We all stood around in a messy circular shape on the soccer field, with Tony (unofficial GOOM expert) sitting on the ground in the centre, cradling the game in his lap. The sky was going gold, just beginning to shade into twilight. I heard one of the giant sports stadium lights come on with an electric snap and insects were beginning to flap around it. Crickets could be heard chirping – with the twenty of us virtually silent with anticipation.
Tony had unfolded the game board, and laid out the dice, a pile of game cards, and the players pieces out for our selection. This was when I began to wonder how we’d all manage to crowd around a tiny game board – surely we hadn’t given a lot of thought to this.
“I thought this was a LARP?” said a soft-spoken and kind of goofy boy called Luke. “This is just a regular old board game! – false advertising.” He was here with his dark-eyed blue-haired girl friend – and questionably girlfriend – Scarlet. I hadn’t realized because they were both fairly quiet people.
“I said they didn’t know the meaning of the acronyms,” Mike intoned.
“Hey, wait – ” said Tony, reading from the game guide. “It says ‘WARNING: Choose the most resembling token, there’s no changing once you’ve spoken’ – Oh, it rhymes.” He grinned. “Cute.”
“Jumanji’s on the phone again,” Zandra jumped in, rolling her eyes, “they want their copyrights back.”
“They’re not going to resemble anyone when they’re made-up fantasy characters,” Jordyn said blandly, looking over the little metal pieces, at least twenty different characters, making up the generic fantasy classes, and some novel ones.
“What does it mean ‘the most resembling token?” said Luke in a quiet voice.
“I guess, which one resembles you the most,” Chase blurted out. “So that’s the Orc, I guess.”
“Dude!”
Some kids jumped forward, not taking the ‘warning’ very seriously and were quick to choose pieces. I was still looking over them deciding, but there wasn’t really a choice for me; I was a melee fighter all the way – even in a board game.
“Is there a knight?” I asked Tony, picking up any stray piece that looked like it was wearing armor.
“Hey!” pouted Jordyn, overhearing me, “I wanted to be the knight!”
“Taken,” said Mike proudly, bouncing a little knightly figure on his palm.
“That’s not a knight,” said Tony, “that’s a Cleric.” He pointed at the piece Luke had selected. “That’s the knight.”
Mike grabbed the instruction manual from Tony and read: “Knight’s strengths: armour and strength.”
“Ha!” chimed in Chase, “Your strength is strength! This game is so grammar fucked!”
“Ungrammatical,” I said.
“’Grammar fucked’ is not ungrammatical.”
“Yes it is, and it doesn’t sound as good.”
“Shut up you guys,” Jordyn said. “What else does it say?”
“The Cleric has a healing ability,” Mike exclaimed. “Nice.” Then he looked over at his friend Chase, who had just claimed a player for himself. “What are you?”
“The dude with the daggers.” It was a rugged looking character wearing black, with an eye patch and wielding a dagger in each hand.
“It’s called the Rogue,” Tony said, taking the instruction guide back from Mike.
“Cool!” said Chase.
“It’s just a fancy name for a petty thief,” Mike shrugged, reading the guide over Tony’s shoulder. “You’ve actually got kind of a weak deal. Stealth, dark and ranged bonuses, but weak in strength and magic. Special ability: charm.”
“Don’t need more of that,” Chase joked. “I’m charming enough.”
“Alright, Tony,” I said finally. “Lock me in as this guy.” I picked up a piece that looked like a black knight, with a big horned helmet covering a white ponytail, spiked pauldrons and a torn, blood red cape.
“Necromancer,” said Tony. “Strengths: stealth, will, and dark. Weak to strength and charm. Cool – high fire and ice resistances.”
“Weak to strength?” I groaned. “That’s the opposite of what I want.” I scanned the character pieces again. “No!” I said suddenly. “There was a werewolf player. Oh man, I’m changing!”
Chase grinned. “No changing once you’ve spoken, Adam – you know, the rhyme. It’s the rules.”
I sighed. “Fine. What’s ‘charm’, anyway? – magic?”
“Whatever it is, I’m strong in it so I could probably kick your ass!” Chase teased.
“It’s just symbolized by a love heart,” Tony interrupted. “Love? I mean, the necromancer is a fearmonger, so what’s the opposite of fear?”
“Dumb weakness,” I grumbled. ”But fire and ice immunity might be okay – Oh, I get it, probably a reference to Dante’s hell, fire at the top, ice at the bottom.”
