Spliced

“Indi!” Falco yelled, as he ran to reach the ledge. He peered over to see Indi staring up at him from three floors below, surrounded by rubble. For a second he thought she was dead. Then he saw her blink.

At first Indi wasn’t sure what had happened. She remembered falling. She remembered shielding. She’d never used her powers to stop a fall before. She wasn’t sure it was supposed to work like that. Things that hit her shield at high speed always rebounded backwards. To stop an impact when she was falling, did that mean she had moved the Earth? Or had the shield simply absorbed the impact and dissipated it elsewhere? Surely the building wouldn’t have held up though if the Earth had moved, but then, she had gone through two floors. No, not just her. Suddenly she remembered that she wasn’t the only one who had fallen through the floor.

“I’m okay” she yelled up to Falco. She pulled herself up and started to scramble over the rubble to her right where Cat was struggling to sit up.

“Cat are you okay?”

Cat groaned. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She sat up slightly dazed and surveyed her surroundings.

Indi, satisfied that Cat was okay, at least for now, scrambled over to where Kass should be. Tanya was already getting to her feet not too far from where Kass lay. Indi stumbled past her, half climbing, half stumbling, over the rubble. Kass lay unconscious a few feet away.

“Kass?” Indi hesitated for a second before reaching down and placing two fingers on Kass’s neck. She breathed a sigh of relief when she felt a faint pulse. She sat back unsure of what to do next. Tanya came up behind her and knelt down to inspect Kass.

“She’s breathing.” Tanya said. “May be concussed though. Give me a sec.” Tanya placed her hands on Kass’s skin. She closed her eyes, focusing, using her magic to detect injuries.

“Everyone alright down there?” Falco asked.

“Kass is unconscious,” Indi called back. “Everyone else seems fine.” But she shot another worried look at Cat. Cat didn’t miss it. She shook her head and gave a nod at Kass. An obvious ‘that’s who you should be worried about.’

From up above the others struggled to see down. There was no light on the lower floor, only what shone down from the higher floors.

“Is she breathing?” Falco yelled. He was on his hands and knees peering over the edge, straining to hear what she yelled up. Zephyr sat on the floor nearby, still not quite recovered from his near fall. Falco was relaying Indi’s information back to the others as she yelled it up.

“What?” he yelled down, not quite catching the last thing she said.

“Yes, I said yes.”

Falco nodded, even though Indi couldn’t see him do it. The rest of the group noticed it though and a sigh of relief went through them.

“Can you find a rope?” Tanya yelled.

“A rope. They want a rope,” Falco repeated aloud so the others behind him could hear.

Amanda gave him a questioning look but he was too busy looking down to notice. After a moment she said “Falco you’re a flyer, surely between you and Kass, if she wakes up, you can lift them all up?”

Zephyr had now scrambled his way over to the edge and was looking down.

“Oh, err . . . it’s just that,” Falco struggled to find the words. “It’s a bit high.”

“It’s a bit high? Your wife just fell down there.” Amanda replied.

Falco sat back obviously conflicted “Mmm.”

Down below Tanya had finished her inspection of Kass. She wiped some sweat from her brow. Using her powers to assess unknown injuries was a high energy task. She checked for anything major from the neck to the thighs but Kass seemed fine in that regard. Brain injuries were harder for her to detect and anything else she could assess normally once Kass woke up.

“Do you have a knife?” she asked Indi.

Indi’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open slightly.

“I just want to check if she responds to pain. It might help bring her around.” Tanya explained.

Indi shook her head. “Cat might have one?” She glanced questioningly at Cat as she spoke.

It took Cat a moment to respond. “Huh? No” she shook her head. “Got a gun, no knives.”

“Do any of you guys have a knife?” Tanya called up to the others.

“You can’t just pinch her?” Cat asked.

Indi watched Cat with some concern. The question was fair but her speech seemed sluggish and tired. It lacked it’s usual snap.

Kass stirred.

“A knife? What for?” Falco called back, relieved not to have to respond to Amanda.

“Never mind,” came the response a moment later.

“How good is Indi’s shield?” Wolf asked. “Could we land on it?”

Amanda shook her head. “Not sure. That would possibly require more control than she has anyway.”

“She might have used it to soften their landing,” Wolf mused.

“Mmm, but can she repeat it and is it as soft from the outside?”

“We don’t really want to go down there anyway,” Sirius added. “We want to get them up here.”

