\chapter{7}

It couldn't have been long, maybe a few moments and at most a couple minutes. He woke up with the same unpleasant feeling that he had gone under with --- nausea and a terrible headache ---, but something else had been added to the mix: He was shivering from the cold. He didn't have to raise his hand to his head to verify that he had a fever. He opened his eyes and realized with quiet surprise that they weren't in the hallway where he had gone unconscious. This corridor was much wider and there seemed to be a marble floor hidden under the layers of dust on which he was laying. Moaning he turned on his back and looked at Katts face. She seemed to have gotten more pale and her breath came in hard, short breaths. Her skin was glistening from sweat.

``What \dots?'', mumbled Andrew.

Katt silenced him with a rash gesture. ``Don't worry about it'', she said. ``We're safe, at least for right now.''

Andrew struggled to understand her. She was breathing so heavily that she could hardly speak. Andrew saw that she was shaking.

``Where \dots Where are we?'', he dazedly mumbled.

``Almost at the safe place'',she answered. ``It isn't far any more.''

``And how did we get here?'', asked Andrew.

Katt raised her shoulders. ``I carried you.''

``Carried\textinterrobang'', ached Andrew. ``But I weigh twice as much as you!''

``Oh really, I didn't notice'', answered Katt. The ironic laugh that she tried to underline her words with turned into a grimace due to the exhaustion. ``But I didn't have a choice. Everything was suddenly on fire and I was scared that the whole building was going to collapse. I haven't ever experienced anything like that! I don't know what happened.''

With those last words she looked at him quizzically, but Andrew ignored her gaze and acted as if he hadn't even heard her question. He had a \textit{pretty solid} explanation for what had happened. It had something to do with flying sharks that cut the air with buzzing sword blades and spit hell fire --- but how was he supposed to explain that to someone who didn't even know what a car was?

``If it really isn't far, we should keep going'', he suggested.

``Are you able to?'', asked Katt.

``Its not that bad'' Andrew claimed. Ridiculous. In spite of that he continued: ``I don't know what's going on with me. Normally I don't get worn out so quickly. I guess I'm not in shape.''

To prove his claim (mostly to himself), he tried standing up, which he was only successful at with Katts help. Everything that was further than ten or fifteen steps away didn't disappear into total darkness, but seemed to dissolve into grey streaks. He blinked a few times and took a clumsy step, fighting for his balance the whole time. And then the same thing happened as he had experienced before: As suddenly as if someone had flipped a switch inside of him, the nausea, vertigo, and pain disappeared and the only remnant was a faint dazed feeling; and a feeling of weakness that was going to increase very soon.

``I think I'm okay'', he said.

Katt nodded seriously. ``That's from the exertion. If you're careful we'll make it for sure.'' She smiled at him cheerily in a way that almost made him angry and in utter excess also stuck out her arm for him as if he were some frail old man. Andrew only granted her an insulted look, took a prideful step past her and requested that she show the way with a gesture. Katt inspected him again in the same dismissive but worried look, but turned around with a shrug and walked of, \textit{not} accidentally slightly faster than Andrew could effortlessly keep up with her.

Even with her visible exhaustion she was moving so elegantly that Andrew felt a pang of jealousy when he looked at her. Her movements had lost most of their speed and effortlessness, but they still seemed just as sleek as those of a cat. Andrew would hadn't believed for a second that Katt was her given name --- but now he thought he knew why that was what she was called. That girl had something in common with cats. She was at least just as touchy.

After a few minutes Andrew lost his orientation, even though he was trying (for some reason) to remember the way that Katt was leading him through this maze that seemed to be mostly under ground. The crossed through multiple huge rooms and a myriad of hallways and corridors lined with doors that seemed to all be unique but sharing the same eerie quality: They were just as empty and lacking of life as the underground tunnels and canals that they had come through before.

Eventually Katt stopped and motioned towards a narrow metal door. ``Up that way, then we're there. Can you make it?''

