“We’ll come over to you?” Michael shouted. He was still in his shirtsleeves and his breath plumed dully. Becca was hugging herself and stamping.

“Stay there. Need a tow rope to get our car out of there,” Lucas called. His voice fell away into the spaces between the trees and, just as he was thinking about all the noise they were making, something answered: a long, low bellow like the indigestion of a whole world. Like monsters. It hadn’t sounded close; not exactly in the distance either.

Michael had the tow line, but a couple of failed attempts showed that he couldn’t sling it over the broad stream. Nor was he keen on wading through it. Lucas looked around impatiently. In the gloom he could see things at the water’s edge, heads low as they drank. They didn’t seem to be further up on the Weird Shit scale than some kind of deer or boar. He eased his pistol out of the concealed holster slung under his armpit—although whether nine-millimetre rounds would stop even a perfectly normal wild boar was anybody’s guess.

The unseen bellower let out another grand belch. It didn’t sound closer, and the drinkers at the streamside weren’t spooked by it, which he reckoned was a good sign.

In the meantime, some part of his mind had been examining the sodden ground. Not enough traction for towing their vehicle, was the unfortunate conclusion.

“Stay there, we’ll come to you!” he ordered, catching Michael midway through rolling his trousers up. He rapped on the car window. “Dom, we’re wading across to them. Cold as fuck, but it’s our best chance to be under way quickly.”

When he emerged from the car Dominic visibly shuddered with the cold, but the physical discomfort didn’t reach his eyes: those were already wide and rigid as he stared at his boss.

“Under way where?” he spat out, voice shaking. “Where the fuck are we, Lucas? What the fuck, even?”

“Calm down,” Lucas said. He’d thought Dominic had run into his own share of Weird, but then he didn’t think anyone on his team had gone this deep, himself included. He was used to shit coming in from somewhere else, not him falling out of the world into…fucking Narnia.

“Seriously.” Dominic’s voice was shaking. “Seriously…go where? There isn’t anywhere.”

“Still better to all be in a car that can get the hell out of Dodge if we need it,” Lucas said. “Come on—” And then Lisa Pryor slammed her door open, ramming it into his knee, and made a determined break for it. He grabbed her by the collar, more instinct than decision, and yanked her back so hard that she sat down and choked for a while. Without much sympathy he hauled her up and thrust her at Dominic.