There was silence again while they all thought. Falco studied the darkness below him. Maybe he could do it.

A disorientated Kass struggled to sit up.

“Lie down for a bit,” Tanya said. “No need to rush.”

“I’m fine,” Kass replied blinking. “We fell through the floors right?” She seemed to be having a hard time believing it.

Tanya nodded. Indi looked up at the broken floors above again. Kass slowly checked herself for anything broken. To her surprise she found that she was mostly fine with the exception of an incredibly sore ankle. Twisted maybe? It didn’t feel broken.

“How do you feel?” Tanya inquired. “Does anything hurt? I didn’t do a full scan, just the major stuff.” She studied Kass closely.

“My ankle hurts, but otherwise I’m fine, amazingly.” Kass turned to Indi “Did you shield us?”

“Huh?” Indi tore her eyes away from the building damage above her. “Maybe, I don’t know.” She looked slightly scared.

Cat stared up at the gaps in the floor above them. “Hey Falcon, you gonna come and fly us out of here?” she yelled upwards.

Indi froze. Falco wouldn’t, he couldn’t. It was too high. But what if he did? She peered upwards, hopeful and a little scared.

Falco’s stomach felt like it was already falling. The ground was so far away. He took a deep breath then his features solidified. His face became determined.

“Hang on,” he yelled back. He swung his feet around so he was sitting with his legs hanging over the edge.

“You sure?” Amanda asked. Even though she had suggested it, his lack of confidence had given her pause. Could he maintain enough control over his flight? Did he have enough power to carry another person back up?

“Just give me a second,” he replied still perched on the edge.

He seemed to sit there forever.

Eventually Amanda said. “Don’t worry about it, we’ll find another way to get them up. Maybe Kass can try.”

“And throw someone into the ceiling?” Wolf remarked. Whilst very powerful, Kass didn’t have great control over her powers, and all of them knew it. Falco was a better shot.

Falco shook his head. He thought of Indi, waiting in the darkness below. With a shove he pushed himself out above the hole in the floor.

He was relieved to find himself floating in the air a moment later.

“Did you really need to throw yourself off like that?” a concerned Amanda asked from the side.

Falco shrugged. “Experimentally, I’ve found it to work better that way.” Then because he wasn’t sure how long he could stay floating he started to descend. He hadn’t gone more than a few feet when a large rumbling sound started. The floor was reforming, closing up the hole. And he was in the middle of it!

“Fly up!” Amanda ordered from the side.

Falco flew upwards just in time to avoid being seared in half.

A few floors down darkness encased everything.

Cat groaned in exasperation and lay back on the pile momentarily. “Anyone got a light?” she asked.

Indi froze. Her heart beat in her chest. “No,” she whispered, suddenly conscious that a louder sound might bring unwelcome company.

“Err, hang on.” Tanya felt around in her pockets. A moment later a small keychain torch lit up what little it could of their surroundings.

“We should get moving,” Cat instructed as she got to her feet. “How long does that light last?”

“As long as I hold down the button. I’m not sure how much battery it has.”

“But Sirius might be able to bust through the floor,” Indi said “Maybe we should wait. It’s what you’re supposed to do if you get lost in a forest.”

“We’re not in a forest Indi,” Cat replied. She then turned her attention back to Tanya. “Turn it off. We’ll only use it when we need it.” Tanya did as she was told.

“How are we planning on moving around without light?” Kass asked.

“We can feel our way along the walls. We’ll use the light at the intersections, and try to keep your voices down, we don’t want to draw any attention.” Cat stumbled her way down the pile. “Where are you guys?”

They groped about in the dark until they all managed to find each other. Tanya helped Kass to her feet.

Kass winched “I’m not sure I can walk very well on this foot.”

“You’ll be fine,” Cat said matter-of-factly.

Kass tested her foot. Maybe. It was painful but with a bit of help she could probably move about okay.

“I can try healing it,” Tanya said. “If it’s not broken then I can probably have it feeling back to normal in a about an hour or two, a day or more if it’s broken, and that may take a bit more energy then, but either way it’ll be an improvement.”

“I don’t think it’s broken,” Kass replied. “Sure give it a go.”