Andrew just looked at her quizzically. Why wouldn't he be able to finish the last bit of the trip? He didn't exactly feel good, but after what he had just gone through it wasn't a surprise. He didn't even dignify the girl with an answer, instead reluctantly motioning at her to open the door. Without saying a word Katt shrugged her shoulders and continued onwards. Behind the door was a narrow staircase in which there were about a dozen concrete steps that led up to a door outlined in dim twilight. She glanced at him with a last, almost cold look and jogged up the stairs with a pep in her step.

Naturally it was clear to Andrew that he was behaving childishly. It just went against his ego that this unassuming girl was stronger and tougher than him --- and that his brain was showing him this fact with luxurious clarity right in front of him didn't change anything. Apparently the psychological strain wasn't enough to overwhelm his Ego.

He followed Katt. As he had ascended half of the steps he heard a sound and stopped moving. Nothing. He must have been imagining things. The only odd thing was that Katt had stopped too and tilted her head to pay attention. Andrew closed his eyes and concentrated, but there was only his own breathing and the beating of his heart. But then, right when he was going to keep going, he heard the same sound again: A scratching like fingernails on hard stone or glass. And to dispel even the last of his doubts, Katt recoiled lightly.

``What \dots?'', he started.

Katt silenced him with a distinctively frightened gesture. He could see that she was concentrating even more on listening. The sound didn't repeat itself and she was still extremely alarmed as she turned around half way and nervously motioned for him to keep going. She stepped through the door but only took a single step before freezing up. Andrew could see from her shadow that something wasn't right. With two, three elongated leaps with which he stepped over multiple steps at a time he was next to her in moments and stood still as well.

In the next moment he incredulously looked from the floor in front of Katt's feet to her face. She had lost every last bit of color from her face. Her lips were slightly open and trembled and blank horror was in her eyes.

It really wasn't a pretty sight. Just a hand width in front of her naked feet was the most repulsive creature that Andrew had ever seen: At first he thought it was a cockroach, then he thought it was a spider, until he realized that he was dealing with something equally impossible as grotesque mix of the two. The creature definitely had the eight legs that looked like bent metal and body made of two unequal spheres like a spider, but they also had a bluish black iridescent chitin\footnote{Primary component of cell walls in fungi, the exoskeletons of arthropods, such as crustaceans and insects, the radulae of molluscs, cephalopod beaks, and the scales of fish and lissamphibians} shell and oversized long bobbing feelers that swung side to side like small antennae, sweeping the air for the smell of its prey. A half dozen tiny beady eyes peeked out from underneath the carapace with a guileful intelligence that a being like this just shouldn't have, and the small pincers made the impression that they could bite down quite hard, especially if you were barefoot like Katt. But why was he wearing stable shoes with thick leather soles for?

``Don't worry'', he said. ``That creature won't hurt you.'' And with that he raised his foot and stomped on the miniature monster, turning it into a slimy spot on the ground.

Katt screamed and tried pulling him back, but it was too late. Andrew fought for his balance for a few moments with windmilling arms, looked at her bewilderedly and scraped his boot over the doorstep to get the disgusting remains of the spider-cockroach off his shoe sole. He had squished the bug; but even though he had used considerable force, he was unable to break the chitin armor.

``Oh no, what did you do?'', whispered Katt. ``Andrew!''

``Don't worry'', answered Andrew. ``That beast can be as poisonous as it wants, these shoes are very sturdy. They have steel toes, you know?''

``But don't you understand?'', puffed Katt while staring at him with wide eyes. ``That was a scout!''

Andrew blinked blankly. A strange feeling started to spread out in him. ``A \dots scout?'', he repeated her. ``You mean there \dots there are more of \dots of those things?''

Katt nodded and Andrew's inner eye replayed the scene of the garage entrance that seemed to have suddenly transformed into shimmering, eerie life. An ice cold shiver ran down his back that reminded him of countless spider legs running across his body.

``And this thing was their scout?'', he confirmed. ``Well then everything should be fine. I mean it's dead. You don't need to be scared that it can alarm its friends.''

