No Way Out

The call came at six AM.

Agent Okonkwo. Panicked. The first time I'd heard her sound anything other than professional.

"Mr. Holloway. I need your help. Right now."

I sat up in my back seat. Rubbed my eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Our team. They went into the pocket yesterday for preliminary mapping. They were supposed to be out in three hours. It's been fourteen hours. They're not responding."

I was fully awake now. "What do you mean not responding?"

"We had communication equipment. Radio tethers. Emergency beacons. Everything went dark four hours after entry. We've been trying to raise them since. Nothing."

"How many people?"

"Three. Experienced surveyors. They knew what they were doing."

"Then why aren't they answering?"

"That's what I need you to figure out. You know the layout. You've navigated it successfully multiple times. I need you to go in. Find them. Bring them back."

My stomach dropped. "You want me to go back in?"

"You're the only person who knows that pocket well enough to navigate it safely."

"I thought civilians couldn't be involved."

"This is an emergency. Three federal employees are missing. Possibly injured. Possibly dead. I don't have time for protocol."

"What if I say no?"

"Then I'm sending in another team blind. And they might get lost too. Is that what you want?"

She was backing me into a corner. Using my knowledge against me. Making it my responsibility to save her people.

But she was also offering me what I'd wanted. A chance to go back inside. To see my discovery again. To finish what I'd started.

Even if it was a rescue mission. Even if it was dangerous. Even if the pocket was unstable.

"I need equipment," I said. "Professional gear. Safety protocols. I'm not going in with just a flashlight."

"We have everything. I'll have it ready when you get here."

"When?"

"Now. I'm at the field office. How fast can you get here?"

"Thirty minutes."

"Make it twenty."

She hung up.

I sat there for maybe ten seconds. Processing. Thinking. Trying to figure out if this was the worst idea ever or the opportunity I'd been waiting for.

Decided it was both.

I called Yuki.

She answered on the second ring. Groggy. "Dex? It's six in the morning."

"The FDA team went into my pocket. They're missing. Agent Okonkwo wants me to go in and find them."

Silence. I could hear her waking up. Processing. "Missing how?"

"They lost contact four hours after entry. Haven't been heard from in ten hours. She needs someone who knows the layout."

"So she called you."

"Yeah."

"You're not going in alone."

"She's providing equipment. Safety gear. Everything we need."

"I said you're not going in alone. I'm coming with you."

"Yuki."

"You don't know how to use professional surveying equipment. You barely know how to use a compass. If you're going in, you need someone who actually knows what they're doing."

She was right. She was always right.

"Can you get to the FDA field office in twenty minutes?" I asked.

"I can get there in fifteen."

She hung up.

I texted Finn: "Emergency. Need your equipment. FDA field office on Alameda. Now."

He responded in thirty seconds: "On my way."

I started my car. Drove toward the field office. Breaking probably six traffic laws trying to make it in under twenty minutes.

Arrived at eighteen minutes. Yuki pulled in right behind me. Finn showed up three minutes later with his car packed full of equipment.

Agent Okonkwo met us in the parking lot. She looked exhausted. Scared. Nothing like the professional bureaucrat who'd seized my pocket four days ago.

"Thank you for coming," she said. Looked at Yuki and Finn. "Who are they?"

"My team," I said. "Yuki Reeves, professional surveyor. Finn Kowalski, equipment specialist. They're coming with me."

"Absolutely not. This is an FDA operation. I can't authorize civilians."

"Then I'm not going. You said three people are missing. You want me to search alone? Or do you want professionals helping me?"

She looked at Yuki. "You're a licensed surveyor?"

"Five years experience. PAS certified. I've mapped over two hundred pockets."

"And you?" She looked at Finn.

"I have equipment," he said. Sounded less confident than Yuki. "And I've been inside this pocket before. With Dex. I know the layout."

Agent Okonkwo rubbed her face. Made a decision. "Fine. But you follow my instructions. Use the equipment I provide. And if anything seems unstable, you exit immediately. Understood?"

We all nodded.

"Come on. I'll brief you inside."

The briefing was quick. Three surveyors had entered the pocket at noon yesterday. Their mission was preliminary mapping. Establish baseline data. Identify hazards. Basic stuff.

