Submersion.
Cold water rushed into her ears, drowning out all other sound. Malformed fingers grasped at her, but couldn't hang on, and drifted down. She swam upward, scooping at all the water she could, until instead of liquid, they found icy air and metal.
Samantha pulled herself up onto the ledge, a panel of huge, durable metal floating in the middle of a dim, deep industrial shaft of some sort. She gasped for breath as she crawled along its yellow and black striped surface- it resembled some kind of blast door long out of use. That was strange. More pressing to her, she felt, was the fact that all of that icky stagnant water had ruined her entire outfit, and done unspeakable things to her hair. She whimpered miserably. Once the water emptied from her large ears, she heard the splashing of others. Her friends!
The bat gasped and ran over to assist, pulling up first Max and Erwin, who had been helping each other tread the icy water. They both pulled up onto the floating blast door and collapsed, heaving. Unfortunately, they were the only ones making splashing sounds. Which meant... "Oh no... Carrie... Natalie!"
The aforementioned duo surfaced, a shuffler clinging to them both. Carrie grabbed onto the platform and punched the thing right in its eye, causing it to let go of them and disappear beneath the surface. Nat used her dexterity to climb up and help Carrie on as well. Their weight combined didn't seem liable to tilt or capsize their raft, which probably meant that it was a few feet thick.
"Is everyone all right?" Sam asked, more than a little relieved that none of them had hit the panel on the way down.
"Yeah..." Natalie coughed a coupled of times. "I think everybody's okay. But... where are we?"
Erwin adjusted his glasses and observed roots and vines reaching far in and out between the cracks in the walls. "Wherever it is, it's been here for a long time. Nobody's used concrete in ages..."
Carrie used Natalie's help to pop her back loudly. "Aww f-... thought I slipped a disc back there."
"That was amazing, sweetie." Nat kissed her girlfriend on the cheek appreciatively and smiled. "You really did great."
"Thanks..." the cat smirked softly. "But... we still lost. Who knows where we are? How are we gonna get out?" She looked up, the light so far away they could hardly see it.
Natalie tilted her head. "Hm. That's a good question. But... we can figure it out. Max, do you still have our stuff?"
The iguana lifted the bag above his head triumphantly. "All in the safety of Max's Mirthful Manythings Mover!"
"What's so mirthful about an incredibly tacky green and blue backpack?" Sam complained, wringing out her hair.
"The fact that it's waterproof would be the biggest reason," Natalie remarked with a smirk, then stuck her hands in her pockets, shivering. "Now how do we get out of here...?"
The concrete was all-encompassing in the huge shaft. If it wasn't completely cemented over, it was covered in vines, and if it was neither of those, it was oddly plated, rusted-over metal. It was one of the vined walls, however, that intrigued Erwin.
"Hey. Hey, guys." He tugged on Natalie's wet sleeve and pointed. "Don't those vines look kinda weird to you?"
The wolf girl wiped a wet strand of hair out of her face. "What do you mean?"
"I mean," he pointed out with his hands, "The rest of the walls have points where the vines come out from all levels. Except this one. All the vines that end there start way up above us."
"Hm..." Carrie considered it. "Yeah, I guess so. What's your point, Goldstein?"
"My point is..." he gestured to the wall, which was several yards away. "I think there might be something behind them! But... I don't wanna jump in the water again..."
"Nobody does," Nat agreed. "... Max?"
"Aye, Captain!"
"You see that metal underneath those vines? Do you think you could hit that with your tongue and maybe pull this raft over to it so we can have a closer look?"
"Piece of cake!" He confidently shot his tongue out, hit the wall with it, and reeled in... himself, slamming into the wall. "MNGH! Ouchies..."
Natalie sighed, shoulders slumped. "Okay. Next time, wait for the second part of the plan."
"Wait, Captain!" The excitable iguana stuck his head behind some vines, climbing the wall, and spread them open. "Look!"
He'd uncovered a blast door with an old-fashioned release mechanism. "Try and open it!" Sam urged him.
So he tried. Feet stuck against the wall, Max tried to muscle the rusted wheel open. After several attempts, he sighed in defeat, hanging upside down and backward by his feet. "Uuungh... no good, Captain."
"Hm." The wolf girl considered it. "Okay, then try to get us over there! Maybe we can open it together."