``But don't you understand, Andrew?'', ached Katt. ``If you kill the scout, at the moment it dies it alarms the rest of them!'' She hurriedly looked around. ``We can only hope that the are still far enough away!''

``Nonsense!'', answered Andrew. ``Are you trying to tell me that these critters are telepathic or something?''

``I don't know what that word means, but it is like that, believe me.'', said Katt. ``You don't know anything! I'm gradually starting to believe that you just fell out of the sky!''

Andrew started to answer, but Katt cut him off with an angry gesture. Despite everything she had just said she didn't make any effort to run away, instead closing her eyes and listening intently with her eyes closed. After a moment of listening with utter concentration, she nodded grimly. ``They're coming.''

Andrew also listened for a moment, but he couldn't hear a single thing. Apparently Katt didn't just have better eyes, but she also had better ears. She motioned to the right. ``We can still make it. It isn't far to the safe space.''

Andrew wanted to turn around, but Katt just shook her head again and took a step in the opposite direction. ``This way. Come on.''

Andrew obeyed, but made an unsure look in the direction she had just pointed. ``Isn't the safe place over there?''

``Yeah'', answered Katt. ``But we can't go that way. Hurry up. And be quiet!''

In contrast to her own words she wasn't moving especially fast. She wasn't strolling along, but she wasn't going as fast as she could, let alone run. They crossed the room and stepped into a narrow burnt out corridor who's ceiling seemed to be more below their feet than above their heads. Katt didn't berate him until she had stopped to listen with her eyes closed.

``They're getting closer'', she murmured. ``This will be close.''

``If we're in such a hurry'', asked Andrew, while he tried stepping over a meter-high concrete chunk \textit{without} injuring himself on the rusty spikes of metal that were poking out of it, ``why aren't we going faster?''

``Because you might collapse again'', said Katt. ``And I don't have enough strength to carry you.``

Andrew gave her a toxic look and swallowed any comment that he had. The little one was gradually getting on his nerves, even with the thankfulness that he was feeling. He had run out of steam once and he wasn't sure if he could have done for her what she had done for him, but that wasn't a good reason to ride his back about it all the time! As soon as they were out of here, they would need to have a clarifying conversation about it.

At the end of the corridor it went to the left, then right, then left again. Katt was truly leading him through a labyrinth, and even though after a few minutes he had not only lost his orientation, but gradually the meaning of the word, he still had the feeling that they were more or less moving in a circle. What if Katt knew where they were just as little as him and was stumbling around the dark blind?

No, he didn't want to think these thoughts.

Besides, he was wrong. They passed two or three more junctions that definitively killed any orientation he had, and stepped into a long hallway that disappeared into blue twilight in both directions. The fork to the right was completely empty, in the other direction Andrew saw a blurry outline that reminded him of something, but he wasn't quite sure what.

Katt sighed with relief. ``Looks like we've had luck'', she said and pointed towards the shadow. ``Do you think you can make it?''

``That's enough'', answered Andrew in a huff. ``I am very thankful, but \dots''

He stopped as Katt sucked in air between her teeth and stared to the right with wide eyes. He hastily turned his head and audibly gasped. Whoever was pulling the strings in this story had a deceitful sense of humor.

Out of the gray on gray blurry distance at the end of the hallway appeared three figures in shiny black rubber suits.

Katt screamed and whirled around and Andrew followed her as quickly as he could. Now they had to run, whether they wanted to or not.

Behind them a blue lightning bolt lit up. The shot missed them by so much that it couldn't have been an accident, making a piece of the ceiling rain down in front of them. Katt made a quick hook to avoid the hail of debris and dust and Andrew followed her movements as well as he could to cover her with his body. This time it was a concious decision. The warning shot had made it clear that the men were specifically \textit{not} aiming at him and were probably wouldn't either. For whatever reason they had apparently decided to take him alive. Maybe they were taking the death of their squad mate worse than he had thought and had something special planned for him.

