Trip was running full tilt, and he’d been a college football running back. The dude could move. He got to the next intersection, hung a left, and disappeared. I got there a few seconds after him. There were bloody handprints on the walls. Trip had already rounded the next corner when I stepped in a puddle of blood, slipped, and landed on my hands and knees. Ed moved to help me, but I waved him on. “Catch Trip.” Tanya and Edward did as I ordered and kept running.

I got up and started after them, but as I reached the next corner, the fluorescents died. I was completely engulfed in darkness. I reached out to touch the wall that had just been there, but my hand fell through nothing. I took another step to where I was positive the wall would be, but it was only open air.

The world around me had vanished. “Oh, crap.”

Everything was just gone. It was empty and dark and vast, and my muscles threatened to lock up in fear. I had to fight down the sudden urge to panic. I blundered forward, sightless. No. Don’t leave me here.

Then there was a tiny flicker of light ahead, the fluorescent lights of the high school. I struggled toward it.

The figure of a man stepped into my path. “Wait, please.” I squinted to see who it was, and with a shock, recognized the young man that I’d seen briefly at the wrecked gas station. He was in the same olive-drab utility clothing, free of any identifier. My initial reaction was to shoot him, but the look on his face was one of concern rather than menace. “Don’t leave yet. I pulsed you here so we can talk without him hearing us. It’s getting worse out there, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Who are you?”

The young man rubbed his face with his hands, the motion of a man who was desperately trying to wake up. “I don’t remember.”

“You’d better start remembering, sport. Are you the one behind this? Are you the Nightmare?”

“No. I’m trying to hold him back. I used to remember how to control him, but I’ve been asleep. They put me to sleep. I’m still trying to wake up. Everything’s so confusing. I don’t know anymore.”

What the hell is going on here? “What do you remember?”