The glass doors opened into a hushed foyer. The carpeted floor held stains of blood and mud overlapped by footprints. There were tears here and there, though what could have made them was dubious. Zoe wasn’t sure whether she saw violence or the neglect of time. This building had been in disrepair before the apocalypse. The carpet peeled at the edges. The paintings on the walls showed styles from decades ago. Some paintings were torn in half, matching scratches leading up the walls showed where the mantis crawled, the tracks continuing onto the high ceiling. Zoe and Skidmark kept silent as the door closed behind them and they advanced further into the building.

Zoe activated her Mirrored armor while Skidmark’s knuckles crackled with electricity. They were tense as they stole deeper into the dark building. One aspect of the apocalypse was the lack of electrical lighting — outside of demonic buildings — and this building should have overhead lights. The hallway was pitch black and silent, a darkness so thick they pushed through it like cobwebs as they advanced.

“It’s too quiet,” Skidmark whispered. “I don’t hear any people or any mantises.”

“The mantises can be quiet,” Zoe whispered back. “With certain elemental attunements, they can be silent.”

Skidmark nodded.

They reached a set of double doors that opened onto a court. There was a thin strip of light beneath the doors. Natural light reflecting off of polished wood. It was dim, and comforting, in that pitch-black hall.

“Are you ready?” Zoe said.

Skidmark nodded.

“Alright,” Zoe said. “I’m going to have a peek.”

She gripped the door and opened it just enough to place her eye against the crack. Her eye adjusted to the light. She let out a gasp and pushed the door open.

She entered the court, and Skidmark hurried after her.

“What is it?” Skidmark asked.

“It’s empty,” Zoe said. “There are no people here at all.”

###

The basketball courts stretched out in silence. Four courts all barren. The polished wooden floors reflected the dancing lights beyond the stained glass windows. The hoops were tucked away up high. Clothes and bags sat on the empty benches, letting out the smell of discarded and rotting food… but no people.

No mantises either.

Zoe and Skidmark walked around the courts. Their shoes squeaked and their footsteps echoed through the vast empty hall.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Zoe said.

“You keep saying that,” Skidmark sighed. “Maybe Barkly isn’t as smart as we thought he was?”

Zoe shook her head. She knew that wasn’t the case. Though communication with her hounds still represented a barrier, she could feel a connection between them that Barkly had told the truth. He smelled humans, and he smelled mantis. They were here, but now they weren’t. If her New Flesh wasn’t tired, she would pull him out. It seemed she still wasn’t acclimated to using her New Flesh. Hopefully, that would change soon.

“There has to be an explanation,” Zoe said. “Something obvious.”

“The people could have been here and then they moved,” Skidmark said. “We saw the mantis with a cage full of…” She shuddered at the memory of the captives spread like chum across the floor of the damned laboratory by Sarah the mantis woman. “Maybe that was these people?”

Zoe nodded.

“Could be… I just don’t get why Barkly would lead us here then.”

They continued to walk and search in silence the backpacks and totes scattered about the bleachers were empty save for miscellaneous items that told nothing — keepsakes, makeup, water bottles, and lighters.

Zoe frowned as she left the bleachers and walked out into the last court. Something was wrong, but what was it?

Ding!

Your footsteps sound weird.

Huh?

Your footsteps.

Zoe took another step and listened.

“Skidmark,” Zoe said. “Walk back and forth across this spot for me, please.”

Skidmark smirked as she obliged. Despite her apprehension, the lack of a threat had put the young woman at ease. She walked back and forth across like a supermodel on a runway. Zoe suppressed a smile as she listened to the footsteps. The vibrations entered her body through the chains of her feet and filtered through her body path.

There was something wrong.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Something deceptive.

Each footstep squeaked, like the perfect footstep on a basketball court taken right out of a box.

“Run back and forth?”

Skidmark obliged, and Zoe listened she frowned. It was the same sound, only sped up.

“Stop,” she said with a growing sense of apprehension. “Step back.”

As Skidmark cleared the area, Zoe focused on the tip of her chains. She lengthened out the chains of her right hand and they hung loose like a series of whips. The chains braided together — a strange sensation as the illusion of her fingers was shattered by their true nature — and became something solid and devastating. She focused on the space where the footsteps sounded falsest. She swung around, built momentum, and focused on her body path.

Her chain came down. Floorboards exploded out. Splintered and scrap wood flew in all directions. Skidmark squinted as fragments bounced off her. Zoe ignored the debris as she stepped closer.

Her attack had blown a hole in the floor about ten feet across. Instead of concrete or earth, a hole lay exposed. As the last pieces of wood rolled across the polished floor of the basketball court, the air wavered as whatever illusion had held so far finally melted like an ice cube in the sun.

The floor was torn up, not from Zoe’s attack, but by hands and tools. Wood lay stacked over to the side and a huge tunnel mouth slanted into the ground. Shadows obscured the depths, and no sound rose from within. The shadows felt similar to the sound of footsteps, that same impression of falsity, of inconspicuousness — though Zoe wasn’t sure how to dispel this form of illusion.

“What do you think is down there?” Skidmark asked.

“I think the people went down there.”

“Willingly?”

Zoe wasn’t sure. They dug this tunnel though, she could tell from the signs of work. The lack of blood. No signs of violence or techniques. People merely gathered in the court and dug a hole.

