Gordon's voice wafted into Scott's right ear. "Where's Virgil?"

Scott's eyes widened as he maneuvered around a grove of trees just in front of him. "What do you mean, you linked to his GPS, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but he's not here. I don't even see his hoverbike. Did he follow you?"

"Scott! Virgil's watch just blinked out a-and back on. He's right next to John!"

"What?"

"What the hell is going on?" Gordon asked, his usual devil-may-care tone of voice sounding a lot more frightened than Scott could remember hearing in the last two decades.

"Brains, explain!"

"I-I can't! Wait...wait, the chasm...it's stopped moving. I-I didn't even realize it because I was so, ah, focused on locating John. The, ah, the crevasse stopped opening, ah, two point two seconds after John's GPS went underground."

Scott's every muscle was ready for action. The only problem, he realized as he drew nearer to the place John had gone searching for the yelling woman, was that there wasn't any action for him to take. It was darker than pitch out here, with only a high full moon that gave very little light to the situation. His hoverbike headlight, strangely enough, didn't seem to illuminate as far in front of him as it should've. It suddenly occurred to Scott that it seemed as though darkness was closing in on them, like it was something tangible that could move and reduce visibility at will. It sounded crazy, he knew, but from the air they'd been able to see things down here much better than they could now; there didn't seem to be any other explanation.

"Gordon, Brains, I see a single structure. The coordinates Brains transmitted are...just under me now," Scott reported, suddenly bringing the hoverbike to a faster stop than was healthy. It lurched, and if not for the X-harness he wore, would've sent him flying over the handle bars like a kid falling off his bicycle.

"I'm on my way," Gordon said. "What do you see?"

"Nothing," Scott replied, unbuckling his harness and hopping off his bike.

"No...I don't know...wells, root cellar doors?" Gordon pressed.

"Nothing, Gordon, I'm telling you. There's nothing but dirt...not even grass. No sign of John's hoverbike either."

"How can that be?"

Scott turned as the sound of his brother's bike came within hearing distance. Then suddenly he felt the ground beneath his feet give, and yelped as it swallowed him whole.

盂蘭

Kyrano sprinted the hundred meters that separated the two 'birds in record time, moving into Pod 5 and running across its length to the elevator that would take him to the cockpit. He was breathing so heavily and sweating so profusely that he wasn't quite sure if he even had his wits about him. All he could see in his mind's eye was something he'd not seen in more years than he could count. Something he'd always prayed he'd never have to see again.

Just as the elevator reached the cockpit, yet another vision came to him...he watched as the earth opened and Scott Tracy disappeared into its depths. He stumbled from the elevator, sagging against the bulkhead from the force of impact to his psyche as Brains turned to stare at him.

"Scott," Kyrano whispered, reaching out to grasp the back of Brains' chair. "No, no, no."

盂蘭

"Scott?" Gordon called out as he slowed the hoverbike at the location where his instruments were telling him Scott was supposed to be. "Brains, am I in the right place?" he asked, undoing his harness and swinging his leg up and over the seat. He looked this way and that, using his headlamp to try to illuminate the area.

"Gordon," Brains said quietly, "Scott's GPS just joined John's and Virgil's."

Gordon swallowed hard, drew his sidearm and turned its safety off. "Get a fix on me."

"I-I've got you. But...Gordon, ah, Kyrano's come to Two. He says...that Evil has them."

"Kyrano, talk to me. What's going on?" Gordon asked, sweat forming at the base of his skull and across his forehead. He kept his back against his hoverbike, circling its ovular shape slowly, trying to peer into the inky blackness for any movement. There was none.

"The dead have risen this Yu Lan," came Kyrano's voice into his ear. "But not on their own."

"What do you mean, 'the dead'? Are we talking zombies here?"

"No, Gordon, worse. Demons."

"Demons?" Gordon repeated, eyes still searching the darkness, the backs of his legs touching his hoverbike. "Look, I'm out here alone, man. Tell me what to do."

"I must join you," Kyrano said. "I will come on a hoverbike."

"Three of us have disappeared already. What if I'm not here by the time you are?"

"He, ah, has gone to the pod already," Brains advised. "He...he looked...scared."

"Oh, God," Gordon breathed. "I've worked side by side with Kyrano for hours in our underwater biosphere. He's talked about demons before. He said his half-brother was in league with one. The demon is why he was always able to find Kyrano and Tin-Tin while they were on the run, and why he's able to live through accidents and stuff that would kill anyone else."

"I, ah, haven't done much research i-in that arena, I must admit," Brains said. "But, ah, I will tell you that seeing that, ah, look on Kyrano's face is making me wish I had."

A sudden round of shrieking just like the ear-piercing sounds that he'd heard earlier, made Gordon's hair stand on end. Everywhere was sweating now; he could feel moisture soaking the tee shirt he wore under his flight suit and sweat sliding down from his sideburns to his collar.

"Shhhit," Gordon breathed, trying to steady his trembling body. "Being in a horror movie's a lot less fun than watching one."

"Steady, Gordon," Brains said, every inch of his words sounding to Gordon like he was trying to reach through the airwaves to protect him. "I wish I was there."

Gordon barked out a laugh. "Don't say stuff like that. It's always famous last words."

Brains twittered nervously. "Just keep talking so I know you're, ah, still there."

Gordon nodded, though he knew Brains couldn't see him. His eyes were still picking up nothing, and aside from the rapid succession of shrieks, he wasn't hearing so much as a pin drop. "Did Kyrano grab an earbud?"

"No, ah, he was gone to the pod before I could, ah, assign him one."

"Damn. It's not like him to be so careless." Gordon raised his watch to his face. "Kyrano, come in." There was no response.

"I wasn't able to, ah, raise him, either," Brains advised.

"I wonder what the hell he meant by 'the dead have risen but not on their own' – if he meant demons have risen but not on their own, does that mean someone's conjured them up?"

"Possibly. Didn't you just, ah, say that he said his half-brother is in league with one?"

"Oh, fuck. You think he's behind this? That he lured us here purposely to grab both us and the 'birds?"

"I-If he is behind this," Brains said, "then I, ah, echo your 'oh, fuck.'"

Gordon snorted. Hearing Brains curse wasn't something that happened every day. "If that's the case, you could be the last line of defense for our technology."

"Well, ah, One and Two are both cloaked now," Brains said amidst a couple of beeps on his end. "I-I don't know what else I can do. I have all of Two's cameras monitoring and a-am remoting into One's cameras now."

"Aaap!"

"Gordon?"

Seated in the rear of Thunderbird Two's cockpit, Brains swallowed hard as he spoke again.

"Gordon!"

The only answer was total silence.