I had to stop my arms from vibrating in order to be able to move properly. In combination with bulbing up, vibrating, though extremely effective, rooted me to the spot when using it.

I felt much less safe retreating down the corridor with Sophie and Walter, both of whom ran fast enough to make me worry they might leave me behind if I were to trip and fall.

Blood was leaking from my stinging stomach and shoulder wounds, creating an unpleasant wet warmth inside of my overalls.

The flute music abruptly stopped, leaving just the hampered breathing and footfalls from the three of us hurrying along the corridor.

I wasn't sure if the cats were giving chase. I didn't dare to look back for fear of seeing one in the midst of descending down upon me with ferocious fury in their eyes.

At the very least I knew I would be able to hear their heavy footsteps before they got too close.

It was oddly comforting having Sophie and Walter leading the way. Sophie's blonde hair, tied back in a ponytail, bobbed ahead of me, giving me something to focus on.

If I just keep following her everything will be okay, I told myself, groping for any possible sense of security amid the hell of running for my life.

Walter barreled along, sticking close to Sophie. I caught him looking over his shoulder, looking at me, then beyond.

His eyes widened in a way that made my heart sink.

The sound of the cats was getting louder, their footfalls and clawed hands landing quickly and with nerve-shattering thumps onto the corridor floor.

They were gaining on us much faster than we could run.

"Maybe this is it!" Walter shouted, "Maybe this is where I make my final stand!"

I stifled a hampered hysteric chuckle because I couldn't tell if he was joking. He continued to run, but looked back every few seconds to keep tabs on me and the approaching were-cats.

We turned the corridor, taking a hard right. We lost precious seconds due to our plimsolls struggling to keep traction on the smooth floor.

Like a train soon to emerge from a tunnel, the sound of the were-cats was building to a cacophony.

Up ahead a familiar face wandered into view, moving with an aimless gait.

I noticed the balding-yet-mostly-long-hair belonging to Daniel.

He remained standing where he was whilst we ran full tilt towards him.

As we drew closer to Daniel his outline appeared to be burning, with wisps of smoke rising from his overalls that were looking somewhat charred.

We reached him. Sophie and Walter stopped for a brief second but, in their fear and panic, couldn't bring themselves to wait for Daniel or me.

I took hold of Daniel's shoulders and immediately regretted it. He was burning beneath the overalls. Sections of him, like a patchwork, were bulbing with intense heat.

"Daniel!" I said, "We have to go now! Come with us!"

Daniel's eyes were as wide as they could possibly go and full of fear.

"No! No! No! I can't!" he shouted, his voice a pitiful screech.

The cats were right behind us. Maybe it was too late for me to start running again. Maybe me trying to stop and help Daniel was going to be the last straw that got me killed.

It was clear to see that nothing I was going to say was going to get through to Daniel. The fear of the situation, though not unjustified, had completely taken hold of him.

But could I live with myself if I didn't try everything I could to help Daniel? As a last ditch effort to help him I took hold of Daniel's wrist in an attempt to pull him along and to get him running.

Like before I regretted doing this. His wrist was intensely hot and felt as if I were touching a hot stove. I rasped and yanked my hand back.

No more time.

"I'm sorry!" I yelled, and I ran full tilt after Sophie and Walter.

I saw them take a right turn up ahead.

The cat's fierce growls and shrieks and the scraping of their sharp claws, and the hulking masses of their huge furred bodies colliding and reorienting within the cramped corridor confines, had reached the spot where I had stood with Daniel.

I dared a look back as I ran and saw Daniel's entire body glowing bright gold. His scream sounded otherworldly. It was almost comical the way they piled upon him, reminding me of my days trying and failing to play rugby, with all of the much larger, better rugby players very much enjoying trying to flatten me into a pancake during practice.

I ran using every ounce of the coiled state I could muster, my enlarged muscles propelling me along the corridor at a pace and speed that continued to amaze me despite my terror.

My plimsolls sprang away from my feet as I made a hard right at the end of the corridor. The white walls were an unraveling blur, made dizzying thanks to the fluorescent lights whipping by in a haze above my head. The sound of the were-cats shrieking in pain met my ears.

