Gregg Hurwitz - Minutes to Burn

In something of a halting fall, Cameron slid down the remaining fif-teen feet of the trunk, squeezing occasionally with her arms and legs to slow herself, trying to ignore the pain. Her teeth knocked together when she hit the ground and she sprawled flat on her back for an instant before rolling onto all fours.

The mantid sprang from the other tree, dropping to the ground. Her wings fluttered for a moment but did not spread wide.

Cameron found her feet before the mantid drew herself up, and she turned and sprinted into the foliage, praying she could remember the correct direction. Her arms were a blur of motion as she knocked vines and fronds out of her way. Kicking through bushes and leaping over fallen trees and boulders, Cameron moved as quickly as she ever had.

She didn't know how she was running so fast, especially after the slide down the tree, but her body was feeding off adrenaline, hurtling forward through the forest on autopilot. She should have been weak and tired- she couldn't even remember the last time she'd eaten-but she felt a sec-ond wind sweeping through her.

Not far behind, the mantid crashed through the undergrowth. Cameron rolled under a fallen tree with one end propped on a boulder and counted the seconds until she heard the mantid smash through it. Six. There were six seconds between her and the jaws.

The rumbling neared, a semi truck bearing down. Praying she'd see the low grass of the fields, Cameron pushed through bush after bush, slid between tree trunks, leapt across creeks, but there was only forest and more forest.

Just when she was convinced that she'd been running the wrong way, the ground went out from under her and she was enveloped in black-ness. She slid down a slope and found herself lying flat on her back about ten feet beneath the earth's surface, staring up at the small circle of sky above.

She turned her head and pain shot down her neck. The realization dawned slowly on her; she'd fallen into the lava tunnel. She searched overhead for the remains of the ootheca they'd found earlier, but it was nowhere to be seen. A few roots had made their way through the entrance along the roof; they curled against the rock like enormous mag-gots-crawling things fat with life.

The lava tube was smaller than she'd remembered; it was only about two and a half meters high, and two wide. She realized she must be on the other end-the northern end closer to the heart of the forest.

The tube curved back out of sight, running horizontal to the ground, the top of the tunnel a few feet beneath the surface. Calcium carbonate textured the walls like coral, and stalactites hung from the ceiling like lone fangs. Iron had oxidized on the lava in yellow-reddish patches. Long and slender, the lava tube looked like a corroding subway tunnel, or the intestines of some immense beast.

A shadow fell across Cameron's face, and she looked up at the man-tid's head, a dark silhouette framed perfectly in the lava tube's entrance. She rolled to all fours, pain screaming through her, and limped a few steps down the corridor. The mantid tried to navigate the drop through the narrow entrance but could not. She backed away, seemingly frus trated.

She would just have to wait.

Cameron's bloody knee was visible through the leg of her ripped cammies. A deep sob shook her as she realized that, if it had survived on her clothing, the virus could have leaked through the cut into her blood-stream. Her mouth loose and wavering, she looked up at the mantid's head waiting within the small patch of light.

She remembered Diego saying that the lava tube was about 350 meters; she'd just have to walk its length and emerge through the south-ern opening, closer to base camp.

The flesh over her broken transmitter was bruised, raised in a few hard edges from the metal pieces. She whispered a test command into it, but she knew it was dead even before she was greeted by silence. She couldn't remain in hiding here in the lava tube; she'd have no way to con-tact the helo when it arrived. She had to make it back to base camp and the dirt road, and set the infrared strobe to guide the helo in.

She turned and limped a few steps farther down the tube; when she glanced behind her, the creature was gone. What appeared to be bur-rows potholed the ground, worn into the rock from the unremitting drip of water from overhead. Her shoulder brushed a fragile stalactite, sending it crashing to the ground.

She walked a few more steps, surrounded by the echo of her breathing and dripping water. A trickle of dirt landed on her shoulder. She thought at first that it was an earthquake coming on, and she was sure she'd be buried here, beneath the earth's surface, but the trickling dirt stopped. She took another step and felt a tiny vibration, then another trickle of dirt fell from the roof, clouding into dust around her head.

The mantid was shadowing her overhead, sensing Cameron's move-ments with her delicate antennae, even through the earth.

Cameron stepped and paused, and sure enough, a moment later, another thin stream of dirt dropped from the ceiling. She leaned against a wall, the lava moist and claylike against her back. Sobs rose in her chest, but she choked them down. She dropped to all fours, wincing as her ten-der knee struck lava, and crawled forward as quietly as she could. She froze, waiting to sense the small vibration overhead.

There was none.

She continued at that tedious pace for what seemed days, crawling slowly forward and pausing, listening for the vibration of footsteps overhead.

It was pitch black now that she was a good distance from the north-ern entrance; for all she knew, the lava tube would drop off at any point into a bottomless cavern. The humidity made it difficult to breathe, but she fought to control herself, inching forward, regulating her inhalations and exhalations.

Finally, she rounded a corner and saw a dot of light ahead. Another endless stretch of time as she pulled herself, slowly crawling, to the northern opening. She saw the ootheca overhead, the shriveled cords still dangling from it like wood shavings. When she stood, her legs immediately cramped and she took a few silent moments to get the blood running back through them.

She peered cautiously around the entrance of the lava tube, but there were no signs of danger. Tentatively, she stepped through the partial curtain of ferns into the forest. There was nothing waiting for her.

She glanced quickly behind her just as the mantid pivoted atop the lava tube's opening, seemingly surprised that Cameron had emerged behind her. The mantid scrambled down from her perch, the wind from her snapping legs rushing across Cameron's face. Because of her pierced eye, the mantid's strikes were slightly imprecise.

Cameron screamed, adrenaline shooting through her body, and hit a dead sprint in four steps, heading for camp. The mantid pursued, leaves and branches shushing around her cuticle. Her remaining eye was still acutely sensitive; it wouldn't be long before she adjusted her movements.

The knotting in Cameron's legs intensified, and just when she was sure she could sprint no longer, she burst through a line of trees onto the field about fifty yards west of the road, her feet skidding on a wash of rocks. A few scattered Scalesias still studded the ground, and together with the tall balsas that lined the road, they provided irregular shade.

She barely had time to look back at the forest's edge before the man-tid flew into sight, a whirlwind of legs and spikes and mandibles screaming down on her. Cameron got her feet under her just as the mantid slid on the rocks, and she was two paces toward base camp when the mantid lost her footing, screaming and flailing.

When Cameron saw her husband stumbling up the road toward her, bare-chested, weak, and bleeding, she thought at first that she was hallu-cinating. Her chest heaved as if her heart had flipped over in her ribcage, and she sprinted toward him, wanting to fall into him with an embrace. But there would be no time for that, no time for relief or joy or affection.