Hadrian's Colony: Chapter Seventeen, Part Two

 Notes: Who wants more peril! Peril, get your mortal peril here! But--there's a light at the end of this tunnel, my darlins.

Title: Hadrian's Colony: Chapter Seventeen, Part Two

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Chapter Seventeen, Part Two

 

Picture by Joe Shields

It took Kieron a moment, in the dimness, to make out the tunneler against the darkness of rock and shadow. It wasn’t as big as the other one, not nearly; this was less than half the size of the first, and that was bad because it was, apparently, much better suited to climbing. At the moment, however, it was on the other side of the slender canyon. That was about ten feet of separation that Kieron was very grateful for right now.

Move on, he murmured silently to himself. Just move on. You sensed the vibration of the rain, you sensed the crack of the thunder. You can’t see us. He watched its massive shovel-like protrusions dig into the rock around it, crunching and cracking it like it was nothing. Please, fucking move on.

Bobby tapped out a message. [Do you want me to stop pinging?]

Oh shit, he’d been sending out a signal all this time? “Yes,” Kieron tapped back. He’d forgotten about that…and that might be the thing that had guided whatever ship this was to them. The General’s people were looking for their rogues—Kieron vaguely hoped that the fact that they were still searching, this far from the closest edge of the plateau to their home base, meant they’d missed Carlisle and the rotten old husk she kept faith with.

Or maybe they were retaken, and she’s being tortured right now while he gets medical care. Or maybe they were eaten by a fucking tunneler, and the ship did pick up on your signal, and it would have left you alone if you hadn’t let Bobby go at it for so long.

It was too late for regrets. Kieron tucked Bobby under his free arm and hunkered down a bit closer to the rock. They just had to wait it out. As long as it didn’t fly right over the top of them, the odds of the ship finding them were low, even with their scanners—it was too wet and cold out for infrared to do much for them. As soon as the ship gave up, they could climb back up to the top of the ridge, away from the tunneler, and move on. Then they could—

Crunch—SMASH! Kieron bolted upright, turning to stare at the tunneler. Or rather, at where the tunneler had been. It wasn’t there anymore, but it took less than a second to realize where it had gone when the rock they were clinging to shuddered.

“Fuck,” Kieron whispered. “It jumped.” Or it might have just fallen from one side of the canyon to the other, if its body was long enough. “Fuck, fuck.” The tunneler wasn’t visible yet, but Kieron knew it was climbing up toward them. They couldn’t stay here.

But they couldn’t get back up on top of the ridge, either. They might be faster than a tunneler—and that was a big if, on the slippery rock—but they couldn’t outrun a ship. If they saw them, if they opened fire…maybe they could slide sideways, or down the other side to get away from the tunneler. But if it came after them, especially once they were downhill from it, there’d be no escape.

[Papa, it’s okay. I can help.]

Kieron blinked, only just realizing he’d been on the verge of hyperventilating. Stars, how could he be so exhausted and so keyed up at the same time? “What do you mean, Bobby?”

[I can move the tunneler.] Bobby pulled out of Kieron’s hold and onto the rock, wiggling nimbly. [I can make it chase me!]

Kieron stared at the little bot, aghast. “Absolutely not!”

[I think it will work.]

“We’re not separating.” After a second, Kieron amended, “Unless I’m stuck and it’s the only way for you to survive.”

[No!]

“Yes.” Fuck it, they were going to have to run for it. Kieron gathered the rope in his fist and began to climb back up to the ridge, moving even faster once he made out the edge of those iron-dark mandibles appear below them. “Shit, let’s go.” He was almost at the top when the brilliant yellow of a search light, bright and ominous, shot overhead. “Shit!”

[Plan B, Papa.] Bobby moved a little farther down the rock wall.

“Bobby, wait—”

But it was too late. Kieron watched as a little piece of the bot rolled downhill, bouncing merrily, until it was at the same level as the tunneler.

Then it exploded.

It wasn’t a big explosion, technically speaking. Kieron only perceived it as big because he’d been in near-silence for so long now, but it seemed like an enormous crack rent the air as the bot-bomb went off. The tunneler, which had made it a few feet closer to them, didn’t like it either—it reeled backward, mouthparts snapping as it tried to figure out why it was under fire. It was, Kieron had to admit, a good distraction.

Now if only they could capitalize on it. “Come on,” he said, reaching a hand up toward the top of the ridge. All he needed to do was unloop the rope, and they could start their scramble. “We’re going sideways, okay? We just need to—”

[It’s coming back!]

Damn it, the tunneler was coming back. Kieron had hoped it might drop off completely, but it had apparently decided to double-down on known prey rather than waste time on an enemy it couldn’t find. Before Kieron could respond, Bobby sent another piece of himself toward the creature. The explosion was percussive, but the tunneler wasn’t as distracted this time.

[I need to make a bigger bomb.]

“You’ll run out of parts,” Kieron argued. The tunneler was moving again. They’d never be able to outpace it going sideways.

Screw it. He picked Bobby up, hauled them up onto the ridge, and swung the rope around his neck. “We’re running.”

Easier said than done. Even with adrenaline rushing through him once more, Kieron was unsteady on his feet. It had been hours since he’d drunk or eaten anything, longer since he’d slept. Every ache and pain, every fracture, every effort he’d laid out over however many hours he’d been held by the General was catching up to him now. He got ten feet, stumbled, and collapsed down onto one knee. He saw the searchlight scanning in the distance and hoped, hoped, hoped it didn’t turn their way.

Scuttle-scuttle-scuttle… The tunneler was coming. Bobby released another microbomb, but it barely made the creature pause.

The searchlight suddenly flooded them. Kieron blinked against tears, the light far too dazzling. He needed to run but it was all he could do not to fall, and the tunneler was coming closer, and if it was a choice between being eaten, being taken captive once more, and falling to his death he genuinely wasn’t sure what he preferred right now, he was so tired and he had done everything so wrong and he was never going to see Elanus or Catie again—

A whip-thrum shot past him, and the tunneler screeched. Whatever had hit it, it did a lot more damage than Bobby; Kieron could hear the creature slide down the slope and over the edge, landing with a distant clatter. Bobby crouched beneath him, clinging to his leg, so no throwing himself off the ridge then.

The light was so close it was blinding now. He could hear the ship’s engine, hear the hum of its hatch door opening, hear the person inside it yell, “Kieron? Blobby?”

…Elanus?

And then the ship was close enough to swallow them up, warm arms reaching out to draw them inside, and Kieron was definitely in a dream, because the person holding them was Elanus, and Catie was shrilling with joy, and Kieron could finally let himself go and just…

Fall.