Trigger Warning: This chapter contains mention of sexual assault.

"Wake up," a voice whispers, cutting through his sleep like a saw through a 2x4.

Harrison's eyes fly open, his heart racing. He scurries to the wall, the cold brick creating goose flesh and the jagged pieces of mortar clawing at his skin. He squints through the darkness and swollen eyes to study the woman watching him. Even in the dim light of their prison, she is dark. African American or a Black Hispanic... none of it should matter anymore, but Harrison has always been hardheaded. His dad had always said it was his best quality.

A fit of violent coughs, leave his eyes watering and his throat feeling like he'd swallowed barbed wire.

"Sounds like strep throat or the virus," she says. "Were you vaccinated?"

"What the fuck does it matter?" he grumbles. "We're all going to fucking die now."

"It matters... but you're right. There's worse things than death."

Harrison bites back his sharp response. Zinging a liberal would feel real good at the moment, but his mind goes over the last few hours. The worst time of his life. A living Hell. The things he'd seen would haunt him for the rest of his days, no matter how short that time might be. The things those monsters did to him. Thinking about it makes his ass hurt and the memory of their odor fill his thoughts. Bile rises up in his throat. The minotaurs used him like a play thing and tossed him back into this hole to be used again. He pukes and even that tastes like his assault.

Harrison looks around, sure the other prisoners will judge him, laugh at him. It's what he would have done. He realizes it's just him and the black girl.

"Where is everyone?"

"I found a way out and we're making a break for it." She inches towards him. "Come on. We don't have a lot of time before the minotaurs come back. They'll be hungry soon..."

"Hungry?" His stomach grumbles and again his mouth fills with the taste of bile and other bodily fluids.

"Yeah, that's what they're keeping us for, food supply. They can generate a burst of hellfire from... intercourse."

His heart fills with rage. "That wasn't intercourse! I'm a man! Men don't-"

"Quiet!" she hisses. "They still have guards posted." he starts to respond and she puts up a hand. "They need us, it's why we're alive. Now are you coming with us or are you staying here?"

"Get me the fuck out of here," Harrison says through grit teeth.

"Then let's go."

She turns and rushes out of the room. Harrison looks at the four walls of their prison one last time and moves to follow. He stops at the door, ripped off the hinges by a minotaur when a group tried to force it closed and keep the monsters out. Those people were dragged off kicking and screaming to never be heard from again. Looking down the hall, Harrison's knees grow weak. The demons are quick and merciless with their reprisals. If they catch them, there will be hell to pay.

His eyes settle on the door across the hall, the room where the minotaurs took...

"Hurry." the woman interrupts his thoughts.

Harrison hurries towards her voice and stops at the doorway to a long dark hall. He remembers those monstrous cages spitting them out in a large gymnasium before the minotaurs separated them. Some of the prisoners were taken right there in the gym. Afterwards, he and his group were dragged down the hall and tossed into that bare room. He hears the sounds in the back of his mind and his heart races. A waking nightmare.

"This way! You're wasting time."

Squinting, Harrison tries to catch sight of the woman, but he's the only one in the hall.

"Where are you?"

"Over here. There's a door to your left."

"I can't see it."

"Trust me, it's here."

"I don't fucking trust you, I don't fucking know you!"

"Look, I didn't feel right leaving your racist ass behind, but I'm not going to die for you."

The distant sound of doors being thrown open and heavy footfalls echo down the hall.

"Wait!" Harrison hisses, the thought of being left behind makes him piss himself.

"Come on!"

He feels around in the dark and falls through the door. He feels it rush past as it swings closed behind him. For a moment he sees a wide room, full of school chairs and other furniture, then the room goes dark again. There is no sign of the black girl.

I can't see shit!

"Put your right hand on the wall and just keep walking- your other hand. Walk straight."

"Where are you?"

"I'm not too far ahead of you.

After a few minutes, he can hear them. Multiple voices in the hallway. In the darkness, their guttural laughter creates images. Memories of their hands groping, the feeling of their bodies pressing down on top of his, the terror-

"Stop," she hisses.

He does as he's told, but the images in his head take longer to halt. Standing there in the dark, he begins to hear whispering, but he can't make out what's being said. He feels a sudden rush tousle his hair and what little clothes he has left, like a dust devil. Light pours in as a door beside him opens and the black girl steps out into the early morning sun. For an instant he imagines she has a rat's tail and ears, but then the image fades.

"¡Ya era tiempo!"

"Oh, not that ethnic shit," Harrison grumbles.

A dozen men and women stand in a dim ally, eyes haunted clothes ruined. Most were from his group, but a few weren't.

"Fuck you, dickhead," says a middle aged latino. His face tattoos scream gangbanger. "Mami, we've gotta get out of here."

"I know," the black girl replies. "They're back, I could hear them in the building."

The morning fills with barking and growls, the minotaurs' demon dogs. Everyone panics, one pair runs down the alley. Terrified, everyone turns to the black girl.

A veritable Harriet Tubman.

"We have to get off the street and get below ground. The hellhounds won't be able to smell us with all of the sewage."

"Is that what they call those demon dog looking things?"

