They were surrounded right away.

“I’m so sorry,” Kim said again. “I thought maybe you could get here before they knew. It was stupid. I was just so scared.”

“Wait, hang on,” Dav said. He didn’t seem worried about the looming skeletons at all. He just stared at Ren. “You took Kim into the Underworld? You kept her here? Why?”

“Normally she would have been back before anyone even knew she was missing,” Ren said. “But some… other events slowed things down.”

He shrugged.

“Actually it works out pretty nicely. You two went into the player house, and found Kim stuck in a trap. You’ll be heroes! I mean we’ll still have to punish you, but nobody’s heart will really be in it.”

“He’s not actually Ren,” Kim whispered.

Arn stared at him.

“What happens if we don’t tell the story the way you want?”

Ren smiled at him.

“You will.”

Then he whispered some kind of sharp, hissing words, and his eyes blazed with orange fire.

“There! Kim gasped. “That’s him for real!”

But just as fast as it came, the fire was gone.

Ren said more hissing, crackling words to the Graywalkers, then he turned and left the room.

The skeletons crowded around Arn and Dav, pushing them towards the door.

Dav looked stunned, and Arn tried to grab his hand, but they were pushed apart and into the hall, and on into two separate cells across the hall.

When the iron door clanged shut, Arn was alone in a dark room. Only the red glow through the little window in the door let him see anything at all.

The door was solid as a rock. There was no point in posting guards - they were trapped beyond hope of escape.

There was no sound at all except for the cry of a Floater Demon somewhere outside, now and then.

No sounds of fighting.

Did that mean that Grem and Ama and the others were caught, too?

Or worse?

I shouldn’t have run after Dav. I left her behind at exactly the wrong time.

He stood in a corner, and stared at the dark walls.

Tap tap tap.

It was a sound. Arn realized he must have fallen asleep there in the dark. But now there was a sound.

Tap tap tap tap. Scritch scritch scritch.

He stood up straight, and looked out into the hall through the door panel. There were no skeletons. As far as he could see, it looked empty.

“Hey!” he said. “Hello?”

There was a pause.

Kim’s room was right across the hall.

Her face appeared in her door panel.

“What?” she said.

“What’s that noise? There’s a tapping noise.”

She shook her head.

“Wasn’t me.”

Arn tried to look down the hall towards Dav’s cell.

“Dav?” he said. “You there?”

They waited, and eventually Dav’s voice answered.

“Hello, yes? I’m here. That was probably me you heard.”

“You?”

“I found an iron bar in here. I was trying to knock a off a piece of brick.”

“Why?”

“Well it’s a weird kind of brick, right? I’ve never seen it before. I thought it would be interesting to have. You know, look it over once we get home.”

Arn didn’t know what to say to him. It never seemed to occur to him that anyone would actually, really do anything bad to him. His mind was in a different place, trying to find out everything he could.

There was just no point in worrying about it. Kim was actually grinning a little.

“I missed that,” she said. “Everything always seems like it’s going to be okay when Dav is puttering around exploring.”

"How did Ren get here before us, I wonder?" Dav said.

"That noise. In the house," Arn said. "Now that I think about it, it sounded like a door. There must have been another way in."

"How long has he been coming here?"

There's no answer to that, Arn thought, that isn't bad news.

“That.. thing. The thing that looked like Ren. What was it? What are they going to do to us?”

“There was another villager in Dav’s cell,” Kim said. She looked serious again. “He was there when I got here. We didn’t get a chance to talk much before they took him away. Down that way.”

She pointed down the hall.

“What happened to him?”

“I think they made him into… whatever Ren is now. They brought him back but didn’t put him in the cell. He walked past me though, and his eyes were… like Ren’s eyes. Fire. He looked at me…”

She shuddered.

How many of the villagers back at home were already like Ren?

It was the obvious question, but neither of them wanted to ask it out loud.

Noises. Yelling.

