They sloshed toward the front of the store, following the current. In Children’s, they waded through a layer of stuffed pandas whose drowned faces grinned at the ceiling. The sound of rushing water was louder up ahead, and the current was picking up speed, threatening to sweep their feet out from under them. When Amy saw what was making the noise, her heart sank. They both stopped, water raging past their legs, and gawked at the stairs that led down to the Market Floor.

Water cascaded in a torrent, foaming into furious rapids. It wasn’t just rushing down the stairs, it was pouring from the entire second-floor mezzanine, forming three waterfalls that sent sheer walls plunging down, transforming the stairs into a roaring flume.

“We’ll go around,” Basil shouted, trying to be heard over the din. “Through the café to the escalator at the front of the showroom. Then down to the main entrance.”

Amy swept the flashlight into the café and watched the current snatch three Arsle chairs and suck them down the steps, end over end, where they disappeared in the furious torrent.

“Can you do it?” Amy asked.

Basil nodded, and the two of them walked into the café, away from the raging waterfall on the stairs. The current tore at them. Every time they took a foot off the floor, the water snatched at it, trying to drag them away. Water foamed up to Amy’s waist and the greasy spray almost reached her shoulders. She guided Basil in front of her, holding on to his left arm; the right one hung dead at his side. Another Arsle chair tumbleweeded past, sucked toward the stairs; its legs sliced into Basil’s shins. He fell, disappearing beneath the waist-deep water.

“Basil!” Amy shouted.

His head surfaced six feet away, moving fast in the direction of the waterfall. Amy ran toward him, trying to keep her footing. Basil couldn’t get his legs under him, and he went down again. Amy reached for him, but she wasn’t even close. The last thing she saw were his terrified eyes and shouting mouth as he was sucked backward into the foaming rapids of the stairs leading down into the Market Floor.

Amy screamed in frustration. They’d been footsteps away from safety via the escalator. Now she’d have to make her way through the entire Market Floor, then through the Self-Service Warehouse and the checkout lanes before reaching the exit. It was too far, and there was no way of knowing if Basil had even survived his fall.

But he had come back for her. She had to go after him.