Jen and Jenkins heard the yelling and what sounded like minor explosions up ahead.

  “Something is happening up there, ma’am,” Jenkins said.

  “Yeah,” she replied. “It sounds weird. Like a fight.”

  “What would be fighting down here?”

  “I don’t know. Rickey might be in trouble. Let’s hurry.”

  They sped up heading down the path passing the pyramid of stones the Gothic Avenue portion of the caves was famous for. The cave was much harder to traverse in the darkness, even with a Maglite. They soon found some dim glow sticks as the yelling got louder.

  “We’re getting close!” Jen said. “I bet he’s near Giant’s Coffin. Come on.”

  There was a slight decline heading into the area, so the two out of shape rangers could run a little easier. As they turned the bend, they heard Rickey yell, “Come on! Bring it!”

  Jen shined her light on a man lying on the floor, covered in dirt and sweat, and being attacked by a…a salamander?

  “What the…” she mumbled, almost dropping her light. Rickey was bench-pressing the thing as it was trying to bite his face.

  “HELP!” Rickey yelled. “Get it off me!”

  Jenkins stood in shock for a minute. He’d never seen anything like this.

  “DUDE!” Rickey yelled again. “SHOOT IT!”

  Jenkins didn’t have a gun, but he did have a taser and pepper spray. Grabbing the pepper spray, he got closer to the fight, aimed the canister, and let loose a torrent of the fiery capsaicin spray. The salamander did not enjoy the contact with the stream of heat, and it quickly retreated, making weird coughing and hacking sounds.

  “Yeaaaagggghhh!” Rickey screamed. “Idiot! You got some in my cuts! Oh, my God! It's in my eyes! You bastard! It burns! I'm on fire. Owwww!”

  Jen watched Rickey roll around in agony, thinking to herself, I wish I could’ve done that to him myself. Then she mentally slapped herself and moved into action.

  “Rickey, what in the world is happening?" she asked. "What is that thing? How badly are you hurt?”

  Rickey grabbed his injured leg and blew on it, even though he knew that it was an old wive's tale. The pain he felt radiated up his knee and into his thigh. Not only was he in pain, but Jen wouldn’t shut up. She was so annoying. Hey everyone. Look at me and how smart I am. Look at me as I come in and handle the situation that has already been handled cus I’m a big fat dummy. He mocked her in his mind. He was thankful someone came to his rescue, and it was nice they had lights, but…could they shut the hell up?

  A banner floated in his vision just over his leg, same as the ones from earlier.

  “How did I…? How did…?” Rickey stammered.

  “It’s okay,” Jen said coming to Rickey’s side. “We got you. Relax.”

  Rickey didn’t want to relax. He wanted to fight that thing. He wanted revenge. But he really was tired, and now that the poison was cured, he could use a few minutes to…

  Rickey opened his eyes to find himself being carried on a gurney.

  “Whaaa…” he attempted to say.

  “It’s okay Mr. Thomas,” a confident male voice said. “We got you. You are going to be just fine. Your vitals are really good, and we managed to stop the bleeding on the bite wound.”

  “Thaaann…” he murmured still a little dazed.

  “You might find it difficult to speak, sir,” a second voice said. “We gave you some pain medication. Just lie back and relax.”

  Okay…why not… he sang to himself.

  He knew he was in a simulation, but the programmers amped up the pain levels to the max.

  Gotta make it feel real, I guess. But damn guys. Turn it down a little. Whoever had the idea to use the pepper spray as a cure, should be promoted then kicked in the nuts.

  He was enjoying the effects of the pain medication, however. His leg still throbbed, but at the moment, he could care less.

  The paramedics eased him into an ambulance where they hastily punched in an IV and started the siren to take him to the nearest hospital, The Medical Center at Caverna. Rickey knew that it should only take them about fifteen minutes to get there. Might as well take a snooze on the way.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Jen finished her paperwork ending the disastrous day. She had no clue what was trying to eat Rickey, but she didn’t see it again after it scurried away. Knowing Rickey would be filing for worker’s comp, and he would probably milk as many paid days off as he could as well, she made sure her paperwork covered every base. She didn’t mind his absence, but she hated it when people abused the system.

  When she thought back to the situation, she realized she really hadn’t been focused on Rickey’s appearance. Too much happened so fast. Now that she had a moment, she recalled he had looked drastically different. His face looked the same although with less fat, but where his shirt was usually bulging testing the tensile strength of the button threads, it was now very baggy on all places but his arms which looked massive…in a good way.

  Rickey wasn’t unattractive, he was just really big and annoying; one of those guys you couldn’t win an argument with even if you hit them in the head with facts. With a muscular body, he might have escalated from a 4 to a 6 - 7. His pants were shorter too as if he had grown a few inches.

  Interesting. Why had he changed? So that thing looked a lot like a spotted salamander, but with teeth and it was much larger than it should be. Could something have happened making things grow down in the caves? Including Rickey?

  She pondered for a while when Melissa knocked on the door breaking her concentration.

  “Hey!” Melissa said. “You need any more help? I’m gonna hit the road if not.”

  “Yeah. Did you notice anything different about Rickey today? Like when he went on his tour?”

  “No. Why?”

  “Nothing,” Jen looked back at her paperwork, zoned out for a second, then remembered Melissa. “Oh. Yeah. You can go. Let everyone else know they can go home too. I am almost done. I’ll…uh…yeah…I’ll lock up.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah,” Jen said with a smile. “Thanks. Just a lot to document. Good ole paperwork, you know?” She half-laughed awkwardly.

