He didn't know how long he's been down in that stinking rat-warren. Had it been days... no it couldn't have been that long.

Time had frozen, like the ice Marcus felt in his veins when he had first caught the sound.

It had been furtive that first time... like slipping whispering feet padding in the oozing filth.

Marcus froze. The steps in the darkness froze in concert. Pause, wait, breathe.... nothing.

"Get a grip on yourself... you just need to get out, stay focussed," Marcus thought to himself as hunger gnawed and clawed away in his belly... a crow pecking at him from inside, the agony growing with each hour.

"Just keep moving... you got to get out" he said to himself just to hear the sound of his own voice. A friend in the cold, dark tunnel... a reminder that he yet drew breath. "Gotta keep moving," as he stepped out one more alone in the long dark.

There! Again there! It was no imagination, no trick of his senses...Something was coming.

Searching for something, anything in that darkness Marcus' hands went up one wall, down another.

A pipe... a stick... Marcus' mind raced... Anything, anything at all was better than facing whatever was scraping and scuttling, sloshing in the murk that ran the length of his world. Now approaching, all pretense for stealth cast aside.

"Run? No... where? Where can I run... I can hardly see. Fight? With what?" Marcus' churning mind seeking options, his body locked in indecision.

With footsteps now tearing down that echoing cavernous tube, Marcus turned. Determined to face whatever may come next, He faced his fear.

His courage a beacon that shone as the sun, Marcus faced his doom with head held high.