Allison was suddenly awoken from her drug-induced sleep by a bolt of pain.
Her eyes flying open, she cried out into the dark room. Her thoughts ran wild in her head as she tried to adjust her vision, trying to figure out what had happened. She tried to sit up, but found that, even with the adrenaline from the pain, she just didn't have the energy. Blinking, Allison attempted desperately to get her bearings straight.
Slowly, her eyes began to get used to the darkness and she became aware of her body. Her injured left arm was lying limply against her leg. There was a shivering shadow sitting upright besides her, and she managed to make out that this was Raphael. Blinking away the tears from the pain, Allison slowly came to realize that he must have sat up suddenly and her arm was flung to the side, startling her out of her slumber.
"Sorry," he suddenly muttered, seeming to just realize what he had done. His back was still to her, and he appeared to be breathing hard. "Sorry. I… damn." He scrambled out of the bed, stuttering the same words over and over again. Allison raised her right hand towards him as he left the bed. "Raphael! ... ow!"
She put her hand down and peered at it in the darkness. The hand was suddenly very warm, and she realized that it must have been pressed down on at some point. "Ow?" Raphael repeated. "What, 'ow?'" A bedside lamp came on, forcing Allison to squint in the sudden light. "Damn," Raphael breathed again. Her eyes adjusting once again, she saw what caused Raphael concern. The bandages around her hand were completely bloodied.
Raphael noisily stumbled out of the room. When he opened the door, the light from the living room flooded in, and Allison shielded her eyes from the glare. Her left arm felt absolutely dead, and she found herself wishing that Donatello had given her a higher dosage of the zolpidem so that she wouldn't be awake through this.
From the living room, Splinter's voice could be heard. "Raphael, what is it?" There was silence for a long time, and she could see Raphael's immobile shadow standing by the doorway. At length, a quiet, almost timid voice responded, "I… I hurt her. I… it was an accident, but… ugh." Raphael's voice began turning back to what Allison was used to as he asked where Donatello had put the first-aid kit.
Unable to keep her head up, Allison dropped her head to the pillow, holding her hand against her chest as she let out a soft groan. She felt ill, and hoped that it was only one of the side effects of the medication that Donatello had mentioned. Overcoming her nausea, she managed to look up as a small shadow blocked some of the light from the doorway. Because the light was shining behind him, Allison could only see Splinter's inky silhouette as he gazed at her. From what she could see, it looked like he was still holding onto Rosalind. Allison wanted to hold her, wanted to snuggle against her the way she sometimes did when she would babysit her overnight and watch cartoons with her all morning. But she knew that Splinter wouldn't hand the girl over to someone who was mostly drugged and bleeding profusely.
He moved out of the way as another figure brushed past him. "Take good care of her, Raphael." Raphael stopped at the doorway and looked back at his sensei, then said, "Ain't that what you told me to do in the first place?" As the turtle moved into the room, Splinter quietly closed the door, leaving the two of them in near darkness. "She needs her rest," he advised just as the door closed shut.
Raphael sat back down on the bed, averting Allison's eyes and setting the first-aid kit on the nightstand. "Gimme," he said blandly as he extended one hand for hers while he began rummaging through the box for what he needed. Allison was too tired to argue, but also too drained to oblige. Raphael looked down at her hand and pulled it away from her chest as gently as he could, given his newfound agitation. "Gotta love Donny and his drugs," he muttered.
Allison found herself fading in and out of consciousness as Raphael worked on her hand in the same way he had done the night before. As drugged as she was, she couldn't simply disregard that something seemed to have startled Raphael so much that he sat bolt upright in bed. He didn't seem like the type who did that very often.
After a long time, she uttered, "Raphael?" Not looking up at her, Raphael returned her mumbled call with, "Yeah?" Alarmed by how much energy she needed to gather just to speak, Allison asked, "What… made you… wake up? What… was wrong?" Raphael didn't answer, and she was faintly aware that he had ceased his movements. After an indeterminable amount of time, he finally responded. "Nuthin'. I'm gonna be done with your hand soon. Go to sleep."
"Tell… me."
"Nuthin'," Raphael insisted, quickly annoyed. "Just… it was nuthin'. A dream, that's all." Allison asked if it was a nightmare, and his voice softened slightly. "It wasn't exactly what you'd call pleasant." She requested that he recount it, and he refused. "Just go to sleep. I'm gonna go watch some TV."
