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Chapter Fifteen

Raven watched the two girls walk into their room and the door shut behind them. Although she didn’t always agree with Nero on the way in which he dealt with these escape attempts, she’d learnt a long time ago that it was best not to question his motives too closely. She also regretted having to hurt the Fanchu boy, but she had seen what he was capable of during the confrontation with the two older boys in the corridor the day before, and she had known that she had to finish the fight before it even started. He would at least heal, which was more than she could say for most of the opponents she had faced.

Now she made her way across the atrium of the accommodation block and through the exit, heading for her own quarters. With Malpense safely in Nero’s hands she was intending to try and get some sleep. Thanks to the fact she had had to follow them through every step of their escape attempt she had not slept in nearly twenty-four hours and, while her reserves of stamina were nearly limitless when the situation called for it, she still needed to rest occasionally, just like everyone else.

Suddenly the Blackbox in the pouch on her belt started to vibrate; she pulled it out and flipped it open. Nero looked back at her from the screen. The look of genuine concern on his face immediately set alarm bells ringing in her skull.

‘Raven, I need you on the walkway overlooking the hydroponics cavern right away.’ He could not hide the note of anxiety in his voice. In the background she heard an eerie screeching roar.

‘What’s happening, Doctor?’ she asked urgently.

‘I think you need to see this for yourself,’ he replied, looking at something to his left, out of the camera’s field of view.

‘On my way.’ She flipped the Blackbox closed and broke into a run, heading for the cavern.

‘Come on, Nigel, wake up.’ Otto shook the Blackbox slightly, as if that might somehow get Nigel to answer more quickly. After a few more agonising seconds Nigel appeared on the screen, rubbing at his eyes.

‘Otto, you do know that it’s half past four in the morning, don’t you?’ Nigel moaned.

‘Sorry, Nigel but this couldn’t wait,’ Otto snapped back.

‘What?’

‘See for yourself.’ Otto pointed the camera at the rampaging monster that had once been Nigel’s science project.

‘Violet!’ Nigel cried, and Otto turned the camera back towards himself. ‘Oh my God, what’s happened to her?’

‘I was hoping that you might be able to tell us, Nigel,’ Otto replied, trying to keep his voice calm.

‘She was fine last night. I checked on her before I came back to my quarters. I have no idea what could have caused this.’

Otto looked down at the scene below. The squirming mass of lethal-looking tendrils had now covered the entire floor of the cavern. As he watched he was horrified to see a mass of these tendrils rip the cover from a ventilation shaft that was set into the cavern wall and fling it to one side, more tendrils swarming into the now exposed shaft at a ferocious speed.

‘How do we kill it, Nigel?’ Otto demanded.

‘You can’t kill her! She doesn’t know what she’s doing!’ Nigel wailed.

‘It’s her or us, Nigel. If we don’t stop her she’s going to overrun the entire school. So how do we kill her?’ Otto was losing his patience.

Nigel hesitated for a second, a look of tortured indecision on his face. ‘There’s a bundle of nerve clusters at the base of her stem. You have to destroy those to kill her.’

Otto peered down into the cavern trying to pick out anything at the base of the monstrous stem. Then he saw them – pulsating slime-covered sacs arranged in a circle around the stem, each one the size of a small car.

‘OK, I see them.’

‘I’ve got to come down there. Perhaps I can calm her down,’ Nigel said frantically.

The monster’s huge head tipped back and let out another screeching roar like fingernails being dragged down a blackboard.

‘I think it might be a bit late for that Nigel. Stay where you are.’

The chief of security ran up to Nero as Otto flipped the Blackbox shut.

‘It’s in the shafts, sir. At the rate that thing’s growing it’ll overrun the whole school in a couple of hours.’ He didn’t appear to have an immediate suggestion as to what they could do about it. Behind the chief, security guards fanned out along the walkway. Some were carrying flamethrowers with large fuel tanks strapped to their backs and others were armed with shoulder-mounted rocket launchers.