Kass leant her weight back against the wall. Tanya bent down and wrapped her hands around Kass’s ankle. A cold chill ran through Kass’s foot, like there were a million little streams flowing beneath the skin. Almost immediately she noticed an reduction in the pain. A dull throbbing remained. It wasn’t as bad as it had been though. There was no sharp piercing pain when she tried to put weight on it any more.

“Seems it was just sprained, the pain should be gone completely in a few hours.” Tanya told Kass.

“Thanks.”

“Good to go?” Cat asked.

“Which way?” Tanya asked.

“Where exactly are we going to go?” Kass asked “Wouldn’t it be better if we waited here? See if the others can get through. Indi kind of has a point.”

“We wait here we get eaten,” Cat replied. She hesitated a bit then said, “the others were headed towards the centre, to the Splice, so that’s probably where we should be going.”

“If we walk that way,” Indi pointed down one corridor, forgetting that it was dark and no one could see where she was pointing, “then we should be heading in the direction of the centre.”

“We might be more likely to find stairs closer to the main complex, or an elevator” Kass said, guessing correctly that Indi had been pointing in the opposite direction.

“Not likely,” Cat replied. “Someone is toying with us and they seem to prefer that we go deeper into this maze. I think for now we play along.”

“You really think it’s best to give them what they want?” Kass asked.

“If they wanted us dead they’d have done it by now.”

“It’s not like they haven’t been trying,” Indi countered.

“Not hard enough,” Cat replied. “If they can move a wall then why not just close them in on us.”

“Maybe their powers are limited?” Kass suggested.

“I think they’re herding us somewhere.”

“Why not just teleport us then?” Kass asked

“It’s not as fun.”

“You think some one’s actually getting off on this?” Indi asked. “It seems like a lot of work to go through just for entertainment.”

“Maybe they need us for something and the entertainment is just a bonus. Like that other Werewolf suggested to Wolf,” Cat replied. “Maybe it’s an experiment, or a sacrifice. There some spells that require voluntary sacrifice which means we’d have to walk into it. That or an extravagant revenge plan.”

“I don’t think herding us would count as volunteering,” Indi said.

They were all silent for a moment.

“Let’s get moving,” Cat insisted again.

“You alright to walk?” Tanya asked Kass.

“Seems fine,” Kass replied. Her foot still throbbed slightly but even in the short time they had been talking the pain had decreased further.

“We should probably hold hands so we don’t lose each other,” Cat suggested with an edge of reservation. Kass and Indi could practically hear her rolling her eyes.

Tanya grabbed Kass’s right hand and put her own right hand out against the wall. Indi grabbed Kass’s free hand and Cat grabbed Indi’s. Slowly they started walking down the corridor. Cat kept one hand on the left wall. Tanya felt the right.

Upstairs Falco was sitting down on the newly formed corridor floor. He pushed at it sadly. It was as if the hole had never been there at all. He blinked in disbelief.

“Somebody doesn’t want the group together,” Wolf commented.

Zephyr quickly crossed the repaired floor and went to stand next to Amanda. If someone was trying to split the group he was sticking with their strongest magic user.

“You think some one’s doing this on purpose?” Amanda asked.

Wolf shrugged. “Awful lot of coincidences otherwise.”

“Can you break through?” Falco turned to Sirius. “Or you?” he asked Amanda.

Sirius studied the floor with a frown.

“Stand back,” he commanded.

Falco did as he was told, moving further up the corridor. Amanda frowned and turned the other way, to look at what had once been their exit. Truthfully she didn’t think this was going to work, Wolf was probably right, but it was worth a shot. Sirius stamped with all his magical strength. The floor didn’t budge. Sirius stood still for a second and stared at the floor. No one spoke. He turned sideways to a nearby wall. Then he punched. Hard. Concrete flew everywhere.

“Was that necessary?” Zephyr asked.

“I wanted to test something” Sirius replied. He sighed and walked back into the corridor. This time he knelt on the floor and aimed a forceful punch downwards. Once again nothing happened.

“You still think someone’s not playing puppet master?” Wolf asked Amanda.

Amanda eyed Sirius and Falco standing further along the hall.

“Maybe you two should come back here,” she suggested. But no sooner were the words out of her mouth than a grinding sound echoed around them. The wall Sirius had busted though started to mend itself, only it didn’t stick to just repairing itself, it moved out into the hallway cutting them off from one another.