"The last time… you… said that,… my apartment… was eaten by rats." Raphael placed her newly-bandaged hand back on her chest and said, "Well, unless Master Splinter's got a weird case of the munchies, you don't gotta worry about that now." Allison mumbled something incoherent and winced as she tried to shift her arm and realized that she couldn't. Seeing her shoulder tense at the attempt, Raphael realized that her arm needed to be propped up again. "Damn," he whispered, gently taking hold of her arm and slowly raising it. "I should look for something to keep your arm up."
In her semi-conscious state, Allison found herself rolling over and trying to droop her arm over Raphael. "Why not… the way before?" As her arm fell across his lap, it seemed that he tensed up. "I can't stay here with you all afternoon." With a small smile, Allison asked, "What else do… you have to do?" Sighing, Raphael laid back, keeping his hand over Allison's arm. "Fine. But as soon as you get to sleep, I'm goin'."
"Liar," Allison mumbled as she burrowed beside him in their original position. Raphael made a protesting sound, but said nothing as Allison's breathing gradually slowed as she got closer to sleep. Suddenly, she said, "Raphael?" He asked what she wanted, and she answered, "Tell me."
"Tell ya what?"
"Your nightmare."
"Aw, jeez!"
"Please," she pleaded. "I want to know. You… were shaking." There was a moment of silence before Raphael asked, "I was?" Allison nodded against his shoulder. When he said nothing else, she added, "I don't like seeing you… that way. …I like you now. A jerk… but a nice one." Seeming to be thankful for the fuel to throw something back at her, Raphael told her, "I never asked for ya to like me, did I?" Her voice a low murmur now, she replied, "No. But I do."
There was another long period of quiet as Raphael seemed to take this into consideration. Finally, he said, "Then you either got problems, or those drugs you took are hallucinogenic." Allison laughed softly against his shoulder and responded, "Maybe." She paused before reiterating her plea. "Tell me."
Raphael didn't answer and Allison began to feel herself falling back to sleep. Raphael… you were scared. I've seen all of them scared and worried except for you. I just… I want to know. I let you know who I am… why won't you let me know who you are? She was slightly aware that she felt a tinge of sadness at the thought of the one turtle that she had spent so much time with was also the one who refused to let anyone know what made him tick. He must have had his reasons for it, of course, but-
"People were dyin'," Raphael suddenly whispered. "… they were all bein' plucked off right in front 'a me. At first, I couldn't figure out what to do. I just wasn't smart enough. And then Donny died, and I suddenly had a plan. But I couldn't get the others to follow my lead, and then Leo died… and that's when the others started listenin' to me. By the time I finally got two steps ahead 'a the game, I was so pissed off that I kept makin' stupid mistakes. Then we lost Mikey… and all I had left was Casey, April, and Splinter. My anger went away, and I was actually happy to just have those three safe with me… but I didn't realize… Casey and April weren't really Casey and April. They were the Shredder and Karai in disguise. Casey and April died somewhere in the beginnin' of the dream." His voice trailed off as he seemed to lose himself in the world of the nightmare. Allison shifted to hold him tighter as he concluded, "And then they got Splinter. And I was alone. And they let me live with that."
They remained in silence for a moment before Raphael quietly commented, "I can't live that way. Me, I'd rather die than let something like that live in my mind. They took my sais away, and they put me somewhere where I couldn't kill myself… and that was the worst part of it all. Or maybe I wouldn't have killed myself either way. I dunno. I dunno, but I didn't have the choice. And maybe that was the worst part. Not havin' a choice and being forced to live with that. Not having the comfort of revenge or pain while everything I ever cared about suffered, just because I was always a minute too late." He paused before finishing with, "There. Now you know. Can ya go to sleep now?"
Allison simply lay there, comparing his steady breathing with his rapid heart rate. Though her mind was clouded, Allison knew that Raphael was telling her something important and… somehow… she felt that he almost wanted her to carry on the subject. But her eyelids were so heavy, and the effects of Donatello's medication were still strong.
"Mmph," she mumbled. "If you stay with me." With an irritated sigh, Raphael asked, "Why? You're a big girl. You need a security blanket to get to sleep?" Hoping her voice wasn't too garbled to be understood, Allison softly replied, "I know I'll be safe… with you."
Silence was the response as she fell asleep once again.
A few hours later, Allison's eyes fluttered open.
The door to the bedroom was now ajar and the lamp was still on, leaving the room decently lit. Sore, Allison lifted her head from Raphael's shoulder and stretched her neck. She looked down to see that Raphael's eyes were open, and he was warily observing her. "What?" Allison asked. "Oh… was I laying on your injury? I'm sorry! Did I-?"