‘Very well, Chief. Hit it with everything you’ve got. Let’s see how much damage this thing can withstand,’ Nero instructed.

‘Make sure they aim for those growths at the base of the stem,’ Otto added, relaying Nigel’s advice.

The chief nodded and yelled instructions to his men, who were now spread out along the length of the walkway, before shouting, ‘Fire at will!’

The guards did not need to be told twice, and multiple rockets streaked down from the walkway towards the creature below. The tendrils surrounding the base of the creature reacted impossibly fast, springing into the air and swatting the warheads aside before any of them could find their mark, the missiles exploding harmlessly against the walls or in the masses of squirming tentacles. There was no way the guards could destroy the nerve clusters from their current position. Round after round was swatted away before they got anywhere near finding their mark. Nero looked even more worried than before.

‘Chief, lock down the accommodation blocks. If that thing reaches the students we’ll have a massacre on our hands.’

In accommodation area seven Laura and Shelby sat dejectedly on one of the sofas in the atrium. Neither of them felt like talking about the disastrous failure of their escape attempt, but at the same time both of them were much too wired to sleep. Suddenly from all around them there came thumping clangs.

‘What’s that?’ Laura shouted over the noise.

Shelby looked around the atrium as the noise continued. ‘They’re sealing the ventilation shafts,’ she replied as yet more steel sheets slid into place behind the grille dotted around the accommodation block’s walls.

‘They don’t seriously think we’re going to go crawling around in there again tonight, do they?’ Laura moaned. ‘We get the message!’ she shouted at their unseen tormentors.

‘I think they know that,’ Shelby answered softly as the noise stopped. A grinding noise from behind them caught their attention and they both turned to see a huge metal slab closing off the entrance to the block. Shelby looked across to the other entrance way at the far end of the cavern. That too was being sealed shut.

‘I don’t think they’re trying to keep us in.’ She looked carefully at Laura. ‘I think they’re trying to keep something out.’

Meanwhile in the hydroponics cavern, the tendrils were climbing the walls and it was all the guards could do to drive them back from their previously safe perch.

‘We’re out of ammo for the launchers, sir. I’m running out of ideas here,’ the chief said, anxiously eyeing the tendrils that were climbing the walls towards them.

‘Get as many of the helicopters ready for take-off as possible,’ Nero instructed. He knew that it would be impossible to get everyone off the island that way but he might be able to save at least some of the students.

‘Yes, sir.’ The chief jogged away and began to issue more frantic orders to his men.

Otto looked around the cavern, trying not to look at the terrifying mass of swarming thorn-covered vines below. He glanced up at the ceiling. His eyes widened.

He turned to Dr Nero. ‘Dr Nero, I may have an idea.’ He briefly explained what he was proposing to Nero, whose expression changed from one of doubt to one of intense calculation.

‘Under any other circumstances I would say you were insane, Malpense, but that might work,’ Nero said with a grim smile just as Raven ran out on to the walkway. There was not much that surprised his most capable operative, but Nero saw the look of astonishment on her face as she took in the scene in the cavern below.

‘Raven,’ Nero shouted over the sounds of the guards firing at the creature, ‘over here.’ She seemed reluctant to tear her eyes from the monstrous plant as she approached Nero.

‘We never have small problems, do we, Max?’ she said in a quiet voice.

‘This one is bigger than most, I fear,’ he replied, his face grave.

He quickly explained the plan that Otto had proposed to him a moment earlier.

‘I get all the fun jobs, don’t I?’ she said, giving Nero a predatory grin.

‘Go with Malpense to collect the items he needs, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you to hurry. And keep an eye on him, we wouldn’t want him to slip away in the confusion, would we?’

‘We’ll be back before you even notice we’re gone,’ she replied, turning to Otto.

Wing eyed the black-clad woman warily. ‘What did you get yourself into now, Otto?’

