Joe rounded the corner back toward Betty, still tipped on her side. Her headlights and indicators were now flashing.

  Joe couldn’t help but smirk. Watching the Harbinger drown had been deeply satisfying, almost too much so. And, if he was being honest, seeing Betty toppled over on her side stirred a flicker of warmth in him as well. Good. She’d been reckless earlier. She needed to learn a lesson—

  Joe stopped dead in his tracks. What the hell was he thinking? This was Betty. His Betty. He didn’t want her hurt. The thought twisted within him, and shame followed close behind. What was wrong with him?

  He knew the answer but refused to admit it. He’d tapped into his Resonance when he threw the scythe. It had worked—maybe too well. The power coursing through him felt intoxicating, even now, but he could sense how far he’d gone. He didn’t even want to check how high it had surged.

  Was this what it did? Resonance? Did it make him revel in the suffering of others? The idea sent a cold shiver down his spine. This wasn’t him. It couldn’t be him.

  Joe forced the thoughts aside as he neared Betty. Her distressed calls brought him back to the present, and his instincts took over. He’d check on his stats later.

  “A little help, please," she said, her wheels spinning uselessly.

  "You're alive!" Pete exclaimed, still covered head to toe in guts. "I thought that thing got you for sure this time."

  "Nah," Betty shot back with a laugh. "That fat pig couldn't seduce me!"

  Joe and Levi moved into position, Joe taking the front and Levi the back. Together, they shoved Betty upright, her wheels finally meeting the ground with a metallic thud. The sound of shattered glass scattered across the cave walls.

  "Thanks for being gentle," Betty muttered dryly.

  "Don't mention it," Levi said, brushing dirt off his denim.

  Joe turned to Pete. "Good job with those bombs. You set them off just in time."

  Pete grinned. "Thanks! I didn’t think they’d explode like that. It was like knives cutting through the rock."

  Joe glanced toward the ledge where the explosion had done its work. The blast had carved through the rock with surgical precision, leaving a clean, smooth edge.

  The ledge had collapsed and now pointed downward like a slide, its tip jammed into the rock where the Harbinger had perched. Following its path, Joe’s eyes landed on the mummified figure again.

  "Oh, shit!" he blurted. He scrambled over the rocks toward the ledge, slipping and sliding but managing to stay upright. The ledge’s slope felt like a natural slide, and Joe skidded down on his rear, landing hard on the Harbinger’s rock.

  The mummified figure lay close to where the ledge had fallen. Too close. Thank God it hadn’t been crushed.

  Up close, it looked even more like an ancient mummy—straight out of an Egyptian sarcophagus.

  Curiosity got the better of him. He bent down and extended a tentative finger. Could this really be a person? If so, they had to be dead, right? Maybe it was just another one of those freakish eel creatures. Joe gave its head a cautious poke.

  The thing jolted violently. A muffled scream tore through the wraps.

  Joe yelped and fell back, landing on his ass. It was alive. Alive!

  Scrambling to his feet, his eyes darted around. "Levi!" he shouted. "Got a knife?"

  "Yeah?" Levi called back.

  "Bring it here! Quick!"

  Levi navigated the same route, sliding down the rock with practised ease—like the action hero he was born to be. Damn, what a man.

  "What’s going on?" Levi asked, flicking the knife open as he approached.

  Joe pointed. "There’s a person in there."

  Levi frowned, sceptical. "In there?"

  Another muffled scream and frantic squirming came from the figure as if to confirm Joe’s claim. Levi’s eyes widened. "Holy shit," he said. Kneeling beside the mummy, he carefully slipped the knife beneath the edge of a bandage and began sawing through.

  The figure immediately started thrashing.

  "Stop!" Joe shouted, placing a steadying hand on what he hoped was their shoulder. "We’re trying to help you!"

  The figure stilled, though its breathing remained frantic. Levi resumed cutting, exposing bits of bare skin beneath the tattered wrappings.

  "Wait," Levi said, pausing mid-slice. "This isn’t another one of those human-fish things, is it?"

  Joe shrugged helplessly. "I don’t know. Maybe? We’ve gotta check."

  "It’s probably the waitress!" Pete hollered from across the cave.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  Joe and Levi exchanged a glance. Levi didn’t waste time questioning further. His movements quickened, unwrapping the bandages around the head. Strands of hair peeked through as the layers unravelled. Finally, he cleared the bandage from her mouth.

  "Get me the fuck outta here!" the woman screamed, wriggling furiously.

  "Lady, we are getting you out! Just hold still!" Levi shot back.

  Joe could see the exhaustion etched on her face. She was shivering, barely able to stay still despite her efforts. Levi had cut away most of the wrappings from her torso, and she tore off the rest herself, kicking them off her legs. The discarded bandages splashed into the water beside them.

  Now fully visible, Joe recognised her immediately—it was the waitress he’d seen before he first entered the Inferno.

  He remembered her vividly: those uncomfortable heels, her terrified expression. She still wore her waitress uniform, though now she was barefoot and visibly worse for wear.