“Maybe the mantis made them dig?” Zoe said.

“The mantis have flying cages. Why dig?”

“They could be covering their bases…”

“I don’t believe that.”

“Neither do I.”

“So what do you think?”

Zoe walked around the hole. It would be nice if Anton was available to scout it out, or if Bella was here to persuade her not to leap down and see what was inside. The thought of Bella sent a pang of guilt through Zoe. She had to get stronger.

“I think the Mantis rounded some people up, or maybe besieged them, but the people escaped through this tunnel.”

“You think they dug it?”

“Who knows what techniques and abilities this group had? The real question is whether the mantis followed.”

“Well, the illusion was in place when we got here, so I imagine the Mantis didn’t see through it.”

Zoe nodded.

“You’re right. So, should we see what’s inside?”

“That sounds like a terrible idea.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” They stared at the dark hole. “My concern is that if we wait to return to the others…”

“You think there’s a time limit on exploration?”

“There’s always some kind of ticking clock,” Zoe muttered under her breath. “Give me a moment.”

She unzipped her jumpsuit and patted the skin under her ribs.

“Come on,” she said. “Just a little more.”

A whine came from her stomach, and Zoe laughed.

“Don’t be like that…”

Her skin stretched and distorted as a hound slipped free. Barkly’s coat remained white as he shook himself and padded around the hole in the ground.

“Same as before,” Zoe said. “Go inside and look, then come back and tell me what you see.”

The hound leaped into the shadows, and the darkness swiftly swallowed the glow of white fur. Zoe turned to Skidmark.

“Are you confident making your way back on your own?”

Skidmark started.

“You’re going in there by yourself?”

“If Barkly says it’s safe, yes. Someone should go back and tell the others.”

“It would be easier if Anton was here.”

“I know, but he’s not. Do you want to go down in the tunnel with me?”

Skidmark’s expression grew haunted as her eyes darted between the black mouth in the ground and Zoe’s scarred smile. She gave a timid one of her own.

“You know, I don’t, but hell… after the things I’ve done lately… I think there’s something about the shadows that makes it look deeper and darker than it is.”

“You think the fear we’re feeling is part of the illusion?”

Skidmark shuddered.

“I do.”

“Good. I hoped that was the case. But if you want to go…?”

“Now I feel you’re trying to get rid of me.”

Zoe shook her head. She didn’t want to get rid of the company, just responsibility.

“If you want to come, then come, but stay behind me. I’m better at taking a hit than you are.”

“I’m honored to be invited,” Skidmark said drily.

Barkly padded up out of the sloped hole. He seemed no worse for wear as he sat on the ground before Zoe. She rubbed his head before kneeling in front of him.

“One tap means yes, two taps means no, do you understand?”

One tap.

“Did you see any people in the tunnel?”

Two taps.

“Did you smell people in the tunnel?”

One tap.

“Did you see any mantises?”

Two taps.

“Did you smell any mantises?”

Two taps.

Zoe frowned at Skidmark.

“Lends credit to them digging themselves out,” she said before she turned back to Barkly. “Did you meet anybody?”

“He just said he didn’t see —”

One tap.

Skidmark’s eyes widened.

“Well, what does that mean?”

“What does it mean?” Zoe said with a laugh. “It means he met somebody who wasn’t a person.”

Skidmark shuddered again.

“I’m reconsidering,” she said with a forced laugh. “You sure you want to go down there?”

But Zoe was already zipping up her jumpsuit. She scratched Barkly behind the ears.

“I’m going in now.”

“What should I do?”

“Up to you. Come with or tell the others. Either way, you’ll be helping.”

And without another word, Zoe walked down the ramped earth that led into the darkness beneath the courts.

###

Skidmark sighed and walked back and forth, her footsteps light in the darkening space as the colors flashed through the stained glass windows.

“Forget this,” she said with a shake of her head as she walked toward the doors. But she stopped halfway, turned, and sighed. “I’m an idiot.”

She hurried back toward the hole and ran down the ramp and into the shadows before Zoe vanished from sight altogether.

The dark walls of earth pressed in on the two women and they stooped slightly as they continued. The lack of light hid Zoe’s smile, but it was audible in her voice.

“Pleasure to have you join us,” she said.

Barkly barked quietly in agreement.

Skidmark could feel the heat radiating off them. It helped the tunnel feel welcoming. The damp earth was cold and hard with winter above.

She wove a gentle pattern of her Skein around her fingers. Something easy to maintain and balance. Though it lacked in power, the nature of her Skein meant it gave out a harsh white light as it crackled from knuckle to knuckle. Zoe smiled appreciatively as the light lit the way ahead of them.

They walked, and the tunnel led in a mostly straight line, occasionally diverting around veins of harder rock. The tunnel continued, meandering around corners, and Skidmark almost forgot that there was a chance of meeting anyone.

Until they rounded a corner and saw a woman waiting for them. Barkly let out a growl as the woman smiled hideously. The expression sent a deep shudder of revulsion through Skidmark. An instinctual response as the stench of rot and decay filled her nostrils. Her technique stuttered, and the woman’s smile only grew in the strobing light.

“Such a pleasure to see you, Zoe,” said the woman.

Zoe bit back a gasp.

“Cassy?”