Max proceeded with the plan previous, holding onto the door while tugging the floating metal door with his tongue. It was slow work, but eventually momentum won out, and the blast door ground to a halt next to the wall. The iguana dropped down, panting with the effort. "Son of a marmalade maker!"
"Good work, Max, take five." Natalie stepped up to the door and put herself sidelong with it, hands wrapped around one pole on the wheel release.
Carrie smiled and spooned up behind her, putting her own hands on the same pole. "Let's double our chances, what say? On three."
She nodded. "One."
"Two."
"THREE!" Pulling simultaneously, they struggled for a moment before the wheel finally disengaged and spun freely, knocking the two girls backward. "Hooraaay." Natalie chuckled, then squeaked when Carrie gave her a light smack on the behind as she got up. "Hey, now!"
"Just managing my morale, Captain," Carrie smiled, then got up. "Now I'm gonna go take point in case any fuck-ugly monsters want to get up in our faces."
Nat smirked. "You do that. Everyone else, follow me. Let's see where we've gotten ourselves this time."
-
- -
-
The place they entered, interestingly, was lit. The illumination was from no source that any of them recognized- odd violet bars in the walls of the long, winding hallway somehow produced white light that didn't flicker so much as pulse, as if comprised of some sort of flame. The hall went on for quite a while before emptying into a large circular room housing an incredible number of machines. A good half of the room's wall space was taken up by large control panels featuring multiple screens built into them. In the center of the room, a massive black sphere sat on what seemed to be some sort of base- it resembled a giant snowglobe. Two doors opposite each other lay on either side- one labeled 'REFRIGERATION' and the other marked 'SURFACE ACCESS.' The room was- thankfully- heated, and they could feel their clothes drying in short order.
"Whooooaaa..." Natalie marveled at the place. "What in the world is all this?"
Erwin blinked a few times. "Is this some kind of control center for something?" He found himself sitting on one of the seats, which creaked as he did.
Carrie ran a finger along one of the control panels and noted a massive layer of dust on it, sighing and digging the last medstick out of her pocket. "Wherever it is, it's filthy. I'm getting outta here." She marched over to the surface access door, pulled on the handle for it... and struggled. "Ungh... Natalie, Max, help me out, here!"
The three of them worked with the door, struggling against its stubborn grip, while Sam wiped off a seat and sat in it, and Erwin studied the consoles. "Cathode-ray screens... pin connectors... USB ports??" He laughed. "My grandpa doesn't have stuff like this. What's next, a DVD?"
"Erwin, maybe you shouldn't mess around with all this," Samantha reasoned. "It might still be connected to something outside."
"No way," he shook his head, pressing buttons demonstratively. "There can't even still be power to this stuff, there's no chance-" A large square black button offered a low thrumming sound from the console. Lights went on, screens ran diagnostics, and most visually, the globe in the center of the room projected planet Earth across its spherical surface, spinning slowly in celestial grace while primitive holograms of satellites- including the Moon- orbited it. "... Whoa."
"Erwin!" Having exhausted her and her friends' strength fruitlessly, Natalie paced over to the ferret boy. "What did you do?"
He shrugged. "I think I pressed the 'on' button. Natalie, check this out..."
The wolf girl studied the screen Erwin was looking at. "Nhilation Labs. Log entry, December eighth..... 2015??"
"What??"
"No way..."
"That can't be right!"
"Holy hotsauce!"
Erwin nodded slowly. "That's what it says. I don't know what this place was for, but it is ancient."
"Well, we might as well get comfortable," Carrie shook her head. "That door's not budging."
"Good," Nat affirmed. "Pass me a sandwich and a thirstburst, I'm starving. I wanna go check out that other room."
"Yeah, me, too." The cat nodded as well. "I'll go with."
Max unzipped his pack and passed them both a sandwich and two pairs of small cubes with liquid inside. To everyone's surprise, the door to the refrigeration unit opened easily, and let the two inside.
Nat took a bite of her sandwich. "Erwin, you keep trying to find out more about this place. Maybe there'll be a layout somewhere and we can find another way out. We'll be back."
The ferret boy nodded eagerly as they disappeared past the door. "Sure! This is a blast from the past..."
-
- -
-
The refrigeration room was rectangular, with a small console on one side of the room; the other side was filled completely with huge vertical plastic tubes of uniform size, most of them open and deteriorated past all utility. It wasn't clear what they were supposed to keep cold. Only one remained active, its large metal doors closed and light illuminated.
