“Ok, let’s dig a little deeper before we commit,” I said, facing the lone elevator. “This can’t be the only way down. It’s supposed to be his private quarters, so there have to be beds, sofas, all kinds of shit that just wouldn’t fit in that little cab.”

“Does it matter?” asked Sun. “Time is already against us.”

Cody agreed. “It’s not like we can just stick our heads out and go exploring, is it? We’d become lunch before we found the secret tunnels or whatever he uses.”

“The plant room was a bust,” added Cris. “So what choice do we have?”

“Not much,” I conceded. My little box of tricks had taken control of the laboratory systems, and I’d hoped to add the perimeter defences to our side. Unfortunately, they were the final piece of this world’s very large puzzle, safely kept out of reach within Lake’s living quarters. Pierce had explained that the main driver of the island’s power was a geothermal plant deep within the ground beneath our feet. That, in turn, confirmed my certainty that there was another way down.

My party were right, however. Without the ability to go looking around for hours or even days, we were restricted to the shaft in front of us. Along with the inevitable box of deadly tricks it would contain.

I stood aside. “Sun, would you do the honours and cut it to pieces, please. Then we can figure out a way forward. Or down.”

She pulled out her warcleaver and took up position. “The door too?”

“Everything. I expect my device can take control and get it open, but I don’t want anything closing on us once we’re climbing down.”

“Fine,” she replied, looping up for a swing.

Before she could deliver the blow, the doors pinged and opened. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” said Lake from a speaker within.

Sun looked to me for the order to destroy the cab itself. I nodded, and she moved a little closer to begin her attack.

“If you do that, I’ll kill the children!” Lake shrieked.

A series of pitiful cries followed, stilling Sun’s blow.

“That’s better,” said the marginally calmer voice.

My skin prickled with surging hatred. “Come out now and I promise you a quick death,” I offered. “You won’t even feel it.”

“The saviour speaks,” said Lake, the sarcasm laid on thick. “Thank you for the generous offer, but I think I’ll pass. Now, if you’d be so kind as to step inside my elevator, we can finally meet face to face.”

“Mark, don’t,” warned Ramell.

“It’s a trap,” added Kordell.

“No shit,” I replied. Another chorus of children sobbing and crying carried out from the innocuous looking elevator. “But what choice do we have?”

“None if you want them to live!” snapped Lake. “Hurry up! I’m losing patience.”

The tiny box could’ve taken us all if we’d been willing to squeeze in and on top of each other, but I led the Campbell brothers away. “I need you two to stay up here and keep an eye on things.” Ramell made to argue but I shut him down. “I know Lake’s going to fuck us, but when I said we can’t really die, I meant it. You can. You’re both strong leaders, past indiscretions aside.” They looked away, suitably abashed. “Rhys and the others will need you once this is done. The old politicians will probably try and regain control and fuck everything up. I want you to find a better way.”

“What if we don’t succeed, brother?”

“Keep trying. If you go back to your old ways, I’ll be back to set things straight.”

“We won’t,” Kordell assured me.

“Coming this close to the brink gives one an appreciation for life, brother,” said Ramell. “Not to mention what comes after.”

I moved them a bit further away from my group. “Make sure you keep a very close eye on Liza’s mum, Janice. I don’t trust that bitch as far as I can throw her.”

“Want us to lock her away?”

“Not unless she gives you a reason. Have Pierce pick a guard to stick to her like glue. Unless you want the job?”

Ramell balked at the idea. “That bitch is cold with a capital C. I’ll find someone I don’t like.”

“She’s going to have plenty of time to warm up in jail,” replied Kordell.

I held out my hand to the brothers, but they were all in on the physical displays of affection and pulled me into an embrace. We patted each other on the backs in silent support.

Ramell held me at arm’s length. “You give Lake hell for me, you hear?”

“I’m going to send him there as painfully as possible. You can count on that. Thank you both for coming and risking it all. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“Yes you could,” chuckled Kordell, “But I appreciate the sentiment, brother.”

I left the Campbells and joined my party. We stared together at the luxurious space, wondering what tricks or traps we were going to face.

Lake’s fearful, whiny voice came back over the speaker. “I want you all! Bring the other two or I kill the children!”

“You get four, and my offer of a quick death is gone. If you harm a hair on their heads, I’ll break my no torture rule and peel you like a fucking onion, one layer of meat at a time, do you hear me?”

Time ticked by as our stalemate dragged on. I’d had to force down my responsibility for the children. They were completely out of my hands and only the crazed whims of Lake would ensure their survival or death.

After nearly a minute of silence, the speaker crackled. “Step inside.”

He sounds scared, thought Cris.

He knows it’s over. He’s a dead man walking that refuses to do the dying part.

Then why not just give up and beg for mercy?

Because he’s psychologically incapable of doing that? Plus the aliens wouldn’t have picked this world if Lake would just throw himself at our feet, snot bubbling from his nose. There’s always going to be a final challenge. Isn’t that the point of games? A build-up and finale?

Let’s go and see what he has in store for us then, thought Cris, being the first to move inside.

I walked in behind her, then Sun joined us. Cody followed up the rear. We all tensed, waiting for the sudden drop that would end our lives and the first failed attempt to reach him. If spikes should await, we would be forced to scrub the island of dinosaurs and start breaking out the picks and shovels, wasting days and weeks. Knowing how much more terrified he would be to see us back from the grave, digging down towards him was almost worth the loss.