Finally, I reached the end of the corridor, making one last right turn, and found myself nearing the exercise area entrance.

There was no sign of Sophie or Walter besides the exercise area double doors being open.

Please don't leave me behind, I thought.

What if they had found the way out and had decided I wasn't worth waiting for? Escape seemed very far away. But without Sophie, who seemed to know what to do to get out, escape didn't seem possible at all.

I passed beyond the double doors, slowing in an effort to not stub my feet on the door-frame, and came at last to the exercise area proper.

Sophie and Walter were standing together up ahead at the left-side wall. I hurried over to them, much preferring the way my bare feet kept traction with the exercise area floor than the struggle of moving in the plimsolls. It occurred to me how absurd it was to give any thought at all to little considerations like this in such a time of crisis; which in turn made me start to think about how absurd it was to have the presence of mind to consider the absurdity of it all during a crisis.

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I shook my head, shewing away the navel gazing thoughts brought about by the dizzy adrenaline-fueled delirium that had taken hold of me.

"Where's the exit?" I said, stopping but continuing to jog on the spot to maintain the coiled state.

The other two were red-faced, both presumably having ran as fast as they could manage but without using the coiled state; though the speed at which we were running before I was sure there was some superhuman element to the speed they had ran at play, maybe a base level of athletic ability before the coiled state got involved.

"It's here, I think," said Sophie.

She gestured to the wall ahead of us. All I could see was the strip of drab wall the same as the rest of the huge exercise area.

"We need to break through," she said, "It's not concrete, so we should be able to."

I didn't care to debate this with Sophie. We didn't have time for that. The three of us prepared to break through the wall each in our own way.

A part of me wanted to try using the bone-growth power Blain had demonstrated when fighting Holly and Adam, but I didn't have the time to experiment with things. The cats, if they were still intent on killing us, were maybe less than a minute behind, if that.

Being in the second coiled state made me look as if I had spent everyday in the gym for a whole year. It already felt like it might be enough to charge at the wall, but I needed to be sure not to hurt myself or lose precious time with a wasted effort.

More, I thought.

If my life weren't in such danger I wouldn't have done something so reckless. But it was, and with death looming with his scythe so close I threw some caution to the wind.

I entered into a power stance, let out another long scream (because boy did it hurt in tandem with my open wounds), and willed myself to coil up even more. Doing this felt like trying to walk a tightrope whilst half-blindfolded; too much and I might lose myself to the power the way so many others had.

Maybe, I feared then, I might become some big, muscled, hulking monster. With this fear fresh in my mind I begged my body to make me stronger, but only so much as my sanity could handle. Doing this felt as nonsensical as trying to order food in a language foreign to me, but it didn't matter. I had to do something.

Thunk, thunk-thunk, thunk!

All over my muscles expanded, bulking up to an incredible degree. Although I could only look over myself without the aid of a mirror, I was sure my body was now so bulked I was sure I wouldn't look out of place among a wrestling super star line up.

It felt great. My overalls stretched over my new bulk and, to my surprise, I was sure I had grown by about two inches as well.

I looked at Walter and saw that his left arm, from shoulder to the tips of his fingers, were covered in bone just like how Blain had done. On top of this Walter was using the vibrating power to give an extra element to his bone-arm. I noticed the bone crept up from his shoulder to his collarbone, as if it were an infection spreading. The way Walter's bone arm vibrated made my eyes feel as if they were struggling to focus on that section of his body.

Sophie's intended method of breaking through the wall took both Walter and I by surprise. She was in the midst of becoming larger all over. Her overalls stretched over her frame as she grew, and grew, until she towered at a height – I could only guess – of about six foot five inches tall. On top of this it appeared she had entered into a coiled state, her much larger body lined with a layer of muscle as if she had spent a year building muscle in the gym.

Is that her first time using her power like that? I wondered.

Sophie was breathing heavily, eyes wide, her arms outstretched as she looked down at herself. She looked like a much taller, stronger, superhuman alter-ego of herself.