"Creepy..." Carrie shook her head.
"Yeah... oh... hey! Look at these." Nat paced over to a shelf that held a number of items not very in-keeping with the stoic scientific feel of the room. Several plastic robot figurines stood sentinel in a loose semi-circle around a few other children's toys from days long passed. She picked up one with a face that looked like a grill. "Hunh. This one's kinda neat." She gasped as its forearm came off. "Oh, whoops." The wolf girl pushed the parts together again, and thankfully they stuck.
"Heh," Carrie noted the toys with amusement. "I like the one that looks like a lion."
"I like the one that looks like a bunch of lions!" Natalie giggled. "Maybe someone who worked here had a kid."
"Well, if they took them to work with them in a creepy place like this..." The cat shook her head. "Man, things sucked in the twentieth century."
"I know," she agreed gravely. "People had to work terrible jobs just to eat, and even though they had medicine, nobody could afford it. Can you imagine??"
"Awful." Carrie stuck her hands in her mostly dry pockets, and leaned against a console. "What do you think was in those tubes?"
"Way back when?" Natalie shrugged. "Who knows." She paused for a moment as something caught her eye. "Wait a minute..." She closed in on a part of the still-active panel and noticed a double helix inside of the letter G. "Hey, does that look familiar?"
The fluffy bruiser tilted her head. "... Oh yeah, that looks kinda like the Genetoscope logo. It's a little different, but pretty much the same thing."
"Yeah. It's pretty much the same." Nat furrowed a brow. "That means... this place probably had something to do with genetic alteration at one point." A smile of enlightenment crossed her face. "They were probably keeping specimens frozen in here!"
"Whoa," Carrie blinked. "Extra creepy. But then..." She turned toward the active tube. "Doesn't that mean that this one-"
"Coolant levels insufficient." Both of the girls jumped in surprise as the intercom's speaker sounded out in grainy clarity. "Please replenish coolant to continue stasis." A graphic showed a tank filled with only a scant bit of... whatever the picture was supposed to represent.
"... What does it want?"
Natalie shook her head. "I... think it's saying that it can't keep whatever's in there frozen for much longer."
"Great," her girlfriend deadpanned, a little too bitterly. "Good. Maybe it'll be another ink monster, and we can get our butts kicked down here, too."
"Coolant levels insufficient," the machine repeated.
The hooded wolf tilted her head. "Carrie...?"
She just shook her head. "Natalie, I didn't wanna say this in front of everyone, but... these fights we're getting in... this mission we're on? They're impossible."
Natalie frowned. "But..."
"Please replenish coolant to continue stasis," the panel insisted.
"Hon... When we fought Cedric, we'd win. We lost a couple of times; he plays dirty, I accept that. But this is different. Since yesterday, every single fight we've been in, we've had to run away from- and that's if we're lucky. They're killing us." Carrie's eyes, usually fiercely shining blue, were dull. Lifeless. Defeated. "We can't win."
"I-..." Natalie's voice wavered. "I'll think of something..."
The cat frowned sadly, her curly pigtails dripping, and turned on her heel, heading down the hallway toward the main room again.
"Coolant levels insufficient."
Nat glanced back hatefully at the panel and ran off toward Carrie, leaving the room empty once more.
"Initiating thaw."
-
- -
-
Erwin had immediately set himself to find out as much as he could. His fingers flew over the old-fashioned keyboard inset into the panel. "Apparently whoever set this place up had a lot of interests," he explained to Sam and Max, who had busied themselves with having lunch. "I see notes regarding genetics, robotics, energy sources, space travel, military weapons, you name it."
"All in this one place?" Sam quirked a brow as she primly ate one of their sandwiches. "Seems a bit small."
"I know," he acknowledged. "The weirdest part is, it's all by one guy. In any respectable research facility, a bunch of people would be making logs on their discoveries, but it's just him, the whole way through. There's a journal in here, but it's got 64-bit encryption."
"Are its juicy secrets lost to time, then?" Max gnawed the crust off of his sandwich and ate it like it were licorice.
"Heh, nah." Erwin shook his head. "I've got a copy of it on my PET right now. It'll crack it within the hour."
