Page 31 of Akur

Suddenly, the tunnel opened up into what felt like a larger space. Her footsteps echoed differently, and the air moved in a way that suggested multiple paths. An intersection? She slowed just enough to think. To feel the flow of air blowing from her left to her right. There were multiple paths here. Which way?

Another screech sounded behind her, closer now. Too close. She picked the right tunnel on instinct and pushed herself to run faster.

“Turning right!” Fuck. She hoped he heard her. Hoped he followed.

The scratching sounds were all around her now, loud and a constant background noise that made her skin crawl.

He’d told her to run. Maybe these things would give up. Maybe this was their only choice. He obviously knew what they were and she could only imagine. She could still hear him fighting. His roars. His grunts. Akur hadn’t taken the turn. He was still in the main tunnel. Still fighting. But then she heard it—a grunt of pain that sounded different from his battle cries.

They’d gotten him. She was sure of it.

Constance skidded to a stop, her shoes scraping against the stone floor. Something big brushed against her and, on instinct, she lashed out. The butt of the weapon she was holding hit something fleshy yet hard and a resulting screech nearly burst her eardrums.

Run. His command echoed in her mind:don’t stop running until you no longer hear a sound.

But as something else hit her again, this time from behind and she stumbled forward, she heard the alien’s pained grunt once more. The sound of his blades clashing came through, too. He was still fighting. That was clear. But something was wrong.

If she kept on running, there was no doubt in her mind that she’d be leaving him behind. Injured. Alone with those things…

“Fuck it,” she muttered.

This was madness. Her only combat experience involved mediating arguments over gluten-free muffins. She had no business marching back into a fight with literal monsters. Yet, she was turning around anyway.

“Don’t you fucking die!” Rushing back the way she’d come, she raised the blaster, aimed over her head, and fired. The energy burst lit up the tunnel for a split second, and in that brief flash of light, she saw she’d made it to the intersection again.

And she saw them, too.

The creatures.

Her blood turned to ice in her veins.

They clung to the walls and ceiling like massive insects, but they were nothing like any insect she’d ever seen. Their bodies were thick and fleshy, covered in that same wet, leathery skin she’d felt earlier. Naked mole rats. That’s what they looked like—if those Earth creatures had an extra set of limbs that ended in hooked claws that dug into the stone. Their heads were eyeless, dominated by gaping maws for protruding saw-like teeth. As they moved, their bodies seemed to ripple and flow in a sort of movement that didn’t seem right. Wrong. Just sowrong.

And Akur—she saw him too, down on one knee, twin blades flashing as he fought off three of the creatures at once. The red fin at the back of his neck seemed like a beacon in that blaster flare. Almost as angry as the fresh wounds on his arms and chest, blood oozing from deep gashes.

In the darkness that followed the flash, the creatures’ chittering grew louder, more excited. They knew she had stopped running. Knew she had turned back.

Constance raised the blaster again, this time aiming at the nearest monster she’d seen. They wanted to hunt? Fine. Let them hunt someone who could shoot back.

She didn’t know what the hell she was doing. Before this day, she’d never fired a gun in her life. But suddenly, it felt like second nature.

Maybe it was fear. More likely, it was rage. Rage at the fact she didn’t ask for any of this. Rage that her life had been ripped apart by a set of selfish beings that destroyedeverything.

She squeezed the trigger, and the tunnel lit up again with the energy blast. This time, she was ready for what she’d see. The creature she’d aimed at screeched as the shot caught it in the side, its flesh sizzling with an acrid stench that made her gag. But it didn’t fall. Instead, it twisted in a way that shouldn’t have been possible, its body contorting as it redirected itself toward her.

“I told you to run!” Akur’s voice carried over the din of battle, strained with effort and what might have been pain.

“Yeah, well, I’m not good at following orders!” She fired again, this time aiming for what she thought was the creature’s head. The blast illuminated its grotesque features for a split second before connecting. The monster’s flesh seemed to absorb the energy for a moment before bubbling and bursting. It fell from the wall with a wet splat.

But there were more. So many more.

In the strobing light of her blaster fire, she could see them flowing down from above like the walls were made of flesh, their movements both fluid and jerky at the same time. Each flash revealed them in different positions, like a horrific stop-motion film. And each time the blaster fire lit up the space, she was greeted with one undeniable sight.

They weren’t paying attention to Akur anymore. She understood now why he’d told her to run. Why he’d been content with her abandoning him. These creatures, whatever they were, focused on the threatfirst. Because each shot of her blaster revealed one thing:shewas the target now.

They were converging on her, no longer focusing on the alien, but on her instead.

Shit.

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