They'd been equipped with professional gear. Radio tethers connecting them to external monitors. Emergency beacons that would trigger if they were in distress. Backup communication systems.

Everything had worked perfectly for the first four hours. They'd mapped the entry chamber, the three-way chamber, part of the stream chamber. Standard exploration. No problems.

Then radio contact cut out. Completely. Like someone had flipped a switch.

The emergency beacons never triggered. The backup systems never activated. They just went dark.

The FDA had been trying to raise them for ten hours. Nothing. No response. No signal. No indication they were even still inside.

"Why didn't you send a rescue team immediately?" Yuki asked.

"We were preparing one. But nobody else has explored this pocket. We don't have maps. We don't know the layout. Sending people in blind seemed more dangerous than waiting."

"Until I answered," I said.

"Until you answered."

She pulled out the travel mug. Set it on the table. Looked at it like it was a bomb.

"This thing has already cost me three employees. Maybe their lives. I need to know what happened. I need to get them out. And I need to understand why a pocket that seemed stable suddenly became dangerous."

"What if it's collapsing?" Finn asked.

Everyone looked at him.

"Pockets collapse sometimes," he said. "Randomly. No warning. What if that's what happened? What if your team is already gone?"

"Then we need to know that," Agent Okonkwo said. "And we need to get their bodies out if possible. For their families."

Grim. But practical.

She gave us our equipment. Professional surveying gear for Yuki. Communication radios for all three of us. Safety harnesses. Emergency beacons. First aid supplies. Everything the missing team had been using.

"The radios should work inside," she said. "In theory. But the missing team's didn't. So don't rely on them. Stay together. Use physical tethers. Mark your route. If you find the team, call for rescue immediately. Don't try to bring them out yourself if they're injured."

"What if they're dead?" I asked.

"Then you confirm it and exit. We'll send a recovery team with body bags."

She made us sign waivers. Liability releases. Acknowledgment of danger. All the legal paperwork that said we were choosing to do this and couldn't sue if we died.

We signed. What choice did we have?

"One more thing," she said. "The pocket has a time dilation of roughly 3:1. You'll be inside for hours. But out here it will feel much shorter. Don't panic if you lose track of time. Trust your watches."

We grabbed our gear. Headed to a secure room where they'd stored the mug. Sitting on a metal table. Under bright lights. Looking even more ordinary than it had in my car.

"Ready?" Agent Okonkwo asked.

"No," Yuki said. "But let's do it anyway."

We gathered around the mug. Yuki and Finn looked nervous. I probably did too. This wasn't exploration anymore. This was rescue. Life and death. Real consequences.

"On three," I said. "One. Two. Three."

We pushed through together.

The entry chamber welcomed us with its familiar cool air and impossible light. Everything looked exactly as I remembered. Stone walls. Low ceiling. The opening to the three-way chamber visible in the back.

We stood there for a moment. Getting our bearings. Adjusting to the transition.

Yuki checked her equipment. "Radio's dead. No signal."

"Same," Finn said.

I tried mine. Static. "Yeah. No communication."

"Emergency beacons?" Yuki asked.

We all checked. The devices were active but showing no external connection. We could trigger them but nobody outside would receive the signal.

"Great," Finn muttered. "We're on our own."

Yuki pulled out her surveying tablet. Started taking readings. "Atmospheric composition is normal. Temperature stable. Dimensional measurements are..." She frowned. "Wrong."

"Wrong how?" I asked.

"The space is reading smaller than it should. Like the pocket is contracting."

"Is it collapsing?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Or maybe it's just fluctuating. I need more data."

We attached our physical tethers. Climbing rope connecting all three of us. If someone got lost, we could pull them back. If someone fell, we could catch them.

In theory.

"Let's find the FDA team," I said. "They would have followed the obvious route. Entry chamber to three-way chamber to stream chamber. That's where their communications died."

We moved through the entry passage. I led. Yuki mapped. Finn watched for hazards. Professional. Careful. Everything my solo explorations hadn't been.

The three-way chamber looked normal. Three passages leading off in different directions. We took the one leading to the stream chamber.

