Grey crept back towards the Queen's room, checking the walls carefully for any crack of crevice he could wedge himself into, with no luck.
The hell am I supposed to hide once this thing goes off? I couldn't outrun them in these tunnels to wherever Ters holes up, nor do I think he'll risk himself to help me if I got chased.
The walls were smoother here, likely from the higher traffic compared to the outer tunnels. There wouldn't be any loose sediment hiding a gap either.
His only option was exactly what he told Ters was suicide.
Going into the Queen's chamber.
Fuck me.
Grey desperately rethought and re-rethought that idea, but come up with nothing. Staying in the tunnel when they inteepids frenzied was certain death, going into the Queen's chamber was also certain death, but at least they wouldn't slam right into him. He just might be able to avoid being noticed if he kept low.
Swallowing the sickening fear, Grey slowly crept out of the tunnel. The whole place was teeming with insects, the ground, the walls, even the ceiling writhed like a single living mass.
A group of Intrepid rushed him as soon as he cleared the opening and Grey threw himself to the ground in panic. Cursing himself, Ters, and whatever holy or unholy thing may be listening.
He was dead.
Not just dead, but ripped apart dead.
Ripped apart and fed to horrible insectoid monstrosities.
He could hear the scratching of their hooked feet as they scrambled to, and over him, down into the opening he'd just come from.
Grey held himself still for seconds longer, barely aware that he was in fact, not torn apart. They had completely missed him.
It was a stroke of luck that wouldn't last. He needed to find somewhere to hide.
He cast the finger-light around, searching the room for any place he could hunker down, finding nothing. No structures or piles of rocks. There were dozens of intrepids moving in haphazard lines, carrying food in and leaving out various openings. Some places were still, where a small number rested in torpor. Then there was the queen and the young. Traffic was lesser around these, the queen being large enough to crush her smaller children, forcing them to give her a wide berth and approach only from behind to handle the eggs she was laying at a steady rate.
The grubs were tended to with fervor, being fed, flipped and moved about. But only a few adults attended the eggs.
He watched as another group of intrepids broke off from one of the lines feeding the queen, and again Grey felt death was over him. He kept still, in panic, in fear of death, in hope of another break of luck.
Whatever kept him there, kept him alive. Just as before the insects went right over him, not a clue he was there. They barely cleared him with their carapace, legs scrapping against stone with hardly any room to spare.
He was in the direct center of a pheromone path, one that led to the queen…and the lightly guarded eggs
Merely being in this room was a death sentence, and now Grey was considering hiding by the eggs of all things. He may as well cling to a bomb for protection.
I'm dead if I'm caught out here anyways, in for a credit…
With careful, slow movements, Grey crawled forward. Intrepids skittered all around him, chitinous legs stomping around him constantly, barely missing him as he went. He crept along for what felt like an hour, but couldn't have been more than ten minutes. He figured he was nearly half way into the room, just shy of ten meters to the nearest egg cluster.
He knew he couldn't keep up this pace for long, Ters would be making contact with the surface team soon, if he hadn't already.
Peering through the gaps in-between intrepids, Grey waited for a opening in the line. His plan was to make a dash to the cluster, without making enough noise to trigger the bugs around him.
Soon enough, he spotted his chance. He shook out his sore and tired limbs, did his best to find purchase without bumping the intrepids passing overhead, and tried to keep his heart from bursting out of his chest.
In three…two…one…go!
Grey half stood and launched himself forward.
And the world trembled.
The force of the first seismic charge on the surface was just to draw attention of those in the outer tunnels, but this charge was directed right at the heart of the colony. And they sure felt it this time.
Intrepids all around the room screeched and went wild. Meanwhile Grey stumbled forwards and fell right into the cluster of eggs he was aiming for, managing to avoid breaking any by sheer luck.
Grey pressed himself against the bulbous, squishy sacs as the room around him roiled with activity. The holes leading out of the Queen's chamber were flooded with Intrepids, the room draining at a rapid pace.
In a handful of minutes, the ocean of insects was gone. Leaving behind only brood tenders, grubs, the Queen and a pair of her guards, who would leave her side for nothing.
As Grey sat there, pressed against the unsettling warmth of Intrepid eggs, he assessed his situation.