“Stop nerding out,” Chase groaned. “It’s embarrassing. You sound like you LARP every Tuesday or something.”
“I’ve never LARPED in my life!” I protested, looking around self-consciously. “And that’s not ‘nerding out’, it’s general trivia.”
Then a female voice cut through the chatter that seemed to turn me to an ice sculpture drawn up from the ninth circle of hell.
“Ooh, special abilities,” said Madison, taking the game guide from Tony for a second. “Adam, you’ve got revival and phantom summon. Nice. Uh, I think?”
“Nice,” Jordyn confirmed.
“What? I should’ve been the necro!” complained Zandra.
I stood in place like a hunk of rock, not daring to turn or acknowledge Madison, and internally begging myself to. The indecision made a cold sweat start to break out on my forehead. Luckily this was not noticed in the clamor for game pieces, and buzz of idle chatter.
The girls were the last to choose their players, maybe as to not get into fights with the boys’ covetous choices.
“Any female characters?” said Jordyn. Her voice gave me extra anxiety; now, knowing where Jordyn was, I automatically knew where Madison (her best friend) was.
Chase handed Jordyn a female dwarf – with braids and a full beard.
She rolled her eyes. “Very funny.”
“It’s female!”
“You know what I mean,” she said, putting it back. “Actually, never mind,” she said, snatching up a silver dragon piece which I hadn’t spied earlier.
A dragon? Damn, I thought, it looked like I had settled on the necromancer far too early.
“I’ll be this one,” she decided. “Looks powerful.”
“That’s female?” said Madison dubiously.
“It might be – there’s a 50% chance.”
“You don’t know the way the game makers’ minds work,” drawled Chase, “it’s more like 10% chance. If something doesn’t have a huge pair of old Tom Bombadillos, it’s a dude. Except, if it’s a dwarf, then it’s a dudette.”
Huffing with frustration, she put the dragon back.
Without realizing it, my gaze found Madison and I was staring intently as she found a piece that looked like some kind of dark haired elf babe or genie sorceress…thing. It had glowing blue runic tattoos on her wrists. God, the detail on these painted little statues was insane.
“This one’s a girl,” she said to Jordyn. “I mean, clearly.” She was probably referring to the piece’s exposed midriff and ample breast armor.
Jordyn looked across at the piece and scoffed. “Oh, come on. That’s a feminist’s nightmare right there.”
“Just pick one!” said Mike, impatiently. “What difference does it make whether your piece is male or female? It’s a token. It’s not real.”
“Fine!” she groaned, taking a piece. “I’m this guy. You boys get all the best players. You give us girls the weak ones. Besides, he’s cute! Who is this – Jack Sparrow or something?”
“The Swashbuckling Bard,” Tony corrected. “He’s strong in charm, light, and light weapons. But heavy weak and weak to dark. And a special ability called ‘quick tongue.’”
Jordyn raised her eyebrows doubtfully. “Sounds legit,” while Zandra burst into laughter (always one to catch a double entendre faster than anyone else).
“It’s a charisma booster,” Tony said “probably influential, like, you can convince NPCs to tell you stuff, or sell things to you cheaper.”
“Are you going with that one, Madison?” Jordyn said.
“Can I use magic?” Madison said.
Tony read off the instructions. “That’s a ‘gelf enchantress.’”
“What’s that?”
“I guess the game calls elves ‘gelfs’…? ‘Gelves’...?”
“Dumb,” said Mike.
“At least it’s not a rip off of something,” said Zandra.
“It’s getting kind of close to ‘Gelflings’ from the Dark Crystal though,” I heard a guy called Robby mutter somewhere in back.
“Ah, but Gelflings are more like Hobbits than elves,” Robby’s best friend Andria mock lectured him.
“Sorry – ” interrupted Tony. “ – I mean, it actually is an ‘elf enchantress.’”
“Well, then what’s a ‘gelf?’ What’s the difference?” said Jordyn.
Tony frowned, flipping through the instruction guide. “It doesn’t say.”
“Whatever it is,” said Madison shook her head, “can I use magic?”
“Strengths: will and charm. Weaknesses: fire. I think so,” he decided thoughtfully. “in this context, I’d say ‘will’ means ‘magic’ – like in Fable, you know, the game?”
“Pfft! They’re ripping everything off, aren’t they?” said Zandra.
“Well, when your game’s called ‘GOOM,’” I muttered, “and looks like the demented right side of a Bosch triptych, you need all the help you can get.”
