Minutes to Burn

Chapter 66

The smell when she swung the specimen freezer door open was over-powering. Since they had burned through the lock, the freezer had not been properly sealed, and the mangled bodies were rotting in the heat. The odor pressed into their noses and pores, making their eyes burn. The air inside was so humid it felt liquid. Cameron took a deep breath of the fresh air outside and pulled the door shut behind them.

The blue light from the compressor barely lit the inside of the freezer, but it was enough for her to make out the shadowy outlines of the mutated bodies swinging overhead. Because the heat had softened the bodies, the hooks were tearing through the rotting flesh.

The canine-headed creature dangled from its jaw like a fish, the hook having pulled through its neck. Puddles of dark viscid liquid lay beneath each of the bodies, spotted with floating chunks of flesh and tangles of vessels. Another body had rotted right off the hook; it slumped on the ground as if sitting upright. The meat of its face had slid down, hanging loosely inside the translucent cuticle like water in a sac. One of its limbs had come off when it struck the ground and was lying beside it like a dis-carded toy.

Cameron's stomach rose immediately at the thought of the virus running through the bodies around her, its presence thick in the air. An icy terror trickled through her when her mind turned to the child she was carrying, and to the ways the virus could alter and distort the fetus. She thought of the gnarled little creature that had split Floreana open when she birthed, and felt herself go weak with fear.

She raised her hands to her watering eyes and choked down another breath, feeling the rank odor fill her chest. She turned and vomited twice into the corner. Behind her, Tank looked as though he were fighting to keep his stomach where it should be.

She wiped her mouth and went to lock the door. The two empty braces, one on the door and one on the freezer wall, protruded in paral-lel curves. But there was no bolt.

A chill ran from the base of her skull down her spine when she remembered that Tank had removed the bolt to use as a weapon. Now it was lying somewhere in the forest. She glanced over at Tank and a look of resignation passed between them.

She grabbed a specimen hook from the corner and tried to get it through the braces, but since it was curved, it wouldn't fit through both of them. Setting the hook down quietly, she pressed her ear to the door; she heard nothing over the hum of the compressor and the wind out-side.

Without speaking, she turned Tank around and examined his cut as best she could in the bad lighting. It was deeper than she would have guessed from how well he'd been moving, but Tank was tough like that. She pressed down on the cut with her hand and he winced a bit, the mus-cles in his back tightening into a plate. Her hand came away drenched with blood. She'd have to do something to stop the bleeding.

She unbuttoned her shirt quickly and pulled it off. She wore an army-green tank top beneath, the kind Szabla used to wear. She held up the shirt, finding the seam. The sound of the material ripping filled the freezer.

It was when she pressed the strip of cloth to Tank's back that they first heard the scraping. Cameron froze, keeping her fingers on Tank even as the blood seeped through the fabric. The noise was agonizing- a delicate scraping against the outside of the freezer door, like finger-nails on a chalkboard. Cameron and Tank shivered at the sound, stepping back although there was nowhere to go.

If only they had the bolt.

The scraping started again-probably the mantid's climbing hook screeching down the aluminum. Cameron's whole body went damp. She was breathing as quietly as she could-short inhalations and exhalations that didn't even expand her chest all the way.

She glanced over at Tank, but his eyes were on the door, glued to the empty braces. He chewed his lip, a thick trickle of blood spilling over his stubbled chin. He watched the door, working his lip.

A deafening bang echoed through the freezer and Cameron couldn't help but gasp. She could see the beginnings of a dent in the thick door. They braced themselves for another bang, but there was nothing, only the compressor's labored hum.

Then the scraping started again, seeming to come from higher up. The freezer shifted a bit and then there was the sound of claws on the solar panels above, scrambling to take hold of the slick surface. Terror flooded through Cameron, but she blinked hard, pushing it away. The next strike set their ears ringing-small dimples appeared toward the top of both metal walls simultaneously as the mantid clawed around the freezer in a bear hug. Cameron noted with terror the span of the deadly front legs.

They heard a screech and then the freezer jumped, rocking in its foundation. It was all Cameron could do to keep her balance. In the cor-ner, one of the rotting corpses fell from its hook and went to pieces on the ground.

There was a scrambling sound, like a person running on ice, and then a dull thud as the mantid fell from the freezer roof onto the grass. "She can't grip," Cameron whispered.

The silence that followed seemed endless. Tank and Cameron tried to regulate their breathing, standing side by side among the bodies swaying crazily on the hooks. Cameron no longer noticed the smell, only the rank humidity against her face. She exhaled sharply through her nostrils, expelling the virus-laden air from her body.

The mantid's hook clicked against the metal. It slid down the freezer door, stopping when it encountered the handle. It grinded around the handle, and Tank lunged for the door just as it yanked open with tremen-dous force. He grabbed the empty brace on the door with both hands, yelling as the cut on his back split open like a burst seam.

Blood splattered across Cameron's face. She grabbed Tank around his waist and held onto him, pressing her cheek to his hot, sticky back.

The mantid's head appeared for a moment in the gap of the door, her mouth spread open, silent and wild with movement. Tank grunted and yanked back on the brace, crying out in pain. The mantid's hook slipped from the handle, and the door banged shut.