Arn blinked awake. He’d fallen asleep again.

But the noises were still there.

He went over to the door. The noises were louder, but he couldn’t see anything.

It sounded like fighting.

He didn’t even dare hope that they might still have a chance.

Then two gray skeletons with bright swords walked right past his cell. They didn’t even look his way, but he stepped backwards.

The smell of them was dark and dusty, like old bones and sulfur.

When they were gone, he moved back and saw Kim’s face across the hall again.

“What is that noise?” she said.

Arn didn’t know, but it was getting louder. Nearer.

Kim and Arn looked at each other.

Then suddenly there was a loud, snarling yell and a crash of steel.

Gray bones flew past the cell door and skittered down the hall.

A green-gray face popped up in front of him, staring into the cell. Arn jumped backwards again from shock, but his heart suddenly leapt up with hope.

It was a Pakmog.

It yelled something back down the hall to someone.

“Arn or Dav, that you?” said a voice.

It had to be Grem.

Was Ama with Grem? Was she okay?

Dav answered before Arn could say anything.

“Oh, hi Grem!” Dav said. He sounded relaxed.

Bad things only happen to other people, Arn thought. That really was Dav’s attitude, but it wasn’t conceited. He just didn’t seem to get that anyone was really serious about hurting him. Not when there were so many more interesting things to do.

Arn wished he could believe that.

“Dav,” Grem’s voice grunted. “Where Arn?”

“Down here!” Arn said. “I’m in the next cell.”

He was afraid to ask about Ama. He didn’t want to hear the answer.

But then the door popped open, and when Arn walked out he was looking at three Pakmog. And Ama. She stood behind them, staring at him with wide eyes.

He felt like a burst of sunlight let loose inside of him. He rushed up to her, walking right past Grem.

“You welcome for big rescue,” Grem said, staring after him. “Was no problem.”

“You’re safe,” Arn said to her. “I thought you… It didn’t look good.”

“I thought you two were goners,” she said. “There were like a dozen Walkers after you.”

Dav came up to them with Kim beside him.

“It was a little worrying there for a bit,” he said. “But I never really doubted that Grem would come through.”

One of the other Pakmog grumbled something.

“Sorry, I mean all of you,” Dav said.

Then he looked like he thought something more was still needed.

“All the Pakmog together? The Walkers never stood a chance!”

The Pakmog nodded. They liked that.

“How did you get here?” Arn said. He didn’t want to stop looking at Ama.

She smirked.

“We ran,” she said.

“Run long way,” Grem said.

“I thought we were lost. We were somewhere deep inside the fortress, way down near the lava.”

“Pakmog not forget way so easy,” Grem said. He sounded a little proud. “Or else be lost in caves.”

“They were going to leave,” she said, and shot Grem a dark look.

Grem shrugged.

“Dav and Arn probably dead,” he said.

“But we’re not dead,” Dav said.

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“No. Lucky you,” said Grem.

“I said we had to at least look,” Ama said.

Grem nodded.

“She said and said and said. Pakmog decide, leave her there or else go look for Dav and Arn.”

Even though she was thin and pale and still wobbled a bit when she walked, Ama had stood up to three huge Pakmog and made them do what she wanted. Arn wondered what she would be able to do when she was healthy again.

“What do we do now?” Dav said to Grem. He looked interested. Like he assumed Grem had a plan in mind.

Grem stared back at him.

“We go. We try, anyway.”

Kim went over to a gap in the wall that looked outside.

“The bridge is still broken,” she said.

Grem nodded.

“That big problem.”

“Wait,” Dav said. “Where’s the other fellow? There were four of you.”

“Raga,” Grem said. “He probably dead.”

Dav pointed out that they thought he and Arn were probably dead, too.

“Maybe he’s okay,” Dav added, looking hopeful.

“Raga have good story if he not dead,” Grem said. “But Raga probably dead.”

“You think everybody’s probably dead,” Arn said.

But there was still the problem of where to go.