The girls came through the door again, clearly upset about something. "Carrie... "
"It's pointless, Natalie." The cat leaned against a console. "The climate center is only 6 miles from Burger Dictator. We should've been able to reach it hours ago. But even right now we can't get to it. If we get out of here, that crazy bitch will be waiting for us." She shook her head. "Their strength is ridiculous, and their numbers get worse every time we see them."
She blinked. "I... we can get past her. We just have to... um..."
Carrie shook her head, whispering, "Yeah. That's what I thought."
Natalie huffed softly, and turned to Erwin. "Did you find anything?"
"A ton! Just nothing all that useful. One guy ran this place and dabbled in just about every science you could imagine. He's got a journal I'm breaking into on my PET, but the only schematic I could find for this place shows that that door-" he pointed at the surface access door they'd previously tried to move, "-is the only way out of here. Oh, or the elevator, the ruins of which we fell into when we came here."
Nat sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Dammit..."
The ferret boy shrugged. "Sorry."
"No, Erwin." She shook her head, her gaze falling. "I'm sorry."
"Huh?"
Natalie leaned back against a wall and sunk to the floor. "I'm sorry I dragged everybody into this."
Samantha blinked several times. "Natalie Grayswift. We came of our own free will, you didn't drag us anywhere. We wanted to."
She just stared back at her. "Why?"
"We told you," Erwin responded with an apologetic smile. "You're the leader."
"Yeah." She shook her head. "And I've led you into a bunch of traps that nearly killed us."
Sam seemed a bit miffed at her. "You didn't know they were there! You'd never lead us somewhere bad on purpose. I mean, really. Would your... Captain Comic fellow be sitting here, moping around?"
Natalie just laughed sadly. "... No. He wouldn't. Because Cap'n Comet has a writer, who makes sure he never encounters anything he can't handle." She shook her head. "He's a fictional character, Sam. He's make-believe, nothing can kill him except bad sales. This is real life, and if we screw up, we're gonna die."
The bat just shook her head. "... That's why we need you." Her eyes widened as a series of loud bangs and the sound of heavy footsteps came from the hall leading to the refrigeration room.
"What?!" Nat grimaced. "Dammit, if it's not one thing, it's another!" She and Carrie arrived at the door entrance together, poised and tensed for whatever was going to show its face through the door.
It opened, and what leaned on the door frame was a person. A slightly taller than average lean, athletic male with a mane of dripping wet red hair stood clothed in an old, tattered, threadbare costume- spandex, boots and fingerless forearm-length gloves. He wiped the hair out of his strange, furless face and smiled congenially.
The two of them stood, eyes wide, jaw slack.
"Um! Greetings, future people," he said in a slow, friendly tone. "I am from times of antiquity. My name is-"
Natalie shook her head slowly, backing away. "-You're Captain freaking Comet..."
"Oh, good!" He cheerfully replied.
"You're real??" Carrie demanded, as if he would turn into a squid at any moment.
"... Oh." The boy quirked a brow, confused. "Um. Yes. Unless I've been turned into a hologram or something." He smiled, amused.
The two girls stared at each other, then him. "Carrie, you're seeing this, right? It's not just me?" Natalie asked plaintively.
"I'm just as confused as you are, babe..." Carrie gazed at him sidelong. "Hey! Where did you come from?"
He considered it a moment. "Well, I was born in Chicago, to tell the truth, but I've always felt more at home in New Y-"
"No, no!" she clarified. "Just now! Where did you come from??"
"Oh, right." He nodded. "Well, as far as I can tell, I was frozen in that room back there, and now the computer thing is talking about needing more fluid or something. I'm not very good with computers." He shrugged apologetically.
Natalie blinked as everything clicked into place. "You mean... it's true?? You did get frozen all those years ago..." She looked from her feet back up to him. "And you really are REALLY here. Now. Alive."
The boy laughed. "Yes. You seem to know a lot about me. And you are?" He extended a hand as the rest of them gathered around.
She stared at it uncomprehendingly for a moment. "Oh! Uhm. My name's Natalie, Natalie Grayswift. And these are my friends- This is Erwin, Sam, Max, and this is my girlfriend Carrie. I'm..." A blush crossed her face. "I guess you could say I'm your biggest fan." As she shook his hand, she felt a natural strength behind it, that nonetheless gripped her own with gentle firmness. "Heh, I-I have all of your comics."
