Nessie screamed in frustration. Again she tried to pull Rimmer by the wrist. But he wouldn't budge at all.

Then the three imps began to jump up and down and chirp at Wolfie. Wolfie backed back. A moment later, he had Rimmer in his mouth, picking him up as gently as a cat carried her kittens.

Monster talk. Go figure.

Nessie gathered up the imps, keeping them under her shirt to protect them, and then sloshed through the wet cement, heading for the elevator. She pressed the call button.

The doors didn't open.

Looking at the LED screen, Nessie saw it was on level 4. At least a minute away.

"Come on! Not now! This can't be happening now! We're so close!"

She kept pressing the button as the cement rose past her calves. Wolfie whined. The imps against her bare stomach were trembling.

"God," Nessie said. "I've never asked you for a single thing. Not once. But please. Please. HURRY UP WITH THE GODDAMN ELEVATOR!"

Chapter Fifty-Nine.

A nightmare about being chased by a Medusa started Jerry's heart beating again.

His eyes slammed open, and he was seized by a terrible abdominal cramp, making him curl up into the fetal position.

He remembered running. Being bitten by the Gornman-thing. Falling over. Dropping the box.

The anti-venom box.

Anti-venom.

Anti-venom!

Jerry searched for it, found the box just a meter away. It was open, and several of the vials had broken on the floor.

He crawled to it, his head swimming, his whole body damp with sweat. Then he began to grab random vials.

Scorpion anti-venom.

Man o' war anti-venom.

Giant wasp anti-venom.

Mutant platypus anti-venom.

Easter bunny anti-venom.

Seriously? Easter bunny? WTF?

Cobra anti-venom.

Stingray anti-venom.

Wait... cobra anti-venom?

Jerry pulled a syringe from his jacket pocket and jammed it into the rubber seal on the bottle. Everything was getting blurry, and he could feel his heart slowing down again.

Draw the liquid in. Take the needle out. You can do it.

Now just inject yourself...

Inject...

In...

Once again, the darkness took him.

Chapter Sixty.

"Hello, Dennisonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnns."

Sun watched her husband stand up on wobbly legs and point directly at the Gorman-thing.

"I told you several times before, you stupid, ugly, ignorant hellspawn." Andy reached up, grabbing one of the snakes, and ripping it right off of Gornman's head. "It's Dennison-Jones!"

Then he fell over.

Gornman screeched, pinchers snapping in the air and reaching for Andy.

Oh no you don't! NOT MY HUSBAND!

Sun flung herself at the Gornman-thing, getting between the scorpion claws and punching her straight in the gut. One of the spider legs knocked Sun across the room, into the wall. She slumped to the floor, several ribs broken.

The Gornman-thing advanced. Sun managed to sit up. Every breath she drew was labored. The creature opened up its pincers, reaching for her.

"Are you in there, Bub?" Sun said. Each word brought a spike of pain to her chest. "Can you hear me?"

The Gornman-thing crouched next to Sun, sticking its horrible face in hers as the cement rained down. "Weeeeee hear youuuuuuuu."

"You... are... pathetic," Sun said. "You're never going to win. Do you... want to know... why?"

"Telllll usssssssssssss."

Sun looked at Andy. The love of her life, snake bitten and lying next to the elevator.

"Because, you prehistoric asshole, we have something you'll never have."

"What dooo youuu have? Emotions? Love?" The demon barked with laughter. "Love makes yooooooou weak!"

"No, it's not love."

"What issssssss it?"

"You really want to know what we have that you don't?"

"TELLLLLLL USSSSSSSS!"

Sun's stalling worked. The elevator dinged, and the doors opened.

"We have a giant fucking werewolf, motherfucker."

The Gornman thing turned as Wolfie pounced out of the lift, clamping onto her neck and biting her head clean off.

A moment later, Jerry stumbled over from the other side of the room, a syringe sticking in his leg, a box hugged to his chest. "Anti-venom," he rasped, falling to his knees.

Both Sun and Nessie hurried over, pulling Jerry and the box into the elevator. Then they went back for Andy, pulling him through concrete a foot deep. Nessie ordered the lift to go to the top exit. Then Sun searched for cobra anti-venom while Nessie sought out the harvestmen anti-venom.

Three shots later, Andy, Rimmer, and the imp were all waking up.

"I... I can't believe it's over and we're getting out of here alive," Jerry said. "It's a goddamn miracle."

And then the elevator squealed to a stop between levels 1 and 2.

Chapter Sixty-One.

"Join us, Lucaaaaaaaassssss. We can rule thisssssss world."

"Not interested," Lucas said. He'd adopted a boxing stance, and he shuffled over to Bub as the cement rained down. He'd learned pugilism from Joe Louis himself. Hell of a guy.

Left. Left. Right. Left. Stick and move. Stick and move. The demon's face broke under Lucas's blows, but the bones healed almost as fast as he could throw punches.

Bub lashed out with his talons, taking a chunk out of Lucas's shoulder. The wound filled itself in as Lucas continued to rain down jabs. Bub grabbed Lucas, biting him in the neck, and then Lucas wrapped his arms around the demon. They battled out of Kane's office and out into the hall.

Lucas sighted on his target. The elevator doors ten meters away. But the cement was already up to his knees and coming down fast.

"Why doooo yooooou protect them?" Bub demanded. "They are weeeeeeeak."

Lucas focused on the elevator. One foot after the other.

"They're stronger than you think. Stronger than I think, too. You know how I can see things. I saw Andy Dennison-Jones saving the human race. And he did it. Do you know how?"

Five meters away now. Bub began to claw at Lucas's belly, pulling out parts.

"I'll tell you how. He convinced me; an outcast, a murderer, a liar, shunned by God, to help him. Not by asking, but by showing me what he and his friends were willing to do to stop you."

"Fooooooool! They aaaaaaare insects compared to ussssssss!"

"No, they aren't. Our time has passed. This world is theirs. Let em have it. They came up with musical theatre. What did we ever do?"

Lucas reached the elevator and wrenched the doors open with one hand while clutching Bub with the other.

"STOOOOOOOOP! DON'T BE A FOOOOOOOL!"

Lucas peered into the deep, dark shaft. At the bottom, meters of wet concrete, drying fast, was quickly rising.

"It's time for us to go."

Bub clawed and bit, but Lucas hung onto the demon as he stepped into the open air.

They hit the concrete below with enough force to shatter most of the bones in each of their bodies. As they healed, they began to sink.

"I'll get oooooooooout of here."

"That remains to be seen."

"You'll die here tooooooooo."

"That also remains to be seen."

Bub continued to squirm, which only accelerated their sinking. Soon only their heads were above the cement.

"Doooo you think your god will forgive yooooou? See your self-sacrifice and taaaaaaake pity?"

Lucas shook his head, slightly. "You and I, we've been around a long time. We've done terrible things. We don't deserve pity. Or forgiveness. But I am holding an ironic thought in me bonce, which I'll share before we go under. I'm Lucifer, who fell from heaven. You're Beelzabub. Neither of us presides over Hell, even though people think we do. So if we die, where do we go? Aren't you curious to find out?"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"