Game On.

Tunnels

The girls turned and fled down a dark tunnel to the side of the room. Cat ran slightly ahead of Lindsay, leading the way.
Behind them Cat could hear the sound of a hundred squirming bodies forcing themselves down the tunnel.
The flute music poured around them, so beautiful but at the same time painful, like swallowing shattered glass.
Suddenly, a few lines of the riddle floated through Cat's mind. "My voice is gentle,
But it's spell can be grand."

The answer was flute! A flute created the music, controlled the creatures, so if they found it, they would be able to get free!
Cat was determined she was right. She yelled to Lindsay. "We need to find that flute! We need to go back!"
Lindsay shook her head. "No way! We'll be eaten alive!"
"We have no choice!" Cat argued. "I've got to go back! Look, I've got an idea. You follow the tunnel back to the surface, lead them away from me. I'll double back!"
"Wait!" Lindsay began, but Cat had already sped off down a side tunnel.

Cat didn't know if she was going the right way. She just felt it, like an undeniable sixth sense.
Darkness surrounded her. Suffocating, it smothered her vision, closing in on her like a predator circling its prey.

Suddenly, she felt it. A presence in front of her. The dark almost seemed to shift to allow her to see the figure.
Her blood both ran cold and ignited, sending hot and cold sparks of fear and excitement through her spine.

Speaking of predators...

Lindsay ran screaming through the tunnels, stumbling and tripping over roots and stones in the dark. Behind her, the rats squeaked and squealed as they chased.
Suddenly, she burst out of the tunnel into the bright sunlight. She charged off down the road, overturning tables and stalls to delay them. The swarm of rodents engulfed the streets behind her, swallowing everything in their path.
Lindsay turned corner after corner, street after street, always staying just ahead of the rodents.
She turned one last corner, and there she saw it.
A swiftly running stream.

Dashing across, she fought against the current and scrambled onto the other side. She turned to look at the swarm, praying they couldn't follow her. She had no fight left to protect herself if she did.

She watched as hoards of the rats leapt into the water...
And got tugged under by the pulling current.
She breathed a sigh of relief. She was safe.
She watched as the rest of the rodents, those who had seen the plight of their brothers squealed and hissed angrily at the water, before turning away and following the music back to the nest.
Lindsay collapsed breathing hard. She had never been so scared.
Then her mind wandered to Cat. Cat, alone in the tunnels, risking her neck to get them all home.

Against her better judgment, Lindsay got up and, shockingly brave and determinedly, began to jog back to the entrance.