"Jacent Danger," he returned with a smile, nodding at each of them. "It's nice to meet you all. Wait... comics?"
"Yeah," Carrie supplied. "You're a comic book character. At least, we thought so until now." She peered at him, frowning. "I don't know if I buy it yet. Natalie, he might be some crazy ape playing a trick on us."
"... Hm." Could this be another trick? Natalie realized suddenly that she hadn't even considered it, which made her feel a tad foolish. It was incredibly unlikely, all things considered, that all of this would occur.
Jacent laughed richly. "I can't have my biggest fan doubting my existence. I suppose you'll require some kind of test?"
"I suppose... hey!" Nat's ears perked up, and she pointed over to the surface access door. "We're trapped in this place because of that. Three of us couldn't move that thing. Think you could bust it open for us?"
He chuckled, arms folded as he considered the problem. "Mm, I see. I'll do you one better! I'll make sure nobody's ever stuck behind that door, or in this awful place again. But..." He held up a finger, as if to note a qualifier, then extended all five of those fingers. "My powers come from high-fives. I'm gonna need at least two."
Natalie blinked, then giggled. That was nonsense, of course. She remembered him saying something similar to a child in a late issue. She happily gave him a high-five.
"That's one!" He reported.
Carrie couldn't help smirking a little bit. His enthusiasm was infectious. She gave him five.
"Awesome, two!"
"Wait, wait, me, too!" Max eagerly slapped him some scaled skin.
"Three!"
Erwin felt a smile creeping up his face, and couldn't help but join in.
Jacent happily lowered his hand enough to be reached. "Really, four??"
Sam just smiled and shook her head. "You are entirely silly." Nonetheless, she gave him five of her own.
"Five high-fives, from five awesome friends!" He grinned and gripped his hand at the wrist as it clenched and shook, as if it were holding some kind of unstable energy. "Watch your power in action!" The costumed boy drew his arm back. "Open Sesame!" On the way toward the door, a strange shield of white projected itself in front of his hand, which slammed into the blast door and ripped it away, sending it clattering and sliding down the dusty hallway.
A thrill shot through Natalie as she watched the door that had kept them trapped blew away like a leaf in the wind.
"That was... fuckin' awesome." Carrie grinned, unable to hold back any further suspicion.
He leaned against the doorway, amused. "Have I certified my identity?"
The cat nodded with a smirk mirroring his, folding her arms as well. "You're him, alright."
"Excellent." He nodded. "Then let's get out of this place..." A frown crossed his face.
"Is-... Is something wrong?" Nat tilted her head.
"No, it just... holds a lot of bad memories for me. I don't know why I woke up here..."
"Why?" Carrie quirked a brow. "What is this place?"
He sighed deeply. "I'll... tell you another time, I promise. Just... not right now. I want to see the world outside!" Jacent regained his smile.
"Alright." Natalie nodded. "Let's go."
-
- -
-
The door opened up into a series of walkways, stairs, ramps and a ladder or two, all to take one up the incredible distance they fell. It was fairly wide, as if meant for many people to go in and out of, and instead of cement, only rock wall surrounded them in a huge cylindrical shaft. Six teenagers made their way up- one more than had gone down.
Natalie kept thinking it was a dream. Any moment she would open her eyes and the stark reality of her situation would reassert itself, laughing at her for thinking such a foolish notion could be true. But blink she did, and yet there he impossibly stood, casually walking next to her. He looked at her a moment before she noticed she was staring.
"So what are you?"
"Hunh?" She blinked, uncomprehending. "A... high school student?"
"No, no." He laughed. "I don't mean to offend you, but I've never seen anything like you. You're very nice animal-people, but... where did you come from?"
"Oh!" She laughed softly, realizing. Of course they must've looked strange. "Wow. Yeah, I guess we do look weird to you. Umn. There's really no easy way to put this, but... we're humans."
He blinked. "... Wha?"
She nodded, shrugging with a smile. "We're just as human as you are."
"Get out of town," he whispered, fascinated. "How many humans look like you?"
"It would be more accurate to say, Mr. Comet..." Sam began, "... That no humans still look like you."
That hit him hard. "Wow..." Jacent shook his head, trying to comprehend it. "Really? That's crazy. How long have I been out? Wait, yeah! What year is it? 2020? 2050??"