Tank fell back on top of Cameron and they lay there for an instant, collecting themselves before standing. Tank stared at the empty braces, his breath coming as if he were sobbing, though he was not. Beads of sweat stood out all through his crew cut. His neck looked raw and red, even in the dim light.

Let her go away, Cameron thought. Just let her go away.

The specimen hooks creaked as they rocked, the bodies dripping hemolymph into the puddles beneath them.

There was a gentle tap on the freezer door. The mantid's hook screeched as it drifted down toward the handle again. Tank and Cameron stared at the door, their eyes lowering with the hook as if they were watching it through the metal.

It ticked against the handle and stopped.

Tank looked over at Cameron, his eyes moist with fear and affection. "Back vent," he said. "Go."

He stepped forward and rammed his bloated arm through the two braces. The door yanked, the braces tearing his arm in opposite directions. He roared as the swelling popped, sending a spray of watery blood across the back of the door.

Cameron screamed and lunged forward to grab Tank, but he placed an enormous hand over her face and shoved her backward. She skidded on her ass, sliding through the sitting corpse, and it came apart beneath her, drenching her backside with viscous juices. She tried to push herself to her feet, but her hands slipped on the hemolymph and she went flat on her back, its parts all through her hair and warm against her neck.

The door banged again and Tank's scream was high, piercing. His body flapped against the back of the door and Cameron realized he was sobbing with pain.

Jesus, pass out, why don't you pass out? she thought, but she knew it was too much to hope for.

With Tank's cries in her ears, she scrambled through the smeared remains of the body to the humidor vent, barely gaining traction on the guts and the slick metal. Sliding on her ass toward the humidor, she kicked it with both feet. The duct connecting the vent to the humidor unit came loose, swinging to the side and laying the vent bare.

She knew she'd have to be careful; there were sharp metal teeth lining the vent to catch it if pushed in from the outside. She banged her feet against the vent, straining through her thighs, but it budged only slightly.

Even if she could kick it out, she didn't know how she was going to dis-tract the mantid long enough to drag Tank through the hole.

Behind her, Tank's scream was unbelievably high. The mantid hooked the handle again, throwing her weight back as she snapped her front leg to her thorax. As the door yanked open, Tank's arm tore from his body, right in front of his face. He went limp for a moment, and then his legs straightened under him again.

The mantid collected herself from the ground and lunged for him, wrapping him in the tines of her legs. Tank yelled, struggling in her grasp. Cameron turned from the vent, scrambling across the slick floor to the specimen hook pile. Her fist tightened around a hook, and she rose and charged the mantid.

Tank's legs were crushed nearly flat and the ripped stump of his arm was pressed to his side, but his left arm was still free. He drew it back, forming a hammer of a fist, and drove it through the creature's eye to the wrist.

The mantid reeled, air rushing through her spiracles and creating a shrill, awful screech. She jogged Tank once to get a better grip and snapped her legs around him, severing him through his massive chest. His shoulders, head still intact, fell to the ground, landing upright like a bust.

Crying out, Cameron swung the hook, aiming for the mantid's other eye with the barbed point. The mantid jerked to the left, and the hook struck the hard cuticle above her eyes but did not stick. It clattered to the floor, ringing against the metal. Cameron leapt for the back of the freezer, sliding toward the vent. Beating against the vent with both feet, she smashed it outward. It bulged against the screws, the middle bowing.

The mantid stepped into the freezer, evidently confused by the twirling bodies all around. She snapped a dangling body from a hook with her legs, then dropped it. Another body spun to her right and she leaned back and seized it, the hook tearing into her leg. She ripped the corpse, specimen hook and all, from the ceiling, biting into the rotting flesh before discarding it on the floor. Her trembling antennae snapped upright and she turned, her good eye finding Cameron. The mantid started forward.

Cameron felt the vent about to give and she reared back and ham-mered both legs into it. One of the metal guard teeth ran a slit up her calf and she grunted with the pain but pushed through the end of her kick nonetheless. The vent left the back wall of the freezer, flying out onto the grass beyond.

Cameron felt the shadow of the mantid fall across her, and she dived forward through the toothed gap where the vent had been, the creature's raptorial legs snapping shut inches behind her. She curled up as she flew through the vent hole, dodging the teeth surrounding it. Tucking as she hit the grass, she rolled over her shoulders, still guiding her legs through the metal teeth behind her. One of the teeth caught her boot, swiping a section of rubber from the sole, but then she was on the grass and free.

The mantid rammed her head through the hole, her gaping mouth straining to reach Cameron. The metal teeth scraped into her cuticle and she expelled air in a breathy hiss, backing up and struggling. Her head stuck on the teeth for a moment before pulling free.

Cameron finished her roll, coming up and onto her feet immediately, and sprinted around the freezer. She kicked the front door closed as she passed, trapping the mantid inside. With its missing lock, the freezer wouldn't hold her, but Cameron hoped it would confuse her, buying time to escape.

She heard the mantid smash against one of the walls before she was more than ten yards away, a screech echoing in the cold aluminum walls. The wind picked up, howling through the watchtower and drowning out the fierce banging within the freezer.

Ignoring the burn setting in through her legs, Cameron sprinted for the forest.