Gora watched Rita step out of the Campsite. She was curious where the spider-woman was going, but not curious enough to leave the safety of their resting place. If she was shy about going to the bathroom in front of the rest of them, well, then that was her business. And her risk.

The fire wouldn’t last much longer, but until it did go out, Gora wanted to squeeze every bit of downtime out of it that she could.

Behind her, Ava was still arguing with Samual.

“Look, it’s stupid to risk her. We have an almost guaranteed pay-out right now, all we have to do is get her home,” Ava said.

“The answer remains no,” Samual replied evenly.

“But think of the money!” Ava tried again.

“The money is irrelevant” Samual responded. “But we have to reach the Tree. It is imperative.”

“How so, Samual? Surely there is no desire that a jingling pocket will not assist in achieving?” Zaxier asked from Gora’s arms. “Why not simply arrange another delve after we return?”

“That is not possible” Samual stated without explaining further.

“But whyyy?” Ava whined.

“My reasons are my own,” Samual said. “Suffice to say, I have a very strict timeline that does not allow for a return trip.”

“Ugh, why are you so damn stubborn!” Ava exclaimed, spinning around and throwing her hands up in exasperation.

Then she paused.

“Where did our cash cow go?” she asked, looking around the room.

“I saw her leaving, Miss Ava,” Bob replied. He was over by the cabinets stuffing the last of the purple berries into his coveralls.

“And you just let her go!?” Ava shrieked, but Gora grabbed her shoulder before she could charge out the door after Rita.

“Hold it. You’re not going out there alone” she said firmly. “If you die I don’t get paid.”

“Rita went out there alone!” Ava exclaimed, yanking her shoulder out of Gora’s grasp with a little more force than was strictly required.

“Rita will either be fine, or she will be dead. Running out there after her alone will not change it” Gora said. “But if you get spotted by another Nightmare Spawn, you could lure them right back to us. And as we learned today, Campsites are not infallible.”

“Then we should all…” Ava began.

“We should all start packing” Gora interjected. “The fire will be gone soon. Then we need to move.”

“But…”

“She likely just stepped outside to use the facilities” Zaxier said. “Give the woman some privacy, would you?”

She should have told them she was stepping out.

She had found people. Real people, who talked to her, was nice to her and helped her. People who didn’t seem to be bothered overly much by the fact that she had eight legs and shat webs.

And then she had promptly left without telling them where she was going.

Rita punched the side of what she assumed had once been a printer. Partly to break it open, but mostly out of frustration.

Why? Why was she so stupid? It was not like she could just go back and tell them now, either. She had completely forgotten that without Alice, the moment she saw them she would go completely crazy again. She was such an idiot!

It was the first time since she left her apartment that Rita felt as if she had time to think, without being rushed, chased, or simply scared out of her mind. For the first time it felt like she could pause and reflect on her path to this point. And the truth was, she had not made the smartest of choices.

Alice was the one who had had the right idea all along. Yes, things had turned out okay, but that was because she had gotten damned lucky. The Masked could have torn her apart. The worm could have crushed her. Gora and the others could have killed her in a myriad of different ways.

If she kept pushing her luck, it was bound to run out sooner or later.

The side of the printer finally cracked open and she reached inside, but the results were disappointing. What had once been an internal circuit board of some kind, was now just a handful of silicon goo and corroded metal. Completely worthless.

Shit, what was she going to do if Alice didn’t come back?

She did not know. She had no idea what to do next. Alice still hadn’t shown any signs of waking back up and without her… without her she just had no idea what to do.

She was lost three thousand years in the future, stuck in some kind of nightmare that was filled with monsters that wanted to kill her. To top it off, she had walked out from the only group that was even remotely friendly without a word, and if she ever saw them again, she would go nuts and they would kill her because the only person she could actually trust was gone.

Alice was gone. What was she going to do? What the actual fuck was she going to do?

Rita took a shaking breath and blinked away the tears that had threatened to overwhelm her. Now was not the time to fall to pieces. Nothing had gone wrong yet; everything was still fine. Alice was not waking up, but what if she just needed a little push? Biting the corpse had shocked her into waking up, what would have a similar effect on Alice?

Rita looked around the apartment she was in. There was not much. It was the same layout as the one upstairs that Gora and the others were camped in, except this one still had all its furniture. That meant the kitchen still had its central island containing the stove and oven and the remainder of the space hosted a small living room set with a few mouldy old paintings against the wall.

What did Alice hate?

Danger. Putting herself in danger and doing dangerous things. Alice wanted to be safe. So, what if she put herself in danger on purpose? Would that do anything?

Obviously, facing a monster was out. There was danger and then there was stupid.