The Pakmog started arguing. They grunted and snarled at each other for a long time. Or at least it sounded like arguing. It might have sounded the same if they were planning a surprise party.

The four villagers stood together and watched.

“Can you think of anything?” Kim said to Dav.

“They know this place better than we do,” Dav said. “I can’t see any way across.”

They stared out at the lava and the cliffs. It was a long way down.

Arn had his arm around Ama. The running had finally caught up with her. She had been weak when they found her, and now she was having trouble just standing up on her own.

“Why don’t you sit down for a bit?” he said.

She looked like she was going to do it, but just then Grem turned to them.

“We go,” he said.

“Where?”

“Out. Up. Out.”

“Up?”

“Up.”

“Can we rest a bit?” Arn said. “Ama is really weak.”

“Arn think Gray Walkers say, you have nice rest before we come back?”

He had to admit this was true.

“Put your weight on me,” he told Ama. She leaned into him, looking thankful for the support, and he did his best to take her weight. Together they moved as fast as they could following the others.

It was a long, slow walk down the hallway until they got to the stairs again.

“What if there are Walkers?” Arn whispered to Grem, while they all stopped and listened.

“Pakmog fight them,” Grem said quietly.

“What do we do?”

“Find way up. All way up.”

“All the way?”

“Up, outside. Way up high.”

Dav looked worried.

“Wouldn’t we be stuck? I mean if we were way up high and they knew where we were?”

“You bet. Stuck bad.”

Ama shook her head.

“Then that’s stupid. Then why should we go that way?”

Grem frowned at her.

“You think Grem trick you?”

“… no,” she said.

But she still didn’t look like she really trusted them.

She’s been down here for days, maybe longer, Arn thought. Surrounded by enemies.

“Grem hasn’t lied to us once,” Arn said. He felt like he had to say something. “We’d already be dead - or worse - if it wasn’t for him.”

“Grem’s people are amazing!” Dav said. “They’re probably the most interesting thing we’ve seen in the Underworld.”

Grem might have looked a little happier - it was hard to tell - but Arn didn’t thinks he understood what a big compliment interesting really was, coming from Dav. He’d have to explain it, if he ever got a chance. At any rate Kim didn’t keep pushing it. They all moved up the stairs together, Pakmog ready for anything and Villagers ready to run.

“I think maybe they don’t know we’ve escaped yet,” Arn said.

“For sure,” said Grem. “But when they find out, they be real mad.”

They moved slowly along, listening for something chasing them, or something sneaking after them. But there was nothing - it was so quiet that the noise of their breathing was loud, and the sound of their feet on the rough stone bricks echoed now and then.

Ama put more and more of her weight on Arn. He was worried about her, but he couldn’t stop himself from looking at her face again and again too. She looked back at him once, and smiled a little bit. It would almost have been nice if they weren’t looking for a way out of this place.

“This way,” Dav said again and again, leading them up the stairs so many times that Arn lost count.

Eventually they were outside, way up high at the top of the fortress. Brick paths stretched out in all directions, but straight ahead was one little tower with a staircase leading up. It would be as high as they could go.

“Nobody,” Dav said. “Nobody at all. They really must not know we’re gone yet.”

“I don’t like it,” Arn said. “It feels weird. Dead. Why didn’t we run into anything at all?”

Kim pointed away into the distance. There was movement on the broken bridge. Something was going on down there.

“Maybe they’re all outside fixing it?”

That didn’t seem very likely to Arn.

“Let’s just go,” he said to Grem.

One of the Pakmog - Moho - had already gone head and climbed the stairs, and stood at the top of the tower.

“Hurry now,” Grem said. “We wait at stairs.”

“What are we going to do?” Kim said. She was trying to look in all directions at once, watching out for danger.

“We wait. Moho do his thing,” Grem said, but he wouldn’t say anything else.

Moho stood, outlined against the lava streams, with his arms held up high. Then he… barked.

