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Meghan tried again to remember how it had happened. It was just a week ago when Aaron had come to the lab where she worked, in the grey sub-basement in the Hall of Physics.

<flashback>
She wasn’t sure why he’d stopped by, and apparently he wasn’t either, because he didn’t seem to have much to say. But as he was leaving, something piqued his curiosity.
“Meghan!” he called to her from the hallway.
She leaned back in her chair. “Yeah?” she shouted back.
“Is there a floor beneath this one?”
“What?” She got up and walked to the door.
He was staring at the floor, tapping it with his foot. “I thought the sub-basement was the lowest floor in this building.”
“It is,” she said, puzzled.
“But the floor here is hollow. There’s another room or something under here.” He didn’t look up, but his eyes traced the floor, as if he were looking for something.
She walked over to where he was standing. “How did….”
“My bouncy ball,” he interrupted, and pulled a small, bright yellow rubber ball from his pocket. A grin began to spread on his face, but he still studied the ground.
She guessed what he was thinking. “You looking for a way in?”
“Yeah.” He looked up at her. “Any ideas?”
“Mmm….” They were standing just outside the experiment room. She glanced in and saw that there was no one inside. “There’s something in here I’ve always been a little curious about.” Motioning for him to follow her, she showed him a large steel panel in the floor. It was flush with the tiles, and flathead screws held it in place; it had rusted and looked as though it hadn’t been opened in years. Aaron’s grin broadened as he bounced the yellow ball on the floor near the far wall. It hit the tile with a dull smack. He threw it to the floor a few more times, approaching the door. As the ball crossed the path between the panel and the hollow spot in the hallway, the sound quickly deepened.
“There’s something under there,” he smiled.
</flashback>

They really weren’t very far from Meghan’s house; already they could see it. But as they got closer, the front door opened. An old woman stepped out, then turned around to face a woman in her mid-thirties, still standing inside the house.
“I thought you said no…”
“Neil!” Meghan snapped. “For crying out loud! I don’t know any more than you do, a’right?”
“Shh!” Aaron pulled them both behind the large fir tree where he and Erin were already hiding. “Is that your mom, Meg?”
“Yeah.” She paused, trying to re-imagine the faces. “And Mrs. Ames, our next-door neighbor,” she said in wonderment. “She’s still alive.”
“And she’s coming this way.” Erin was watching the house through the branches. “She must have heard us.”
Meghan looked around the small property on which they were standing. “Oh, but this is her house,” she whispered. “Maybe she didn’t hear us.”