  “Okay. See you tomorrow.”

  Melissa left Jen alone to think about the events of the day.

  No matter how hard he tried, Rickey couldn’t get any sleep. Nurses came to his bed every five minutes, doctors and residents asked him questions, and lab people kept pulling his blood...and other bodily fluids. Just when he was about to pull out all his tubes and just check himself out, a doctor came in with a clip board, reading glasses hanging low on his nose.

  “Mr. Thomas,” he began. “We ran a toxicology scan, did several blood tests, and they all came back normal. Better than normal. You seem to be in tip-top shape. We don’t understand how your bite mark bled as much as it did and now it looks like it was just a scratch, but you seem to be healing nicely in a very short time. You’re free to go once the nurse comes in and discharges you. Do you have any questions for me?”

  “No, thank you," Rickey said impatiently.

  “No problem, sir. Have a good day.” The doctor turned, stopped, hesitated like he wanted to say something else, but decided against it and left.

  Two nurses came in and pulled out Rickey’s IV without really saying anything, handed him a bag of clothes, and politely told him he was free to go after he changed. They basically wanted him out of the bay so they could put another patient in there. Rush, rush.

  Rickey didn’t have his cell phone, and he didn’t know any numbers. Rickey remembered nostalgically that before cell phones, you had to memorize every number, but now people just got lazy. He didn’t really have anyone to call anyway.

  Guess I’ll get the front desk to call me a taxi, he thought. Then he checked his pants again, realizing he didn’t even have his wallet. Great! Now what?

  He finished dressing. His underwear was way too big, so he threw them away. Hey there, little fella! Haven’t seen you in a while. He joked to himself after seeing his manhood.

  Rickey usually wore size 48-32 pants. Now he needed 32 or 34 inch waist. He had lost a LOT of weight. He put the pants on, pulled the belt as far as it would go, and using his new strength, he forced the belt prong into the thick leather making a new hole.

  Dang! I’m pretty strong.

  He looked ridiculous, but at least he had clothes on.

  And I’m free…free ballin’. He sang in his mind.

  When he got out to the waiting room, he was surprised to find Jen there waiting for him back turned away from the door.

  “Jen?” he asked as he bumped her on the shoulder. “What’re you doing here?”

  “Oh!” she turned startled and stood up. She awkwardly hugged Rickey who awkwardly hugged her back. “I…uh…just came to…uh…you know, check on you.”

  Rickey smiled, “Being a good supervisor, I see.”

  “Yeah. We were all worried about you. The bite was pretty bad and you passed out. You were screaming. What was that thing?”

  “I’m pretty sure it was some sort of mutated cave salamander. It didn’t like me, did it?” Rickey laughed stiffly.

  “So you are ok? No real damage?”

  “No. It’s weird. It’s already healing up. Hey. Listen. Can you give me a ride home? I’ve lost my phone and wallet.”

  “Uh…sure…yeah. Are you ready to go?”

  “Yeah,” Rickey smiled at her. “Are you okay? You seem nervous.”

  “Uh…no…I mean, yes. I’m fine. This is just a crazy situation. Sorry.”

  “It’s all good.” Rickey looked down at baggy clothing. “I’m going to need to get a new uniform tomorrow, I guess.”

  They walked out the door and Jen, surprised to hear him talk about work, turned and asked, “You’re coming to work tomorrow?”

  “Well, yeah. If that’s okay with you. I gotta find my phone and wallet, and I’m sure there’s some sort of paperwork I need to sign.”

  “Okay,” she said a bit bewildered. “I’m…I’m right over here.” She stopped. “I’ve gotta ask. How in the world did you lose so much weight? I mean. Nothing personal…but…I mean…look at your clothes!”

  “It was crazy. One minute I’m…” Rickey blew air into his cheeks and spread his arms wide. “Then I’m like this. I couldn’t see anything in the dark, so I really didn’t know what I looked like until just a few minutes ago. I feel amazing too. It’s like I found the fountain of youth or something.”

  “Huh,” she pondered. “I could stand to lose a few pounds too. Maybe whatever changed you is still down there.” She smiled and unlocked the old Honda Accord for Rickey.

  The ride to Rickey’s apartment was quiet; neither knowing what to say. Rickey felt like Jen was actually attracted to him now. She just gave off a different vibe than before. If he played his cards right…who knows.

  “Hey, um, I’m gonna need a ride to work in the morning too.”

  “Yeah. Your car is at the park too isn’t it?”

  “Yeah. Don’t you live at the park?”

  “I do. Um. Do you wanna just go to the park now? It’s late, but maybe we can get some rest and get up before the park opens and find your things. I have to work with the maintenance crew early anyway to get the power back on.”

  “I could use a drink. You got anything?”

  “It’s Tues…well…yeah. I guess you could use a good drink. What you’ve been through…” She drifted off.

  Rickey thought about his new powers and remembered he had an ability to make someone serve him. What was it called again? Make them tremble? How do I do it?

  Since this was a simulation, making Jen do something she didn’t want to do wouldn’t be morally wrong. What were morals anyway? He could do whatever he wanted; morals be damned. His parents raised him in a Baptist home, but did any of that matter anymore?

  He channeled energy into his throat, concentrating on his vocal cords, thinking about the spell, visualizing Jen serving him.

  “Jen,” His voice was strangely sexy, with a buzz to it like Fabio trying to sound sultry while talking into a fan. “Jen, take me to your home. Fix me a drink.”

  “Okay,” she said with a hint of worry. Deep in her subconscious, she knew something was wrong.