‘I’m not sure,’ Otto replied, ‘but I’m not going to argue with her, are you?’

‘I should come with you. I don’t trust that woman.’

‘Neither do I, Wing, but you’re hurt. You should stay here.’ Wing was still holding his wrist carefully. If anything did happen Otto knew that Wing would not be able to help very much with a broken wrist. Besides, the creature had probably spread throughout H.I.V.E. by now and there was no point them both ending up as fertilizer if something went wrong.

‘Malpense! You’re with me.’ Raven’s tone made it clear that she was not prepared to discuss the situation.

Several dozen students had now gathered in the atrium of accommodation area seven, woken by the sounds of distant explosions and nervously discussing what was going on outside the firmly sealed block. Laura looked over at the heavy steel doors as another explosion made the atrium floor shudder.

‘I wish I knew what was going on,’ she said, turning to Shelby. ‘You don’t think it’s got anything to do with Otto and Wing, do you?’

There was the sound of distant gunfire. ‘I hope not,’ Shelby replied, ‘for their sake.’

Laura saw a frightened-looking Nigel making his way through the gathering crowd towards them.

‘Hey, Nigel. You having trouble sleeping too?’ Shelby asked as he approached.

‘Erm . . . yes . . . look, there’s something you should know.’

It took Nigel a couple of minutes to hurriedly explain the disaster that was unfolding at that very moment in the hydroponics cavern. The two girls stared at him in amazement.

‘Well I’ve heard of people trying to live up to their family name, Nigel, but it sounds like you’ve really outdone yourself,’ Shelby said with a grim smile. ‘So we’re all on the menu for Frankenflower. Great, just when I thought tonight couldn’t get any better.’

‘I don’t understand what happened,’ Nigel said sadly. ‘Violet was so small, I just don’t see how –’

He was interrupted by a scream from elsewhere in the atrium. They all turned to see what the commotion was and saw several people pointing up towards the ceiling. Laura looked up and saw dozens of thick green vines swarming out of the cave from which the atrium’s waterfall flowed, squirming across the rock and quickly advancing down the cascade towards the floor. No one had to tell the assembled students what to do – almost as one they seemed to turn and run for the lifts at the other end of the atrium.

‘This way,’ Shelby said, steering Laura and Nigel away from the crowd forming around the lifts and towards the stairs. Shelby bounded up the stairs three at a time with Laura and Nigel following close behind.

They came out on to the walkway that led to their own quarters and looked down into the atrium. The doors of the lift carrying the last load of students slid shut moments before the slithering vines reached them, whisking the terrified students upwards to temporary safety. The thorn-covered tendrils slammed against the glass of the elevator shaft, trying to find a way in.

‘We’re locked in with that thing,’ Laura said as they watched the writhing green mass below expanding to cover more and more of the atrium floor. ‘There’s a limit to how far we can run. We have to try to find a way to stop it.’

With a crash, the glass on one side of one of the lift shafts gave way and the vines crawled inside.

‘I’m open to suggestions,’ Shelby replied grimly.

Otto had trouble keeping up with Raven as they ran down the corridor towards the Tactical Education department. They had passed a couple of squads of security guards hurrying to other areas of the facility but otherwise the corridors were eerily deserted. Otto tried to ignore the noises that were coming from the ventilation grilles that they passed, but it was clear that the creature was expanding throughout H.I.V.E. at a alarming rate.

They rounded a corner and came to the entrance to the grappler cavern. Raven quickly punched a code into the panel beside the doors and they slid apart, granting them access. Otto dashed to the racks of grapplers and hurriedly shoved two into his backpack. Raven scanned the cavern impatiently. There was no sign of the creature anywhere but she was not about to let her guard down.

‘OK,’ Otto said, turning to Raven, ‘next stop the Tech department, but we need to find a weapon locker.’

‘There are several on the way,’ Raven replied as they hurried out of the cavern. ‘Are you sure you can make the required modifications?’