Amanda saw Sirius turn and start to move towards her but it was too late. The walls were too quick. Right before their eyes the group became separated once more. Amanda heard a thud on the other side of the wall as Sirius tried to break through. But it was no use. Shit. Amanda stared at the wall in front of her. Several options ran through her mind but she immediately discounted most of them. Could he break through a different part of the wall? Probably not. Whoever was running this show would likely just prevent it. They’d already demonstrated that they had that ability. Wolf was right. Someone was toying with them.

She turned and walked a few paces back towards the entrance. Maybe if she could blast through it fast enough she could find whoever it was. “Boys over here. Stay behind me.” she ordered at Wolf and Zephyr. She watched as realisation dawned on their faces that the closer they all stood the less likely they were to be separated.

Sirius tried the floor further along the corridor as well. Like earlier it did not budge. In anger and desperation, he threw a fist at another wall. It shattered like glass. He stared down at the pieces of shattered concrete feeling defeated.

“We need to stick together,” Amanda said as Wolf and Zephyr scurried over to her.

“Sirius, wait there,” she yelled though the wall at Sirius. “We’ll figure this out.”

“Okay,” he yelled back, not sounding at all thrilled with the idea.

Amanda turned to Wolf. “How are they doing it?”

“The impenetrable wall?” Wolf asked.

“Yeah.”

Wolf shrugged “Could be a shielder like Indi, a very powerful one. Or a summoner, bringing back the stone very quickly, but again I don’t even think Coal could pull something like this off and he’s pretty powerful as far as summoners go and summoning tends to be very directional. A shielder is more likely maybe in cohorts with an illusionist. Could be a spell.” he trailed off thinking.

“They made the floor collapse as well.”

“That’s less difficult. Could just be separate person, a destroyer or a quaker. A destroyer could easily weaken the floor from a distance without too much effort. Could be we’re all asleep.” Wolf glanced around the room.

Amanda shook her head “Cat would know, wouldn’t she?”

Wolf shrugged “Maybe, I’ve met better dreamwalkers though.” He paused. “With a facility this size I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more than one person controlling this place. Maybe also an illusionist while we’re at it. Could be preset traps on the other hand. It’s a bloody strong summoner if one of them is involved. Shielding less so, but harder to maintain, and most sheilders require some proximity. ”

Amanda studied the wall.

“Want us to stand back?” Wolf asked guessing what she was thinking.

Amanda looked at him and shook her head. “Just stand behind me.”

He nodded, remembering the increased separation risk in standing too far apart. Zephyr inched closer to the two of them.

Amanda turned her back to them and faced the wall. She focused on the stones, imagined them getting hotter. After a few minutes of warming up the wall she flicked her fingers slightly and pushed with her mind. The wall fractured but kept standing.

“Well I’d say that’s definitely a shielder, working with someone else by the looks of it,” Wolf remarked. He paused. “Or maybe a materiokinetic, like Indi’s kid. I didn’t even think of them before. They’re pretty rare though, and maintaining a wall like that, they’d have to be very good. It would explain the ability to construct and deconstruct though. But I doubt even a good materiokinetic could stand up to your firepower. We’d be talking exceptional at that point. A shielder though, a decent one could do it. My money’s on more than one person.”

“One more time,” Amanda said.

This time she curled her hands into fists, as if trapping energy within them. She took a deep breath and flung her hands forward releasing all the power she could into the wall. Once more the wall shook and another hairline fracture appeared but as before the wall remained standing.

Wolf shook his head. “You might be able to break through it but it’ll take all day and they may just reform it.”

“That assumes they can keep going all day.”

“Do you really want to test it? What if you get tired first? What if it is multiple people? And even if it is only one person they actually might find it harder with us all split up.”

Amanda didn’t reply. She just stared at the wall.

Wolf studied her face. “You’re not even tired are you?”

Amanda looked at him and shook her head.

“Well maybe they aren’t either. Come on. Let’s see where they want us to go. Maybe finding out some more information might help. They haven’t killed us yet so they want something.” Wolf started to walk towards the other corridor. Left with little choice Amanda and Zephyr followed closely behind.

“You know I’m all for taking our time and gathering information but don’t you think we’re a little past that now?” Amanda said to Wolf as they walked.

“I think we’re wasting time trying to blast through a wall that you can barely make a dent in.”

“Splitting up’s always what gets people killed in the movies.” Zephyr argued.

“That wasn’t really intentional.” Amanda replied to Zephyr even though he was basically agreeing with her.