  A nasty gash cut across her cheek, and her brown hair was a tangled mess in dire need of a comb. Not that Joe would judge her. She’d been through hell. Hell, his hair probably looked like a bird’s nest right about now.

  The three of them stood there, awkwardly silent, as if waiting for someone else to break the tension. Joe opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get a word out, the waitress darted between him and Levi, heading straight for the ledge.

  "Hey! Lady, what are you doing?" Levi called after her, sliding his knife back into its sheath.

  "I'm not staying here for one second longer," she snapped, clawing at the rocky ledge to climb.

  Getting down had been easy enough, but climbing back up proved far more challenging. There were no clear footholds, and every movement seemed more painful to watch than the last.

  "Come on," Joe said, stepping forward. "Just come back down and let’s talk this through. I know it’s been rough, but we’re all in the same boat here."

  "You have no idea what I’ve been through!" she shot back, her voice cracking with anger and frustration as she continued her slow, unsteady climb.

  Her bare foot slipped, losing its grip on a jagged rock. She gasped as she slid back down, scraping her knees and legs along the way.

  Joe tried to catch her, but his effort was as graceful as a dropped sack of potatoes. She hit the ground with a thud, turning to sit against the ledge, her back pressed against the stone.

  Joe moved closer, extending a hand. "Here, let me help—"

  "Don’t touch me!" she barked, cutting him off. She hugged her knees, glaring at him.

  "I'm fine. Just leave me alone," she said as she buried her face into her knees.

  Joe might have honoured her request if she wasn’t blocking the only way off the rock. He sighed, quickly pulling up her stats.

  The information didn’t surprise him. She looked like someone who’d been through the wringer down here. Still crouching, Joe lowered himself to her level, trying to catch her gaze.

  "How long have you been here?" he asked.

  Her eyes stayed fixed on the ground as she whispered, "I don’t know. Days? Weeks? It feels like an eternity."

  Joe frowned. Time already felt distorted down here, but weeks? That didn’t seem possible. Or maybe it was. He couldn’t be sure anymore.

  "How did you even get here?" Levi cut in, his voice less comforting than Joe’s.

  She lifted her head and locked eyes with Levi, tears carving trails down her dirt-streaked face. “I came in from above here," she said, her voice trembling. "I walked down the ramp into this awful place. I wandered for a while before I found a hole nearby that led down somewhere. I thought I could hide from those monstrous things up there, but all I found were more monsters down here."

  "A hole?" Joe repeated. "Where?"

  The realisation hit him. During their entire fight, he hadn’t noticed any way in or out of this place. They’d been dragged here by that wave of eel creatures, but any trace of an entry—or an exit—had completely escaped him.

  She motioned over her shoulder toward the back of the cave. At first, Joe couldn’t make out what she was pointing at—no light came from that direction. But as his eyes adjusted, he spotted it: a small hole near the very bottom of the cave wall. Damn. She had crawled straight into the Harbinger’s grasp. Now that’s just bad luck. Still, at least it represented a possible way out of this nightmare.

  “Do you think we can climb back up and out of here?” Joe asked.

  “Yeah, but trust me, you don’t want to,” Jane replied flatly.

  “It’s got to be better than being stuck in this cave,” Levi countered.

  “At least there are more of us now,” Joe added, glancing toward Betty and Pete. “We can fight whatever’s up there waiting for us.”

  Joe was still mulling over his now glaring lack of weapons, the image of the pumpkin scythe sinking alongside the Harbinger replaying in his mind, when a thought hit him.

  Betty.

  How the hell was Betty going to get out of here? Joe froze, staring into the inky darkness of the water, his mind spinning. How the hell could they get her out of this cave?

  “You’re thinking about the car, aren’t you?” Levi said. He must have noticed the gears turning in Joe’s head, the barely concealed panic.

  Joe didn’t answer, just gave a slow, reluctant nod.

  “There has to be another way out of here,” Joe said.

  “There isn’t,” Jane interjected, shaking her head. “When I first came down here, I wasn’t captured right away. That thing—it was asleep when I found it. I crept around as quietly as I could, looking for any way out of here. But there’s nothing. I think I woke it up, because the next thing I remember, everything went dark, and I woke up wrapped in those disgusting bandages.”

  Damn it. Maybe they could head back up there and search for another way in. Worst-case scenario, they could try blowing a hole through the rock. But Joe wasn’t sure how explosives would work on an incline, and even if they managed to blast a hole big enough for Betty, she’d still have to fly—or they’d have to pull her up somehow.

  Neither option sounded remotely feasible.

  Joe sighed, steeling himself for what was shaping up to be a difficult conversation. He had to figure out a way to get her out of here, no matter what it took. Even if it meant leaving her behind temporarily to search for a solution on the surface. The thought didn’t weigh him down with as much sadness as he expected. Then again, that was probably the lingering effect of his Infernal Resonance stats still running high. One problem at a time.