IN PAIN HE ROLLED AS far as he could. Which wasn’t far. The restrictions of his movement made him wonder if the Gabriel was trying to get him killed. He had to shake the idea away. It was not impossible. It wasn’t even slightly impossible. He could have decided that Joel was not going to be any more use and now he would just squeeze out some fun before expending him.

But, if he wasn’t any use to the Gabriel, then Honey probably wouldn’t be either. The shadow of the hulking, clattering stone monster spread to cover him. Its arms were already flung over its back.

Joel dragged himself up to his feet. No timing, no thought, he yelled as he tried to jump. The hurt knee left only one leg to function. He barely reached the beast’s shoulder. But he clung to it.

The creature twisted and turned, confused. Joel couldn’t stand. He could barely crouch and hold on at the same time. Stretching out his remaining good leg as far as he could, he banged his heel into the monster’s head.

Beneath him the piles of rock shook. It swung heavily from side to side. With his teeth gritted hard he gripped and stayed on. And he banged the heel of his boot on the rock thing’s head.

Until it collapsed.

Joel fell. Hunks of stone followed him down. His back and hips hit jagged edges and hard corners of stone. A heavy stone cracked the ankle of his good leg. A big fist block banged his temple.

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The rocks that had been the huge monster began to sink, slowly, one by one, back down into the ash.

Joel rolled, groaning. His knee hurt like it was smashed and his felt like it had been packed with broken glass. His hips ached bad, the left one especially. His shoulder was probably broken. And whatever had happened to his chest and the side of his head, they were wet, sticky and they hurt like hell. The ground trembled as he clambered up to crouch. On fire with mind-numbing pain, he dragged himself up to stand with his hands on his thighs.

He almost lost balance as the ground bounced and heaved. Coughing, he rose to stand.

Clouds of ash burst all around him. Four more rock creatures cracked the surface of the ground. Earth and fine gray dust poured and shook from them. A hail of smaller stones fell from them as they broke upwards. They were more than twice the size of the last two.

The ground dropped from beneath him. As it descended, he was left in a narrow, circular pit, up to his shoulder height. With the four beasts all around him.

With everything he had left, he summoned up all the energy he had to concentrate on a single jump. He would time it to get out just above the falling blocks. Climb up the arm of one of the beasts. Get to the shoulders and heads. If only he could take a rock with him. But he didn’t have the strength. Even if he could find one.

The stone creatures had all swung back and were about to sling all of their rocks at him. If he jumped as high as he could, it would just get him above ground level.

They all swung down towards him. He couldn’t move. He was paralyzed. The Gabriel held him from inside. He couldn’t even look up. Or away.

Sixteen swinging blocks of stone. Not that he could count them or tell them apart. All he knew were the impacts.

Red and black and flashes of blinding pain. His vision split off in two different directions. Sickening crunching, tearing and squelch. Wet, unwilling rips and tears. Bolts of pain like barbed lightening.