms.

“Ratu?” He helped her up. “What happened to you?”

“What happened to us.” She corrected him. Directing Mike to the other side of the broom closet, he saw a small mirror over the drain. Looking into it, he saw that his short hair was longer and slightly tousled, a haircut he hadn’t seen since his thirteenth birthday when his mother had started calling him a little girl.

Mouth opening and closing in disbelief, he lifted the white shirt he was wearing. The scars on his chest and stomach were still there.

“Why are we little kids?” Mike asked, leaning closer to the mirror. One of his eyes was the wrong color. It was a swirling sea foam green that reminded him of Naia’s hair. Pulling his hair back for a better look, he found a shock of stark white hair beneath that reminded him of Cecilia. “Is this the Dreamscape? Or somewhere else?”

“I’m going to have to get back to you on that. I haven’t been this young since before Jesus was born.” Ratu was looking at herself in the mirror. She quickly pulled her hair back out of her face, fastening it with a piece of ribbon she had pulled off of her wrist. Closing her eyes, her skin became mottled all over, her snake pattern briefly appearing and disappearing. “And it would appear that I’m stuck this way. No transformations.”

“Where are we?” Mike asked, picking up the brooms and mops.

“A broom closet.”

“That’s not a helpful answer.”

“Well it’s the only one I have.” Ratu turned away from the mirror, her hair flaring out dramatically. “This could be a side effect of the artifact, but I suspect something else is involved. While we are here, trust nobody, not even me.”

“That sounds a little dramatic.” Mike tested the doorknob. “It’s unlocked. We should check it out.”

“Hold on.” Ratu searched all around. “I don’t see the goggles lying around.”

“I suspect our bodies aren’t actually here,” Mike said.

“If we aren’t in our bodies, than we are in spirit form.” Ratu shook her head. “That doesn’t bode well at all.”

Mike took his hand off the doorknob. “How so?”

“Spiritual injury is some of the worst kind,” she said, grabbing him by the wrist. “Think of it like phantom limbs. If I cut off your hand, that doesn’t damage your soul. Your body feels a phantom limb not only because of misfiring nerves, but because your soul still has a hand – well, metaphorically speaking. What happens if the opposite occurs? Injury to the soul while the body is intact?”

“I imagine bad stuff,” he answered.

“Your immortal soul is only immortal if it passes over to where the bad things can’t harm it. If you die here, you cease to exist.”

Mike shivered. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“You are severely understating our circumstances! You should be terrified!”

“Last week my soul was almost eaten by a succubus.” Mike put his hand back on the knob. “In the Dreamscape. I had several days of being afraid like this, and I came to a singular conclusion.” He pushed on the door, swinging it outward.

“Well?” Ratu asked.

“Better to go down swinging,” Mike said with a wink. Ratu rolled her eyes, then followed him out of the broom closet. They were standing in a long hallway with several doors and lockers in both directions. The lights above flickered ominously.

“What is this place?” Ratu asked.

“The worst place on Earth,” Mike answered. “Etheridge Middle School.” He recognized the hall they stood in now. It was on the upper level where the eighth graders had their classes. How many times had he been pushed down in this hallway alone? The names of his tormentors had long ago faded – even though he had hated them, he had to go home to the worst of them all.

“Really? A middle school?”

“Yep.” Moving carefully out into the hall, he signaled for Ratu to follow. “The good news is that I know the way out.”

“What’s the bad news?”

“It’s still a middle school.” Walking quietly, Mike peered into the closest classroom through the window in the door. Shadow children sat in their chairs, their gaze directed toward the front of the room. Stepping back from the door, he bumped into Ratu, his hand quickly finding hers.

“What is it?” She asked. Mike put a finger to his lips, and they moved back to the window together for a closer look. This time, the shadow children turned their heads simultaneously to look back. Though they lacked faces, each child had a set of glowing red eyes. Mike and Ratu ducked away from the window, moving into the center of the hall.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Mike hissed, pulling Ratu behind him. They moved against the lockers, pressing their backs against the cool metal. “What were those things?”

“I don’t know,” she replied. They stood there for several seconds, waiting to be followed, but nothing happened. “Now what?”

“We need to get out of here before class gets out.” Mike tightened his grip on Ratu’s hand. “Let’s go.”

“When does class get out?”

Mike pointed at the clock at the end of the hall. The analog clock lacked numbers, but still had hands. The minute hand was about twelve minutes from the top of the hour. “About seven minutes. Classes always got out at five til the hour.”

“Let’s go then.” They moved quickly, but quietly toward the end of the hall. They had moved past a few doors when Mike saw that a shadow figure was watching them through the glass of one of the last doors. Behind them, the lockers opened and closed, creating a symphony of slamming metal that drove them to run. Turning down the stairs at the end of the hall, Mike slid down the railing out of habit. Ratu met him at the bottom. Above them, the lockers grew louder, and the lockers on the ground floor began slamming as well.

“Why are they doing that?” Ratu yelled, her hands over her ears.

“I don’t know!” Mike froze in place when he heard the bell ring. There was no way that seven minutes had passed, so he pulled on Ratu’s hand, leading her to a small gap between the lockers. Grabbing a nearby trash can, Mike pushed it in front of the gap, squeezing behind it and pulling it in place. As the doors of the classrooms opened, Mike pulled even harder on the can, lodging it into the wall. The base of the can was narrower than the top, and Mike knelt down next to Ratu who had already pulled her legs against her chest.

The hallway filled with hundreds of whispering voices, the lockers having stopped their banging. In the gaps toward the bottom, Mike could see their shadowy legs, moving back and forth. Sweat beaded up on his brow, and Ratu wrapped both of her arms around his, squeezing him tightly. His legs tingling from the tight fit, he breathed as quietly as he could, convinced that the shadow children would see him.

They sat this way for several minutes, and then the warning bell rang. The shadows disappeared, and classroom doors shut, leaving the two of them in silence.

“How did you know this would work?” Ratu asked, her voice barely a whisper.

“Piranha Pete.” Pete had been one of Mike’s bully’s, a nasty kid with an overbite and braces that made him look like a rodent with bad hygiene. The other kids called him Piranha Pete because he had bitten so many kids in elementary school and the name had stuck. Pete had tormented Mike relentlessly for being the new kid.

Somehow, Pete had found out that Mike’s mom was a drunk, and started ragging on Mike about it. Bouncing from home to home was common knowledge, and on the day Pete suggested that Mike shared a bed with his mom, Mike swung his backpack and smashed Pete in the mouth, turning his face into a bloody mess. Mike ran from Pete, and had hidden in this exact spot for nearly an hour until a teacher had heard Pete swearing in the halls and kicked the bully out.

“What’s a Piranha – “ Mike put his hand over Ratu’s mouth, a cold feeling forming in his gut. The world seemed to drop out from beneath him, the warning was so strong. It took a few seconds before he heard it, the solid clunk of something like a table leg smacking the ground repeatedly. It slowly grew closer, but Mike had the strange feeling that if they ran, they were dead.