TWENTY-FIVE
Behind me Cybill roared as she stirred. The sound of her thrashing grew more and more intense, regardless of how far away I moved from her. Below my feet, the floor of the ancient tunneler vibrated, kicking up dust. I hobbled along painfully, making my way deeper inside the machine. As I went, I knocked out girders and pylons, swinging my shotgun like a club, intent on bringing the tunneler's structure down. It wasn't going very fast. I needed a different plan…this would take forever.
Names and dates were carved, painted, and scrawled onto any exposed surface, hundreds of them in hundreds of languages, like the discarded flags of ancient explorers atop a mountain. My mind wondered who they were. Adventurers? Homeless? Kidnapped victims such as myself? Did the owners of these