There was a pause as Walter and I just looked at Sophie in astonishment. She had been maybe five foot two before so the change was drastic.

"Come on!" she said, pointing to the wall ahead of us.

Walter and I forced our attention back to the wall.

"On three!" Sophie shouted.

As she did the sound of building chaos started beyond the exercise area doors. I spotted the shadows of the nearing cats as well as a bright glowing gold light which made the shadows much larger.

"One!" Sophie shouted.

We all prepared ourselves.

"Two!"

Don't mess this up, I thought.

"Three!"

Please let Sophie be right!

All three of us sprang forward, charging at full speed towards the wall. It felt wrong to do. Every fiber of my being was telling me running full tilt into a wall was a terrible idea. I was going to knock myself out, or worse. It didn't matter if I was bulked out to the nth degree.

As I ran towards the wall, my right shoulder leading the charge, my powerful body propelling me forwards with superhuman prowess, I thought of my Dad.

I remembered the wet soggy days with just me and another friend (not the friend), and how determined I was to get good enough at the sport to impress my Dad.

That never happened. I never scored a single try. At best I only played, briefly, for unimportant parts in games played for the team.

My Dad was much more of a football guy anyway, but it would have been nice to make him proud at least once in my life with some genuine achievement.

My shoulder struck the wall and the rest of my body took on the resistance that followed. The resistance climbed higher and higher making me wonder if I was about to break my arm in the effort to get through the wall.

The wall gave way to the three of us. Whether one of us would have been enough or if the combined effort of all three had done the trick I couldn't tell.

Bits of plaster, and debris, and what felt like bits of stone and something like sand showered on me.

The next thing I knew was darkness, and a sensation of being in a place of trapped air. During the process I had managed to drive through the wall and had fallen to the ground. The worst of the pain was at my right shoulder where I had struck the wall, and at the open wounds, which I was sure were even more open than before. The pain that sprang up made me scramble to my feet.

I brought myself out of all levels of the coiled state as fast as I could manage. It hurt too much to maintain it at this point. At the very least I needed a reprieve from feeling the bulked up muscle tearing open the wounds even more.

I could barely see in the dark. The only available light was coming in from the exercise area through the hole we had barged through the wall.

Sophie seemed to have fallen down too amid breaking through the wall. She hadn't powered down from her increased size, but instead loomed in a way which was unintentionally menacing in the near dark. Walter shook his head, using his none bone arm to wipe debris from his head and shoulders.

"Well that worked a trick din't it?" said Walter.

I just sighed. My nerves were raw from coming down from the coiled state.

"We need a light," said Sophie.

It was odd hearing her voice coming from over my head. Understanding the need for light I bulbed up my left hand, bringing light to the confined space.

I heard Sophie gasp.

We were standing close to a metal railing. Before us was a narrow staircase which led down into darker depths. There was also another staircase promising a way up.

"Which way?" said Walter.

"Down," said Sophie.

"But do we know if there's even'a way out down there?" said Walter, "How did 'ya know this was all even here?"

"I'll explain once we're away from here," said Sophie, "If we go down there's a good chance we'll go into the really deep level that's beneath this facility. We might be able to find a way out down there; this place is built into a mountain so there's likely some kind of waterways leading out. I think there's a dam near this facility."

"But you donnae know for sure?" said Walter, "We cannae risk going down there and getting trapped."

"We can't go up, mate," I said, "Officer Freeman and the Pied Piper officers will be on the upper floors. They'll have guns. We won't stand a chance. Even if we get out of the facility we won't have a way to get off this mountain area, wherever we are."

"It's Wedder Gorge," said Sophie, "It's in England."

She crouched low, and at the same time her much taller mass seemed to deflate, reducing her back to her normal size.

"Please," she said, "Our best hope is going down."

"I'm going with her," I said to Walter, "C'mon, we don't have time to waste."

Walter grunted and kicked some of the debris by his foot.

"Okay!" he said, "Let's get goin' then!"

The three of us hurried down into the darkness.