“It’s not just Elves and Gelves,” Tony said suddenly, continuing to read the game guide. “There are Orcs and Gorcs. Goblins and Gelflins, (“okay,” I heard Robby’s voice again, “that’s too close to Gelfling.”). Wizards and Gwizards. Morks and Gmorks. There’s even Man and Gan!”
Chase burst into laughter.
“It’s like there’s a ‘G’ version of everything,” Tony mused. “I wonder what the ‘G’ stands for.” Then he said suddenly, a funny look on his face, “Hey! If the same rule applies to the game title, then maybe it’s really called – ”
“Big fat fricken’ deal!” Trent’s rough burr growled, “Let’s just play this thing already, before it gets late.”
“Everyone put your pieces on the starting point,” Tony instructed.
We all crowded in, one at a time placing our pieces on the game board, like the initiation of some strange ritual. A chill breeze seemed to sweep over the field then, rustling the trees subtly. Some people shivered and the crowd drew closer, as if to huddle.
“Who goes first?” said Mike.
“Let’s go by the alphabet,” said Tony, and looked at me. “That means you’re first, Adam.”
“Then me!” Andria interjected.
“Oh, that’s just great,” piped up Zandra. “I’m last.”
“Wait just a sec guys,” said Tony, pulling out some fluorescent green plastic bags from the game box and giving them out to people to hand around. I opened mine. It contained a wrist band with a little plastic screen on it.
Jordyn and Madison looked down at the wristbands, both frowned, and then looked up again, looking like they were being asked to participate in some crime of fashion.
“Do we really have to wear these?” groaned Jordyn.
“At least they match,” Madison said with a little desperation.
“That makes them even lamer.”
Tony shrugged and grinned (evidently amused at their over-the-top reactions). “It’s the rules. It says a penalty applies if you take it off during the game.”
Everyone put on their wristbands and weakly admired them. Or tried to.
“Wow,” drawled Jordyn, a little sadly. “Retro.”
“It’s like a rejected fashion accessory from Back to the Future Part II,” Robby’s smirking voice came from the back.
“Star Command, this is Buzz Lightyear,” Chase said sarcastically, holding his wristband up to his face, “come in Star Command.” Everyone groaned at the reference.
“Do you have to make this more cringe than it already is?” said Jordyn.
“Hey,” said Luke earnestly, raising his hand. “Dumb question, but…how do you win?"
“Fight to the death,” Trent rattled off. “Last person left alive.”
Tony flipped through the instruction book. "It says: ‘Reach the end and state the name, that is how you win the game.’”
After everyone had finished rolling their eyes at the derpy rhyme, Luke asked:
"And what's the name?"
"The name of the game, I'm guessing," Tony shrugged. "You know, like you say, 'Uno,' or 'Yahtzee.'"
Jordyn pulled at her blonde ponytail self-consciously. “GOOM hardly has the memorable ring of either of those games…”
"No negotiating the rules!" said Mike, making a couple of people jump. "We haven't even started playing yet.” He snatched up the dice. “So let’s do this! Screw the alphabet – too bad everyone – my go first.”
The dice came up five and two. He slid his knight piece seven spaces and landed on a green lightning bolt symbol – there were plenty of these kinds of spaces littered all over the board, I noticed.
There was an uncertain pause, then:
“You get to pick up a Conjuration Card,” said Tony. It seemed he had long become accepted as the unofficial rule explainer. Or at least, no one had any interest in disabusing him of that position. It was his game after all…or was it? I couldn’t remember him telling me where he’d got it. Or when he’d got it. I reminded myself to ask him sometime, maybe afterwards. I think he said someone had given it to him.
Meanwhile, Mike flipped up the top card from the pile and his eyes darted over it.
“Read it aloud,” Tony instructed.
Mike rolled his eyes and did so in a labored voice:
“Pull up your boots, pull down your hoods, your quest begins within the woods.”
He looked up, annoyed. “Not sure what it’s asking me to do. Do I even get anything – a bonus?”
“That’s got to be the most pointless thing to happen,” laughed Chase.
“Yeah, I don’t know,” said Tony, flipped through the instruction manual. “It’s really weird, I can’t find anything explaining what the cards are supposed to do.”
“Maybe it’s just a big non-event,” Jordyn shrugged.
Then all the light in the sky blacked out. Like the stadium strobes had shorted.
Wow, I thought. That was unexpected.
