out on the count of three, you will die.” It was three steps away. “One,” it said, taking a step forward. No response. “Two,” it said, louder and with greater threat, taking another step. Still nothing. The advance form grinned. “Three!” it snarled, taking the last step. It whipped one of its arms around the pillar, looking around it simultaneously, gashing, slicing, ripping…but not flesh, not Jenna, only the pillar itself. There was nothing there. The confused advance form straightened up, looking back across the room. Behind it, a red shape snuck through the shadows, slipping out the other door.

The advance form was about to decide to simply tear the room apart looking for its quarry, but it heard a noisy clattering from through the rear door. It growled and raced towards that door, understanding now what had happened. Jenna must have been hiding behind the pillar, but moved to the next one, closest to the right wall, a very risky move, but one that completely fooled the advance form and would have been perfect if not for the sudden noise.

Jenna had been sneaking through another hallway that the door led into, but it was pitch black, and she stumbled into some ancient renovating equipment, alerting the advance form. As she ran, she looked behind her and saw it come to the door. It could see far better in the dark, and it screamed with rage and ran at her. It was running too fast, Jenna knew, and she wouldn’t be able to get away. Then, suddenly, up ahead, she saw an open vent cover. It would be close… She yelled and jumped as hard as she could, flying into the duct. She skidded for about a second. And then, there was no bottom. Jenna screamed as she plunged down the shaft. She braced herself to feel her bones break, but the pipe was curved, so instead of ending with a hard landing, her fall turned into a breakneck-speed horizontal slide. Relief only came to her for a moment, though, because the thought of shooting right into a furnace came into her mind as she realized there was no way to slow down…or was there? She stiffened her legs and pressed her paws against the side of the duct, with her back against the other side, and this slowed her quickly until she finally was able to stop. There seemed to be two exits from where she was now, and they were providing the only light. One of them was a few yards in front of her, and was another drop from which a faint light was coming. She crawled forward to it, looked down…and gasped. It wasn’t a furnace; it was a very operational boiler. She began shaking at the thought of the death she would have suffered if she hadn’t tried to stop earlier, and she backed up as quickly as she could, breathing hard. The other exit provided more light. It was also a drop, but only a few feet, and at the bottom, there was a loose grate where ambient light from the building’s lighting leaked in. She jumped down the drop, turned around, and kicked the grate with her hind legs. It popped off readily, and Jenna turned back around and stepped out. She was in the utility room, with various pipes on the walls, some leading to the throbbing boiler, others leading down further. Struts and poles of the building’s foundation were all around, and various boxes, many containing tools, lay among them. Jenna went to a double door, the only exit, and opened it…coming right up against another advance form. She cried out and backed up as it entered the room. “Going somewhere?” it said, casually. This one had skin over what appeared to be several spirals, with arms and legs that were short and thick. It looked strange, almost like a semisolid shape, with brown-green skin and black eyes. Both hands had three fingers, each of which ended in a stiletto-like claw. The smell coming off it was even worse than Sorrow, because this smelled foul and putrid as well as rotten. “I’m a staph advance form,” it said. “I’m Sorrow’s other warrior strain. Hence, it’s part of my responsibility to catch runaway prisoners, so here I am.” It held out one hand. “Now, come with me, or I’ll practice with my claws on you.” Just then, the strep throat advance form burst through the door. “Hello, brother,” said the staph advance form. “I’ll kill her myself!” roared the strep throat advance form. “Oh, no, you won’t. Sorrow needs her for this.” “I…I suppose you’re right. But the moment he doesn’t need her anymore, I want to be the first to get my teeth into her!” “Whatever you say. Come now, Jenna, back to the chains with you.”

