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Ahab was knocked out quicker than he’d expected, if he’d been expecting it, that is. He had watched as the fluorescent lettered wall shattered in a blue flame. It was mesmerizing, and then all went quite black. Only a few times in his life had he ever been knocked out cold:

When that bully Briminy Hinge at the play-ground at school had conked him on the head with a rock because he wouldn’t join in on taunting little Freddy, who was slower than most; although it wasn’t his fault.

One of his fights with another competing general where he got hit in the head with the flat of a sword.

And then now.

And let’s just say he didn’t feel all too well when he woke up. And when he woke up, it didn’t help that he was buried in a pile of books. They smelled of dust and old pages; that musty scent you get when you sniff a book that’s older than you are. And many of them were probably much older than he was. But when you’re in danger, you don’t pay much respect to your elders.

Ahab jabbed up an arm, and his fist appeared above the pile of books. Good, it wasn’t too deep. But they were heavy. Then he heaved his other arm out and heard a muffled “ouch!” He didn’t bother to see who the voice belonged to, but instead with a great effort managed to sit up. The heavy volumes tumbled off of him and into his lap, the top title reading “Thought You Lost Me, Didn’t You?”

Ok…. Ahab stood up and balanced wobbly on the unsteady mound. He saw Miss Gun Girl picking her way gingerly through the books, but the others were nowhere to be seen, although somewhere at his feet he thought he heard some muttered curses of varying degrees. He was careful not to step there.

The lady looked at him angrily, as if he had been the cause of– whatever had happened. Ahab waved her off and turned away. He wasn’t interested in killing her at the moment. Just in the door, and wherever it might lead. He chose his footsteps carefully, walking on “Dictionary for Everything You Don’t Need to Know,” “Gross Facts: Did You Know Sea Cucumbers Spit Out Their Guts?” and “The World is Round — It Really Is, but No One Believed Me.” ‘It must be the science section,’ he thought. He would check that out later.

The room was the same, except that all the books had tumbled off of the shelves and onto the floor, and that the shelved walls were creaking and slowly moving inwards. And that the door was gone. Oh yes, everything was quite normal and serene.

Ahab stopped by the wall where the hinged slab of wood was supposed to be. He stood there, contemplating the situation and running through every spec of knowledge he had ever gained in his forty years, because he had just realized what had happened. And it wasn’t good. In fact, it was really bad.