Maybe it did not need to be serious danger? Maybe…

Rita drew the knife that she had found in the kitchen. It was not quite as big as the first one she had found back in her building, but it seemed clean and functional and moderately sharp. She placed her left palm on the table and raised the knife in her other hand, blade downwards.

Fuck, she was being stupid again. But without Alice… it was worth a try, right?

The knife struck the table between her thumb and forefinger, the tip embedding itself in the wood. It took a bit of wiggling to get it out again.

So, missing did not work. That meant she was really going to have to commit.

She braced herself for the coming pain…

Ugggghhhhhh… stop…

“Alice? Alice! You’re okay!” Rita exclaimed, smiling as her heart soared, the knife forgotten. Alice was okay!

I feel like shit… please tell me you weren’t just planning on actually stabbing us through the hand?

“Whaat? This little old thing? Don’t be silly… well, okay yes. Just a little. But it was just to get you back! And it worked! You’re back!”

Rita felt like doing a happy dance. She did not, though. Running she had figured out. Dancing with eight legs? That was asking to fall on her face.

A crippling hand injury for the sake of maybe bringing me back… you are such an idiot.

“That’s why I have you!” she grinned. “I promise next time not to make you stay under for so long. Regular breaks. Promise.”

Is this what it was like for you?

“Yeah, pretty much. Wasn’t nearly as long, though.”

What happened, anyway? I thought the rage only affected you. Why did I suddenly go crazy?

“I think we misjudged how it worked,” Rita admitted. “I’ve been thinking about it, and it looks like you were never immune. Rather, it affected whoever was in control. It had always just been me, before. This was the first time you were in control when we saw Gora and the others.”

Er… Gora? Who…

“You don’t remember? Demon! Her real name is Gora!”

When… ugh, no. I remember falling through the wall, stumbling between their tents and you fishing our phone out of our backpack. After that everything goes kinda hazy. What happened?

“You’re not going to believe this…” Rita laughed and began telling Alice the story of her phone breaking.

You’re kidding. Our phone is a translating widget in this fucked up world? That’s awfully convenient.

Rita shrugged. “Yeah, apparently. Also, magic is real and comes in little glass bottles. Well, it comes from monsters but after harvesting the stuff they put it in little glass bottles.”

Okay… and where are we now? Where are they now?

“We’re just like a floor down from their camp. I was poking around, looking for more electronics,” she said, looking around.

Then check the oven timer. It’s a digital readout so it should have something.

“Good idea!” Rita said and skittered over, talking about all the things she had learnt or suspected after her chat with Ava and the others as she went.

She happened to mention her theory that they were three thousand years in the future while levering the timer unit out of the oven.

Hmm… no way. That’s impossible.

“Well, it’s about as possible as anything else, isn’t it?” Rita said. The unit finally came loose in her hands and she began inspecting it for seams.

No, I mean look around you. How old does this place look?

Rita glanced over the room, noting the crumbling plaster, the rusted appliances, the mouldy furniture, and the living room table that was somehow still standing despite having a serious case of wood rot.

“Maybe… fifty years? It’s really hard to say. The aging is very erratic…” she guessed.

Exactly. After three thousand years I doubt this building would even still be standing. Everything I see here has been abandoned for a hundred years, tops, and most far less than that. I mean, for goodness sakes some of the furniture still has fabric on it! Do you remember what that Bird Street place looked like after it stood empty for only twenty years?

“Okay but there was a leak…”

And?? Don’t you think that this place would have sprung a leak in three thousand years? No, whatever happened, it wasn’t time travel. Well, it wasn’t ONLY time travel.

“But then what…” Rita began. Then she froze.

Standing in the doorway of the apartment was another of the horrifying creatures that seemed to populate this place. It had a vaguely female humanoid body, but its face had folds and folds of extra skin like a Shar-Pei dog. Rita could barely see dark, intelligent-looking eyes peering out from between the flaps of skin that served to hide any other form of facial expression. As if to compensate for all the excess skin on its face, the skin over the creature’s body appeared to be stretched almost painfully tightly over its emaciated frame.

It had not been there moments ago, when Rita’s eyes had scanned the room last, but now it was blocking the only exit from the apartment.

The creature shifted slightly, and Rita’s eyes widened as she noticed the absolutely enormous claws it sported in place of fingers. They made it look a bit like a praying mantis.

For what felt like an eternity, the two of them just stood there, staring at each other. Rita slowly brought up her knife, holding it in front of her. Just as she was starting to make up her mind whether to attack or make a break for one of the windows, the creature cocked its head to the side in a quizzical expression and made a small chirping noise.

What… is that?

“I don’t know…” Rita whispered. “Is it talking to us?”

Then, without warning, the creature simply turned and walked away.

For several seconds more, Rita simply stood rooted to the spot, staring at the doorway, heart thumping.

I think we need to get back to the others.

“Yeah. Like right now.”