Rory 10.9

Rory put the camera down and scrambled back to the window.  He peered out and saw something at the bottom of the ladder.  It was an octopus.  And it was climbing upward.

Rory ran back into the heart of the room and tried to look for the door.  It was so dark he began to panic just in the search alone.

Finally he found it and dashed down the hallway on the other side.  It was dark there, too.  He didn't stop to wonder if there were unpleasant things in the dark.  He already knew there was an alien chasing him in the other direction.

He came across another door, at the other end, and opened it.  It led to a stairwell.  He quickly began the descent.  He could hear the alien in the distance, in the hallway, and then at the top of the stairs as he continued his way down.  Had the ladder really put him so many floors up?  Finally he reached the bottom, and a door that led outside.  He shoved it open.  Outside was glaring sunlight.  When he'd been out earlier, it had been raining, but that seemed to have cleared.  But it wasn't just the absence of rain and sudden brightness that greeted Rory. 

He was now in a desert.  He saw a cactus.  He wondered how on earth that was even possible.

"You see the truth now," a voice said behind him.  "Your world intersects with mine.  We obey many of the same rules, but there are differences."

It was the octopus alien, clutching the raygun from the pictures, as Rory now saw, in one of its tentacles. 

"The desert places were always gateways, Rory," it continued.  "We build new ones as needed, to help get around."

Somehow the creature knew his name?

"We have much to discuss," the alien concluded.  Rory wasn't about to argue.  He reached up and adjusted his bandana.  Suddenly having been caught in the rain earlier seemed like an advantage.  It was the only one he had left.

"Okay," he said.  "Let's do this."