Minutes to Burn

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.