The mostly deaf and blind Pied Piper officers seemed to understand what I was trying to get them to do.

One after the other I helped each officer to their feet and put their hands on the officer in front of them.

The officer at the front of the line held onto the officer behind him as if they were grannies at a funeral.

I urged the officer at the front to move forward. In turn all the officers shuffled together in what looked like an impromptu conga line.

Just let them get the hang of it, I thought.

But another, more desperate thought told me that there wasn't that kind of time to spare.

I enhanced my sight and vision and kept a frantic look out for any sign of the Adam-George-Amalgamation in the dark.

The sound of the officer's boots and their hampered breathing and despairing mutterings made it tough to focus my hearing on something that might tell me where the Amalgamation was (if it was even still down in the complex with us.)

It was strange being taller than most of the Pied Piper officers under my care. For the first time in my life I felt, physically at least, like a true adult. It was nothing short of bizarre to be head and shoulders taller than my usual self, not to mention broader and muscled, like some super-human from a comic book.

I didn't feel like myself at all but there wasn't time to dwell on how different my body felt.

I led the officers into the nearby alleyway Sophie, Walter, and I had come through before. I felt the cold wet ground beneath my bare feet and the iron grip of the officer behind me holding on for dear life.

Drum-drum-drum-drum.

The officers had managed to move at a brisk pace, as if jogging in a tight military line.

Doing good, I thought. But it was a bleak enthusiasm. I was sure five minutes or more had already passed and we hadn't even made it to the other side of the alleyway yet.

Drum-drum-drum-drum.

We were almost out of the alleyway.

Some of the officers were groping the damp alley walls with questioning looks on their faces.

One of the men stumbled and fell over. He screamed for fear he might be left behind. It took me far too long to get the other officers to stop, stay, and to get the officer that had fallen out of the line back into place. He was sweating and trembling, and saliva drooled from his lips.

I patted the officer on the shoulder in an attempt to give him some sign that he was being looked out for. With his grip back onto the officer in front of him, and the officer behind holding tight to his elbow, the broken line had been repaired.

A sinking feeling in my gut told me our time must already be up, but the sound of the underground complex flooding with water hadn't started.

Drum-drum-drum-drum.

We made it out the other side of the alleyway.

Soon after we reached the Chellam monument of the large domed headed metal-man with the shiny yellow eyes.

"Almost there," I said, though of course none of them could hear me.

I kept saying things like "Getting close now," or "You're doing great," and things of this manner more so to keep myself from losing my mind from the stress of the situation. I needed to hear myself say these things.

I had to make an extra effort to ignore the sound of my deeper sounding voice.

Drum-drum-drum-drum.

Continuing on beyond the Chellam monument proved even more stressful because I didn't know the quickest route to get to the elevator.

I didn't dare stop the line from moving but I feared simply rushing ahead might lead to a dead end. The alternative was to go back to the walkway Sophie, Walter, and I had walked down from before because I knew at least that there was a path which wrapped around the outside of the town. It would take us longer, but there was far less threat of getting lost.

Drum-drum-drum-drum.

There wasn't time to second-guess my decision. I chose to lead the officers to the walkway from before. They were doing so well (the bastards) and I felt an unwanted, but entirely natural sort of pride at what they were managing to accomplish despite not being able to see or hear much of anything.

A siren began to wail in the dark quickly followed by emergency lights flashing from high above across the entirety of the town.

"Come on!" I yelled.

It was a small mercy perhaps that the officers weren't able to discern the sudden sirens and flashing lights. They kept their steady pace together, keeping the line tight.

We reached the far corner of the town.

And it was then I realised I had made a huge mistake.

Right around the corner something blocked the far off elevator from view.

A hulking, skinless, mutilated mass that was neither fully lion, or man, and was horribly conjoined with an additional body of mass in human shape.

It was the Adam-George-Amalgamation.

It had its broad back to us, which exposed more of George whose body jutted out from the main body of the beast like a dead branch.

I wasn't sure if the Amalgamation had enhanced hearing, though I doubted it would matter given the shrieking siren wailing non-stop.