‘I hope so,’ Otto didn’t sound entirely certain, ‘but I’ll need some of the tools in the Tech labs.’

‘The creature has been sighted in that area, we should proceed with caution.’ Raven set off down the corridor at the same breakneck pace as before. Once again Otto struggled to keep up with her. If they did encounter the creature, being a slow runner would not be a good thing.

On the walkway overlooking the hydroponics cavern the situation was quickly becoming desperate.

‘The flame units are low on fuel, sir,’ the chief informed Nero, trying to keep his voice steady, ‘I don’t know how much longer we can hold the walkway.’

‘We have to hold it chief, at least until Raven and the boy return,’ Nero replied. ‘Do everything you can.’

‘Yes, sir.’ The chief hurried over to his men and redeployed the few flamethrowers that remained functional along the length of the walkway. Nero knew that the situation was desperate, but they had to hold this position to give Malpense’s plan any chance of working.

Without warning a huge tendril reared up into the air above the walkway. It was as thick as a tree trunk and covered in vicious-looking thorns. The guard nearest to the whipping tentacle fired his flamethrower straight at it with little effect. The tendril recoiled momentarily before lashing out and slamming the guard violently against the rock wall. It continued to thrash around the walkway, looking for new prey.

Wing backed away from the flailing tentacle. There was no cover on the walkway and as his back pressed against the rough rock wall he realised that there was nowhere to run. Suddenly the tentacle, seeming to sense his presence, whipped towards him at blinding speed.

‘Fanchu, get down!’ Nero yelled, sprinting towards the boy. Knowing it was pointless, Wing raised his one good arm to defend himself as the creature prepared to strike. Nero hit Wing hard, pushing him to one side as the tendril hit, the savage thorns raking across the older man’s chest and throwing him several metres along the platform. Wing gasped in pain as he landed on his injured wrist, spots swimming before his eyes. Several of the guards hurried down the walkway and used the last few precious kilos of fuel in their flamethrowers to drive the monstrous tendril back before it could strike again. Wing struggled to his feet and limped towards Nero’s crumpled body. As he knelt next to the Doctor he was relieved to see that, while his chest rose and fell irregularly, the man was at least still breathing.

Wing carefully rolled Nero on to his back. There was a lot of blood, his shirt had been torn open and several long deep gashes gaped acrosshischest. A glint caught Wing’s eyeand, as he looked closer, his mouth dropped open in astonishment. Nero was wearing an amulet that was the perfect mirror image of his own, the yin to his own yang. Wing’s mind reeled as he touched the amulet. There was no doubt about it – the symbols they both wore were perfect twins.

‘Medics!’ the chief of security screamed when he saw Nero lying injured on the walkway, and Wing was shoved to one side as several guards and medics swarmed around the unconscious headmaster. ‘We have to get him to the infirmary now, he’s losing too much blood,’ the chief instructed frantically as the medics assembled a portable stretcher next to Nero.

‘The infirmary’s cut off, sir. That thing is running rampant in the corridors between here and there,’ one of the guards quickly reported.

‘Do what you can for him here,’ the chief instructed. He looked down at the tendrils that were now slithering up the wall towards the walkway. If they didn’t stop this thing soon, it wouldn’t just be Nero whose survival was in doubt.

Otto and Raven had not been able to take the most direct route to the Tech labs. They had found corridors blocked at several points by twisted masses of the deadly green vines and had to find alternate routes. It was fortunate that they both knew the layout of the school like the backs of their hands. Now they were finally near to their destination, and Raven poked her head round the corner, scanning the corridor that led to the lab entrance.

‘Looks clear – let’s go.’ She dashed round the corner and towards the doors, with Otto close behind. Trying to maintain Raven’s merciless pace was exhausting.

As they passed through the doors they found that the lab too was deserted. Otto moved around the room gathering the tools he would need as Raven watched the corridor outside nervously.

‘I’ll need five minutes,’ Otto said, pulling from his backpack the sleepers they had collected on the way to the lab.

