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water drops seeped down the walls. But my eyesight had adjusted to it. I could barely make out a shape. It wasn’t no rat. Way too big. I was so scared it was one of those men after me…”
    “Was it?”
    Ethan shook his head.
    “One of the monsters?”
    He continued shaking his head. Everyone seemed to be holding in a collective breath.
    “Wolf,” Ethan exclaimed and several people gasped. The older boy squeaked.
    Alexander searched their faces, seeking one in particular. Jewel had been absent since before supper.
    “There I was, just a kid, weak from hunger, scared out of my mind—“
    “You was scared?” the young boy asked, eyes glued to Ethan.
    “Terrified,” Ethan confirmed, and if possible the kid’s face shone with something akin to worship. “There was only a few rocks around me I could use for a weapon. And that wolf was hungry too. Its ribs pushed tight against its skin. It had his sights set on me. I was a goner for sure.”
    “Oh no.” Gracie began to cry.
    That’s when Ethan decided to cut the tale short. His gaze settled on her, softened. “I had a rock in my fist. I wasn’t going down without a fight. When all of a sudden I hear this voice shout from the grate above, ‘Get down! Get down!’ I didn’t get down. I froze right where I stood. And something dropped down and exploded all around me. Sparks ricocheted off the walls. Pop, pop, pop, pop! I thought the world was exploding. I’d never seen anything like it.”
    Everyone “awed” around him, hanging on his every word.
    “That old wolf took off running. I took off running the other way out of the sewer and when I reached the end and came out there was this scrawny kid—Dez—laughing and hooting, holding strings of firecrackers. He had enough to light every wolf’s tail we came across for months.” Ethan smiled fondly. They’d survived together, two orphans on their own, ever since.
    And thank the gods for that. Alexander looked from Ethan to Dez. They’d saved him too. He’d been so sure about coming to this timeline, had thought of nothing else since that first Sift tried to kill him when he was young and discovered personally that there were monsters in the world.
    Monsters he’d worked hard hours to discover how to stop them. He’d studied chemistry and genetics, conferred with some of the top scientific minds—theoretically of course, in person when he could and over the Internet. Once he figured how to stop them from creating rifts, and calculated the most opportune time in the future for the human race to make their stand, he’d opened his own sorcerer’s rift and plunged recklessly headlong into the future where he believed he could do the most good.
    He’d been totally unprepared for the harsh reality of what the world had become, the unbelievable destruction, and only lived beyond his first day due to fortune favoring him in the form of Ethan and Dez tracking a colony of Sifts that Alexander had no idea had caught his scent and were coming up behind him. He’d been caught unawares and nearly lost his life because of it.
    “We’re considering your offer to join your group.” Sheppard stood in front of Dez while Ethan continued to entertain the majority of the people in the lobby.
    Dez nodded and indicated for Sheppard to take the chair Ethan had vacated.
    Sheppard lowered into the seat. “We want to see this aerosol formula work for ourselves first.”
    “A fair request.” Dez rubbed the stubble darkening his jaw. “I’d require the same if our roles were reversed.”
    “So we understand each other.”
    “We do. We’ll need to scout out a large enough colony of the beasts.”
    “Already on it. We’ll leave at first light so I suggest getting a good’s night rest.” Sheppard stood. Tipped his head. “Gentlemen.”
    “Sifts! One of the guards from the roof ran into the lobby from the courtyard. “East side forty feet from the north east corner.”
    Immediately anyone near a candle or lamp doused