That was really the only word for it. It was like a bark, but incredibly loud. All the villagers jumped at the sound. Dav looked around at Grem, but Grem shook his head. He didn’t want to explain. That was obvious.

There was a long, wailing shriek from nearby.

“It’s a Floater Demon!” Ama said. She started trembling. “They’re horrible!”

It sounded very close.

“We should get down again,” Kim said.

“No,” said Grem.

His voice didn’t allow for arguing.

Moho barked again, and the noise echoed back from the rocky sky of the Underworld. The crying of the Floater Demon was even closer. Then they saw it. It rose up over the edge of the fortress, and it was looking right at them.

It was awful. Floater Demons were flabby, jelly-like, pasty grey-red balloons with tentacles. They quivered, and their nasty little eyes were full of hate.

They’re like living snot, Arn thought.

But instead of screaming and shooting fire at them, it just floated towards Moho. He stood, waiting, until it got to him, but its mean little eyes never stopped looking at the four villagers.

“What’s happening?” Ama said, staring at it. She was trembling.

Arn didn’t know, and he didn’t know what to say. So he just tried to look confident for her sake.

Moho stroked one of the thing’s tentacles. Its beady little red eyes stared at him, but it didn’t attack.

Dav was staring at the monster, open-mouthed.

“It’s… amazing!” he whispered.

Arn thought it looked like a nightmare, but if it was going to give them some hope of getting home, he wasn’t going to insult it.

Then Moho gave Grem a nod.

“Okay, looks like we good. Can get carried,” Grem said.

“Carried?” Kim said.

“Really?” Dav said. He looked like he was going to start giggling. But both Ama and Kim both stared at the Floater Demon with looks of pure disgust.

Grem and the other Pakmog pushed the villagers up the stairs to stand at the top with Moho and the Floater Demon. Grem looked at Arn.

“You grab,” Grem said. “Hold on. If Arn fall, Arn not just probably dead.”

“We’re going to… it’s going to carry us?”

“That what Grem just say,” said Grem.

“Won’t it try to kill us?”

“Not now,” Grem said. “Not this one.”

“Why?” Dav said.

Arn didn’t think Pakmog could sigh, but Grem looked like he’d do it if he knew how.

“Dav want talk and talk, or go?” he said slowly. “Sometimes Pakmog do things they want. Sometimes they do things Pakmog want. Okay?”

“Ah!” Dav said. “Now I get it! But he’s right, we should go.”

With that Dav walked forward and grabbed hold of one of the thing’s flabby white tentacles. He didn’t even look worried.

After all, Arn thought, nobody would ever lie to Dav.

“How hard should I hold on?” Dav asked.

“So you not fall,” Grem said.

“I won’t hurt it?”

The thing had shuddered when Dav touched it, and made a low growling noise. Grem shrugged.

“We probably know if you do.”

Kim looked like she wanted to throw up, but she forced herself to stand beside Dav, and wrapped both hands around a tentacle.

“It’s… ugh. It feels like something rotten,” she said.

Arn looked at Ama. She gave him a half smile.

“It’s not the worst thing I’ve been through, I guess. But I don’t know if I can hold on.”

That’s what Arn was worried about too. She wasn’t strong, after all. She was pale and thin and had enough trouble just walking on her own. He grabbed a tentacle - it shivered under his fingers - and then held out his arm to her.

“You grab on with both hands, and I’ll hold on to you too, so you don’t fall.”

I really, really hope I’m actually strong enough to do that, he thought. But he didn’t want to ask Grem to do it for him.

Suddenly there was a noise from down below.

“They here,” Grem said. “Hold on, we go.”

Arn’s stomach lurched when he saw.

A swarm of Gray Walkers had emerged from the fortress, and they were charging towards them. A tall figure walked behind them. There was no doubt about it - it was Ren. Or at least the thing that looked like Ren. Arn thought he could see the flicker of orange where it’s eyes should have been.