‘You’ve got three. Hurry,’ Raven replied. She could hear the unmistakable slimy rustling sound of the creature’s tendrils moving somewhere nearby.

‘It’s a good job I work well under pressure,’ Otto muttered to himself as he set about removing the casings from the Sleepers. He stared at the exposed mechanism. The design was more complex than he had anticipated. He picked up one of the tools he had gathered and set to work as quickly as he could.

In accommodation area seven the situation was rapidly becoming critical. All of the students were now either locked in their quarters, trapped by the tendrils or, like Laura, Shelby and Nigel, were crowded on to the upper landing watching with horror as the mutated plant crept slowly upwards towards them.

‘How do we stop this thing, Nigel?’ Shelby demanded. The tendrils would be on them in a matter of seconds.

‘I’m not sure,’ Nigel replied desperately. ‘Fire would harm her, but we’d probably just end up burning the school down. Besides which, these aren’t dry twigs, this is fresh green growth. It’d be very hard to burn.’

‘OK, fire’s out. What else?’ Laura asked.

‘Cold. Violet’s a tropical plant, she hates the cold,’ Nigel said weakly.

If Laura had been a comic-book character, a light bulb would have appeared above her head. She ran to the fire alarm on the wall and smashed the glass with her elbow.

She knew that with H.I.V.E.mind offline the automatic fire suppression system would not kick in, but she also knew from previous discussions with Otto that there was a back-up plan for just such an occasion. All around the landings hatches slid open and fire extinguishers slid from hidden compartments.

‘Grab an extinguisher, Shelby,’ Laura yelled, taking one for herself. She ran towards a point on the landing where the first few tendrils were starting to appear over the edge of the balcony, and depressed the lever of the fire extinguisher. An icy-white cloud of carbon dioxide gas shot out, enveloping the waving tendrils and making them recoil instantly as if they had been burnt. Shelby also fired her extinguisher at the encroaching tentacles, quickly repelling them from the balcony.

‘Brand, you’re a genius!’ Shelby shouted happily as several other students who had seen what the two girls had done snatched their own extinguishers from the wall.

However, Laura knew that it was a temporary reprieve at best – there were only so many fire extinguishers on the top landing and they would not last for ever.

Otto snapped the casing back on to the final sleeper and shoved the weapons back into his pack.

‘OK, all done. Let’s go,’ Otto said as he jogged across the lab towards Raven. She turned towards him and the look on her face sent a chill through him.

‘I’m afraid it might be too late,’ she said quietly.

Otto looked into the corridor and saw that the only route back to the hydroponics cavern was blocked by a mass of the creature’s tendrils. They only had to get a few metres past the seething green barricade but it might as well have been miles away.

‘How fast can you run?’ Raven asked, never taking her eyes from the approaching vines.

‘Fast enough, especially when my life depends on it,’ Otto whispered.

‘Stay close to me. When I say run, you go and don’t look back. Understood?’

Otto nodded.

‘I think it’s time this thing got a pruning.’ Raven reached both hands over her shoulders and drew the twin gleaming swords from their sheaths on her back. She advanced towards the tendrils, her pace calm and measured, Otto just a metre or so behind her. The thorned vines seemed to sense her presence, rearing up from the floor as she approached. Raven kept moving forwards, both swords drawn, waiting for the first inevitable attack. She did not have to wait long – several of the tendrils suddenly whipped towards her and Otto, eager for fresh prey. Raven reacted instantly, both swords swinging in lightning arcs through the air, neatly severing all of the attacking vines, the dead ends dropping to the floor with a wet slapping sound. Raven continued to advance, repelling each strike as it came. The nearer they got to the passage leading to the hydroponics cavern the faster the vines whirled, Raven’s swords becoming little more than a silver blur as she hacked a way through. With only a couple of metres to go, one of the dozens of tendrils that were simultaneously attacking snuck past her guard, ripping a long gash into her thigh. Raven grunted in pain but never slowed, swinging the two blades even faster now as she carved a path through the spinning green blizzard for Otto and herself. They were now only a couple of metres from the adjoining corridor, which appeared to be mercifully free of the monstrous vines. Raven slashed to one side, finally clearing the path enough for them to get through.