The stream was still there. Still flowing from wall to wall. Still impossible. But something felt different. The water was moving faster. More turbulent. Like it was agitated.

"You see that?" Finn asked, pointing at the stream.

"Yeah. It wasn't like that before."

Yuki knelt by the water. Tested the temperature. Took a sample. "It's colder than it should be. And the flow rate is increasing. Something's changed."

"The team would have noticed that," I said. "Would have documented it."

"Which means something changed after they passed through here."

We kept moving. Following what I thought was the route the FDA team would have taken. Toward the lake chamber. Toward the deeper sections.

Found the first sign of them at the lake. Equipment scattered near the shore. A backpack. A dropped tablet. A radio lying in the water.

No bodies. No blood. No signs of struggle.

Just abandoned equipment.

"They left in a hurry," Yuki said, examining the scene. "Or something made them drop everything."

"Like what?" Finn asked.

"I don't know."

I picked up the tablet. Tried to power it on. Dead battery. "They were here at least five hours ago. Maybe longer. Where did they go after this?"

Yuki checked her surveying tablet. "There are five passages leading off this chamber. Without knowing which one they took, we're guessing."

"We split up," Finn suggested. "Cover more ground."

"Absolutely not," Yuki said. "We stay together. That's the first rule of pocket exploration."

"But we'll waste time checking every passage."

"Better than getting separated and lost."

She was right. Again.

We picked the middle passage. Seemed like the most obvious choice. The widest. The most traveled looking.

It led to the crystal chamber. The one I'd documented before. Still beautiful. Still impossible. But something was wrong.

The crystals were dark. Before they'd reflected light. Glittered. Now they were dull. Lifeless.

"They're dying," Yuki said, touching one. "Or the pocket is dying. Crystals like this take millions of years to form. They don't just go dark."

"Unless the pocket is collapsing," I said.

"Or destabilizing. Dex, we might be running out of time."

We pushed deeper. Into passages I'd mapped before. Looking for signs of the FDA team. Finding more abandoned equipment. More evidence they'd been here. No sign of where they'd gone.

Then we found the blood.

Not much. Just a few drops on the stone floor. Fresh. Maybe a few hours old.

"Someone's injured," Finn said.

"Or dead," Yuki added. "We need to move faster."

We followed the blood trail. It led deeper into the pocket. Past the workshop I'd found. Past the living quarters. Into sections I hadn't explored.

The passages here were narrower. Cruder. Less finished. Like whoever had built this place had run out of time or energy.

The blood trail ended at a wall. Solid stone. No passage. No doorway. No way forward.

"Where did they go?" Finn asked.

Yuki examined the wall. Ran her hands over the surface. "There's a seam here. Like a door. Or a hidden passage."

She was right. I could see it now. A thin line where the wall didn't quite match. Someone had sealed this passage. Deliberately. Recently.

"Help me," Yuki said.

We pushed against the wall. It gave slightly. Moved. We pushed harder.

It slid open. Revealing darkness beyond.

Cold air rushed out. Much colder than the rest of the pocket. My breath fogged.

"They went in there," I said.

"Why would they seal it behind them?" Finn asked.

"Maybe they didn't. Maybe something else did."

We looked at each other. None of us wanted to go through that opening. None of us wanted to find out what was beyond.

But the FDA team was in there. Injured. Maybe dying. Maybe dead.

We had to go.

"Together," Yuki said. "We stay together."

We pushed through the opening into the cold dark beyond.

The passage was different. The walls were smooth. Polished. Almost metallic. The floor was level. Perfect. This wasn't natural. This wasn't even the crude construction I'd seen elsewhere.

This was something else.

We followed the passage. It curved gently left. Then right. Then opened into a chamber that made all of us stop and stare.

Cathedral-sized. High ceiling disappearing into darkness above. The walls were covered in symbols. Thousands of them. Covering every surface. Glowing faintly.

And in the center of the chamber was the structure I'd found before. The humming thing. The core.

But it wasn't humming anymore. It was screaming.

A high-pitched whine that made my teeth ache. The symbols on the walls pulsed in rhythm with the sound. The whole chamber vibrated.

"What is that?" Finn shouted over the noise.