Wolf stopped walking and turned to look at Amanda. “Do you think Cat will just sit around where she is?”

Amanda opened her mouth to argue that Indi might stay put but then thought better of it. Staying put might be the smart thing to do but with intelligence came curiosity. It wouldn’t take much for Cat to convince Indi and the others to keep moving. “Sirius and Falco might,” she replied finally and with a worried glance back behind them.

“Really?” Wolf asked.

Amanda considered it. Wolf seemed to be sincerely asking if she thought so. She could persuade him to turn around, she was sure of that. Hell, she could probably turn and walk back to the wall and they’d both follow. The problem was she wasn’t entirely sure that was the right decision. Would Sirius and Falco stay put? Even if they did would it just be wasting time throwing fireballs at the wall?

As she opened her mouth to reply the walls ahead and behind them came together in a loud crash and a new opening appeared next to them.

Zephyr gave a high pitched scream.

Amanda sighed.

Wolf looked expectantly at her.

“Well I guess the fastest way out of this is to find out what they want.” she said.

After a while, the passage they were walking in started to slant ever so gently downwards. The walls became slicker and some strange type of almost fluorescent green mold grew all over them. The corridor began to look less man-made. It was almost like a natural tunnel in the rock. Every now and again a light hung above them, connected to the previous ones by a thin cable running along the ceiling. Occasionally the cable would disappear into the rocky ceiling and they’d have brief periods of almost no light. These brief periods were getting closer and closer together though. The whole place had an eerie feel to it. The tunnel started to bend slightly to the right. This was a promising as it meant they were getting closer to the centre of the maze and the Splice.

In another part corridor Cat, Indi, Kass, and Tanya had reached an intersection. It was Y-shaped with one corridor branching off to the left and the other corridor branching off to the right.

“Right,” Cat commanded.

They started to swing to the right. Cat’s hand brushed through empty air. Mid swing she stopped. Footsteps echoed down the left hand corridor.

“Wh...?” Indi said startled at Cat’s sudden lack in movement but then she heard them too.

Cat dropped Indi’s hand and turned to face the oncoming sound.

“Cat?” Indi whispered.

“Get back,” Cat replied, pushing Indi back into the corridor they had just come from. Tanya and Kass also instinctively backed into the corridor.

“Tanya, give me the light. Don’t turn it on,” Cat commanded as quietly as she could.

Tanya did as she was told.

“Back against the wall,” Cat ordered in a whisper.

“Eww,” Indi whispered as her hand felt the slime covered wall behind her. She backed up against it never-the-less, too afraid to make another sound.

The footsteps got closer. Cat listened intently. The footsteps did not sound heavy. She waited patiently. The speed of the approaching footsteps were constant. Whatever it was did not seem to have noticed them yet. She waited a few seconds more. It was almost upon them. Cat estimated that whatever it was stood about their height, shorter than herself but taller than Indi. She stuck out her foot as it attempted to pass.

“Arrgh!” The creature lurched forward, landing front first on the floor. Cat immediately shone the light at it. It was human shaped and fully dressed. It groaned and rolled over. An ebony haired man stared up at Cat, momentarily blinded by the light in her hand.

“No, please!” he begged.

Suddenly a hissing sound started coming from Cat’s left. She spun, and there in the corridor stood an equally ebony haired woman, much paler than the man. Both of them were extremely skinny. Two small fangs stood out from the rest of her teeth. She was a vampire.

“Touch him and you die!” The woman hissed.

Before Cat could reply the man on the ground spoke.

“Please we’ve had enough, just let us go, we’ll do anything.”

“We’re not in charge of this place,” Kass replied.

The man frowned and squinted against Cat’s light.

“Then you must be trapped also.”

“Don’t trust them,” the woman told him in an unusual accent.

“We won’t hurt you,” Indi said.

“The people upstairs said they wouldn’t hurt us either. They said they’d pay us to get rid of their monster. Then they trapped us in here,” the woman said.

“They said the same thing to us,” Indi replied.

“They have said that to a lot of people it seems.” The woman seemed to relax slightly or perhaps she was just tired. Her shoulders slumped but her eyes remained cautious and alert.

“Can I get up now?” the man on the floor asked.