"No," Raphael interrupted. "No… it's fine. Really." His voice wasn't exactly soft, but it didn't have the angry edge it normally seemed to have. Propping herself up on her good elbow as her injured arm still lay strewn over his midsection, she gazed down at him. She didn't remember very many details of what happened after she gave Donatello Robert's phone number, and she hoped she hadn't said something that upset him.
Hearing voices coming from the open door, Allison looked towards it. "Are the others back?" Seemingly reluctantly, Raphael answered that they were. She slowly tried to slide her arm away from him to get up, exclaiming, "I should go check on them! Is Rob with them?"
She felt a deep chill come over her when Raphael kept his hand on her arm, keeping her in place. "Ya need more sleep, I think," he told her. "What's the rush? Just lie back and get the meds outta your system." Allison looked back at Raphael. "I'm not sleepy," she said, suddenly suspicious. "I want to know that Rob's okay." Though Raphael averted his eyes from her, he kept his steady tone of voice as he stated, "Look, I think you should get more rest, okay? The guys'll come in and talk to you when they're ready." Her throat suddenly dry, Allison insisted, "I'm ready. And I want to talk to them now." Managing to pull her arm away from Raphael while ignoring the sharp pain from her wound, Allison quickly clambered out of the bed and made for the door even as Raphael called for her to stop.
Bursting through the door, Allison squinted in the brightness of the living room. The other turtles were there, along with Casey and April. She noticed a sudden jump from Leonardo as his hand went behind his back. Her eyes passing over the others, she saw that they were looking at her oddly, and she felt nauseous once again. However, she doubted that this had anything to do with the zolpidem.
"W-… where is he?" Allison asked lowly. "Where's Robert?" A few of them lowered their eyes to the ground. April was holding Rosalind and looked down at her vacantly. Feeling her panic begin to rise, she took a step into the room and repeated her query. "Guys… where is he? What…?" She looked to Leonardo, who seemed to be looking down almost guiltily. "Leonardo? What is it?"
Leonardo seemed to tense up when Allison turned her attention to him, singling him out. He peered out of the corner of his eyes for some assistance, and Donatello slowly obliged. "Allison," he said gently. "Maybe you should sit down." Ignoring him, she took a step closer to Leonardo, her voice beginning to rise in pitch. "What do you have behind your back? Leonardo, answer me, dammit!"
"Hey, take it easy," Casey told her, standing from his seat on the sofa. "C'mon, just sit and-" He was silenced when Allison let out a frustrated sound and charged at Leonardo, her right arm reaching behind the retreating turtle in an effort to retrieve whatever he had felt he needed to hide from her sight.
A pair of arms encircled her waist and kept her from advancing on Leonardo as he pulled back. "Whoa," she heard Raphael's voice say as she continued to swing for Leonardo. "Leave the heated outbursts to me, got that, kid?" She tried to pull away from Raphael, but simply didn't have the strength nor the advantage. "Let go of me! Where's Robert? Where is he?"
"Allison," Leonardo's calm voice gently broke in. "Please, calm down. Sit down, and we'll tell you. We'll tell you everything." She looked Leonardo in the eye for a few moments before finally falling limp against Raphael. Her head pounding with the stress, she allowed both Raphael and Leonardo to lead her to the spot on the sofa that Casey had vacated.
Superhero movies, she thought crazily. In superhero movies, something like this would result in the best friend snapping and becoming the next super villain for some backwards form of revenge. Yes, that's it. Rob's gone round the bend and thought that Ros has been kidnapped, so he's pretending to be the Rat King and is trying to sniff her out. Complicated and clichéd, but at least it results with Rob… with Rob… being alive. She grew cold and began to shiver. That's what it all came down to, wasn't it? If Robert wasn't back with them, then there was a chance that he might be….
Seeing her anguish, Splinter put a warm hand to her shoulder. "Be at peace, Miss Grayson. Leonardo, give her what you were just showing me." Allison raised her eyes to Leonardo. The turtle seemed to gulp nervously, but eventually acquiesced. Extending his arm, he offered her the small items he had quickly hidden from her view when she entered the room.
In his hand, he held Robert's wallet and cell phone.
She thought she might respond violently, but instead her eyes simply flooded with tears as she tried to make sense of things. Before her vision wavered, she could see several deep scratches on Robert's relatively-new phone that hadn't been there before. The brown leather wallet was badly scuffed and it looked at though something had been gnawing at it.