Vic and Error must set off the second seismic, and Ters hadn't warned him of it. Either they had set it off early or Grey was out of range. Either way, he was going to kill the whole lot of them.
Reaching for his earpiece, Grey tapped its side twice, sending a ping to Ters. Seconds passed before he received a negative tone.
No signal.
Well, that's just great.
Taking a few deep breaths to settle himself, Grey looked around. Aside from grubs and brood tenders, he saw nothing. The egg cluster he was pressed against was between him and the Queen. The Queen between him and the tunnel Ters had pointed out to him. He wasn't out of this deathtrap yet.
Come to think of it…how WAS he supposed to get out of here? Ters hadn't shared the whole plan with him, and now without connection to his team he couldn't ask.
Damn it, now what? I can't go out the way I came, every Intrepid in the nest is in those tunnels.
Grey peeked over the egg cluster at the Queen. His only hope was the ruined facility they came here for. Maybe it had an access hatch or comm system he could use.
The Queen, an Intrepid the size of a…Grey didn't know what. But she was easily four times as large as her progeny. Her torax an engorged egg bio-factory.
Fucking gross.
Just behind her was his goal, a vertical crag of darkness. The Queen lifted her head, the spear-like mandibles adorning her face pointed Grey's direction. Grey flicked the light directly at her and she flinched away.
The Queen had reacted to the light. She could see. Grey spotted dark bulbs on the side of her head, reflecting the light.
As if this wasn't complicated enough.
She had likely never seen light so strong and had no idea what it was, but it was only a matter of time until her children detected her agitation or she decided she wanted the source of light ripped apart.
One of her guards crawled closer to her and Grey's death clock began ticking again.
His options were to sit here and accept death, make a run for it, or…well, that was it. He chose the least painful option.
He wouldn't make it if he just took off, the Intrepids would feel him. The crack in the wall he was after looked thin enough that the remaining intrepids wouldn't be able to follow. He shined the light along the ground, searching for a rock he could use. No dice. Or rocks, for that matter.
He leaned back into the cluster, racking his brain for ideas. There was nothing here but him, the Intrepids and their…Grey had an idea.
Their eggs.
He turned around and expected an egg on the cluster.
Could he just pull it off? No, whatever gunk was gluing this things together held firm, not to mention they were slick and soft.
Soft enough to rip open.
Oh, great idea, Grey. Sneak into the Queen's nest, rip open her eggs and just throw a premature grub across the room.
Grey shook his head at the incredulity of his recent actions. He was not getting paid enough for this. But getting out of here was now his life's goal. He wouldn't have much of a life if he was trapped here.
Grey raised his arm, took a steady breath, and punctured the bulbous egg. He dug around in the vicious, oddly warm liquid for several seconds before realizing this egg hadn't yet formed a larva.
Skipping right to egg killer. Good on ya, Grey.
He repositioned and tried again, breaking into the egg and immediately slammed into something solid. He ripped it out and the larva began to screech a hideous, nails on chalkboard sound.
Grey whirled and threw the larva to his right and bolted to the left. The sound of the larva should distract the grownups long enough for him to get a head start.
Just as he guessed, nearby brood tenders flocked to the sound of the screeching, even the royal guard's attention was drawn. Unfortunately for him, the queen was still facing his way, drawn by the light he held in front of him.
An Intrepid Queen must be fairly smart, as she seemed to have put the thrown baby and this bright intruder together quickly. She clacked her mandibles together and began moving towards him.
Thankfully for Grey her thorax slowed her down significantly. Unfortunately, her movement drew the attention of her guards, who had now gotten a sniff of her threat pheromones she was no doubt emitting and charged directly at him.
They had to skirt around or over the queen and Grey was now halfway to his destination. He pushed himself into overdrive as his mind did the math. He could make it. But it would be tight.
Ten meters. Both guards made it over/around the queen.
Eight meters. They began their sprint towards their uninvited guest.
Six meters.
Four.
Two meters. Grey threw himself into the dark crevice and the guards threw themselves at him.
Grey fit with some room to spare, rolling on the jagged ground and cutting himself. The guards, larger than him by a scary amount, did not.
They slammed into the crack, pulled back and slammed again. Then they began tearing into the rock, widening the opening rapidly.
Grey pulled himself to his feet, and began moving further into the tunnel as fast as he could, which was significantly slower than he would have liked.