The three Pakmog all jumped for a tentacle just as the Floater Demon started going up into the air.

Ama gasped, and started to slip right away.

Arn held on to her with one hand, his arm tight around her waist.

She was slipping down, though.

Her face looked up at his.

“Sorry,” she said weakly, and dropped downward even farther. Her hands were both around the thing’s tentacle, but they weren’t strong enough to stop the sliding.

They were already high up in the air. When Arn looked down, the skeletons were all over the tower, and some of them were shooting up at them. One arrow whizzed past his shoulder. But he didn’t care about that. He only had one hand to hold on to the Floater Demon, while the other one was trying to keep Ama from falling.

Now they were over the lava.

“Hurry,” he gasped.

Dav saw what was happening, and he reached out with one hand to grab Ama’s robe as well. It helped a little.

“I don’t know how long we can hold on,” Kim said in a tiny voice.

Grem said something to Moho, and the Floater Demon started moving downward.

“We go down, but not good. Too close.”

“Hurry,” Arn said again.

He was losing his grip on Ama. Dav looked worried for once too. All four of the villagers were starting to slip, and it was still a long, long way down to the ground. Ama looked up at Arn again.

“I wish I could have met you in a better place,” she said.

He didn’t like the sound of her voice. It sounded like she was saying goodbye.

So he didn’t say anything at all. He growled in the back of his throat and forced his fingers into the flesh of the Floater Demon so hard that he thought they might break. Pain flared through his hand, and the Floater Demon’s tentacle shivered.

He kicked out one leg and wrapped it around Ama. It felt like he was holding up both of their weights on nothing more than one hand. He wanted to scream with pain, but it would have taken too much energy, so he just held on and waited, barely even remembering to breath.

When his feet hit the ground he didn’t even look. He just let go. Ama fell with him, and they slammed into the ground hard. It knocked Arn’s breath out, and his foot twisted against the blocks with a sharp burst of pain, but he didn’t care at all.

Made it, he thought.

He’d honestly thought the two of them were going to plunge downwards and be smashed to bits on the sharp red blocks. But instead they lay there together and he could tell from Ama’s breathing that she was still alive too.

Dav came pumping up to them.

“Are you okay?” he said.

He looked really worried.

“Let’s never do that again, alright?” Arn said, staring up at the sky of rock and lava.

Kim helped Ama up, and Dav pulled Arn to his feet. The Pakmog didn’t let anyone stop though.

“Go!” said Grem, “We go now or we not go.”

They looked to where he was pointing. The bridge was almost finished. There were only a few bricks left to go, and there was already a crowd of Walkers waiting to cross it. Arn couldn’t see Ren, but he would be there somewhere.

But they could only move as fast as Arn and Ama. Kim had her arm around Ama’s waist. Arn staggered forward, trying to ignore the shooting pain in his ankle.

“We’re holding you all back,” Ama said. “You should just go.”

But nobody said anything. Dav moved in alongside Arn and grabbed him, taking his weight, and together they all moved towards the dark cliff walls.

“Where are we going?” Kim said.

Grem looked back at her impatiently.

“Where Kim think? Same place everyone go. Portal.”

“Isn’t that where they expect us to go?”

“Yes. They right.”

Grem looked like he thought the conversation was over.

“But wait,” Kim said.

“No waiting,” said Grem. The Pakmog all kept moving.

“You said the portal was closed! Why are we going there?”

“Ah, probably because of me,” Dav said, panting. The Pakmog were almost running now, and the villagers were staggering along together, trying to keep up.

“You?”

“Yes, um…” Dav said, and tried to catch his breath. “I told them how we heard about turning it on again.”

“Can you do that?” said Kim.

“Dav better hope he can,” Grem grumbled back at them.

Then Grem said something in a raspy Pakmog whisper. He sounded surprised - probably for the first time since they had met him. Surprised and unhappy.

All the Pakmog crouched down, hiding. The villagers did too.

