So we weren’t going to.

Dex was closer now and the beast right behind him, a flurry of dirt and snow torn up in its wake.

I gripped the gun hard and raised it up on my shoulder. I lowered myself into a small lunge, all the weight distributed between my back heel and my thighs. I knew what to expect now from the kick. I knew it would try and drive me backward. I had to make sure that this was going to be a sure shot. I had to hit this target.

And it was a moving target.

Dex was almost at me now.

“Get out of the way!” I yelled at him without taking my eyes away from the sight on the end of the barrel.

He veered to the left so the only thing in front of me was the beast, matted brown head to the ground, black liquid eyes flashing, jaw open and baring a row of nasty teeth. The claws dug into the ground as it ran, leaving destruction behind.

Dex ran to my side, keeping back and I thought he said my name or something like that but I didn’t hear him. I didn’t hear anything except the rumble of the beast as it ran. Almost at us now. We had seconds left.

I closed one eye, my arm muscles straining to keep the gun still, and just when I had the sight lined up with the beast’s head, I pulled the trigger.

The shell blasted out of the gun, the sound of the explosion mixing with the cry of the beast as the shell slammed into it. I was thrown back but managed to stay upright with the help of Dex, whose arm shot out behind me. My ears were ringing, the dots were back in my eyes and the creature was down on the ground.

Well, kinda. It was getting back up, or trying to. I hadn’t hit the head at all, but from the looks of it I took off part of its shoulder, leaving a wide, bloody wound that left bone and muscle exposed. I would have been grossed out. Maybe even proud of myself for actually hitting it. But there wasn’t any time. Because it wasn’t dead. And when I tried to pull the trigger again, nothing happened but a dull click.

I threw the spent shotgun on the ground and turned to Dex with wild eyes.

“Now we run!”

His eyes grew narrow with grim agreement and soon we were running again, as fast as we could. I only looked behind me once to see what our chances were. The beast wasn’t on its feet yet and kept collapsing to the ground. With luck on our side it wouldn’t follow us. But our luck had a strange sense of humor.

We ran through the forest until we saw open space and found ourselves at the river’s edge again. I did a little whoop of joy inside my head, too breathless to make an actual sound. We ran along the river side, not going crazy with speed, but at a fairly comfortable and steady pace so we didn’t tire ourselves out. Not that I wasn’t absolutely dying inside, my lungs burning with each shallow breath I took. But we just needed to make sure we kept going.

It was starting to get a bit dark – Dex didn’t have his backpack either so flashlights were out of the question – when we found the entrance to the trail.

This time I did allow myself a squeal of delight, even though it came out ragged and hoarse.

“Fuck yeah, we’re making it. I told you so,” Dex said between breaths. He slowed down as we entered the hollow and shot me a tired look. “Are you OK to keep running?”

“No,” I said, sweat streaming down my forehead, my skin uncomfortably hot and tight. “But I’ll do it anyway.”

I waved him forward with my hand to encourage him to pick up the pace. If I slowed down too much, I wouldn’t be able to continue. “Please, seriously, go.”

He nodded and we ran together into the hollow. Unlike the last time we had come through here, we weren’t afraid. We had seen the worse and we knew it was behind us. At least, we hoped it was.

We ran through the darkness, our feet never straying from the path. It sucked that the whole path went gradually uphill, adding more strain to our staggering bodies and testing our endurance to the max. I ceased to have thoughts of any kind, just the constant push of my brain to body, coaxing myself over and over again to move my legs, ignore the burn and keep going.

There was only one more obstacle between us and the cabin – the steep, sliding slope. As we burst out of the trees, it loomed in front of us like the final challenge.

I didn’t even stop to think about it. The both of us ran forward and scrambled up the slope, grasping for rocks, kicking away the loose ones. We fell on our faces many times but we always picked ourselves up and picked each other up. Together we made it to the top.

It was almost completely dark now, but in the twilight we saw the outline of the cabin. I’d never been so relieved in my life. That, plus having Dex back, knowing we were both going to be safe, created an emotion that nearly brought me to my knees.

Dex twined his fingers into mine. With no gloves, my fingers were frozen but I could feel the heat radiating onto me.

“Come on,” he said gravely. “It’s not over yet.”

We jogged up to the cabin and I realized we wouldn’t be truly safe until we were at Rigby’s. Still, we had to gather our stuff from there while we could and get ready for the final journey back, a journey we would be making in the dark.

The cabin was cold as we entered it and had a stale smell but it felt something like heaven to have a hard floor to step on and a wooden roof over our heads.

Dex closed the door behind me and locked it. Then he took the couch and pushed it right up against the door for extra protection.

“Let’s do this fast,” he said, walking over to the kitchen and lighting a kerosene lamp. He did the same to one hanging on the wall in the living area and finally the one in our bedroom.

