We set out not long after. Talia said I was healthy enough to carry one side of the stretcher, so Pascal agreed to let me help as long as I told them if I got tired. I had been through a lot, after all. While being treated like I was fragile stung, I also understood. Compared to these people, I was.

Privately, I was determined to push through my already growing exhaustion. If I was going to last in this place, I clearly needed to toughen up. If the arachnid welcoming committee was any indication, I had a long way to go on that score.

I used a few bits of rope Pete loaned me to tie my sword to my belt. It wasn't a sheath by any stretch of the imagination, but I figured it should hold until we got back to the city they were talking about. It looked janky as hell, and I worried a bit about chopping my own leg off if I stumbled the wrong way. But it also allowed me to keep my hands free so I could help with the stretcher.I felt a strange attachment to the unconscious woman. It made sense, after a fashion. After all, she was the only other living person from my world in this entire place. Probably, anyway. For all I knew, there might be other people from Earth already in the city or their descendants. But for the moment, she was a precious link to everything I'd ever known.

The man on the other side of the stretcher snapped me a nod. "I'm William. Dylan, right? It's nice to meet you. Glad we were in time to help you both out!"

William was older than most of the other members of the squad. Despite that, he didn't seem to be in charge, and that didn't seem to bother him either. He wore his salt-and-pepper hair short, with a heavy beard and mustache decorating his face. His brown eyes sparkled with good humor, and his smile put me immediately at ease.

"I'm glad too! Another few minutes…" I trailed off, not really needing to finish the sentence. Another few minutes and I probably would've been dead.

"Don't worry. We'll get you both to the city safely. Once you're there, we have people to help you get settled in," William said.

"No chance there's an easy way home, is there?" I asked.

William laughed. "Most folks ask that. But it sounds like you already know the answer. Far as we know, no one has ever managed to escape this place. Once you're here, you're here."

"I figured as much," I replied.

William and I both leaned in and hefted our sides of the makeshift stretcher together. Then Pascal led the way out of the cave with three other squad members, while the rest brought up the rear behind the stretcher. That way William, the passenger we carried, and I were shielded from both directions. If more spiders came at us, they'd have to get through Pascal's well-armed people before they could strike the wounded woman.

Once we were back outside, I was immediately impressed by how different the landscape looked compared to what I was used to at home. The cave where the spiders lived was hollowed out into a cliff face which towered hundreds of feet behind me as I stepped out into the sunlight. Now that I had a little time to observe my surroundings, I thought I noticed a slight curve to the cliff, like the inside of a crater or caldera. I recalled my rescuers calling this place ‘the Crater’, so that made sense.

If it was a crater, then it was a truly massive one. All I could see ahead of me were hills, rocky crags, and somewhere in the far distance, I thought I could make out another set of mountains. Were those more cliffs? It was impossible to tell from this distance.

“Hey, you guys said this place some sort of crater?" I asked.

"Shhh," Pascal said over his shoulder. "Keep it down. We're in hostile territory here. Have to stay alert, and we don't want to draw attention to ourselves."

"Whoops, sorry!" I whispered in reply.

Tania took pity on my rampant curiosity and made her way to my side. "It is, yes. That cliff wall behind us? It runs in a ring around this whole place. A massive one, but that's the limits of this world as far as anyone knows."

"No one's ever climbed to the top to see what's beyond?" I whispered in reply.

"People have tried," Tania whispered back. "Not for a long time, though. The ones who tried all died. You see-"

Rocks clattered somewhere up ahead, cutting her off in mid-sentence. Everyone in the group froze in place. The tension in the group ratcheted up to a level that was almost palpable. My hands went slick with sweat, but I kept them firmly on my side of the stretcher. If we needed to move quickly, William and I would need to have a firm grasp of our cargo.

I didn't know precisely what was going on, but the reactions of those around me said enough. These people all seemed like competent warriors. They wore armor and carried weapons which, while medieval looking, were also clearly effective. Swords, spears, and axes were already making their way back into the hands of everyone in the squad.

More rocks clattered from somewhere just out of sight. There was a grunting sound, and then a large green humanoid leapt to the top of a boulder directly in the party's path. To me, it looked for all the world like a miniature Incredible Hulk. It wasn't as tall or quite as well-muscled as the movie hero, but it had the same green-toned skin and hair. It looked male, from what I could tell. It wore some sort of ragged leather armor across its chest, a kilt-like garment made from similar leather protecting its upper legs. It carried a large war ax in each hand.

Oddly enough, this creature didn’t give me the usual rush of information. There was something different about it.
Also, it didn't look friendly.

But if its appearance was freaky enough, its voice turned my guts to water. "Why humans in our land?"

Pascal had drawn his sword and held it at the ready. "Rescuing new arrivals, as well you know. Stand aside so that we can pass."

The creature pointed an ax at Pascal. "Or we kill you. Then eat you." It grinned toothfully at him.

"Not going to happen," Pascal replied. "You want a war?"

"We always want war." The creature jumped down from the boulder, landing directly in front of Pascal. "War means good eating."

I was just about ready to set my side of the stretcher down and draw my sword. It looked like this creature was ready to throw down against all of us, which made me wonder how many more of the things might be hiding in the rocks and boulders around us. I glanced about but didn't see anything. If they were there, they were well hidden. From the confidence the creature displayed, my gut told me it had friends nearby.

And then all at once, the green creature threw its head back, laughing. "Is good joke, yes? No war today. Maybe tomorrow will be different."

Then it turned its back on Pascal, jumping high enough to land back atop the boulder it had just left. I blinked. That had to have been a vertical leap of like eight feet. There was no way an ordinary human could have managed that, but this thing didn't even seem to struggle with the jump. Another leap carried it off the far side of the boulder and out of sight.

Pascal sheathed his sword, then turned back to the rest of the squad. "Come on, everyone. We still have a ways to travel before we can get behind safe walls. And now I have even more bad news to add to my report, so we need to get moving."

The squad advanced. If we scouted ahead a little further, and moved with a bit more caution than before, who could blame us? Certainly not me! Just what sort of world had I landed in, anyway?