“What is it?” Dav said curiously.

Grem pointed.

Three Walkers were already coming towards them. They must have been on this side all along. They were heading straight towards them.

Grem said something to one of the others.

“Moho help us,” Grem whispered.

Moho jumped up and yelled something loud, then started running away along the bricks. The Whither Skeletons stared at him for a second, then started chasing him. He sped away from them, with the creatures close behind.

“What did he say?” Kim said.

Grem shook his head.

“More rude words. Not really matter.”

He stood up.

“Hurry, we go,” he said.

“What about… Moho?” Dav said, staring at the Pakmog running away into the red mist.

“Moho pretty fast. Might not die,” Grem said.

“Oh.”

“Maybe not same for us,” Grem said. He pointed at the bridge.

They were finished. Skeletons swarmed across it. There must have been dozens. Two archers shot arrows in their direction.

“Maybe too late,” Grem said.

Arn and put his arm around Ama again, and tried to stand up with her so that they could run together. Instead he almost fell flat on his face. Pain shot from his ankle.

No way. No way am I going to lose now.

He grunted and pulled himself up, and staggered forward, trying to drag both of them along on his one good foot. It wasn’t going to work. Grem could see it too. He jumped forward and scooped Ama up.

Arn’s eyes locked with Ama.

“I hope we make it,” she said. “I’d like to...”

But he didn’t get to hear what she wanted to do. Grem started running, and one of the other Pakmog picked Arn up like he weighed nothing at all. Dav and Kim ran ahead of them.

They reached the empty Underworld Portal and everyone looked at Dav.

“What do we do?” said Kim.

Dav stared at the empty portal, thinking. An arrow thudded into a block beside them.

“This where we use Dav’s brain,” said Grem.

Two more arrows slammed into the ground, one of them right by Kim.

Dav shook his head.

“I thought we’d have more time!”

He pulled something out of his robe. It was the iron bar that he’d found in his cell.

“We need flint. Somehow we make a spark with flint and this. I don’t know how and I don’t have any flint!”

“We really need to hurry, guys,” said Kim. “They’re coming. Right now.”

Ama shifted around in the arms of the Pakmog who was carrying her. She pointed.

“There. Can find some in that stuff. Dig!”

Grem dropped Arn roughly onto the ground and jumped over to the gravel blocks. He started tunneling into them so fast that his arms were a blur.

“We’ve got like ten seconds maybe,” said Kim. She sounded very calm now, like she didn’t think they were going to make it.

Grem grunted and held up a shiny gray rock.

“This it?”

“Yes!” Dav shouted and grabbed it out of Grem’s hand.

He ran up to the portal and held the two items together.

Nothing happened.

“Well?” Arn said.

“I don’t know. They make a spark. I need to think about it.”

“Too late,” said Kim.

Arn looked around. They were nearly caught. There was no time left at all.

Grem gave an angry grunt and grabbed the flint and the iron from Dav. He spread his arms wide apart and brought them together with a loud SMACK. The flintstone shattered into a thousand pieces.

But at the same time, some bright orange sparks shot out from between his hands. One of them touched the shiny black surface of the gate, and there was a humming noise.

The gate glowed with shimmering light. It was working.

“Walkers!”

There was time to celebrate. A crowd of Graywalkers was on them. Grem whirled around and grabbed Kim, shoving her into the portal. She shimmered and was gone.

“Go!” he growled and pulled out his sword.

Arn turned to grab Ama from the Pakmog who was carrying her.

He never got a chance. Prag jumped out of the way of two skeletons who slashed their swords down at him, but ended up right in the middle of even more of them.

Arn saw Ama’s eyes – they were wide, and staring right at him.

Then someone grabbed him hard from behind and dragged him into the portal.

“No!” he yelled, and tried to pull himself away, back towards the flashing swords of the Pakmog and the crowd of Walkers.

But instead, everything sparkled with shimmering light as the Underworld faded away.