"God," she whispered airily. Crouching before her, Leonardo gingerly placed the objects on her lap. "We found these in the tunnels by the Union Square subway station. From what we could tell, he was chased by a horde of the rats throughout the subway tunnels. How or why he got in there in the first place, I don't know. But it explains why he must have locked the car with the baby in it. He was obviously trying to protect her by keeping the rats out."
Allison slowly wrapped a hand around the wallet. Through her bandages, she could feel the same softness she always felt when she held it, but there was something… different about it. It seemed like it had recently been drenched in water, and felt as though someone had… scrubbed at it. Seeing her fingers thoughtfully feel about the surface, Leonardo got obviously uncomfortable. "He… we… it was… dirty. We wanted to clean it off before you saw it."
In a low, choked voice, Allison asked, "Blood?" Though she didn't raise her eyes from the wallet, she could tell that Leonardo was looking at her levelly before finally answering, "Yes."
Allison was immobile for a moment, then jerkily nodded her head. She pressed her lips together tightly, not wanting to provide the emotional spectacle that everyone in the room clearly expected. She may have succeeded, until she heard a soft noise coming from the opposite end of the couch. Looking up, she saw that Rosalind was looking at her curiously, her fingers in her mouth as she seemed to ponder what was going on. The baby seemed concerned and, though she knew that she would only cause Rosalind to cry if she began bawling, Allison couldn't help herself.
She stood quickly and reached for Rosalind, picking the girl up as she began to sob. Feeling someone take a step towards her, Allison suddenly darted away from the group and headed for the front door. "Hey," several voices cried out at once. Crying from both her emotional and physical pain as she managed to turn the doorknob, Allison could hear Michelangelo's voice pipe up. "No sweat, dudes. I've got this."
Allison didn't know what she was doing. Rosalind began wailing against her chest as she headed quickly for the stairs, slowing for fear of tripping and hurting them both. She didn't know what she intended to do. She didn't know where she intended to go. She only knew that she needed to go, to leave these creatures and their friends behind before more bad things happened. She knew it wasn't their fault, but she couldn't argue that none of this would have happened if she had only been allowed to fend for herself the night before. She may have been beaten, mugged, raped, or a combination of the three, but she would have never placed Robert in any danger. She would have never left Rosalind… without a father. No. No, he's still alive. He has to be. Rosalind… she can't be an orphan. No!
She only managed to make it down three steps before a swift green figure jumped over her and landed a few steps below her. Surprised, Allison almost lost her balance, but Michelangelo quickly kept her from falling. "Easy now, bud," he told her cautiously. "You don't wanna go and earn yourself some new bandages, do you?" As he reached for the baby, Allison swung her injured arm at him. "Get away from me!"
Hit in the head, Michelangelo let out a surprised "Whoa!" He stumbled backwards a little, somehow managing to regain his balance before he could fall down the stairs. Allison paused for a moment before realizing that Donatello had used one of his tools—possibly a wrench—as a temporary splint on her arm, and that she had just hit Michelangelo in the head with it. "Mike!"
Shakily descending a few steps, she carefully reached out towards him. "Mike, I… I'm so sorry! I… oh…." Taking her hand, Michelangelo briskly shook his head, as though dispelling the effects of the strike. "Hey, no worries," he told her, managing a small smile. "So long as you don't scar my pretty face, life's good."
Looking at his face and wondering how it could somehow remain pleasant throughout all of this, Allison tiredly leaned towards him. Michelangelo ascended a step so she wouldn't lean in too far, embracing her with one arm as the other arm reached for Rosalind. "C'mon, mini-bud," he told the little girl. "Come to Uncle Mikey while Auntie Ally takes a rest on the steps."
Allison allowed Michelangelo to take the girl as she slid away from him, slowly sitting on the stairs. She noticed that Rosalind's weeping quieted down to a small snivel as the baby wrapped her small arms around Michelangelo's broad shoulders. Sitting two steps below Allison and noting her gaze, he shrugged slightly and said, "Hey, what can I say? I've got a way with kids."
Unable to answer, Allison merely wrapped an arm around herself and looked away, her eyes still flooding with tears. She felt a hand fall consolingly on her leg. "Calm down," Michelangelo said with an uncharacteristic air of sincerity. "We'll find him. Honest. I dunno when or where or what he's gonna be like when we do, but I promise we'll find him."
