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Another shower of dust cascaded to the floor.
I stood up.
That dull ache in the pit of my stomach I felt when something didn’t feel right was going haywire.
Deep rumbling vibrations rose from the soles of my feet and up my legs, making my entire body shake.
A stone tumbled from the back wall and thudded on the tile floor. I approached the wall and placed my hands on it. Beneath my palms, I could feel the same rumbling vibrations.
Whatever it was, it was coming from behind this wall.
I pressed my ear to the cool surface.
There was something else there…
Something just beneath the rumbling, almost inaudible…
Almost.
It was the grinding screech of metal against stone, and earth being shoved aside. It grew louder even than the rumbling.
I stepped as far away from the wall as I could, until my back pressed against the front wall of my cell.
From this wider angle, I noticed the dust wasn’t only falling within my cell, it was cascading in a flood along the entire back wall. Dirt swelled in growing mounds.
I turned and shouted.
“Somebody!” I said. “Something’s happening in here!”
It was no good. I was drowned out by the loud grinding.
A tile slipped off and smashed on the floor, then another, and another, until it was raining ceramic tiles. The wall bent inwards, giving in to some unseen force.
But there shouldn’t have been anything on the other side. Nothing but solid rock.
Nothing could travel through this material. Not even a sand serpent.
Then something alien and lifeless reared its head. Metal teeth gnashed gears and ground to a crescendo as the entire wall fell, smothering the room with dirt and dust. The cell walls fractured and exploded into metal shards.
A pair of bright red eyes glared at me.
A single metal pole smacked me across the head, knocking me to the ground. A high-pitched squeal filled my ears as the dust swirled and fell, dusting me with a thick layer of dirt and blocking out the light.
I was safely tucked away inside a cocoon of earth, but even there, I could hear the explosions and rattles of blaster fire, the screams of dying creatures, and others shouting orders that echoed up and down the endless hallways and corridors of the underground base.
My fears about the Changeling siblings and their sly sinister expressions had come true.
Something terrible had happened.
But not in here.
I was safe in my little cocoon.
But Maddy wasn’t safe.
She was out there somewhere among that noise.
I got up, birthed from the thick mound of dirt and detritus. My throat was dry. I choked on clods of dirt. I spat the mud from my mouth and rubbed at my eyes to work the dust free.