‘Go!’ Raven shouted. ‘Run as fast as you can! I can’t hold them back for ever.’ Her face and uniform were streaked with the green juices that sprayed from the severed tendrils, her once gleaming blades dripping with the same foul slime. Otto knew there was no time to argue. He leapt through the gap that Raven had cut and sprinted down the corridor. Several tendrils snaked down the corridor after him.

‘You should be worried about me, not him!’ Raven yelled, hacking at the vines with even greater ferocity. The tendrils pursuing Otto seemed to hesitate for a moment before coiling back on themselves and joining the dozens of others slashing at Raven.

Despite Raven’s instructions to the contrary, Otto could not help but look back as he ran down the corridor. He could just make out the dark figure amidst the twisting coils of the vines, her blades still flashing, before the green wall thickened and she disappeared finally from view.

‘That’s it! I’m out,’ Shelby shouted as she threw the empty fire extinguisher at the approaching tendrils. She and Laura had fought desperately to hold the tendrils back as the last few students had locked themselves in their rooms but it had done little good.

‘Open up!’ Laura shouted, banging on the last door on the landing. The door slid open slightly and Nigel’s terrified face appeared in the gap.

‘Are they gone?’ He squeaked.

‘No, but we will be if you don’t let us in,’ Laura said angrily.

‘OK, OK,’ Nigel replied, opening the door fully.

‘Come on, Shelby, we’ve got to get inside!’ Laura shouted.

The two girls ran through the door as Nigel shut and locked it behind them.

‘Where’s Franz?’ Shelby asked, looking around the room.

‘He locked himself in the bathroom. He won’t come out,’ Nigel explained.

‘And I am being quite happy to stay here,’ Franz’s muffled voice added from behind the bathroom door.

‘We should be safe in here, shouldn’t we?’ Nigel asked, looking from one girl to the other.

There was an enormous bang from the room’s main door and the thick metal buckled inwards slightly.

‘Oh, sure, for about the next two minutes,’ Shelby replied.

Otto ran out on to the walkway to find a scene of utter chaos. The tendrils were attacking from all sides now as two guards wielding the last pair of functional flamethrowers fought to keep them at bay. Nero lay propped against the wall, his eyes closed and blood-soaked bandages wrapped around his chest, his face pale. Crouched next to Nero were Wing and the chief, who both looked up in surprise as Otto appeared.

‘Otto!’ Wing shouted, grinning at him. ‘Are you OK? Where’s Raven?’

‘She didn’t make it,’ Otto said quietly. ‘What happened to Nero?’

‘He was wounded when the creature attacked us. We have to get him to the infirmary but the way is blocked by that thing.’ Wing jerked his head in the direction of the hideous mutated plant in the middle of the cavern; it had grown noticeably in the time that Otto had been away. ‘It should be me lying there instead of him. He was hurt while trying to protect me.’ Wing looked distracted – the experience had clearly shaken him.

‘It’s time to end this,’ Otto said, pulling the pair of grapplers from his pack, ‘one way or the other.’ He snapped the grapplers to his wrists and moved quickly to the railing at the edge of the walkway. The scene that greeted him as he looked down into the base of the cavern was like a vision of hell. Boiling masses of vines surrounded the monstrous head of the creature which strained towards the walkway, desperate to reach the tantalising morsels that lay just beyond its reach. At the rate that it appeared to be growing they would not remain beyond its reach for long.

Otto forced himself to look away from the creature and picked out the points on the cavern ceiling that he needed to reach. The original idea had been for Raven to carry out this stage of the plan but that, sadly, was no longer going to be possible. He tried not to think about the way in which she had sacrificed herself to save him.

