"Yeah, with my surcoat!" Kyer shouted. "That dirty rat! We gotta go after
him! CHAAARRGGGE!"

The other seven members of the Cousins of the Knight followed after her, and
were soon lost to sight to the Nunkies Anonymous.  Presently, the ground
beneath them started  to become slippery and greasy with an unknown - and
considering their whereabouts highly suspect - substance.
"Slow down, guys!  You don't want to fall over in these slimy tunnels...
Kyer!  You still there - slow down!" yelled Diane, regarding the floors with
suspicion.

The rest of the group slowed down, and between valiant attempts to catch
their breath, they joined in yelling their leader's name.  Suddenly a shriek
was heard from up ahead.

"Kyer!" they all yelled in unison, and headed as rapidly as they dared in
the direction the shriek had come from.  Rounding a corner, Nicole, who was
temporarily in front of the rest, barely braked in time to prevent herself
from falling down a yawning chasm in the floor.  Okay, so it was only a few
feet deep, but....

Cautiously, the rest of the faction gathered at the lip of the hole, and
gazed down.

"Kyer!  C'mon, say something, please...." Lisa called down, peering around
as best she could in the gloom.

"Help..."  The cry came from somewhere further along the lower tunnel.
"What happened?  Did anyone get the number of that rat?"

"Kyer!  Can you get back up again?"  Desiree yelled.

Using their voices to re-orientate herself, Kyer walked back to where she'd
fallen down into the lower level, and looked around the edges of the hole,
the walls, the floor, deperately hoping to see something she could use to
climb up to her fellow CotKers.

"No, nothing here I can climb up, no loose bits of rope or cable I could
throw up to you so you can haul me up....  How about up there?"

There was a pause as the rest of them played scavengers, but to no avail.

"Sorry, nothing, nada, nyet..."  Kezia replied, hoping to inject a little
humour into the situation.

"Enough, already!" Kyer replied in frustration.  "Let me think... Okay, if I
carry on along this tunnel, and you carry on along the one above, hopefully
either I'll find a place I can climb up, or one of us will find something
you can use to haul me up."

"Sounds like a plan to us!" La Countess called back down.  "See you soon!"

Kyer headed off, in search of a way out, and the remaining seven faction
members, having carefully walked around the edge of the hole, also headed
off.  About five minutes later, they finally found some old, abandoned,
heavy duty cable, lying in a dark recess.  It took three of them to carry it
back to the gaping hole, where they took it in turns to yell the Fractured
Knightie's name as loudly as they could.

Two hours later.....

"What do you suppose has happened to her?  Why hasn't she come back to the
hole?"  they asked each other.  Finally, Andrea and Diane volunteered to be
lowered down into the hole to look for her, promising to be back within five
minutes with a report for the remaining five members.
Oddly enough, they kept their promise - and for this crowd, that's very odd
indeed!

Once the rest of the CotKers had heaved and pulled and grunted and whimpered
her back up onto the upper level, Diane made her report.  "About hundred
yards up ahead, the lower tunnel turns sharp left, and there's a ladder
there - we found this wisp of wool sticking to one of the rungs, so we're
guessing Kyer climbed up the ladder."

They clustered around her, and in dim light they could see that the wool was
the same shade as the woolen poncho Kyer had been wearing when last seen.

"Yes, but.... there's no left turn up ahead on this tunnel... or did I just
miss seeing it?" Jenieve questioned.  A heated discussion brewed over
whether or not there was such a turn, which was eventually resolved by the
simple expedient of Jenieve and Lisa taking a quick trip back up the tunnel
to check.  No, no left turn - and the tunnel they were in eventually turned
*right* about two hundred yards up ahead....

The seven women looked at each other, as realisation dawned.
The CotK had managed to lose their leader!

Another hour passed in discussion, argument, recrimination and despair,
before eventually they realised they'd been in the tunnels for over four
hours, and still had to find a way out themselves.  Call it luck, call it
serendipity, call it the Divine Providence that looks after a bunch of
idiots bumbling around the RatPacker tunnels, call it what you will, but ten
minutes later they came across a ladder set into a wall, and on following it
up they found themselves just outside the big Wal-Mart where this entire
disastrous affair had really begun for the Cousins of the Knight.
---
Meanwhile, down in the tunnels,  a furtive figure peers around a corner.
"No, still no sign of the rest of 'em, Mr Spitz..."