Erwin snickered. "Uhm. Try more like, 2541."
The furless boy stopped to get a hold of himself in the middle of a flight of stairs. "WHAT??"
"Are you okay??" Natalie asked.
"Uh... yeah. Just... wow." He regained his footing and began walking again. "Over five centuries asleep... that's... that's insane. I was just... hoping I might revisit some people. But... I guess not..."
"... Sorry." Nat nodded sadly. "Uh. Did you wanna know anything else?"
The young man swallowed his unease for the moment. "Um. Yeah. Sure! Sure, sure. Well, let's start with the basics. What's the world like? Is there still famine?"
"Oh!" The wolf girl smiled happily. "Nope! We took care of that."
That cheered him up. "Homelessness?"
"A thing of the past," Carrie hmphed confidently. "Nobody lives on the street unless they're just a weirdo." She realized that she took a certain pride in that, though she couldn't identify exactly why.
A smirk overcame him. "Wow, great! Disease??"
"No major ones," Sam dismissed. "Still can't beat the cold, but what else is new?" Her dimpled smile could have charmed the pants off of anyone, and she was putting it in full force.
That got him laughing. "That's wonderful! Okay, this might be kind of heavy, but what about war?"
"Actually..." Natalie thought about it. "This year was the 100th anniversary of the Great Disarming. There hasn't even been a standing army in a century." It was fun, reporting all of these things she'd taken for granted to somebody to whom it was news. It made her feel a little more optimistic about things. "Nobody even really knows how to fight, except for Carrie and myself... and we learned from your comics." She laughed.
He just shook his head and smiled, as if a weariness had been lifted off of his shoulders. "Finally. Finally, people have come to their senses and made it all work! This world sounds like Paradise! I can't wait to see it all!" His enthusiasm was almost childlike as he double-timed it up the stairs.
That was when crushing reality came back. Natalie's heart sunk as she realized she'd left out the most important part. "W-... Wait! There haven't been any wars, but..."
Jacent stopped, one flight above them, and sighed. "I knew there was a 'but.'" He marched back down to face them. "Okay, what is it? Is there a crazy tyrant? Are we slaves to aliens? Do you all have control chips in your brains?"
"No." Carrie folded her arms. "The 'but' is, everything was peachy until two days ago. There's been a... we don't even know what they are, we just call 'em monsters, and there's a ton of 'em."
Max nodded fervently. "They've trashed our city, kidnapped a bunch of people, and now they're trying to kill us 'cause we interfered like irritating interlopers!"
One fist clenched in front of the 'C' on his chest, the costumed boy shook his head. "A bunch of high school friends having to struggle for their lives with comic book fighting moves? That's horrible. How have you survived??"
"Well," Natalie explained, "Carrie has super invulnerability, as it turns out. In fact, all of my friends have some kind of strange power that we can't quite explain."
"Yeah, maybe," Carrie acknowledged. "But Natalie's the one with the plan. She's gotten us through a bunch of messes."
"Yeah!"
"It's true."
"She's the Captain!"
Natalie blushed, looking back at her friends, then up to Jacent, an embarrassed smile creeping up her face. "They, um. Insist that I'm the leader."
Smiling, Jacent put a strong hand on her shoulder. "Then lead on, Natalie Grayswift."
She flushed. Her, in charge of him? "U-Uhm... don't you think maybe you should do it?" Her ears folded back. "You're... really way better at this stuff than me, Cap..."
He chuckled softly, leaned in and whispered, "I don't know these people, Natalie. I don't know this world or anyone in it. I'm all by myself, and to be frank, it's a little overwhelming. But I want to help." His green eyes gazed into hers honestly. "You've already proven you're a capable leader, and you have this... look about you, that tells me that you wouldn't lead any of them astray. I can trust that."
She bit her lip. "... Are you sure?"
Jacent said nothing more. Instead, he held up a hand between their faces. Natalie grasped it in her own, squeezing. They both nodded in understanding.
She turned and faced the rest of them. "No more messing around." A commanding tone overcame her, and suddenly she had a presence all her own. "We're taking back Locksmouth, and kicking those gene monster alien freaks back to wherever they came from! No running, no hiding! Let's DO it!"
Her friends' uneasy silence broke completely and they erupted in cheers, following her up the stairs and wherever else she would lead them.
