kill it?
Move.
The word hit her. A shout not out loud but against the shields in her head.
She frowned and glanced ahead at Roark, who had stopped and eyed her. His lips moved. Danger. He pointed.
Turning, she was in time to see many creatures rising up the reversed fall of water. From the torrent shot harpoons strung with a fibrous rope that pulled taut when it wrapped around the railing.
When the first of things began to swing across, she cursed and gunned the bike. “What the fuck!”
But she didn’t get a reply, as Roark, seeing her move, shot off, and she followed, holding the bike steady on the gangway that suddenly shook as bodies hit it. A glance showed the strange creatures pulling themselves with their arms after her, mouths wide open.
Of more concern were those that flung themselves ahead of her on the walkway, scurrying toward her. A press of a button released the knives in her wheels. She held tight and moved low as they aimed right for the creatures.
The goggles protected her eyes from the gore, but they also left her blind. The bike wobbled as she ripped them down to dangle around her neck. The sudden loss meant she had to squint to see against the air rushing past. The good news being no more monsters in front.
Roark shot into a side tunnel, and she followed. The roar of the water diminished, as did the light as they put space between them and the strange chamber.
Darkness fell but for their lights. She didn’t get an answer about those things until he stopped in a room lit by lichen clinging to the walls.
“Pretty,” she remarked, using the basin of water to rinse her goggles and her face. There wasn’t much she could do about the grime coating her clothes.
“Don’t lick it,” he advised.
“Wasn’t planning to. Care to explain what that was back there?”
“Sharkmers. Nasty critters. It’s why I told you to keep to the right.”
“What you should have said was don’t stop.”
“I thought that was obvious. But since it’s not, for the next little bit, I strongly advise you not to stop. Or slow down.”
They didn’t and went even faster when they came across the giant cock plant. It literally jutted from the floor with a swollen tip and a pair of balls at the base.
The bike soared over the chasm, and she had a moment to wonder what would happen if she fell, before they hit the other side and kept going.
The webs proved the next tricky bit, but their flamethrowers blasted a hole that ignited and expanded enough they could shoot through. She tried not to think too hard about the spiders that came screeching from their cocoon burrows. Especially their strangely human faces.
She let him take the lead until they hit the T-section, where he paused. He sat straddling his bike and pointed to the right.
“Just keep going. Our destination is straight ahead.”
“How far?”
“Not very. But we can’t stay here. Go.” He waved her on.
Only as she passed him did she realize how strange that was. She slowed and gave a quick glance over her shoulder. Saw him sitting on his bike but with his hands stretched wide, a shimmer in the air around him, which only served to highlight the darkness looming behind. The shadow swooped down and enveloped Roark. For a moment her breathing stopped, and her heart stuttered.
What was he doing?
Move. Once more the silent urging came, and while a part of her wanted to return and help, she knew Roark acted to give her time to get past the danger, a menace she didn’t know how to fight.
She fired on the speed, racing through the tunnel alone in a dark that was barely speared by her headlamp. The root that appeared suddenly knocked her from the bike, but she didn’t hit the floor. The tree’s limb made sure of that. It speared down and wrapped around her, dragging her off her ride.
Casey let out a very un-Casey-like squeak.
Her bike engine died, and so did its light. It took her a moment to realize she wasn’t in pure darkness and a moment longer before she heard the sound of another bike.
Roark.
Dangling mid-air, she struggled against the root, only to have it tighten. The squeeze had her freezing, and the tendril loosened slightly. Both her arms were trapped by the lively appendage, meaning she couldn’t even get to a knife and cut it.
The light on his bike came into view before he did.