Chapter Five
"You now have ten minutes to reach minimum safe distance," the voice warned.
A pipe ruptured and steam shot out in a scalding jet. Trevor ducked under it and continued on. The outside was so CLOSE. And then he came to the door. He rammed it open with his shoulder and found himself outside. Rain was pouring from clouds hidden by the night sky. In the distance he could see one of the atmosphere processing stations, a dark spire in the night.
He walked out into the rain and looked up into the sky. The rain was soaking him to the bone, making him shiver. But it felt so great to be alive. Trevor closed his eyes and began laughing. His own laugh scared him a little so he decided that he should stop and get to the hangar. There would be a ship there, and he would be able to escape.
The hangar was a tall building about two hundred yards away. It looked like five miles. He knew he only had a small amount of time left before the whole place went up. So he ran.
Trevor was unaware of the thing that followed him. It blended in well with the night, and it was nearly invisible. The creature was not very intellegent, but it had excellent senses, and it had been following him since the encounter at the lift. The alien could feel his heart pounding in its head, could feel the warmth coming off of him.
It crawled down from the atmosphere processor and stalked its prey. The alien may not have been bright, but it was clever in its own ways. It knew something was wrong with the earth beneath its feet. Something was happening down there. Something was going to go off. And it was going to be big.
The alien's plan was simple: It would follow Trevor and see where he would go. The human most likely had an escape planned, therefore, something bad WAS going to happen, meaning that it had to get away from this place.
It followed close behind Trevor, knowing that if it got too close he would become suspicious. It would have to kill him, and then it would have no way to escape. The hive would cease to exist.