I heard Everett's echoed voice like he was using a bullhorn. "Faigon! Where are you?" There was a moment of silence that was followed by Doctor Brown's thundering voice. "I guess it doesn't matter. You can't escape anyway. This place is going to be nothing but a pile of rubble in a matter of minutes. Thirty minutes, R.J., until you die. I guess I'll be leaving, now."

My heart sank into the bottom of my feet because Father and I were still trapped in here. I knew a way out through the basement, but I didn't know if I had enough time to find my father.

I crawled out of the air shaft and into the main laboratory. I ran as fast as I could out into the hallway. Father was nowhere in sight. I made my way to the

basement. That is where I finally spotted him. I was staggering aimlessly. I looked over and called to him.

"Father!" I shouted.

"Mary, what are you doing here?" he asked, regaining his footing.

It was like seeing me made his strength return.

"Father, we must leave," I said insistently. "Doctor Brown planted a bomb somewhere."

"A bomb?" he said, a look of terror coming into his eyes. "Dear God, he's mad." I Looked away for a moment but felt his glance returned to me. "Where is your mother?"

My heart sank to the floor. With tear-stained face I remarked, "She's dead. Brown killed her."

"No," he cried. A frightening feeling blanketed by hatred consumed him, as his heaving breath became more audible. "Why is this happening?" He shouted.

"Father, please, we must escape," I pleaded with him. I knew we didn't have much time. "This way."

"No, Mary," he said, grabbing my hand. "You get out through the crawl space, and I'll get Brown."

"He's gone, Father," I said, trying veer him in the opposite direction. "Please, come with me."

My pleas were futile, and time was growing short. I had no choice but to listen to my father even though my instincts told me only his demise could come out of this. I made my way through the lower levels, until I found the sub-basement.

Father made himself the sacrificial lamb for reasons I did not understand. I thought maybe for a moment that I was dreaming, and all this wasn't really happening. I thought if I closed my eyes when I awakened Mother would be standing over me smiling. It would be like Dorothy leaving Oz and returning to those she loved most.

Mother was dead, and no one and nothing could change that. Father wasn't the one to blame. It was me. It was all me. That was what I told myself. I was the one who let Doctor Brown kill her. I was the one who laid not a finger to help her.

I heard a contradictory voice in my head and adamantly tried to hush it. "You're a coward," I said. "It was my fault." The words echoed in my mind as I slipped through the cellar doors.

The sky was barren, and the trees of the nearby wood possessed a hint of gray. I looked around in hopes of finding Father, but he was nowhere near.

Father called out as I heard footsteps echoing from the distance. I looked to see a man running towards the woods. The eyes of Doctor Everett Brown stared straight into me. He quickly ran off into the wooded lowlands.

I turned back towards the building; terrified of my father still being trapped inside closing the hatchet to the trap door was the last thing I remembered.

All I could recall is that I woke up. Pain pulsated through my body as sirens blared. I can't remember seeing anything; darkness and cold consumed my body.

I wasn't sure where I was because I couldn't see. I didn't know if my eyes were opened or closed, or if I had just gone blind. I couldn't move either which was another mystery. Was I trapped or just paralyzed? If it was the latter, I prayed the saints would take me as I was.

I couldn't think of anything except how trapped I was. My body had gone numb, and my senses were dwindling, until I felt a slight twinge, as if I was buried in a shallow grave, and something or someone had been walking on it. My confirmation came when I heard voices.

"I think we got something here."

"What is it? A body?"

I felt the woman touch my wrist and drop it back down. "She has a pulse," I heard her say. "It's weak, but it's there."

"Hey, let's get a stretcher over here," I heard a man say and felt the man touch my forehead. "How do things like this happen? We got one child dead and one..."

"Don't say it, Norm. This one's a fighter. She'll make it."

More jumbled voices crowded my brain. I was so weak I couldn't move. I feared if I tried, the pain I already felt would worsen. I felt my body being hoisted onto a stretcher.

"Careful," I heard someone say.

Uncontrollable convulsions came over me as I was being moved. The jerking continued for several minutes. Then my arm went numb, followed by the rest of my body until darkness consumed my consciousness. 

To Be Continued...