Cat took a step back from the man indicating that it was fine if he stood. The man climbed to his feet. Cat had estimated his height to be shorter than it was. He was easily taller than her although his body was lithe and he must have lost a bit of weight lately as his clothes hung loosely on him. His companion was also in a similar physical condition. They must not have had much luck finding food to eat. The thought made Cat wary. A hungry vampire wasn’t something to mess with.

“You can turn off your light.” The woman spoke.

“That puts us at quite a bit of a disadvantage,” Cat replied.

“You needn’t fear. I haven’t fed in quite some time. My night vision is very limited at the moment.”

Cat removed her finger from the light. She listened carefully for any movement.

“We’ve been down here for days,” the man added.

“Days?” Tanya repeated, stunned. She still hadn’t wrapped her head around how this could all be happening. How could she have not known?

“You lot are new huh?” The woman almost seemed to laugh.

“How do we get out?” Cat asked

“You don’t.”

“How did you get in?” Kass inquired.

The man answered her. “Same as you probably. Down the elevator. We thought we’d find the creature down here but we found so much worse, and then when we tried to go back up they wouldn’t let us leave. We’ve been trying to find another way out ever since. I’m Josiah by the way, and this is Angelic.”

The group introduced themselves in return.

“Do you have any food?” Josiah asked.

“No,” Cat replied.

“That’s too bad.” He sounded defeated.

“Perhaps we stick with you for a while, if is alright?” Angelic said.

Cat felt a shiver go down her spine at the thought of traveling with a hungry vampire but she pushed down her fear for now. Greater numbers might be useful. “Sure,” she said. “So you can’t see anything in this light? You seemed to be moving quite quickly.”

“We can’t,” Josiah replied. He held out a small black box with a sensor on the front. “I have an echo-locator, it tells me where the walls are.”

“I listen to his movement,” Angelic explained, “and follow.”

“Then you can lead us?” Cat asked, not wanting either of them at the back where they could attack.

“I can but it won’t do you any good. We don’t know the way out.”

“We’re trying to get to the centre, towards the Splice,” Cat replied. “We think we know roughly the direction. Just let us know when there’s an intersection or a bend, or anything else.”

“I suppose going somewhere is better than nowhere. We will do this.”

“Everyone else keep your ears open for anything that might be approaching.”

Cat took their silence as agreement. The group started off down the corridor again, single file this time. Each person walked with one hand on the mossy wall.

Once the sounds on the other side of the wall had quietened down it hadn’t taken Sirius and Falco long to decide to keep moving. They hadn’t gotten very far before the corridors had shifted again presenting them with an entirely new path. They’d looked at each other, both shrugged, and kept moving. They continued along their corridor until they reached a portion of the tunnel that opened out into a huge room. They stood at the edge of the room. On the other side of the room the corridor started up again. Sirius waited no more than a second before stepping into the room and walking across the floor towards the other side.

“Wait!” Falco began but before he could finish a grumbling, grating sound echoed around them. The floor beneath the doorways slowly began to rise. Falco had just enough time to make a decision. In or out? Better not to get split again he decided and darted forward, following after Sirius just in time to watch the stone slide up and close of their only means of escape, trapping them both.

Sirius stopped and stood still. “Trap?” he asked, guessing what Falco had been about to warn him about.

“Afraid so,” Falco said looking around the room. It was a plain looking room. It was all grayish stone, stained with coppery brown in places. In the far wall there was a rectangular box-shaped hole. It appeared to contain something. Falco started to walk towards it to investigate. He’d taken two steps when the room started to shake and the rumbling began again. To his horror the walls to their right and left began to move towards one another. Slowly and consistently grinding their way. It was then that Falco was certain he knew what the coppery stains on the wall were.

“It’s blood! Dried blood on the walls!” he exclaimed.

Sirius gave a grunt of acknowledgement. He seemed to be thinking. Falco continued towards the hole in the wall. Maybe there was something there that could help. Inside the shelf he found five small boxes of different coloured stones. Next to the boxes were two five by ten grids. One had holes and one had transparent stones. He frowned. It was strangely familiar. It reminded him of a game he’d played once. What was it called? He picked up a blue stone and dropped it into the first hole. It sat there, nothing happened. He picked up more stones, different colours, and placed them into the remaining slots. The clear stones glowed then some changed colour. Two turned black. One became an opaque milky white. He remembered now. Mastermind, that was what the game was called. You had to guess the right pattern. The black and white gems must tell the player which stones were correct and which ones were the right colour but in the wrong place. He looked up at the wall to his left and his frown returned. The walls were moving at a slow pace but time seemed to be passing a little too quickly. Did he have time to solve the puzzle? Would it let them out if he did? What happened if he filled up the grid before he had solved it? Indi probably could have solved it easily. She was good at these things, much better than he was. He wondered where she was and if she was okay. He hoped so.

