Chapter 5: One by One

"He was right behind us, and now he's gone!" Rain poured down Yolei's face as she shouted at her companions. A flash of lightning briefly illuminated her furious features. "Everyone else, I thought maybe it was a joke, but not Ken. We have to find him."

"Yolei, don't worry. They have to be around here somewhere; there's no where for them to go," Kari tried to calm her.

"But they're not here, are they! Maybe they're in the digiworld. Or the Underworld. Or the Dark Ocean; ever think of that?"

"All of the disappearances happened in the cabin," Izzy pointed out. "Whatever is making our friends disappear is in there. That's where we need to look."

They got back to the cabin.

"Cody! Davis! Have you seen Ken?" Kari asked.

Davis ran down from upstairs. "Cody's gone," he gasped.

"What? Cody too?" Yolei exclaimed.

"There's something upstairs," Davis said. "Something big. Listen."

They all held their breath and listened. Something creaked. After a moment, something closer creaked.

Tsukiyo's head snapped in the direction of the hall closet. "This way," she whispered.

The others followed her. She put her ear to the door and listened. Then she quietly eased the door open, lifted her candle to look inside.

The candle's flame was snuffed out. A dark flurry descended on her. She let out what would have been the beginning of a scream, but it was the next instant choked in silence. Tsukiyo was gone.

"Tsukiyo!" Izzy ran to the closet. He picked Tsukiyo's candle off the floor. His face, in the light of the other candles, contorted with grief, and a sob escaped his lips. "TSUKIYO!"

Ken's feet hit dirt floor. His eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness until he could see the vaguest outlines of the walls and floor. He reached out his hand to touch the wall, which he felt was concrete. He followed it, ignoring the gritty clumps of cobwebs that his fingers brushed over, until he ran into a metal door. He fumbled for a doorknob, but before he found one the door opened. A bright light shone in his face.

"Ken? What are you doing here?"

"Tora. What is this place?"

"Come in here." Tora grabbed his shirt and pulled Ken in. The beam of Tora's flashlight glinted off cans of food and bottles of water. "Not even Tsukiyo knows about this bomb shelter. How did you find it?"

"What are you doing down here?" Ken repeated. "Everyone's looking for you."

There was a quiver of fear in Tora's voice. "There's something out there."

"What kind of 'something'?"

"I don't know what it was. I saw it in the hall, in the rafters. It was some kind of monster."

"Was it a digimon?" Ken asked.

"I don't know. When I saw it I hid down here as fast as I could."

What Tora said made Ken's estimation of him sink even lower. What kind of person would hide from a monster without telling anyone, even his sister, that it was there? But Ken didn't mention it. "What did it look like? Did it look humanoid?"

Tora shook his head. "I've never seen anything that looked less humanoid."

"Then it wasn't Daemon," Ken said with relief. He started back for the ladder.

"You're leaving?" Tora asked incredulously.

"Yes."

"But the monster could still be out there."

He was acting like a spoiled child, but Ken tried to keep the resentment out of his voice. "And so are my friends. They need to know what they're up against."

"You don't like me, do you?" he said accusingly.

Ken sighed. "Why does it matter right now?"

"When I saw you on TV when I was younger, I thought you were the coolest person in the world. I wanted to be just like you. I was really looking forward to meeting you. But since the moment we met I've been getting the impression that you dislike me."

I don't have time for this, Ken thought. "We'll discuss it later." He walked to the ladder, now clearly visible in Tora's flashlight, and began climbing.

To his surprise, Tora followed him. "Everyone must be worried about me," he said by way of explanation.

Whatever Ken was about to say was interrupted by a beeping sound.

"What's that?"

"My digivice." Ken took it out and examined the screen. "It's picking up something in the woods." He set off toward the signal, hoping he would run into the others on the way.

"I'm going with you," Tora announced.

Ken didn't feel like arguing.