We were all silent – even the crickets had gone silent – sitting and standing around in complete darkness on the grass, except for our wristbands, whose screens had all synchronously switched on of their own accord, and now each displayed the game’s flashing title:
GOOM
Start Game…
[Y]/[N]
WELCOME
Your quest is about to begin…!
The screens were flickering slightly, like old 80s video software.
“Hey, yours says something different,” Tony leaned over to Mike, his ghostly face lit up by the flickering light. “It says the rhyme. It must show your turn when you take it.”
I wrenched my eyes from my own wristband’s screen, and blinked. My eyes were slowly adjusting, due to the full moon hanging in the inky black sky above us.
– Wait, what?
Okay, that shouldn’t be there, I thought anxiously. A second ago it was twilight. And there wasn’t supposed to be a full moon. Now I could hear the crickets again, but too loud. Frogs, too. And now bird calls. And the low, throaty bugle of some far off animal, like a cow, or a moose, or something much bigger. A chill in the air seemed to make us all freeze and nervously search around for each other’s faces in the dark. There was gasping and muttering.
“Guys…” hissed Luke.
“I’m not the only one seeing this, right?” said Jordyn, loudly.
“What the fuck?!” I heard Chase yell, causing the frogs’ song to halt briefly. “Where the fuck did the rooms go?!”
The realization struck me like a hammer blow. We were covered in long shadows cast by tall trees that nearly blocked out the starless night sky. We were all sitting in the clearing of some great forest. There were no lights through the trees suggesting the dorm rooms or any buildings nearby. Ancient oak trees groaned and swayed over us. Somewhere a little way off, a big twig snapped, more like a gunshot than a crackle. A feathery leaf brushed down into my hair. I flicked it out with growing dread. My breath misted out in front of my face, faintly illuminated by the light of my wristband’s screen, and quickly evaporating again. When had it got so cold?
Little gasps and sounds of alarm rippled throughout the group. People began to shift around, stand, wander and look about.
“Everyone just stay where you are,” Tony’s voice rang out. “Let’s just take the time to figure out what’s going on.”
A chill breeze combed between the trees, bringing with it a cloud of tiny neon green orbs – fireflies? There was no forest like this anywhere near the campus, I thought. There were barely even trees, on campus.
Where were we?
“You can’t figure it out,” Zandra smirked oddly. “This obviously defies explanation.”
“We need to find someone,” said Jordyn firmly.
There was a riot of noise as everyone started talking over the top of each other, raising different suggestions as to what to do.
“I call for splitting up,” said Trent.
“Vote one, splitting up,” said Shane (Trent’s best friend, or in my opinion ‘unpaid goon’).
There were cries of ‘What?” and “Are you serious?” and “No way!”
“There’s enough of us to split into at least, two or three groups” Trent shrugged. “And we’ve all got different ideas about what to do.”
“Some of us are staying right where we are, thank you!” Scarlet muttered.
“So some of us stay, some of us go,” Chase said blithely, appearing to agree with Trent and Shane.
“If we get lost,” Shane said, taking Trent’s lead, “the wristbands give us enough light to wave around and see through the trees. And as long as each group has at least one person with a phone…”
But people had started pulling out their phones, trying to make calls, and everyone invariably receiving ‘no signal’ notifications.
No one had any better suggestions so we began to rearrange ourselves into groups. Because I knew so few other people, I didn’t make any active decisions, and ended up being pulled by Chase into an improvised group with him, Jordyn and Madison, who were the closest to me. Certainly not complaining in the latter case – actually, couldn’t believe my luck – though I hadn’t realized Madison was standing right by me. She must have moved closer in the dark.
“Tony…” a shy kid called Zaidan piped up, “My screen is saying it’s my turn, now. Should I take it?”
“You aren’t serious…” Scarlet drawled. “Surely this isn’t a game anymore. Something really effed up is going on!”
“Understood. But it’s showing a minute countdown – what happens to me if the time runs out?”
“We have to, like, find someone,” Jordyn repeated.
“But if he takes his turn,” reasoned a pretty girl called Blake, sounding a little too upbeat for the circumstances, “maybe it’ll make the houses come back.”
Jordyn shook her head. “Look, forget the game.”
“Guys,” Mike said over the din. “This is the game.” He illuminated the instruction manual with the light cast from his wristband. It showed a picture of a big, dark forest – the forest we were currently in.
“This is level one,” he said. “Winterwood. Look at the top of your screen.”