Not knowing why she allowed herself to place any stock in his eternal optimism, Allison looked up at him. "Then… you think he's still alive?" She was unnerved by the fact that Michelangelo seemed to just gaze at her silently, indicating that he was thinking over his answer. He didn't seem like the type to do that very often. Finally, he allowed himself to smile once again as he replied, "Well, he wandered into the sewers. He's probably sittin' in what's left of our lair right now… thumbing through my comics, I'd bet." With a steady glare, Allison told him, "No jokes, Mike. If you think he's dead, then I'd rather you tell me before just getting my hopes up." Seeming to be alarmed by the sudden coldness in her voice, Michelangelo answered, "Hey, I dunno. I dunno much of anything right now-"
"How's that different from the rest 'a the time?"
Allison peered behind her to see Raphael standing at the head of the steps, his arms crossed over his chest as he looked down at her, Michelangelo, and Rosalind. "Hey Raph," Michelangelo said, "I thought I said I had this covered."
"She ain't a pizza, Mikey," came the sarcastic response. "And besides, ya took too long. Playtime's over. Back in the apartment." Standing, Michelangelo jokingly whined, "Aw, you just wanna have her all to yourself, Casanova." As Allison accepted the hand that Michelangelo offered to help her to her feet, Raphael angrily asked, "Hey, you want a fist in your mouth, wiseguy?" Leading Allison back up the steps, Michelangelo laughed, "Ooh, touchy."
Though she allowed herself to stand, Allison didn't move. "I can't," she said quietly. Michelangelo asked what she was talking about and she elaborated. "I can't. Go in there, I mean. I… no. I don't like just sitting around and not doing anything. I can't do that. Leonardo's just going to ask me a lot of questions, and Donatello's probably going to drug me some more. And it's a big group of people. I don't like large groups of people."
"Ya grew up in New York City," Raphael told her, unmoved, "and ya tryin' to play off like you don't like big groups 'a people? What the hell influenced your choice of cities to live in?" Raphael's words made her flinch. "You of all people," she whispered without looking at him, "should know why I stay here." He asked what she meant by that, but received no answer.
"C'mon," Michelangelo said, trying to lead her up the stairs. "Let's just go inside, okay?" Raphael repeated his question once again. Trying to remember how much she had actually told Raphael during their long conversation in his room the night before, Allison didn't react to either of them. She tried to push past Michelangelo and continue down the stairs, but he kept her from going down. "Bud, c'mon. Seriously. We just need to talk to you so we can help you out-"
"Well, I don't feel like talking," Allison said bluntly. "Just let me go. I need to be alone." Michelangelo tried to persist, but Raphael stopped him. "Let her go, Mikey." Michelangelo looked at him incredulously but didn't say anything as Raphael said in a slightly quieter voice, "I know what she means about wantin' to be alone. Besides… she won't go anywhere so long's we got the kid."
After a long time in which Allison kept her eyes glued to the ground, Michelangelo finally stepped away and let her pass. "Don't touch any 'a the junk in the shop," Raphael called after her as she began to descend the stairs. "The door's probably locked, but April'll kill ya if anything breaks." Though she wasn't sure whether or not he could tell, Allison nodded in response.
At the bottom of the stairs, she began walking about the dim corridor. Her left arm hung heavily at her side as she wrapped her uninjured arm around her waist. She didn't want to leave Rosalind alone, but Michelangelo seemed to be able to calm her down, if nothing else. Still, she couldn't help but worry. Seeing a door that probably led to a basement, Allison thought, I might… I might be the only person left to worry about her. At the thought, Allison opened the door and, seeing a set of stairs leading towards a dark basement, hurriedly made her way down, her vision blurred by tears once again.
The basement appeared mostly bare except for a few boxes and shelves. It seemed as though April somehow managed to keep every place in her building as tidy and dust-free as possible. Squinting in the darkness, Allison made her way to a large partition with the intent of finding someplace to sit, but stopped as she turned the corner. There seemed to be a large gaping hole in the wall, as though someone had dug a tunnel though the wall. Because of the shadows, Allison couldn't tell exactly what this was, but decided against sitting anywhere near there.
Walking further into the basement, Allison stopped at a concrete wall and turned around. From where she was, she could keep an eye on the strange hole and also remain out of sight from any of the others who tried to look for her. Leaning against the wall, she lowered herself to the ground and huddled as tightly as she could. The dankness of the lower level chilled her immediately, but she didn't move from her spot as she finally allowed the tears to fall freely.