A few minutes later, everything was back to the way it had been before Jenna’s escape attempt. Thankfully for her, she hadn’t really needed to go outside. Sorrow spent a while speaking to the strep throat advance form, then came back into the room, sat down at a desk, and began writing and drawing things. Jenna wasn’t sure what more she could do for herself now, but she decided to try. “Sorrow?” He looked at her. “What is it?” “Please, let me go, Sorrow. I haven’t done anything to you, and neither has my husband. You’re attacking us like this without even telling us why! Let me go, please!” Sorrow’s face twisted into a horrible look. “You have no idea of what your husband is responsible for doing to my kin and myself. I have taken you hostage to lure him here, and there is nothing you can say to convince me to let you go.” She hung her head, feeling like any possible hope had bled away, and trying not to cry at the thought of Balto walking right into a deathtrap for her sake. “Are you bored?” Sorrow asked. Jenna, frightened by thoughts of what may be going on in Sorrow’s mind, shook her head rapidly. “No, no, I’m okay. Really.” “Well, I am,” he said, beginning to pace around the room. After a few passes, he knelt in front of her. “Do you know what I do when I’m bored?” Jenna didn’t answer; she was becoming more and more afraid by the second. “Come on,” Sorrow said, coaxingly. “Do you know what I do when I’m bored?” “Um…n-no, what?” He smiled. “I hurt things.” He held up one of his claws. “I have decided to offer you a choice,” he said. “I can either hurt you a little bit now and then gradually, or wait until later and hurt you a lot. Which one?” Jenna began to sob in sheer terror. “You’re going to get one or the other,” he said. “You may as well choose.” Jenna didn’t respond. “Alright,” Sorrow said, “I’m more bored, so we’ll start now.” Jenna began to cry harder, turning her eyes away from Sorrow’s leering face. “Don’t worry,” he said reassuringly, “It’ll be far better than waiting until later. You’ll only scream a little.” He brought his claw toward her chest, and she braced herself for the cut…

Sorrow grunted and pulled his hand away, putting both hands on his head. “Rrgh! Stop disturbing me!” He shook his head. “I swear, I want to infect them with leprosy sometimes. My henchmen, I mean. Like all of my brethren, we share the ability to communicate over distance without speaking. The problem is, they never stop talking. They are always acting as if the enemy is right at my door.” Suddenly, the double metal doors at the end of the room crashed down. Sorrow turned around…and screamed in horror. “No! Ebola? It can’t…it’s impossible…” Balto stood there, new tools uttering violent screams at Sorrow. “It must…that filthy Equinox!” “Alright, scum,” Balto growled, “I followed your map. Now tell me what you’re doing here and give Jenna back!” “Well, well, well, aren’t we feisty? You know, considering that I have your wife hostage, you might want to be careful.” Balto looked at Jenna. She was staring at him, her face a mixture of fear and confusion. “Balto?” she said. “Don’t worry, Jenna. It’s me. I know this looks scary, but it’s just the tools; I’m still me.” Jenna didn’t look convinced. Balto walked up to her, and her fear rose visibly. “Jenna,” Balto said, pain in his voice, “don’t be scared. It’s me.” He reached out and touched her face. “You like jazz, baby?” he said. She calmed greatly, and he leaned forward, kissing her softly. “See?” he said. Jenna sighed and nodded, smiling with relief. “It’s you,” she said. “That’s right,” said Sorrow, “and because it’s him, he is now in very hot water.” “Why?” Balto said. “You promised to tell me.” “I did, and I will, now. You see, in the future, my kind are fighting a war with humans. If I kill you, sled dog mail will fall through because of a certain event in your future that won’t happen, and airmail will take its place. This leads to a rise in airplane science and popularity, so in the future, there are more planes. Eventually, this allows two strains of my kin to cross the ocean to other continents and establish new footholds after we mutate that we didn’t have before, resulting in us winning the war. But in truth, that is not why I personally am doing this. I am doing this because I seek a power beyond the imagination. It lies near this town, somewhere. The problem is, historical records say that you, somehow, destroyed it. So, I have come back before that time to get rid of you. Those…virus tools were not a factor in my plan, but that does not matter. I don’t see any reason why I should wait to destroy you.” He snapped his fingers, and a hideous creature burst out of a door. On the opposite side of the room, another different creature burst out of another door. “It is time to say goodbye,” Sorrow growled. Jenna recognized the attackers as the strep throat and staph advance forms. Both of them ran at Balto immediately, and he realized he wouldn’t exactly have time to learn how to fight; he would just have to do it. He stepped back and swung the virus arms up, deflecting the first attacks by the advance forms. The strep throat advance form yelled and swung one of its blades in an upper slash headed right for Balto’s neck. He dodged, but not just a normal dodge; he couldn’t believe how fast he had moved, getting cleanly out of the way well before the blade carved the air where his head had been. It prepared to swing again, but Balto decided to attack first. He lashed out with one