Their escape route was through one of the ducts that must have broken long ago and was in the process of being repaired. There were no Cetixes there as it was just a nub of a duct sticking out from the core’s wall, barely large enough for them to wiggle through and far too small for a Cetix. They’d have to catch the lip of it and pull themselves inside before the Cetixes had them.
“Jace, they will be on us before we have a chance to get inside!” Khoth cried.
“Ah… I… there’s no other way!” Jace swallowed. “We have to go there!”
“Are you sure?”
“Trust me!” Jace shouted even as he wasn’t sure at all.
But the other routes were closed as Cetixes were coming from every direction. The Khul thumped onto the duct they were on top of. Jace fired. Khoth fired. Cetixes fell dead and tumbled off the ducts like insectile rain.
“No other way out! It’s our only chance!” Jace cried.
Khoth and Jace jumped from duct to duct at a full run, firing as they did so, not stopping to aim, but there were so many Cetixes that even their blind blasts were hitting the creatures. That was when Jace saw the timer in the right bottom corner of his mask. They were already down to eight minutes to get out of the Hive! Jace pushed harder.
There was a slick, wet sound and Jace dodged as a section of the pillar sloughed off and fell over the duct. The color of the flesh pillar was pink and black now and Jace swore that even through the helmet’s filters that he smelled the decay. The duct bent then snapped off under its weight. Jace saw that there were black veiny lines appearing on the ducts, too, where it had broken off just like had appeared on the pillar when he’d thrown the “thumb drive” at it.
It’s spreading! Jace realized.
Of course, it was. That was what it was meant to do!
Only three more ducts between them and the last route out of the core now. He and Khoth barely touched the first two before landing on the third. Cetixes swarmed. Khoth’s draagves made a throaty, thunking whine as laser blasts left its muzzle and found their mark.
“You go first, Jace!” Khoth yelled.
“No, I–”
“JACE!” And there was a command in that tone which Jace could not deny.
It was followed by a look from blue-on-blue eyes that said so much more than his simple name had in that alien mouth. He was the Pilot. He needed to escape. Khoth was not as important. But he was important. He was so important! Yet delaying the final leap would only cause Khoth to be in greater danger. So Jace shoved his pistol into its holder and jumped.
His hands caught the lip of the broken duct. He felt the material crumbling, giving way. With frantic speed, he hoisted himself up into the opening, the duct crumbling into dust in his hands. The Hive was truly coming apart.
Jace crawled in on hands and knees. He had thought to squirm around and give covering fire to Khoth as the Thaf’ell Commander jumped, but the duct was too tight. There was no way to do so. He had to go forward. His calves and feet were still sticking out of the duct! Khoth couldn’t jump until he was out of the way.
Jace crawled forward as fast as he could. The duct felt mushy and sticky beneath his elbows and forearms. He heard the whine of Khoth’s draagves. It sounded more frantic to his ears than before. Was it possible for Khoth to shoot faster than he had been?
Jace’s calves were finally inside the duct! He squirmed and squirmed and squirmed. His feet were inside. He kept going though because Khoth was tall and he would need to get fully inside the duct too. He imagined Khoth’s feet sticking out of the duct and being grabbed by a Cetix as it made a desperate last leap. He then imagined its weight pulling Khoth and it out of the duct and them both spiraling towards the floor of the pit. That had him moving faster.
Sweat coursed down Jace’s brow and dripped into his eyes. His eyes stung with salt. His breathing was all he heard in his helmet. Had the whine of laser fire stopped? Had he felt the thunk of Khoth jumping and grabbing hold of the duct behind him? He couldn’t be sure. He had to keep moving.
Six minutes before the Hive went boom or simply disintegrated. He wasn’t sure which. The duct was definitely mushy.
“Khoth? Khoth, can you hear me?” Jace asked, breathing heavily.
He crawled a few more feet and the duct was curving to the right. This wasn’t at all the direction they had come in. But there was a bright orange arrow telling him that he was heading in the right direction.
He saw that in addition to the timer and the arrow that there were two dots now. One was red and one was green. He guessed that he was the red dot as it moved at his pace. The green dot wasn’t Khoth, because it was ahead of him. He then realized that the green dot was where he had to be in order to get out of the Hive alive. He scrambled frantically to catch up so that the red and green dots overlapped.
Slime from those bulging sack creatures was everywhere. It smeared over the front of his helmet, it coated his fingers, it suctioned the front of his suit to the floor of the duct. Sweat seemed to coat every part of him and he felt it soaking his undersuit and even wetting the palms of his hand in his gloves. But that sweat turned cold when he realized he hadn’t heard from Khoth. His earlier call had gone unheeded.
“Khoth?” he called again. “Khoth? Are you okay? Talk to me!”
The duct turned again and was now sloping upwards. He strained to keep his forward momentum. The green and red dots were pulling apart once more. He jammed his boots into the half-hardened slime and pushed off from it.
Gehenna?! He reached out for her.
Jace?! She sounded as frightened and anxious as he felt. Jace, you’re taking too long! You need to–