Everything was crumbling down all around her. If Robert—the person who helped her get on her feet after being a college dropout with almost no set future—was gone, how was she expected to carry on with her life? Everything she had ever done, everything she had learned—even her maternal instincts—none of it would have ever been realized if not for Robert. Now… if he was gone…. How much blood must have been on the wallet for it to be scuffed so hard? Did it just fall out of his pocket, or did they find the… the body… and are just keeping it from me because they don't want me to go crazy? Hugging her knees, she rocked back and forth as she thought, Well, they're too late on that score.
She didn't know how long she sat there, crying. It could have been only a few minutes or a few hours. She only knew that she jerked up when she heard a sudden creak on the stairs. Looking up, Allison looked towards the stairway hidden by the concrete partition. Hoping that it wasn't one of the others out searching for her, Allison made her way to her feet and quietly walked towards the other wall as she heard movement on the other side of it.
She was stopped when she heard an unfamiliar voice. "It's cold as shit down here. Why we gotta have basement duty?" Another voice brusquely responded, "Shut the fuck up, junior. Just look for the bitch, got it?"
Alarmed by the tone of the voices and by the harsh words, Allison stopped when she reached the partition and slowly peered to the other side. She could make out two figures, one lean and the other broad… and both tall enough to make them seem imposing. The larger one stayed mostly immobile, his head moving slightly as he surveyed the area while his accomplice began looking around the shelves.
"This is pointless, man. No way she's down here where it's so cold. Better chance that she'd be upstairs, with her friend." The other one stated that they already had people searching upstairs, and reminded his companion to shut up. "We don't want those ninja fuckers on our asses again. If this girl got saved by them last night, then they're probably still with her."
"Man, fuck that," came the response. As the thinner one spoke, he began shifting boxes haphazardly and looking about, obviously not thinking that there was someone else there with them. "Max said he saw her walking here with some guy. Probably her boyfriend or something. He's probably the only thing we've got to worry about; him and the chick who runs the store. The weird assholes who jumped Ben and the boys are probably long gone."
"You wanna risk it?" The large one turned sharply towards his garrulous ally. "Go ahead; see what happens when one of them takes a swing at your head with a sword. That's not a butter knife, junior. That shit's real, so I'd rather be down here and find nothing than risk running into them again with just you backing me up."
Allison's blood ran cold as she realized that these two men were part of the same gang as her attackers from the night before. Apparently, they were quick on revenge and…. How did they find me? Was it possible that the entire city really was overrun with crime, and she had simply never noticed it because she never crossed the wrong street or looked under the wrong streetlight?
Seeing the lankier one slowly making his way towards the partition that served as her hiding place, Allison let out a small gasp and began backing away, losing sight of the pair. "Hm?" She heard the searcher make a sound of acknowledgement, and her eyes dashed across the dark confines of her corner, praying for something that could be used as a weapon.
Not seeing anything, Allison remembered about her makeshift splint and how an inadvertent swing with it almost caused Michelangelo to fall down the stairs. Her right hand prying at the bandage, she kept moving backwards as she realized the foreboding silence that suddenly fell over the basement. Tensing up as she expected to back into the wall soon, Allison bit back the whimper that wanted to arise when she began pulling at the unknown tool from the unraveling bandages.
What followed was a flurry of events that Allison could not keep straight.
The heel of her foot hit some sort of concrete outcropping, causing her to unexpectedly lose her balance and fall back just as a shadowy figure turned the corner. In the same instance a sudden scuffle could be heard from somewhere beyond the partition that had served as her hiding place. Bracing herself to crash into a wall, Allison was shocked when she realized that she had fallen into the opening she had seen before and had tried to avoid. An unpleasant cold moisture clung to the ground, and an odd smell hung in the air. The man who was approaching her turned to look in the direction from which the sounds of struggle were coming, then quickened his pace and approached her with intent. Still trying to pull at the instrument in her bandages, she managed to suddenly yank it out, causing her a bright bolt of pain. She manifested this pain as strength and used it to slam the wrench against the hand that was being stretched out to her, an audible crack resounding from the impact. The stranger cried out in pain, and Allison kicked him blindly from the ground, her foot connecting with his groin. As he doubled up, Allison managed to jump to her feet and hit him with the wrench again, this time in the head.
Breathing hard and making noises of pain and frustration, Allison looked up as another shadowy, unfamiliar figure stepped around the partition. Other shadows seemed to shift behind him, seeming to signal that the others had somehow joined up with the twosome. She was beginning to grow dizzy and couldn't tell if he was approaching her or not, but didn't want to stand around and find out.
Turning, Allison ran as fast as she could into what she realized was a sewage tunnel.
