Starhoppers

24 - Echoes of Walker

The alarm bellowed overhead as Serena's words settled in our panicking hearts.

"What entered the tower?" Ezra asked, jogging towards the doorway. "Did the deer follow us?"

As I helped Ellie to her feet, a horrible shrieking echoed somewhere far down the hallway.

"Oh, God," Faith whispered, wincing as Ramsey dragged her towards Ezra.

"How did the parasite get here?" Ralph groaned. "Did they find the deer outside?"

"Come on," Ezra spoke, his voice wavering as he stepped into the hallway.

Ellie scooped Bit into her palms and onto her shoulder as we joined the others out in the hall. Another distorted wail sounded behind us as I cleared my throat to speak. "What do we do, Ezra?"

Ezra remained silent, rubbing at his chin as he hurriedly studied our surroundings. I peered over my shoulder, spotting Calpurnia as she slumped heavily against the doorway. The alien winced, struggling to blink her one good eye. "Do you need help, Calpurnia?" I asked, Serena translating the words from Ellie's shoulder a brief moment later.

"I am alright," she replied, huffing. "I will stay close."

Ralph shook his head as he gestured up the hallway. "We need to keep heading this way. I don't care where it takes us - I'm not greeting those bastards at the door."

Ezra swore under his breath, peering down the way we'd come just a few minutes - days? - prior. "Why the hell did they follow us in here? We have nothing left to give them."

"Come on, people," Lily groaned, waving us toward her as she started to jog. "Unless you'd like to ask them yourselves."

Without another word, we followed Lily down the hallway, our footsteps echoing between the metal walls as the shrieking grew steadily louder behind us.

"They sound angrier than they did before, don't they?" Ramsey asked, huffing every time he placed weight on his injured leg.

Ralph nodded. "We did burn up their ticket off of this rock."

Ezra sighed, glancing at his palm. "Serena, is there any kind of map you can access on the network?"

Serena hummed softly, thinking. "I'll see what I can do. I can only remotely access terminals briefly as we pass, but-"

"Just try," Ezra shouted. "Anything that can help us."

"On it, Ezra," she said, her projection vanishing.

The parasite howled loudly behind us as my calves started to burn. We ran for a long while, half of our party moving far more slowly than the rest as we darted haphazardly through the winding corridors of the alien structure.

"God, my leg is killing me," Ramsey spat. "I can't do this forever, people."

Ezra groaned, another parasite shrieking down the hallway. "Serena, please."

"Working on it!"

I peered over my shoulder just as the parasite rounded the corner, crashing into the wall with a wet slap. "Guys!"

Tobias cried out in surprise. "This is ridiculous! We'll never outrun them at this rate."

"Do you have any better ideas?" Ezra snapped. "Because the next time I hear your voice you'd better be sharing one."

Tobias blinked, his lips smacking shut as his cheeks burned a bright red. A pained look in the man's eyes caused me to turn away.

The parasite roared as it spotted us, clambering to its feet as another mound of flesh entered into view.