Unfortunately they weren't dumb. His little trick to use his unexplainable untouchability to protect Katt worked, but the men had learned: A salvo of three shots missed them both by a wide margin and hammered into the ceiling halfway between them and the safe place.

This time it came down in almost the entire width, and while tonnes of dust and burning pieces of ceiling were raining down, a second salvo hammered into the sidewall of the hallway and made it collapse as well. Kicked up dust and flames filled the air to the point that they could hardly see any more, and even though they were twenty or twenty-five meters away from it Andrew could feel the deadly heat that was emanating from the glowing rocks. The men had laid a fire barrier through the hallway that they couldn't cross. Just two or three more of those and they would be trapped! If only Nick were here! He would have known how they could get out of here.

But Nick wasn't here and the next salvo of dazzling blue light bolts destroyed the other side of the hallway as well, increasing the barricade of dust and glowing debris.

The fourth salvo didn't come.

Andrew took four, five, six steps before he turned his head.

He thought the it couldn't have gotten any worse, but of course he was wrong. It was worse. The men had stopped firing because they were suddenly focused on something more important: Running.

The ground behind them had awoken with glittering life.

It was like a faithful reproduction of the scene in the parking garage, just that he was a lot closer this time: There must have been millions of tiny armored, clicking and snapping spider-cockroaches that had appeared behind the men like a living carpet, getting closer and closer. They weren't particularly fast, maybe about as fast a running man, but their numbers seemed to be infinite and the living carpet didn't just cover the floor, it also sloshed up the sides of the walls and a not insignificant number of them crawled upside down on the ceiling without losing any of their speed.

And this time there wouldn't be an attack helicopter\footnote{Send me something saying ``I sexually identify as an attack helicopter'' if you get this far.} outfitted with laser cannons to blast the living flood away at the last moment.

The men appeared to see it the same way since they didn't waste time shooting at the quickly approaching mass of insects, instead focusing on running away as quickly as possible. The distance between themselves and the monstrosities was melting away. Slowly, but relentlessly.

They had arrived at the pile of rubble. Katt tore her arms in front of her face and jumped into the wall of smoke and fire without hesitation. Andrew took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and followed her.

Something seemed to brush across his face and singed his hair and eyebrows. He stumbled, found his footing with a clumsy step and wheezed for air. Heat and thick smoke forced tears into his eyes, but he saw that they had almost arrived at the safe place. And now he knew why its outline seemed so eerily familiar: he had seen something like it before. It was the same type of construction that looked like a table with way too long of legs that Nick and him had seen before in the burnt-out factory. Even the legs and the home made ladder that led up to the platform stood in metal barrels that had been cut in half. One of them was spewing flames. Apparently the heat from one of the shots that missed had ignited the flammable liquid.

``\textit{Up!}'', roared Katt. She hectically gesticulated towards the ladder and Andrew, who had finally gotten over the part where he was trusting his life to this curious girl, didn't hesitate to reach for the shaky steps and climb up them. He counted on Katt following him right away, but instead she reached underneath her shirt and pulled out what looked like a ball of tightly wound thread. While she was unwrapping a meter long piece with nimble fingers, she ran to the burning barrel, dropped to one knee, and held the end of it in the flames. She had to turn her face away from the flames so that she wouldn't singe her face. When she pulled it back out the tip was glowing red hot like a lit fuse. She hastily stood up and was at the next support in a bound and set the liquid in the barrel that it was sitting in on fire with her improvised fuse.

Andrew believed he had finally realized what she was planning and what the construction was for. Just the thought of it made his hair stand on end --- but as Nick had said so often: Drastic situations require drastic measures.

While Katt was rushing to the next barrel, he raised his eyes and looked in the direction they came from. The hallway was closed off behind a wall of flame and boiling black smoke that reached almost all the way to the ceiling. So far none of the tiny monstrosities had been able to break through the barrier, but he also couldn't see any trace of the men in black HAZMAT suits. The flames were burning brighter and higher as a minute ago when Katt and he had jumped through the obstacle, and Andrew could feel how much hotter the flames had gotten. Without the slightest feeling of malice or satisfaction he realized that the men had fallen into their own trap.

