I swore loudly and scrambled back from the giant rat, heart pulsing like I was running a marathon. "Maggie! Hurry, get away from that!"

But Maggie didn't budge from the rat's side. I grabbed the small knife—I had started to keep one with me—from my pocket. "What did you do to her?" I demanded of the rat, shaking in the cold and in my own fear.

A long pink tail whipped out and struck my hand. I gasped and dropped the small weapon, which landed with a clattering noise to the floor. Then the rat spoke.

"Don't try to be brave, kid. And close up the way you came, for Sandwich's sake!"

Maggie smiled and clung to the leg of the rat. "Maggie," I hissed, "Let go of him!"

"Listen to the girl, pup. Didn't you ever hear not to hug giant rats?"

Maggie looked up at the rat and scrunched up her face in thought. Seconds later, she whispered, "Ripred," and clung tighter, muttering, "R is for rat…r is for rat…"

I shook my head and dove for the rascal, pulling her off of the rat, whatever his name was, and holding her tight, though something caught my shoelace, causing my ankle to turn to the wrong direction. I started to let go of Maggie and set her down by the wall, soon after grabbing my ankle. "Gaul!" I rubbed the twisted ankle gingerly and looked at the rat, who know smirked.

"You got spunk, but you got too cocky too fast."

"Thanks," I spat, wishing the phrase 'if looks could kill' were true. "But I'd rather have my brain taken over by a parasite than be here right now." I lowered my eyes to my ankle.

"Certainly," the tone was sarcastic.

I glared at the back paws of the large rat. "Shut up, seriously, I'm not in the mood to be the victim of any jokes and listen to you talk to me like I'm twelve."

"Of course you don't,"

My stomach growled. I stared at my abdomen and blushed. "That would be correct," I tried to act like nothing had happened.

"And I suppose you're…fourteen then."

"What are you talking about? I'm fifteen and can take care of Boots and myself just fine!" I got to my—uh—foot and tried to keep my balance, letting slip the old nickname. "Come on, Maggie, we have to go, the sun's going to be up soon," I searched for where the source of light had come from for the entire confrontation of the rat. Torches, great, primitive…old fashioned…human. I gasped and stared at it.

"So, you say that the secret human settlement lives like people did in the old days? Before any technology that we have today like iPods or T.V.s?"

Gregor nodded. "Yeah. It keeps them from being detected by Seekers."

I rolled my eyes, "As if. You won't tell me where they are, how can I trust you that it even exists?"

The boy laughed. "Let's just say, if you ever start to get them, you'll see old torches."

I ground my teeth, "You're way to cryptic for this timeframe. Just spit it out and take us there!"

"When I can trust you, I will,"

"So you don't trust me?"

"Only a bit," he laughed and turned off the flashlight lighting my part of the room.

The laughter reverberated in my ears and I could feel wet drop down my cheeks, my head started to spin with the information that had just clicked in my head. We were getting close, so close to being safe...so far from Gregor…so close to being able to get help to possibly save him! My vision started to blur.

"Are you going to leave or not? Get a move on, either way."

That final sentence I could handle, my knees buckled and I tumbled to the ground, blacking out in a whirlwind of thoughts, memories, and indecisions.

A/N: Okay. This is the first story being pulled back out of my 'tin kitchen' as it were. I couldn't find much to do with the previous chapters. So the help of reading the series over again got me back on track. Please clicky that little button to review and then review me! I need all the help I can get.