The floor was a seething carpet of coagulated rat flesh. Each rat attached to its neighbors but writhing and squirming independently. Some gnashed wicked teeth while others hissed menacingly.

BC and I watched, atop seperate chairs, as the rats half-scrabbled, half-surged toward us as one.

“I don’t like this!” BC wailed.

“You think I do?” I retorted. Then I remembered that if it wasn’t for me, she wouldn’t have been there at all. If anything, her presence had kept me alive and sane for the last few hours. “You’re right. This sucks and I’m sorry I brought you here. I have an idea though- can you leap to me? I’ll catch you and then lift you up to the rafters.”

She bit her lip and nodded.

I bent my knees and widened my stance as much as the chair would allow. “Go!”

BC jumped away from the rats that had started crawling up her chair and sailed into my arms with a scream.

Her momentum over-powered my balance sending both of us crashing to the floor.

Instantly we were engulfed in a wave of claws and teeth.