I had about half a second to come to a decision.

We could stop, and risk not making the elevator, and on top of that risk being spotted standing before the Amalgamation ready for it to attack us.

Or we could press on. Would we be able to make it round the Amalgamation without being spotted? That was likely impossible.

The one thing I could count on was that the officers didn't know how close they were to being mauled to death.

Working mostly on dumb instinct I led the front-most officer to the nearby wall and kept pace with him, guiding him along. The officer seemed to understand the intent of what I needed him to do, because he kept his free left hand pressed to the wall to make sure he could continue on without me guiding him.

When we reached the Amalgamation I stopped within three paces of it.

It was moving just a little, its broad skinless back shiny and wet-looking in the dark, rising up and down from its heaving breaths.

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All I could hear was the sound of the siren screaming in my ears. I couldn't keep my attention on the officers besides spotting the last of the line moving away behind me.

So long as they kept to the wall they would come to the elevator.

With the last of the line passed by I started to move away from the Amalgamation.

Somehow the Amalgamation hadn't noticed us.

That is, until there came a sudden screaming heard faintly above the wailing siren.

The same officer that had fallen over before was on the ground again, and was on his hands and knees screaming. He groped around for something to give him an idea of where he was. He was close to touching the nearby wall the other officers were using to continue ahead, but from where he was on the ground the wall was out of reach.

This particular officer had a head of bleach-blonde hair, and similarly blonde eyebrows. At a guess he looked no older than thirty. His eyes looked red raw; and with the flashing emergency lights above and the anguish on his face, he looked as if he were a damned soul newly cast off to the deepest depths of Hell.

There wasn't any time to consider whether or not I was going to risk going back for the officer.

The Amalgamation reared slowly round and gave a guttural roar, fixing its attention on the fallen officer.

I sprang into action, moving as fast as my body would let me. Though coiled, my body at the larger size needed more time to build momentum.

Claws. Sharp. Painful.

These words rang clearly in my head.

I remembered back to Blain and his bone-gloves.

I needed that kind of ability right now.

Find it! I thought urgently.

My much larger body sailed forwards, moving to intersect the Amalgamation on its course to the officer.

I couldn't find the unlocking sensation I was looking for to turn my arms to bone.

No time.

I jumped, landed, and turned to face the Amalgamation.

The huge, gorilla-like arms of the Amalgamation, tipped with sharp black claws, descended upon me.

No more time.

Then I felt it.

Claws against bone a moment after I caught hold of the unlocking sensation I needed.

The strength of the Amalgamation's arms bearing down on me, even with my body in its coiled and enlarged state, drove me to one knee. I gritted my teeth and felt my face become hot and tense from the strain of stopping the Amalgamation's arms, and by extension its claws, from lunging further forward and tearing into my skull.

For a moment I caught sight of Adam's half-human, half-lion face, his one regular human eye that was milky-white, and his other eye which was like amber with a deep black pupil. Most beguiling was the intelligence in the look of the face staring down at me.

Was Adam still in there somewhere?

"Help me!" screamed the officer behind me, "Please don't leave me down here!"

I didn't have time to second-guess myself anymore. For perhaps the first time in my life I let myself have permission to do whatever I needed to do to win.

Vibrate your arms, I thought.

I quickly found the unlocking sensation and, like a robot perfectly in sync with its programming, followed the commands I gave myself.

My bone arms began to vibrate. Giving a hard grunt, I shoved aside the Amalgamation's arms and then drove my fist into the side of its head on the right lion-side.

The Amalgamation gave a pained lion's grunt and staggered away, falling onto its side.

I ceased the vibration in my arms and hurried to the fallen officer. My fingers were fixed into fists, just like how Blain's had been when he had used the bone-growth ability. With this hindrance I wrapped my arms around the officer and lifted him off his feet.

He cried out in fright and then clung to me, gripping my overalls tight.

Holding him in a wedding carry I bolted in the direction of the elevator.