I checked the top of my band’s screen. It had a little banner that said: Level 1: Winterwood.
“Hey,” said Tony. “You can use your wristband to take your turn. Press the dice symbol on the side of the screen.”
A second later, Zaidan spoke up again. “It’s saying I landed on a card square.”
“What card did you get?” someone asked.
His eyes narrowed as he scrutinized the screen. “Not sure…what it means…”
His twin sister, Zandra, hopped over, and, grabbing his arm so she could read his screen. “It says,” she proclaimed in an over the top Shakespearian accent complete with pretentious rolling ‘R’s, “Heavier than a pile of bricks, until the dice show double six.”
“Then, that’s it!” Luke gasped. “Someone roll two sixes and we’re home again!”
There were some relieved sighs.
Then Zaidan began to scream.
There were cries of “What?!” and, “What’s going on?!”
But apart from his twin sister, Zandra, no one knew Zaidan well enough to be comfortable getting too close to him. It seemed everyone found the twins a little strange – was this Zaidan’s idea of a joke? But Zandra’s eyes were wide, staring at her twin brother, totally dumbfounded.
And now alongside his screams we could all hear a horrible creaking, grinding sound, like bones were grinding against each other. But we couldn’t see anything in the dim light. I could hear people gasping and breathing faster in the dark. The crowd shuffled, confusedly pulling in, then drawing back. No one seemed to have any clue what was going on.
“Oh my God! – No!” someone yelled, and “What the fuck!”
Zaidan’s scream didn’t end, or die away. It stopped suddenly, like it was cut off. In the ensuing quiet, I could hear heavy panicked breathing now, a couple of girls were sobbing in fear. In the distance, some kind of animal made a gibbering howl, like a coyote, or some kind of monkey.
Finally, the crowd shifted and some people shined their wristbands’ weak light on Zaidan. Where he had previously just stood, there was now a smoothed marble rock statue of a person. The body was tensed, and the face carved into the stone was eerily familiar.
Zaidan’s face.
His mouth and eyes were frozen open in the agonized scream we had heard only a moment ago.
“No…” whimpered Scarlet. “It’s not possible.”
"He's a statue,” yelled Chase, “oh my God, it killed him, he's dead --!"
"He's not dead," said Jordyn in a dark monotone.
“How do you know?” Madison muttered, nudging against her with apprehension.
“I…don’t know.”
There was instant panic. People were on their feet, running, yelling. I could hear footsteps tramping through the undergrowth, bodies charging clumsily like startled deer. People pushing, shoving, tripping, falling, kicking up dirt, in their desperate attempts to get away from the Zaidan-statue, or whatever it was.
“No way!”
“I’m outta here, man!”
“What the fuck just happened?”
“I’m not staying here another second!”
Chase grabbed my shoulder and began steering me away through the trees.
“Hey!” I gasped. “Where are we going?” My brain was whizzing incoherently at what I had just seen. Plus, I had no sense of direction in the dark.
“Anywhere but here,” Chase said conclusively. “You want to end up like him, too?”
Jordyn and Madison were jogging on his other side. “Hey, where are you guys going? Don’t ditch us!”
“Well, keep up or get trodden on,” Chase said brusquely. “’Cause we’re getting out of here somehow!”
We finally reached an area where the trees grew sparser, and the bush and undergrowth wasn’t so long and tangled. We were getting close to the edge of the forest, I guessed. But it looked like the ground rose up into towering mountains in the distance. We couldn’t keep going that way. But it was still dark and we had no more idea where we were.
I glanced down at my wristband. The screen was blank but the small text at the top still said: Level 1: Winterwood.
It seemed like we’d been moving for hours. But, I realized, if that was true, the game should have moved through everyone’s turns multiple times. Maybe time didn’t work the same way here. But what did I know? Maybe this was a Wonderland world and rules kept changing. Still, I kept my suspicions to myself, not wanting to freak out the other three any more than they already were.
We stopped and rested for a moment, to each catch our breath.
Madison looked around and her eyes suddenly widened.
“Oh no…” she said. “Where’s Jordyn? I thought she was right behind me?”
We all whipped our heads around. It was true; there was just Chase, Madison and myself now. No Jordyn. Or anyone else, for that matter. No one had gone our way, and we couldn’t see or hear anyone else through the trees. It was quiet and a chill wind blew through the trees, making the leaves rattle. My stomach swirled with worry as I suddenly intuited how stupid it was to have split up. Especially in a panic. None of us had even remembered which way we’d come from. But no one was thinking straight. We were all just acting on pure fear. Anyway, couldn’t do anything about that now. We were lost. We all knew it, but no one wanted to say it.