"We can't stand here talking, we need to get moving."

"Has anyone seen my husband?"

"My daughter is missing!"

"Everyone, quiet," the black girl snaps. "We need to keep calm, no need to lose our heads. If-"

"Why are you so calm?" Harrison asks. "It's like you know stuff that we don't. Matter of fact, how exactly did you get us out of there?"

The banger gives him a dirty look, but the housewife and the mother take a few steps closer to Harrison. The rest of the group split up evenly. Harrison looks over those still following the black girl and scoffs. An old black guy, the Puerto Rican gang member, and an Asian kid. Minorities.

Always sticking together.

Harrison takes a second look at the kid, realizing it's the teenager from the bridge.

"Hey, kid. Where's the family?" Harrison calls.

The kid is a mess. His clothes are intact which means he hadn't been to the room yet, but his eyes are red and puffy. He looks like he's aged years in a matter of hours. Closing his eyes, the kid takes a step back behind the others.

"Hey, Hawk," the kid flinches at the mention of his name, "I asked you a question. Now is not the time to cry like a girl."

"Hey, leave the kid alone."

"Mind your business, homes."

"Are you serious?" The black girl snaps her fingers in their faces. "Cut the shit. We're moving out."

"You never answered my question, sister girl."

"And I have no intention to." She points at Harrison's chest. "Unless you want to be eating teeth, you'll swallow the next racist thing bubbling up in your chest. If you call me anything other than Shaniqua, I'm leaving your ass."

"Shaniqua?" Harrison sneers "Why am I not surprised?"

She flicks out her finger, faster than he can react, and hits him on the bridge of his nose. The pain is immediate and unexpected.

"Oh my god, you hit him!" the house wife cries.

Shaniqua and Harrison cringe at the woman's shrill tone. "Are you serious? Keep your voice down," the black girl hisses.

"No, you assaulted-"

"Lady, are you stupid or something?" the banger asks, his voice a loud whisper. "Those fucking demons are coming back. I don't know about you, but I'm not trying to let another one of those bastards get their hands on me. So shut the fuck up."

"You heard the banger," Harrison chimes in, holding his tender nose. The thought of being taken back inside, the thought of being used by those monsters again, makes him shake uncontrollably. "Keep it down."

He glares at Shaniqua and she glares back.

"Lead the way," he says.

Bitch, you're gonna get yours once we're outta here.

"We need to get away from this place then find ourselves a sewer entrance."

"I don't think I can go down there. Plus I need to find my husband." The housewife takes Harrison's arm, like she expects him to help.

He shrugs her off and meets Shaniqua's eyes. "You the sista with all the answers. Let's go."

She looks in both directions, clearly unsure.

"I'm not even sure where we are right now. Let's just- shit! Get against the wall!"

Harrison doesn't even hesitate, throwing himself against the building. The others do the same. He cranes his head to follow her gaze and sees a marching column of short reptilian soldiers. More unsettling than their numbers and outlandish appearance are their silent steps. He would have never heard them coming. As he strains his ears he starts to hear a metallic skittering sound similar to the walking cages. What emerges looks like a cross between a tank and a beetle.

"What the fuck-"

An explosion rocks the creature, shaking the ground and sending debris in every direction. The morning fills with the sound of automatic and semi-automatic gunfire. Once the immediate shock wears off, hope fills his heart. Help finally comes. Another explosion mobilizes the group.

"Come on," Shaniqua shouts over the gunfire.

She jogs away from the fighting, Hawk and the banger close behind her. Harrison takes a step to follow and something grabs the leg of his ruined pants. Looking down, it's the mother. He can't see her mouth for all the blood, and a hunk of metal juts from her side. He looks back towards Sheniqua and the others, moving further away with each step. He kicks out of her grip and runs.

"Hey!" shouts the old black guy. He runs towards the wounded woman. "What are you doing?"

"The smart thing!"

Harrison glances back, a hint of guilt trying its best to take root, and curses himself for being weak. He focuses his attention forward, and, for a moment, can't understand why Shaniqua and her entourage are running back towards him. Then he sees them, barreling around the corner like two freight trains.

No. No. No!

Two minotaurs, one carrying a smoking two-handed sword and the other a barbed spear. Frozen with fear, Harrison watches as one of the demons chucks the spear. It sails through the air and tears a gash through the banger's shoulder before it buries itself in the chest of the housewife..

"Run," the black girl shouts.

"Help me get her up," pleads the old man.

Harrison moves without thinking, as if on autopilot. He helps the man get the woman up as Shaniqua and Hawk run past them. He can hear the minotaurs behind them, their guttural laughter turning his bowels into water. He pushes the mother into the old man and both fall into the path of the charging demons. Their startled screams stop abruptly as blood and guts shower him. Harrison's knees turn into spaghetti and he drops to the floor, unable to move.

A rough hand grabs his chin. "I'm gonna give you something to cry about, meat!" the minotaur laughs.

A deafening shotgun blast blows the monster's arm off at the shoulder. Harrison stares mute as two men ambush the minotaurs. Shaniqua grabs the spear and together the three overwhelm the demons. Tears of relief run down his cheek to join the dirt and blood.