The Amalgamation swiped for me, its arm, a mess of tendons around the elbow, stretched even further than it should.

The pain of the Amalgamation's claws swiping across my back, tearing at the overall fabric and gouging flesh and blood make me howl in pain.

But I kept running with the officer in my arms.

The Amalgamation recovered from the punch I had given it and began to bound after me.

Icy cold water splashed beneath me deeper than I had felt before in the complex.

Above massive jets of water gushed out from holes in the walls.

Ahead the six officers had reached the elevator.

Some were starting to move beyond it.

The Amalgamation roared above the sound of the sirens and the powerful gushing of the water escaping from high above which showered down on us like torrential rain.

I caught sight of the Amalgamation's shadow against the left side wall and saw it was close enough again to swipe at me.

In my desperation I threw the officer in my grip with all the strength I could muster. He sailed forwards several paces before sailing into the other officers. Half the officers fell to the ground whilst the others remained standing, desperately clinging to the ones that had fallen.

Half the officers were on the elevator (those being the ones that had just been bowled to the ground), the others close enough to it that, if they were to take just one small step, they would be on it too.

I felt the crushing weight of the Amalgamation on me then.

I had no hope of resisting the weight that brought me down onto my chest and pinned me to the ground.

The water on the floor threatened to drown my face that I couldn't lift because of the pressure applied to the back of my head.

In the next instant I felt the unbearable sharpness of the Amalgamation's teeth sinking into my right shoulder.

My agonised scream was garbled in the water.

Someone help me! I thought.

But I was alone. Nobody was coming to save me.

I had to save myself.

Heat. Burn. Now.

I focused every ounce of my concentration away from the pain and on bulbing up instead.

From the waist up my body began to burn bright and gold and intensely hot, boiling the water around me.

I lifted my head just a little above the water as the Amalgamation's weight relented.

I sucked in a desperate lungful of air.

The Amalgamation gave a nightmarish shriek as the mauled flesh at my right shoulder seared its mouth, gums, tongue and so on.

I took off the bulbing light because, without meaning to, I had started to sear my own flesh where it was exposed at the shoulder, experiencing a new, fresh kind of agony I'd never felt before.

I climbed to my feet, finding my right arm still usable but at the cost of the incredible agony climbing with every minute shift in muscle and weight set on it.

I swayed to my feet like a drunk and brought my bone-covered left fist hard into the Amalgamation's face, this time on the left size, into the human section of Adam's face above his lion maw.

The Amalgamation staggered back a little. It was too caught up in the pain that had taken hold of its mouth to pay me much attention for the moment.

I spun round, dizzying myself in the process, water flung of my now exposed upper body.

Staggering tiredly, I reached the elevator.

"Move! Move!" I yelled at the officers as I shoved each one onto the elevator platform proper.

They were all on.

I spotted the control panel on the far right side which Sophie, Walter, and I had decided better of using for fear of being sitting ducks trapped on the elevator, back when we had no idea where the elevator led.

I leaned on the officers on my way over to the control panel and slammed my fist on what seemed like the most likely button to send the elevator up.

With a sudden hard whir the elevator began to climb upwards from the ground.

It was working!

Water poured in a heavy stream off the elevator platform. Already the water in the complex had become ankle deep, and the thick streams of water gushing from above were becoming bigger, and thicker, as if there were numerous newly formed waterfalls across the walls high above.

I considered staying on the elevator. I was tired enough to just let myself sit down and let it take me up with the rest of the officers. I needed a good rest.

Officer Freeman will be waiting up there, a small voice in my head reminded me.

I let myself fall from the elevator, landing with a heavy splash after a brief steep fall that would have broken my ankles were I my normal self.

I took one last glance at the seven officers holding onto one another where they sat huddled together on the elevator, then broke off into a jog away from both the elevator and the Amalgamation.

I didn't dare risk trying to pass the Amalgamation again, so instead I headed further along in the opposite direction. I could enter the town through one of the nearby alleys, or try going around it.

The seven officers were saved, but I wasn't.

It was time for me to get out.