I followed him in there. “Too risky to build a fire?”

“Too risky and no time, kiddo,” he said. He picked up his duffle bag, putting it on the bed and started shoving his stuff inside. I did the same, and smiled once I felt my fingers close over my cell phone. I was smart this time to leave it behind. Unfortunately it still had no service but at least I wasn’t going to have to replace it, not like we were going to have to do for Dex’s camera. No wonder he chose to bring the more “expendable” equipment along.

“Dex?” I asked as I searched for my bottle of Advil.

“That’s me.”

“Could you hear me?”

He stopped packing and raised his head to look at me. His eyes danced in the lamplight.

“When you were calling me in your head?”

I nodded.

“Yeah, I could hear you. I heard you loud and clear.”

I smiled softly, glad that I reached him somehow. “What happened to you?”

He shook his head. “I wish I knew. One minute I had ground beneath my feet, the next minute I didn’t. I woke up buried under some rocks. I don’t know how long I was out for but your voice got me up. It just took a while. There was one slab across my leg that took forever to get free of.”

I dropped the bottle and went around the bed to his side, eyeing his leg with concern.

“Are you OK? Is it broken?”

“Kiddo, if it was broken I wouldn’t be here. It hurt a lot at first but now I feel fine. I don’t know. Maybe this whole crazy dimension thing made me heal faster or something. I’d believe anything at this point.”

“Maybe.”

“You know I thought about calling Pippa,” he admitted. “I thought maybe she’d appear. Maybe, like, the gateway would materialize or something. But I was afraid to go back in there. I thought maybe I wouldn’t come back out. And if I did, what if I brought something else back with me. If that’s where we changed, Perry, we can’t assume that the changes will always be good.”

I had thought that too. I placed my hand on his arm and gave it a squeeze.

“Thank you for trying to find me,” I whispered, feeling strangely small and awkward.

He raised his brows, his ring glinting in the low light. “Thank you for-”

He was interrupted by the cabin shaking, a deep rattling noise emanating from the living area.

I gasped in a panic and we quickly made our way out of the bedroom.

We froze.

The front door was shaking on its hinges, the couch being rattled back and forth like a bucking bronco.

I swallowed hard, unable to take my eyes away from the scene, from the scraping, scratching sounds on the wood, the way the handle tried to turn. It didn’t help that the cabin had very little light in it, casting everything in limitless shadows.

“Maybe it’s Rigby,” I whispered.

A low, guttural moan crept in through the cracks in the door.

“No,” Dex said slowly. “It’s not.”

I felt like I was getting tunnel vision, blackness closing in on all sides of me, but Dex grabbed my hand, hard, and brought me back to life.

“Do you remember if there were any guns left behind?” he asked, turning me so I’d look at him. “I can’t remember if Mitch packed them all.”

I shook my head, my brain too slow to latch onto any memory. Dex was acting as calm as he could but I could tell from the cracks in his voice, he was close to panicking as well.

He narrowed his eyes at the door, then looked around the cabin.

“It’s injured, so I don’t think it can get through there. That lock should hold it back, and if that fails, the couch should do the job.”

With shaking limbs, I silently thanked him for barricading the cabin so well.

“We have to do something about the windows though and we need to defend ourselves. Perry, stay with me here.”

I nodded, swallowing thickly. He pulled me toward the kitchen and we walked as quietly as we could. There was no doubt the creature knew we were inside, but the kitchen had a window, a window that offered no protection.

Dex quickly opened a drawer and brought a bunch of knives. I winced as they clattered against each other and only started breathing again when I heard the door continue to rattle. As long it was there, it wasn’t here.

He handed me a long sharp hunting knife and kept another one for himself.

“Are you ready to do some hand-to-beast combat?” he asked, almost smiling.

“No!” I whispered harshly, the knife feeling foreign in my hands. Oh, how I wished I had that shotgun back.

His smile washed away. “Good. Neither am I. Let’s get these windows covered. Help me with the armchair.”

I doubted he needed my help, but it kept me busy and not focused on the blood-thirsty monster outside the door. Oh who the fuck am I kidding, of course I was focused on the God damn monster outside of the door. I had blown half his shoulder away and he was pissed off as hell.

We got the armchair up on the kitchen counter. I didn’t see how the beast couldn’t just topple it over, but Dex got a broom and managed to wedge it between the corner of the wall and the chair. It looked like a feeble barricade but it might be enough if the creature wasn’t at his full strength.

Next, we scampered over to the other window, unnervingly close to the door. The creature wasn’t giving up and the thumps were getting louder, heavier and more spaced apart. It was throwing itself against the door now, perhaps getting desperate. The lock snapped off and clattered to the ground.

“Oh shit,” I swore, eyes glued to the broken lock, unable to move.