The two mighty creatures had wrapped tentacles around each other in what was far from a loving family embrace. Each exerted impossible pressure on the other’s form, but slowly, Xastur was dragging Cthulhu back toward the red gates.

A huge chunk of stone the size of a battleship fell from somewhere overhead to strike a far stretch of beach, crushing flat hundreds of the swarming creatures and creating a tremor beneath their feet.

That settled it for Matt and Adira: they were sprinting now for their lives. Gradually, the planets were moving out of alignment, and whatever labyrinthine maze had been opened to reveal this dismal place of abominations would soon be shut.

Adira had her gun up, but the beasts they passed ignored them in their haste to return to their master. Amongst the dark, reeking mass, there was a flash of red, and Matt zigzagged towards it, increasing his speed.

“Hey!” Adira angled after him.

The lump of red looked up. The twins in their dirty pyjamas clung to each other, their faces streaked. Matt jinked past something that looked like a dog-headed spider, and then bent and reached out, while trying to not to slow his pace. He grabbed up one of the girls, who immediately clung to him. The other, he snatched and just held under his arm, and accelerated once again.

“Go, go, go.” Adira pushed him in the back, and then sped to get in front of him and force open a path. The Mossad woman’s long legs pumped hard on the dark sand and Matt gritted his teeth, his head already swimming with exhaustion as he tried to keep pace.

They ran hard now, bouncing off walls as time moved rapidly against them. Adira was first to the shimmering curtain between their worlds, but when she went to run through, she bounced backward. It was now less like a bodyless separation than a wall of glass. She collided with Matt and knocked him to the ground. The girls screamed, and rolled from his arms.

“Shit no.” Matt got to his feet first, the twins already clinging to him again. He helped Adira up.

Her nose was bloody and she shook her head. “Shitza. That was like hitting a wall.” She rubbed her face, smearing blood.

Matt reached out and touched the wall. He pushed at it, but his hand refused to go through. “It’s closed; we’re too late.”

“Over my dead body.” Adira planted her legs and lifted her gun, firing a dozen rounds into the wall. The last few passed right through, striking the rock tunnel beyond. She turned and grabbed Matt, and one-handed, fired again, upsetting the wall’s stabilization just enough for them all to dive through.

The distortion wall immediately reformed, and then like some sort of gigantic digestive system, the rocks walls began to soften, pulsate and ripple like the peristaltic motions of a giant animal’s gut. Then, they too began to collapse. Just like the soil in the sinkhole in Iowa, Matt thought, getting to his feet.