Minutes to Burn

Higher still, the balsa trees started their downward crash, sporadically lit by the explosions. The twelve blocks of TNT had been too much for the quinine trunk, blowing it straight off the stump. It went horizontal almost instantly. Heavy with branches, the top end of the tree clubbed through the air.

The mantid sped down at Cameron's back. The raptorial legs flexed, pausing a split second before the lightning-fast strike.

Cameron felt the whole island closing in on her, the falling trees blocking out the sky, the flying predator at her back, and it seemed her blood itself was adrenaline as she raced toward the end of the constricting road.

The quinine tree struck the mantid across the back, knocking air through her spiracles with a screech and sending a splattering of digestive juice across Cameron's shoulders. Knocked off balance, the mantid careened upside down, one wing crunched to a worthless flap. The momentum from the blow shot her ahead of Cameron on the ground, and Cameron leapt over her gnashing head, dodging the snap of a leg midair. The mantid rolled once and began a fast limp after Cameron.

The airborne quinine smashed the ground behind them, tripping the second wire. The road lit with another blaze of light. The air filled with flying wood, the fragments zooming overhead. The other trees crackled on their stumps as they tipped in on Cameron and the mantid from both sides.

The tree closest to the forest, right at the end of the trap, was falling ahead of the others. The TNT had blown out a huge section of the trunk, hastening its plummet.

Cameron sprinted at the shrinking space beneath the final tree, the mantid dragging herself rapidly after her. If Cameron didn't squeeze under the tree before it hit the ground, she'd either be caught by the creature or crushed by the other trees. Overhead, the air was filled with falling timber, flash-lit, so it appeared to crash down in great jerks.

Gasping, Cameron threw herself under the last tree as it closed to the ground like a guillotine. Her shoulder barely glanced off the trunk as she skimmed under, but it was enough to send her flying. Pain clawed through her back, tempered only by her relief that she hadn't been crushed. She spun in the air 180 degrees, landing flat on her stomach and chest, facing the imploding road.

Above the fallen trunk of the last tree, she could see the mantid reared up to her full nine feet, hurtling forward even with the left side of her body crushed. A tree smashed to the ground behind her, barely missing.

Oh God, Cameron thought, what if they don't hit her? What if they all miss?

The mantid leapt forward, screeching as she barely outran another falling tree, and Cameron tried to get up and run, but she was limp with fear and exhaustion. Her body had nothing left.

No images flashed before her eyes, no childhood memories, no thoughts of Justin-there was just the charging creature, the road dig-ging into her chin, her mouth full of dirt.

She had resigned herself at last to death, when the last falling tree smashed across the mantid's back, pounding her into the ground with such force that Cameron's eyes couldn't even track her movement down.

A large tree trunk blocked the creature from view, but Cameron heard her screech turn into a rasping whistle. The air filled with settling leaves and dust and a magnificent silence, broken only by an occasional rustle from the mantid, which she heard even over the ringing in her ears.

Cameron slid the knife back into the sheath behind her pants and tried to rise, but pain raked through her back and she crumpled up with a yell. Her hip was completely numb, and her leg did not respond when she tried to move it. Pulling herself forward, her fingers clawing holds in the dirt, Cameron scraped along the ground toward the fallen tree trunk that was blocking the mantid from view. The dirt felt like steel wool across her stomach, and a few sharp stones stung her through her ragged tank top.

As she neared, the rasping grew louder. She used a knot to pull herself on top of the trunk. The mantid was lying on her back, the massive trunk having crushed her abdomen nearly flat. Though her head and prothorax still extended from beneath the tree, her raptorial legs were pinned beneath it, the razor spikes smashed somewhere in the mess of tree, guts, and earth. Her head moved slightly back and forth, her mouth opening feebly.

She was dying.

Cameron tried to climb down the other side of the trunk but ended up falling. She landed on her hip and screamed, the pain watering her eyes. Her vision dotted, then cleared, and she pulled herself toward the creature.

The mantid couldn't lift the back of her head from the dirt. Her mouth gnashed at Cameron, moving as if trying to free itself and attack her on its own.