The lift shuddered, and we all took a reflexive breath of shock, but it was only the normal descent beginning.

“Where’s the awful elevator music?” asked Cris.

We were rewarded with a musical hiss. One of clear gas filling our little coffin.

I laughed. “You had to say it, didn’t you?”

“Sorry,” she replied, trying to hold her breath.

I wasn’t even mad. This had to be our first avenue of attack, even if he didn’t have the children held hostage to use as a lure. The lunatic wouldn’t have been able to poison us if we’d hacked it to pieces, but there were bound to be other protective measures. At least the children would be spared. For now. Another crop of innocent deaths to my name wasn’t a tempting prospect. I took a long pull of the rather sweet gas, feeling my whole body start to float.

Dying wasn’t so bad, after all.

I dropped like a stone, but only so far as the carpet.

The elevator continued downward with its cargo of bodies.

***

The first thing that impressed itself upon me about resurrection was that it felt very much like waking up after consuming too much cheap cider as a teenager. My head was pounding and my back felt like I was laid out in the recently tilled field in which I’d woken over a decade ago. It was all lumpy and uneven.

“I thought Cody said it wasn’t this bad,” I groaned, surprised at the sound of my own words.

“This isn’t it,” moaned Cody beside me.

“Mom, ten more minutes,” slurred Cris as she came out of her unconscious stupor.

Sun was up on her feet in an instant, alert and ready. She glanced down at us. “Drink a potion and prepare.”

I did as she advised and felt the pain in my head abate. The discomfort under my back was caused by the rocky bed in which we found ourselves. Or more correctly, the floor of a gigantic cavern that we found ourselves within. Jumping up, I looked around and realised I was the only one able to see in the darkness. Sun ended that in short order and started to toss torches liberally all around us. I flung them further out, revealing the true scale of our current prison. The roof sat roughly one hundred and fifty feet above our head, curving down on all sides to meet the ground. The walls of the cavern were formed of a pitch black, glittery stone that I soon identified as cooled magma from the extinct volcanos. At least part of it was natural while the other half bore the signs of excavation equipment, finishing the dimensions at about a quarter mile long and just shy of that in width. Thick columns of original rock provided support for the great weight bearing down on us.

“Well, this sucks. How the hell do we get out of here?”

Sun asked the more pertinent question. “How did we get down here? I don’t see the shiny doors of our trap.”

“We must’ve been dragged or carried,” I replied, not finding it either.

“Over there!” said Cris, pointing at a slight curve in the cave wall. We sidestepped, bringing a much bigger door into view. Much bigger. At least fifty feet tall and the same in width. It was rust flecked steel, separated in the middle by the line of its seal.

“That doesn’t look good,” I muttered, checking for any other route out.

The roof itself had at least three large vents in it, and I set Spidey to work in checking them out. I caught the stench of decomposition from somewhere nearby. Judging by the strength, whoever was the source had been dead longer than Milley’s soldiers in the scorpion nest. Cody was the first to investigate and find the remains. And that was the best word for them. Nothing of their previous form remained. The bodies were a chewed, mangled mess of puffy, decaying flesh and splintered bone.

“Those poor fuckers,” I muttered.

Cris moved beside me, a sad expression on her face. “We’ll avenge them too. But we need to find a way out of here first.”

“Welcome!” boomed Lake’s voice from hidden speakers, causing us all to jump. “Oh, don’t mind them. When I offered to settle out of court for their injuries, I insisted they be flown out to collect their money on my paradise island. The filthy parasites couldn’t resist another freebie. Let’s just say they got everything they deserved and more.”

Whatever Lake was using to watch us hadn’t given him a view of Spidey who had torn open the vent and climbed inside to explore further. I wanted to buy him some time, so I responded to the goading. “I don’t blame you, really. I saw what you went through with their constant abuse. Paying back the mob who were always attacking you is one thing, but a dinosaur apocalypse is a bit much, isn’t it?”

“I wanted the people to fear like they’ve never feared before. A gas would’ve been far too easy. Far too quick. This way, they had the chance to lament their betrayal while my creations ate them alive.”

“A lot of people died who didn’t even know who you were. They were just normal people, going about their lives.”

“When you scratch the surface, they’re all the same. Some just hide it better than others.”

Spidey was working at some kind of fan system just inside the vent. If we could get him to pull us up, it would give us a way out, or hopefully into the ventilation system that led directly to Lake.

“I tell you what,” I yelled. “Why not end all this nonsense and come down here. We’ll have a few beers together and you can tell me all about it. I know what it’s like to be burdened with shit you never wanted to deal with. I know Milley was at least partly responsible for what you are now.”

He laughed at my offer. “You think you know me and what I’ve been through?”

“I know you’re probably tired of it all. I’ll give you one last chance to give yourself to me. I promise I’ll make it quick. I’ve got ways to make it painless.”

“Thanks, but I think I’ll have to pass. Once I’ve dealt with you, I’ve got a world to rule. I think that’ll help my past traumas.”

“Mark?” Cris said, pointing at the doors from our new vantage, her tone filled with dread. “What does that look like to you? Think a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.”

It clicked. “Don’t say Rancor, don’t say Rancor, Don’t say Rancor.”

“You literally just said that three times in a row. Out loud!”

“Enjoy my greatest creation!” Lake cried ecstatically.

The huge steel doors started to rumble open, and what lay beyond was worse than the creature which had given me nightmares in my youth.

Far, far worse.