Bang! Bang!

Creeeaaak!

The door was coming loose. Michael shifted and faced the door. He abruptly slid backward so fast that Gabriel felt dizzy and almost fell off. The jerking motion resembled the first stage of an amusement park ride. Michael backed all the way up against the wall, and Gabriel tightened his grip on the slug’s antennas.

“We’re coming, Schist!” a nurse shouted.

There was a ferocious growl deep within Michael’s writhing form, like the sound of a powerful motor revving.

“Michael, do you even know what you’re doing? How the hell are we going to get out?”

Michael flexed his body, and beneath his legs, Gabriel felt the slug’s muscles hardening. When the giant slug finally replied, there was a hint of manic glee in his voice. “Oh, we’re going out the front door, baby.”

Michael lunged forward, accelerating across the floor as fast as if he’d been launched from a cannon. Gabriel gripped the antennas tighter, holding on for dear life.

Michael smashed right through the door like a battering ram. The entire frame exploded into pieces. With a deafening crack, splintered chunks of wood blasted out into the hall, and the four people on the other side cried out in shock as they were knocked back. The nurses ended up sprawled out on the floor like ragdolls.

Michael paused halfway through the door. “Hey! Which way do I go?”

The hallway stretched out endlessly in both directions. Left or right? Gabriel hadn’t been conscious when they brought him in, and he had never been to Level Five before that point. He had no idea where the exit was. As he hesitated, a couple of the nurses sat up, and one rose to his feet. They gazed at Michael in slack-jawed disbelief.

Gabriel pointed to the left. “That way, I think.”

Michael shot forward like a bullet, gliding around the bends of the corridor. Gabriel felt as if he were riding a giant Slip ’N Slide. No, not a Slip ’N Slide. A motorcycle. The nurses were running after them, but they couldn’t catch up, as Michael’s forward propulsion was too fast, too unstoppable. When the double doors of the exit came into view, a wave of relief washed over him. He had chosen correctly.

Gabriel glanced around and noticed that all of the residents of Level Five, all those poor souls he’d written off so easily, had dropped everything to stare at Michael. They had enormous, glistening eyes and huge grins. Some had wrinkled arms raised in the air as if cheering Gabriel on. They laughed and cried in their doorways, clapping and waving as Gabriel and Michael passed.

“You can do it, Gabriel!” one old woman shouted. “Get outta this place, dear!”

“The detective’s gonna make it. He’s really gonna make it!”

“Whoooo! Yeah, he’s doing it!”

“Hurry up. You’re almost outta here. Don’t let ’em stop you!”

A tiny old lady that reminded him of Edna Foster rolled over in her wheelchair. She reached out as Michael glided past, and she touched the slug’s slick wet body. She laughed delightedly.

Gabriel rode his grey-skinned stallion into the future, his excitement augmented by the celebratory applause of his fellow residents. He peered at the locked double doors. Only an hour ago, he had thought of those doors as the most intimidating thing in the world. But no longer.

He smiled and pointed at the exit. “To the ocean!”

Michael obliged by putting on an extra burst of speed. The residents cheered even louder, and Gabriel let out a victory yell.

Smash!

The locked gateway split in two, fell over, collapsed, both doors completely blown from their hinges. A big sign with the word LOBBY had a yellow arrow pointing the way to the front entrance. Michael made the left turn and, following the arrows, glided through the maze of hallways at a speed that felt like fifty miles per hour.

The wind rushed through Gabriel’s hair. Tears stung at the corners of his eyes. He threw his head back, laughing with joy. “To the ocean!” he repeated.

“That’s right, buddy,” Michael said. “To the ocean!”

Residents in wheelchairs and doorways laughed and cheered. Nurses fell back with startled gasps. Michael and Gabriel raced past rooms, desks, gurneys, and machinery. As they approached the entrance to the front lobby, a crowd of opponents appeared before them.

About fifteen staff stood in their path, just like the group that had stopped Gabriel two weeks before, the same dark, hazy figures that had locked him up in Level Five. They formed a Red Rover wall of bodies, creating an impenetrable barrier.

“Michael, don’t hurt them,” Gabriel said. “They’re good people!”

“I won’t hurt ’em. Trust me!” Michael hurtled toward the group like a well-aimed bowling ball headed for a strike. “Hold on tight!”

Michael didn’t slow, but his muscles tightened and took on an odd springy quality. Gabriel took a deep breath.

Michael jumped.

The giant slug sailed into the air. The bottom section of his serpentine body spread out, rustled, then held taut. He seemed to capture the air and glide in the same manner as a flying squirrel.

Feeling his legs sliding down the slug’s back, Gabriel desperately clasped the antennas and pulled himself back into position. When he looked down and saw the people below staring up in terrified befuddlement, his vertigo was swiftly replaced with a childlike joy.

“Take that!” Gabriel laughed.

Michael’s jump reached its peak, and they began their descent. By the time they landed with a squishy bounce, they were already halfway across the front lobby. Their opponents were well behind them, struggling to catch up, as Michael raced toward the front door. When they reached the exit, like all of the previous doors, it blew to pieces.

The cold night air had never felt so good. Michael slipped around the corner of the building, down the grassy hill, and over the craggy rocks. The trip to the beach went by so fast that Gabriel had to laugh at how long it’d taken them the last time.

Michael slowed to a stop when they reached the sandy shore, though he didn’t seem the least bit exhausted. Gabriel sighed with relief as he released the antennas. The whole thing had been a lot of fun, but his old geezer heart needed a break.

Michael dipped his antennas to point at the ground. “Okay, Gabriel, meet the whole gang.”

Gabriel looked down and blinked. Was this for real? The beach was covered with slugs of all different colors and sizes, as if someone had spilled every crayon in America right onto the sand. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of slugs peered up at him with tiny little antennas, as if awaiting orders. There were green slugs, yellow slugs, blue slugs, and striped slugs. He spotted the wisecracking albino slug next to the black one, and over to the right was Leopard Print, his first slug buddy. For a moment, he could’ve sworn that the little guy winked at him.

Gabriel grinned. “Nice to see you.”

“It’s a pleasure to see you as well,” Leopard Print replied. “But, Michael, I think it’s about time for us to set sail and embark upon our little journey.”

Michael nodded. “Sounds like a plan, Raphael.”

“Journey?” Gabriel asked. “Raphael?”

The slugs all raised their tiny antennas and pointed at the radiant white circle in the sky. Gabriel felt as if he were at the head of an infantry.

“The Sky Amoeba is waiting for us,” Michael explained. “You and the Schistling collective will plead your cases. Let’s go find him.”

Gabriel gulped. “What if the nursing staff follows us? Or the police? They’ll call the police.”

Michael lurched forward and launched his body into the ocean, floating right over the water’s surface like a small boat. His long tail flicked back and forth, serving as a propeller. The slug infantry followed his lead.

“It’s too late for anyone back on that side to stop us,” Michael replied. “We’re going to another place. Another plane of reality, ya might say. A place that exists far beyond their understanding. We’ve crossed the boundary.”

“But are you certain?” As Michael floated lazily over the first set of waves, Gabriel frantically latched onto the antennas again, struggling to keep his balance.