"The pocket's core," I shouted back. "It wasn't doing this before."

Yuki checked her tablet. Her face went pale. "Dex. The pocket is collapsing. Right now. We have maybe minutes before this whole space ceases to exist."

"Where's the FDA team?"

She pointed. Beyond the core structure. Three bodies lying on the ground. Not moving.

We ran for them. The screaming got louder. The vibrations got worse. The symbols pulsed faster.

Reached the first body. Male. Mid-thirties. Breathing but unconscious. Badly injured. His leg was broken. His arm was bent wrong.

Second body. Female. Younger. Also unconscious. Bleeding from a head wound. But alive.

Third body. Male. Older. Not breathing. Not moving. Dead.

"We need to get them out," Yuki said. "Now."

Finn and I grabbed the injured woman. Started dragging her toward the exit. Yuki grabbed the injured man.

The chamber shook. Stone fell from the ceiling. The screaming got louder. The core structure started cracking. Pieces breaking off.

We reached the passage. Dragged the injured surveyors through. Back toward the entry chamber. Back toward safety.

But the passage was changing. The walls were closing. The ceiling was lowering. Space itself was contracting.

"Run!" Yuki shouted.

We ran. Dragging the injured people. Stumbling over debris. The passage collapsing behind us.

Made it to the workshop chamber. Then the living quarters. Then the library. Getting closer to the entry. Getting closer to escape.

But the pocket was collapsing faster. Sections behind us ceased to exist. Space folding in on itself. Everything I'd discovered disappearing.

"We're not going to make it!" Finn shouted.

"Yes we are!" I shouted back. "The entry chamber is close!"

We burst into the lake chamber. The water was boiling now. Steam rising. The stream had become a torrent.

But we couldn't cross. The lake had expanded. What had been fifty feet across was now a hundred. Maybe more. The space was unstable. Changing.

"We can't go this way!" Yuki shouted. "We need another route!"

We backtracked. Took a different passage. One I hadn't explored before. It curved away from the lake. Away from the entry.

Wrong direction. But the only option.

The passage opened into another chamber. Large. Filled with more symbols. More construction. A different section of whoever had built this place.

"Which way to the entrance?" Finn asked.

I pulled out my mental map. Tried to orient myself. "I think... this way."

We ran through passages. Chamber to chamber. The pocket shaking around us. Sections collapsing behind us.

Then we reached it. The three-way chamber. The entry passage visible beyond.

We dragged the injured surveyors forward. Through the three-way chamber. Into the entry passage.

Ten feet from the opening. From safety. From escape.

The passage shook. The walls cracked.

And the opening ahead of us... changed.

It didn't flicker. Didn't shrink. It just... stopped being an opening.

One second we could see through to the secure room. See Agent Okonkwo waiting. See the equipment. See reality.

The next second it was solid stone. Like the opening had never existed.

We ran forward anyway. Reached the wall. Pushed against it. Solid. Real. No way through.

"No no no no," Finn was saying. "No. This can't happen. The exit is right here. It has to be here."

Yuki pulled out her tablet. Checked readings. Her face went pale. "The pocket sealed itself. The entrance is gone."

"Gone where?" I asked.

"Just gone. The dimensional connection severed. From inside, there's no exit anymore."

"What about the mug? Outside? Can't they just crack it open? Force an exit?"

"If they break the mug from outside while we're inside..." She didn't finish. Didn't need to.

Breaking a pocket object from outside destroyed everything inside. Including us.

"So we're trapped," Finn said quietly.

"We're trapped," Yuki confirmed.

We stood there in the entry passage. Staring at solid stone where the exit should be. Two injured FDA surveyors lying unconscious at our feet. The pocket shaking around us. Collapsing in sections.

Trapped inside a dying dimensional space with no way out.

This was it. This was the end. This was how people died in pocket collapses. Sealed inside. Unable to escape. Space itself ceasing to exist around them.

"Maybe it's temporary," Finn said. "Maybe the entrance will reopen."

"Maybe," Yuki said. But she didn't sound convinced.

I touched the wall where the exit had been. Felt solid stone. Real. Permanent.

This wasn't temporary. This was the pocket protecting itself. Or destroying itself. Or just malfunctioning in ways we didn't understand.