In the mean time the fourth barrel had caught on fire as well and Katt started to hastily climb the ladder. She still held the burning fuse and Andrew saw that it actually was some sort of ignition cord because it wasn't really burning, it was glowing very brightly and apparently was very hot.

When she had barely reached the top she tore off the glowing end of the cord and tossed it below her, throwing herself to the side as the contents of the barrel the ladder was standing in went up in flames with an audible \textit{whoosh}. A jet of flame shot up to the edge of the platform and extinguished before it could get dangerous.

The first spider-cockroaches appeared at the ceiling above the barrier of fire and quite a few of the small beasts tried to use the wall to get past the obstacle, but were mostly engulfed by the flames and fell down to the grounds, charred. A lot of them started to glow and popped with the sound of popping popcorn, but Andrew didn't lie to himself: Even this wall of fire wouldn't hold up the incredible mass of killer insects.

``That was close'', panted Katt. She righted herself with difficulty, wiped soot and sweat out of her face with the back of her hand and turned towards Andrew with a concerned look. ``Are you still good?''

Andrew didn't quite understand the question. He was a little queasy and his heart was racing, but that was understandable after what they had just done. Actually it should have been \textit{him} that was asking how \textit{she} was doing.

Behind the barrier of fire there was blue lightning. Suddenly they heard a screaming yell, and a piece of the pile of rubble collapsed in on itself throwing sparks everywhere, taking a heap of burning popcorn with it. Nevertheless more and more of the tiny monstrosities appeared and a mass of a thousand legs streamed through the gap. After that a man in a black rubber suit stumbled out of the fire, directly followed by second one. Behind them the hallway lit up with another two lightning bolts and again there was a screaming yell that was cut off with alarming abruptness. And then all of a sudden there were innumerable shiny, black, snapping monstrosities there, that were just flooding over the flames and suffocated them with their sheer mass. Thousands of them burned up or exploded in tiny yellow and red showers of sparks, but a disproportionate amount more stormed on behind them and raced over the carbonized remains of their brothers and sisters.

The two men ran for their life. One of them ran past them with long-reaching steps and the fear of death lent him the speed to actually increase the distance between himself and the abominable pursuers.

The other one made a fatal error. Instead of seeking rescue in escape, he swung around and headed towards the safe place. The spider-cockroaches caught up with him before he had even gotten through half of the eight to ten steps it was to the safe place. Countless little monsters exploded beneath his heavy boots, but Andrew also saw how dozens, if not hundreds of the tiny eight-legged fiends started to crawl up his legs, run across his suit, or tried to sink their tiny teeth into the tough material of his HAZMAT suit. While he was racing towards the safe place he desperately tried to wipe off the monstrosities. He was successful, but for each one that he squished or hurled away, three or four new ones appeared. And their numbers were only increasing. When he reached the ladder he was already wading through an ankle-deep layer of shimmering chitin and snatching pincers.

With a desperate motion he jumped forwards and closed his hands around the ladder rungs. The whole construction ached and swayed so much from his impact that Andrew was scared that the whole thing would collapse in on itself, and the man started to hurriedly climb upwards.

He didn't make it. Just as his hand had almost reached the edge of the platform, he froze. A mixture of a scream and an agonized moan came out of his helmet and he slid downwards. Andrew threw himself forwards and grabbed at his outstretched arm with both hands. He was torn forward a little bit and was almost torn off the platform before he found a foothold somewhere.

And at the same time, he saw what had happened: The primitive defensive construction that the legs of the platform were sticking out of were performing their purpose with surprising efficiency. The burning liquid --- possibly more the heat that the metal of the glowing barrels was giving off --- kept the killer insects at a safe distance. The teeming stream parted in front of each of them only to close a few centimeters after it. The tiny spider-cockroaches that were dumb enough to try it anyway carbonized with a hiss as soon as they touched the hot metal.