He had to stay focused on what he needed to do next. Not even Wing could help Otto now – with his injured wrist there was no way he could use a grappler. He was going to have to do this alone.

‘Otto, there’s something that I have to tell you about Nero,’ Wing said urgently.

‘You can tell me when I get back,’ Otto said, pointing the grappler on his right arm at the ceiling. Wing stared at him, desperate to tell him what he had seen, but there was no time.

‘Good luck,’ Wing said softly, placing his hand on Otto’s shoulder.

‘I don’t believe in luck,’ Otto said, forcing a smile. He squeezed the trigger, the thin wire shooting upwards and securing itself firmly to the rocky cavern ceiling. He took a long, deep breath and swung out into the cavern.

The creature seemed to sense the sudden movement, its head whipping around towards Otto as he swung through the air. Otto knew that he had to keep the line attaching him to the ceiling a certain length to keep up his momentum. He silently prayed that he would still be beyond the monster’s reach. As the creature’s head rushed towards him he tried to concentrate on the arcs that his brain was plotting in the air ahead of him. He fired the second grappler, releasing the first bolt as soon as he felt the second line go taut. The creature’s bloated head shot after him, only momentarily confused by the slight change in his original trajectory.

Concentrate on where you’re going, Otto told himself, and whatever you do don’t look down. He maintained the rhythm of his swings, heading towards the centre of the cavern. He couldn’t see the creature’s head – he knew that it was somewhere behind him, but he had no idea how far away. He switched lines again, just as the slime-covered jaws of the creature slammed shut on the empty air where he had hung a split second before. He reeled the line in slightly, hoping that it would be enough to keep him beyond the reach of the snapping jaws. Just a couple more swings and he’d reach his target. The monster’s head raced at him again, moving impossibly fast. Otto twisted desperately, altering his course just enough that the gaping jaws snapped shut on empty air once more. The side of the creature’s head hit him hard, setting Otto spinning on the end of the line, momentarily disorienting him. Otto fired blindly towards the centre of the cavern, hoping that the grappler bolt would strike home. He felt the line go taut and swing again, his whole body aching from the glancing blow the monster had dealt him.

Otto fired again and the grappler bolt shot into the forest of hanging stalactites in the centre of the cavern’s roof. He reeled in the line, drawing himself up into the massive natural rock formation, beyond the reach of the creature’s hungry jaws. He twisted on the end of the line as he rose, taking in the shape of the jagged hanging rocks, looking for the best place to plant the surprise he had in store for the monster below. He spotted a small hollow in the rocks, near to what he calculated must be the most vulnerable point of the formation, and thumbed the controls on the grappler to reel him up towards it. As he rose towards the gap in the rock he caught a glimpse of the distant walkway and was horrified to see that the crawling vines had completely overrun the platform, forcing Wing and the guards to fall back through the doorway and along the corridor that Otto had run down just minutes before. Otto felt a chill run down his spine as he realised that there was no way back along that corridor. Wing was trapped between the vines advancing from the cavern and the ones flooding down the corridor. He pressed the button on the grappler harder, willing the line to reel in faster. He felt as if he was rising agonisingly slowly, but after only a couple of seconds he was level with the crack in the rock.

Dangling from the ceiling by one arm he struggled to pull the sleepers from the pack on his back. He placed the first weapon carefully in the hollow in the rock, praying that his alterations would work as planned. He worked fast, pulling the remaining three sleepers from his bag and placing them side by side in the small hole. He paused for a moment and looked at the four guns lying there. Would it be enough? He forced the question from his mind. If the modification he had made did not work as planned it was too late to do anything about it now. He reached out and pulled the trigger on the first sleeper. Nothing happened. He pulled the trigger again – still nothing. What had he missed? Just as Otto began to panic he heard a slight whining noise which began to gradually increase in volume. It was working! He quickly pulled the triggers on the other three sleepers and thumbed the switch on the grappler which would reel him down. He knew he only had a minute or so to get clear.