Either way, we were locked inside.

"We need to get away from here," Yuki said. "This section is unstable. If it collapses while we're in it, we die."

"Where do we go?" I asked.

"Deeper. Find the core structure again. Maybe we can stabilize it. Stop the collapse."

"Or we all die trying," Finn said.

"Or we all die standing here waiting," Yuki countered. "At least if we try, we have a chance."

She was right. Staying here meant certain death. Going deeper meant possible death. But possible was better than certain.

"What about them?" I pointed at the injured surveyors.

"We bring them. Can't leave them here."

We picked up the unconscious people again. Started moving away from the sealed entrance. Away from safety. Away from any hope of easy escape.

Deeper into the collapsing pocket. Into sections I'd explored and sections I hadn't. Into the unknown.

Looking for a way to save ourselves. Or at least die trying.

"This is your fault," Finn said to me as we walked. Not angry. Just stating facts. "You found this pocket. You explored it. You brought us in here."

"I know."

"If we die in here, it's because you couldn't let it go."

"I know."

"Good. Just wanted to make sure you knew."

We kept walking. The pocket shook. Sections behind us collapsed. The screaming from the core got louder.

Three people who'd come in to rescue a team. Now needing rescue ourselves. Trapped inside impossible space. No way out. No way to contact the outside world. No one coming to save us.

Just us. Our equipment. Our knowledge. And whatever time we had before the pocket collapsed completely and took us with it.

This was the cost of obsession. The price of discovery. The consequence of never knowing when to stop.

I'd wanted to understand this pocket. To prove it mattered. To show the world what I'd found.

Now I'd get to understand it intimately. Every chamber. Every passage. Every symbol.

Because I'd be spending the rest of my life inside it. However long that lasted.

"How long until it fully collapses?" I asked Yuki.

She checked her tablet. "Based on the rate of destabilization? Days. Maybe a week if we're lucky."

"So we have that long to find another way out."

"Or to die trying."

"Or that."

We pushed deeper. Into the constructed sections. Past the workshop. Past the living quarters. Toward the core chamber.

Looking for answers. Looking for hope. Looking for anything that might save us.

Behind us, the entry chamber ceased to exist. The passage we'd come through folded in on itself. Our escape route gone.

Forward was the only direction left. Deeper into the pocket. Deeper into danger. Deeper into the discovery that was going to kill us.

I'd found something incredible. Something unprecedented. Something that mattered.

And now I'd never get to share it with anyone. Never get to prove what I'd discovered. Never get credit for finding it.

I'd just die inside it. Along with my partners. Along with the people we'd tried to save.

That was the real cost. Not losing the discovery. Losing the people who'd trusted me. Who'd believed in me. Who'd come in here because I'd asked them to.

Yuki. Finn. Two injured FDA surveyors who'd gone too deep and paid for it.

All of them trapped because of me. Because I couldn't stop. Because I had to know. Because I measured my worth through discoveries instead of people.

And now we'd all die together. Inside my obsession. Inside my fatal flaw made manifest.

The pocket shook again. The screaming got louder. The path ahead led deeper into darkness.

We followed it. Because that's all we could do. Keep moving. Keep trying. Keep hoping.

Even though hope was probably pointless. Even though we were probably already dead. Even though this was probably the end.

We kept walking. Deeper. Forward. Together.

Into the impossible space that wouldn't let us leave. The discovery that had become our tomb. The pocket that was going to collapse and take us with it.

This was Act 1 ending. The hero forced into the adventure. The ordinary world officially broken. No way back. Only forward.

Into the new world. The scary world. The world we didn't understand and couldn't control.

The world that was going to kill us or teach us something worth surviving for.

We'd find out which. Eventually. If we lasted long enough.

If the pocket didn't collapse first.

If we didn't run out of time.

If. Maybe. Possibly.

Those were the only certainties left. The only hopes we had. The only prayers worth praying.

We were trapped. We were scared. We were probably going to die.

But at least we were together. At least we had each other. At least we weren't facing this alone.

That had to count for something. That had to mean something. That had to be worth something.

Even if it was the last thing we ever had.

Even if this was the end.

Even if we never made it out.