The man in the HAZMAT suit must have knocked over the barrel that the ladder was standing in. The flames had gone out and hundreds and thousands of tiny monsters crawled over the hot remains, crawled along his suit, or started to climb the ladder with frightening dexterity. Not only was the stranger in danger, Andrew realized with horror, but their own stronghold that had seemed so impenetrable a moment ago was in danger of being overrun!

Nevertheless he held on to the arm of the man with all his strength and tried to pull him up. But he was just too heavy. Slowly the man, who in the mean time had almost stopped moving entirely, slid back into the bubbling black depths and ultimately Andrews strength failed. He let go of his hand. The man tipped backward and just \textit{disappeared} underneath the swarming shimmering mass.

Andrew sunk back with a sob, but he didn't even have enough time to process what had taken place in front of his very eyes. Katt tore him to the side with such force that he rolled over half of the platform and instinctively grabbed on to the grate, otherwise he might have fallen into the depths himself. Nevertheless he saw that the first spider-cockroaches had made their way over the edge of the platform and were tasting the air for pre with their greedily trembling feelers. Katt ignored them though. She suddenly held rusty wire cutters in her hands with which she hastily cut the wires that were holding the ladder to the edge of the platform . With a powerful push she pushed it back and made sure that it actually fell over instead of tipping back towards them, only then did she turn around and beat the remaining insect monsters that had made it up on the platform to death with the rusty wire cutters.

Andrew had to fight with his sickness and pain again. It had chosen this moment to gang up on him, but this time he didn't lose conciousness, instead laying there for a couple seconds with his eyes closed and waited until the excruciating hammering in his head stopped and his stomach stopped trying to crawl out of his neck some how. When he opened his eyes, Katt seemed to have successfully eliminated the last members of the eight legged boarding party, since she was kneeling next to him with a mix of anger and relief on her face, which he didn't understand.

``Have you gone completely crazy?'', she asked.

``Yes, thanks'', murmured Andrew. ``I'm doing better. But I'm glad that you're worrying about me so much.''

``We could have both been dead!'', Katt continued unimpressed and with a sharper tone. ``Why did you do that? He would have killed us without hesitation and you risked your life to save him!''

Andrew painstakingly righted himself and crawled over to where the ladder had been attached before he answered. ``No human deserves that kind of death.'', he said with a shudder.

The ladder had disappeared, just like the man in the black HAZMAT suit. Below them was nothing but a seething, teeming mass that made a sound like a hundred thousand castanets that were clicking together. And not just in the depths below them. The walls were completely covered in the virtually endless stream of spider cockroaches. They were in the middle of a living tunnel, that stretched out in both directions as far as the eye could see. It could also be described a different way: They were in the middle of a digestion apparatus that was only waiting on them to follow their destiny.

There was only one single interruption in the living, swarming, mass. As Andrew looked up, instead of a sweeping ceiling of spider cockroaches there was an enormous jagged hole that wasn't just in the ceiling of this hallway, but also in the one above it, and the one above that. He couldn't tell if it had been on purpose or if the safe place had been built underneath it. But at least it did its job and prevented the eight-legged attackers from dropping down on them from above. For now they were safe.

The questions was, for how long.

Andrew looked around the platform with a shudder. It wasn't empty, but had next to a number of tattered blankets two metal gas cans that each held about twenty liters, as well as a metal basket with tools, which is where Katt must have gotten the rusty wire cutters. Even if the construction wasn't particularly ingenious, its builder had definitely prepared for everything.

He glanced through the mesh floor at the burning oil barrels. Other than the part where the whole raised table was getting uncomfortably warm, something else was making him nervous: If he remembered the other safe place that he and Nick had examined correctly, then there wasn't much of the flammable liquid left in the containers.

He looked back up at the living carpet that the inside of the corridor was lined with. ``How long will this last?'', he asked.

Katt shrugged. ``As long as it takes. There are lots of them.''

``But that\dots'' Andrew hesitated a moment and started again, all though he was noticeably more nervous this time. ``But the fire will last long enough, right?''

Katt just shrugged again. She remained silent.