“So,” I started hesitantly, “what do we do?” The others just looked at me wordlessly. Then –
“Adam – ” Madison gasped, looking at me with wide eyes. “Your wristband…”
I looked down at my arm to see my wristband screen said: NECROMANCER’S TURN, and below that, a flashing a countdown: 00:54…00:53…00:52…
My pulse hammered. I didn’t want to take my turn. All of the dice rolls so far had been twisted and frightening. But I didn’t know what would happen if the numbers got to zero, either. And I didn’t want to know. I remembered what Tony had said; if you skipped your turn, you got penalized. Same if you took off your wristband. ‘Penalty’ hadn’t meant anything serious back when we were in the relative safety and security of the university soccer field. But now, the word took on a very real, sinister bent. The game seemingly compelled you to play, or else it would punish you.
Without thinking I went to push the dice symbol on my band.
“Adam, no!” Madison wailed, grabbing my hand reflexively. “What are you doing?!”
Squeezing onto my hand for dear life, she gave me such a vulnerable, apprehensive look (as if I was about to die) that it made my chest freeze a second.
“I’ve got to take my turn,” I said resolutely.
“Hey…” Chase said slowly, shrugging, “…Good luck, man. Maybe it’ll be something good this time. They can’t all be bad. That’d be unfair.” The bastard was even kind of smirking with anticipation, I realized.
Not really sure if I believed him, I didn’t say anything. The game had already proved itself more than capable of gross unfairness.
Madison gasped with regret as I pushed the dice symbol and the screen of my wristband changed. The two of them leaned in on either side of me, seeing what would happen.
A pixelated dice roll animation played on the screen, the graphics like what you might see on a slot machine. Remembering Zaidan’s turn, I shuddered involuntarily, and prayed for two sixes. But the screen instead showed: a two and a six. Then it said: Congratulations: you landed on a Conjuration Card!
My stomach flipped. A lightning bolt image showed on-screen.
Now, the screen said:
We are coming, don’t be nervous, we only want you in our service!
I stared at the screen, my mind working like crazy to figure out what the rhyme meant. Beside me, Chase was doing the same:
"Who's 'we'?" he said, looking up.
"Maybe it's a legion of knights?" with mounting excitement. "Like they're going to make me a vassal, or something?"
Chase and Madison just stared at me blankly.
"Feudalism," I added. "You know?"
Whatever it meant, it sounded pretty good, I thought. I had originally wanted to be the knight, anyway.
Then the ground started to tremble under us. We all looked at each other in the darkness. I couldn’t see the others’ faces very well, but imagined they must have looked like mine; wide-eyed and stunned.
“Guys! – run!” screamed Chase.
I saw the two of them start into a mad dash through the trees, visible as a pair of shadows darting between the trees.
I stayed where I was. Incredibly stupid of me, but I had no choice – one of my ankles was stuck to the ground. It felt like it was trapped under a coiling root. The trembling was getting deeper, more of a sudden jolting or quaking under the soles of my shoes now.
“Hey!” I yelled after them helplessly. “Hey…!”
Then I heard Madison shout from somewhere.
“Wait…! – Chase! Stop! Adam’s still back there!”
“Dude, hurry up!” I heard Chase through the trees, though I couldn’t seem him anymore. “We’re not hanging around.”
Before I could say anything, a huge mass of grass and soil flipped over like a trap door, revealing a black gaping hole in the ground. Tiny grey-skinned figures – no bigger than toys – burst out like disciplined soldiers emerging up out the top of a submarine and assembling for battle.
“HELP!” I screamed as the figures lost no time in climbing onto me and arranging themselves around me in a circle. Pairs of tiny strong knobbly clawed hands gripped my shoulders, arms and my legs. There were flashes of miniature scimitars the size of hypodermic needles and the root encircling my ankle snapped off. I had no time to escape before I was lofted into the air like a rolled up rug by hundreds of tiny hands and moved quickly, sideways – like a giant piece of food being hefted along by a stream of ants – towards the gaping hole in the ground. It was the paradox of woven rope; one strand was weak but looped altogether could tug steel. They held me so firmly by so many little people I couldn’t escape from my doll-size captors; I was being pulled tight in every direction.
“NO!” I yelled one last time before the tiny hands released me and I went flying head first down into the darkness.