Otto caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye and suddenly felt a blinding pain in his ankle. He looked down and saw a thin tendril wrapped around his left foot, its grip still tightening. He gasped in pain as the tendril pulled hard on his leg, dragging him down towards the creature’s gaping mouth, just twenty metres below. He locked the grappler holding him to the ceiling, trying to stop his descent towards certain death, the mechanism on the back of the device screeching in protest as the vine continued to pull him inexorably downwards. Otto yelled out in pain – it felt as if he was going to be torn in two. He gritted his teeth and pointed the grappler on his free hand downwards, aiming carefully. If he missed this shot he wouldn’t get another. He squeezed the trigger and the silver bolt shot from the grappler, straight at the slimy green tentacle attached to his leg. The bolt went straight through the tendril in an explosion of green slime and he instantly felt it release its grip on his ankle, recoiling back towards the cavern floor. Otto hit the bolt release, praying that the line would not get tangled in the flailing vines below. He watched helplessly as the line reeled in and felt a flood of relief as the bolt snapped back into place on his wrist, its silver tip covered in a thin layer of the creature’s emerald blood. Otto fired the grappler again at a distant point on the ceiling. The length of the line would send him swinging dangerously close to the cavern floor, but he knew he had to get as far away from the centre of the cavern as he could.

He released the other grappler and swung downwards at terrifying speed towards the tendril-covered floor below. As he swung low over the writhing green mass, tendrils snaked upwards, reaching for him. A couple got close but he was moving too fast now and they flailed uselessly at the empty air as he rocketed past, now swinging upwards again towards the platform crawling with tentacles.

THOOM!!

Behind Otto all four sleepers overloaded at once. The massive sonic shockwave tore through the hanging forest of stalactites, shattering their centuries-old grip on the cavern ceiling. The creature gave a final thunderous screeching roar as tens of thousands of tons of rock gave in to the pull of gravity and smashed into the floor below, crushing the bloated head and its vulnerable nerve sacs to pulp, burying the monster for ever.

The shockwave hit Otto in the back like a charging rhino, knocking the wind from him and snapping his grappler line. He seemed to fly through the air for a moment before he smashed into the suspended walkway with a bone-crunching impact. Stunned, Otto lay on the walkway, amidst the twitching tendrils, harmless now that the creature was dead. He rolled over and forced himself up into a sitting position, surveying the enormous mountain of rubble that filled the centre of the cavern, now partially obscured by the thick clouds of dust that hung in the air.

‘You’re compost, pal,’ he muttered to himself, chuckling despite the pain in his ribs. As he struggled to his feet his whole body protested. The adrenaline rush he had been feeling ebbed away to be replaced by fresh aches. His whole body felt like one big bruise.

Suddenly the platform lurched beneath his feet. The shockwave had not only loosened the huge stalactites’ grip on the ceiling, it had also loosened the fixings that secured the walkway to the wall. With a screech of tearing metal the walkway began to collapse. Otto ran for the doorway in the rock wall, every muscle protesting.

He was only a couple of metres from safety when the whole walkway collapsed, tearing away from the wall with a horrendous screeching noise.

Otto dived forwards as the floor fell away beneath his feet. He slammed into the edge of the corridor, dangling over the lethal drop to the cavern floor, his feet scrabbling for purchase on the rough rock wall. It was no good – he slipped and fell, just catching the edge of the walkway with his fingertips. He tried desperately to pull himself up, but the toll that the past few hours had taken on his body was too great – he felt his tenuous grip slipping. He closed his eyes. He wasn’t scared, just angry that he had made it this far only to fail at the end. Just as he felt that finally, inevitably, he was going to fall, a hand closed on his wrist, its grip like iron. He looked upwards.

‘You don’t get rid of me that easily, kid.’ Raven’s face, streaked with the creature’s green blood, smiled back down at him.