Bay pointed at her bleeding leg. "You need help."
"No time." Rowan shuddered. "I've never seen these creatures here before. They're not like the usual exterminators. The usual guys are fat and lazy and no problem to escape. Belowgen means business this time."
Bay blinked. "It's my fault. It's because I'm here, it's—"
More shrieks sounded, interrupting him. The metal hatch rattled. It seemed far too thin to last very long.
Rowan grabbed his hand. "Come. We're almost at the hangar."
They kept crawling. Bay dared to hope they were safe now. But soon more shrieks sounded above. The ducts rattled. More bonecrawlers were entering the ductwork from vents above.
"Damn it!" Bay said. "There must be hundreds of those things here."
Speakers crackled to life.
A gravelly voice emerged.
"Hello, pests! Do you like your new friends?"
Bay gritted his teeth. He recognized that voice. "Belowgen."
"You cannot stop them, pests!" Belowgen said, voice emerging from speakers across the space station. "They are hungry. They will devour your flesh, then build nests for their young from your bones. Farewell, humans."
Bay grumbled. "I will not rest—I swear this—until I turn that Belowgen into crab cakes."
Rowan tugged him. "No time for trash talk. Hurry, this way. I have a plan."
She led him down a narrow, sloping duct. Heat rose from below. Sweat coated Bay, and engines rumbled. They seemed to be heading toward the furnace room. From above came the clatters and shrieks of bonecrawlers. Whenever they passed by a lever, they tugged it, sealing off the duct behind them. But the metal sheets didn't hold the exterminators for long. Their claws ripped through the hatches, and the beasts kept following, closer every moment.
Finally Bay and Rowan reached a narrow, rickety duct. It jangled and swayed as they crawled. This duct was not embedded inside a wall. It hung from a ceiling. Only a few screws held it in place. Through cracks at the joints, Bay could see the room below. He made out rumbling pistons, smoke, and fire. Heat bathed him. The furnaces of Paradise Lost were churning below.
"Bay, come on!" Rowan was crawling ahead.
Bay grimaced. The thin steel was creaking and bending. Rowan was tiny. Bay wasn't tall and burly like his father, but he was still much bigger than Rowan. Would this duct support his weight?
Howls sounded behind him. He turned to see the bonecrawlers chasing. He crawled onward, following Rowan. Heat rose through cracks in the ducts. The metal was so hot it seared his hands. Sweat dripped from his hair.
Finally Rowan reached the end of the duct. A chimney rose there, connected to the duct. Rowan crawled into the chimney, and Bay joined her. They clung to the walls, squeezed in like Santa Claus and an elf. Instead of climbing, they wriggled around to face the duct they had just crawled along.
Above them, the chimney rose toward distant shadows. Below them, the furnace rumbled and blasted up heat and smoke. Before them stretched the rickety duct. It was hanging loosely over the furnace room, cracked and dented.
From her spot inside the chimney, Rowan reached back into the duct. She grabbed a heavy screw that was attaching the duct to the ceiling.
"As soon as the bonecrawlers step into that duct, I'll tug," she said. "They'll plunge into the furnace below. Just like Gollum into Mount Doom."
Bay nodded. "Got ya. I think. Not the last part."
Even bloodied and sweaty and trembling, Rowan managed to smile. "I've got a lot of work to do with you." She gasped. "Here they come!"
The bonecrawlers appeared at the opposite side of the rickety duct.
They paused.
The creatures stared. They stood frozen. The dilapidated duct stretched between the humans and bonecrawlers. The furnace belched below, blasting up flames that licked the duct.
"Come on," Bay muttered. "Come on!" His voice rose. "Come on, assholes! We're here! Come on!"
A bonecrawler took a step into the duct, then pulled back. The creatures hissed.
"Come get us!" Rowan said. "We're trapped!"
The creatures only stared. Rowan and Bay huddled together, waiting.
Come on, come on . . .
The bonecrawlers began to retreat.
"Damn it, they sensed the trap," Bay said.
Rowan gasped. "They'll find another way to us!"
Bay narrowed his eyes. "No they won't. Get ready to tug that screw." He crawled back onto the duct, pounded the steel wall, and shouted. "Hey, assholes! Running away from humans, are you?"
"Bay, careful!" Rowan cried behind him.
But Bay kept crawling, banging against the steel walls, raising a racket. The duct creaked. The joints bent. Through cracks, he saw the furnace swirling with molten metal, a god of fire.
"Hey, you stinking aliens!" Bay shouted, crawling farther along the duct. With every breath, the duct creaked and bent. "You losers! Come get me. I'm just a pest, right? Come fight me, cowards!"
The bonecrawlers turned back toward him. The taunts were working. The beasts roared and raced into the duct, charging toward him.
Bay spun around, banging his elbows and hips against the duct, and raced back toward Rowan.
"The screw!" he cried. "Pull it! Now!"
Rowan sat in the chimney across the duct. She stared at him, eyes wide.
"You're too far!" she said.
The bonecrawlers scurried behind him. Their claws reached out, grazing his ankle, tearing his calf. He kicked himself free and kept crawling toward Rowan.
"Pull the screw!" he cried, still several meters away.
Rowan winced.
She pulled the screw free.
For an instant, the duct held, and Bay kept crawling.
Then the duct detached from the ceiling.
It plunged down toward the rumbling, churning furnaces.
Bay leaped from the collapsing duct, reached out his good hand, aimed for the chimney where Rowan waited . . . and missed.
He fell toward the fire.
Rowan leaned out from the chimney and grabbed his wrist.
"God, you do weigh as much as an elephant!" she cried, tugging back with all her strength.
Bay kicked, dangling over the pit of hellfire, his legs kicking.
Behind him, the bonecrawlers spilled out from the collapsing duct. They flailed and squealed. One grabbed Bay's leg, and he grimaced and kicked madly. Rowan was tugged downward, nearly falling from the chimney. Even Fillister was hoisting Bay up, pulling his shirt. Bay kicked, slamming his foot into the bonecrawler's head. The beast tore free.
The bonecrawlers fell into the furnace below. Pistons grabbed them, tearing off their skin, shattering their round bones. Fire engulfed them. Flames roared upward, and smoke filled the furnace room. The broken duct gave a final creak, then fell off the ceiling, crushing burning bonecrawlers.
"Pull me up!" Bay said, still dangling by the wrist.
"Great idea!" Rowan said, straining, pulling him with both her hands. "Why didn't I think of that?"
If she had been holding him by the bad hand, he could have swung his good arm upward the grabbed the chimney's rim. As it was, Rowan had to keep tugging until he could swing his legs into the chimney. He collapsed beside her, breathing heavily.
For a moment, they both sat in silence, catching their breath.
Finally Rowan spoke. "That . . . was . . . awesome! You almost fell into the pit like Gandalf after battling the Balrog!"
"Speak English!" he wheezed.
"You almost fell like Indiana Jones off the rope bridge into the pit of crocodiles in Temple of Doom! Which is, by the way, a far better movie than the original reviewers thought. Though the third installment is, I would argue, superior to both first and second films. Best to ignore the fourth Indiana Jones film, though, and—"
"Rowan?"
She blinked at him. "Yeah?"
"Shut up." He slumped against the chimney wall. "Just . . . let me breathe for a moment."