He stared at the grid. So the black coloured gems meant a stone was in the correct place? Or did it mean it was the right colour and in the wrong place? There were two black gems and based on which stones he’d put in he was more likely to have gotten the placing right . . .wasn’t he? Or maybe . . .

CRASH!

Falco jumped as something exploded behind him. He turned to see Sirius fist buried up to mid-forearm into the right hand wall. Stone remnants lay on the floor around him. He pulled his arm back and swung again.

CRASH!

He’d probably knocked away enough of the wall to give them room to stand now.

“Well that’s one way to do it,” Falco remarked.

“A couple more and I should be able to break through?”

“How about trying it on the door?” Falco suggested.

Sirius paused. He looked at the door then back at the wall. Once more at the door. He gave a nod. “That would make more sense.”

Sirius strode over to the door. Once more he pulled a fist back and then slammed it forward. The door shattered. Sirius’ shoulders slumped and he exhaled. He wiped his brow feeling somewhat tired. Part of him had worried that the door would not give way. Another part of him felt mildly foolish for not thinking of trying to break through the door rather than the walls in the first place.

Falco gave him a slap on the back “Let’s go before they change their mind.”

Amanda held her hands in front of her, palm up. A bright flame sat perched on her open hands. It burnt nothing but the air. The lights had long since run out and now Amanda guided the way with her magical flame. Shadows danced on the walls giving the whole place an eerie glow. Water dripped from somewhere and every now and again they could swear something moved in the darkness further down the corridor. Whatever it was, if it was anything, it seemed to keep away. Every time the corridor split they took the right hand route. There were no rooms to enter down here. The intersections were getting further and further apart. Their options slowly reduced. It had been quite a while before they had last encountered an intersection and now the corridor curved to the left. Amanda frowned. It straightened out again eventually but now they were headed in the wrong direction. Or were they? Maybe they had gone too far right already anyway. It was hard to tell down here.

Amanda froze so suddenly that Zephyr almost ran into her. A distinct click had sounded nearby.

“What is it?” Wolf asked.

Amanda shook her head “I don’t kno . . .”

Before she could finish speaking the entire floor moved. It jerked upwards suddenly and then continued moving upwards at a steady pace. The ceiling however remained where it was. Once they had regained their footing a glance around showed them that the whole corridor floor from approximately 25 m behind them to approximately the same distance in front of them was intent on meeting with the ceiling at some point in the not so distant future, and they were right in the middle.

“Run!” Wolf growled.

“Which way?” Zephyr asked in a default response, but he didn’t wait for an answer. Instead he tapped into his super speed and disappeared off in the same direction they had been heading. The other two followed as quickly as they could. At some point Zephyr found no floor beneath him and he dropped into a regular sized hallway.

As the floor got higher Wolf and Amanda were forced to run bent over. It quickly became impossible to run upright. Wolf transformed. He didn’t take the time to undress. He would have been a pancake if he had. He changed as he moved. It was difficult and he almost stumbled once or twice but he did the best he could and moment later he leapt forward, his clothes flying behind him. He ran on four legs. Being in wolf form brought him closer to the ground and greatly increased his speed. He could also hear Zephyr breathing quickly, but no longer running, not far up ahead. It gave him a good estimate of the short distance to go.

Soon Amanda was the only one still trying to move along the rapidly rising floor, a small flame burnt a trail in the air ahead of her, giving her some dim light to follow. She had been forced to drop to her hands and knees. She crawled as fast as she could, with only metres left to go.

“Amanda!” A naked Wolf, now back in the form of a man, yelled from the end of the corridor.

He tried to climb back in to help Amanda out. Zephyr pulled him back. “You’ll just get in her way.”

Amanda crawled forward. The ceiling was too close for her to move swiftly now. She stopped trying to move forward. She wasn’t going to make it. She looked down at her hands, placed them palms down on the rising floor as the ceiling touched the back of her head. She focused on the rock beneath her palms and pushed all her energy into it. An explosion rocked the hallway moments before the floor met the ceiling. Darkness engulfed them all.