Buzz had set them up so that only one person at a time was looking through the window, but even so their attention had wandered and their guard had dropped. Neb had been half-looking at his map and half-answering Buzz’s question, and he simply had not seen the dark creature racing through the dimness under the tree until it was already upon them.

It seemed hardly more than a shadow, but one littered with claws and teeth, making a rasping noise as it raced across the smooth floor. ‘INCOMING!’ Mallory roared, and he and Buzz opened up with their rifles.

And yet to Neb’s confusion they were not shooting at the shadow creature. It was only by following the direction of their gunfire that he saw what they had seen.

Coming across the huge space in a stomach-churning wave from the other side of the tree was a mass of giant centipedes, multi-segmented bodies glistening in the light, countless legs chattering, the things climbing over and around each other, opening and closing their sharp, seeking mouths. The rifle fire from the team was ripping them apart in waves, heads and segments exploding wetly, a swell of yellowish-white goop now washing along the floor with the incoming horde, but just as with the scorps back the unnamed village, there seemed to be an endless number of the things.

‘Oh fuck,’ Neb yelped, feeling disgust rise in his stomach. The others had not even seen the shadow-creature. It had four legs and a medium-size head and dark gleaming fur. Were it not for the outsize claws and teeth, it would look somewhat like a very large dog.

‘CONTACT!’ Anna screamed this time, and she and Gray turned their rifles from the centipedes to the black creature. Neb aimed his rifle with them, but something made him hesitate. Nothing he could verbalize. But he was certain the creature was not attacking -- it was fleeing, trying to escape the centipede wave.

He had only an instant to react.

‘DON’T SHOOT IT!’ he yelled, and he lunged forward and pushed Gray’s rifle with his hand so that her shot went wide. But Anna’s aim was true. She fired a burst of three rounds, all of which hit the creature center mass, and it fell and slid across the floor, leaving a trail of dark blood. Anna glanced at Neb for only a moment, then turned her attention back to the centipedes.

‘Fuck,’ Neb murmured. The creature was bleeding out, its eyes on Neb.

‘FALL BACK!’ Buzz was screaming. ‘FALL BACK!’

The creature’s eyes were bright and intelligent, and it never looked away from Neb, its head turned awkwardly to see him.

‘FALL BACK, GODDAMMIT! FALL BACK!’

But Neb ignored the order and ran to where the creature had fallen. Its body had been torn by the heavy rounds and then twisted as it fell. The health bar for the creature read 2/12, but even as Neb looked it ticked down to 1/12. Its eyes closed and it was still.

Buzz and Mallory were both screaming at him to fall back. He did not dare glance up to see how close the centipedes were. He had only one healing orb, and he knew that using it on the creature might mean death for himself, or one of the others. But he was running on pure instinct. There was not enough time to think or analyze.

‘DOC GODDAMMIT!’ Buzz bellowed. ‘DON’T YOU DARE USE THAT FUCKING ORB ON --’

But Neb had already done it. The blue glow washed over the creature, then its eyes opened. For an instant Neb thought his instincts were bullshit and the thing was about to attack him. His hand moved to where his sword had been, before reaching instead for his pistol. But as soon as the creature was healed it jumped up and started running again, sprinting away into the shadows. Neb had only an instant to examine it in the overlay: Sandovian wolf, a distant ancestor of Earth’s canine population. Often found as companions to members of the Emorist cult. This particular one is a male, and answers to the name Growl.

So it was basically a dog.

Growl raced right by the other humans and this time none of them shot him, though they watched him warily. Then he slid to a halt, claws scraping, and looked back at them, barking deeply and quickly, dancing on his front paws. His message was unmistakable: Follow me.

Neb sprinted after him. Behind was a wet slithering sound, as the centipede wave was mere meters away. ‘FOLLOW HIM!’ Neb yelled, his lungs already burning from the chase. ‘FOLLOW THE DOG FOR FUCK’S SAKE!’

The team hesitated another instant but then even Buzz turned and ran after Growl. The animal raced on again, skipping the first few tunnels and then turning hard into a small side-passage, almost lost between two large openings. Neb was bringing up the rear, already falling behind the others, and he stared at the tunnel mouth intently, willing himself to get there. He barely made it -- he flashed inside just as one of the huge centipedes swung its grasping mouth at him and smacked into the edge of the tunnel instead. Neb felt the wind of the thing’s movement and made a small sound that he hoped never to hear from himself or anyone else ever again.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

The sheer number and speed of the centipedes created a logjam as they tried to force their way into the small tunnel and got tangled in a thrashing knot of bodies. The humans and Growl sprinted deeper into the tunnel, but even as Neb glanced back the first of the centipedes was gliding down the tunnel in chase, with a sinuous, stomach-churning motion.

Up ahead Growl had stopped again and was looking to Neb and barking and jumping again. The other humans had raced past it without a second glance, racing deeper into the tunnel.

Neb had to fight every instinct to just keep running also, but he forced himself to stop beside the dog. His whole body was gripped by the desire for flight. Growl was braking frantically and jumping up against the wall. Mounted on the wall was a small control panel with three Main symbols on it.

‘COVER ME!’ Neb screamed at the fleeing humans. ‘I NEED COVER!’

Meathead was the first to respond. He ran back to Neb and opened fire against the centipede wave that was slithering towards them, rifle flare strobing the tunnel. The sight of the waggling, overlapping giant centipedes glowing in the harsh light was one Neb wished he could unsee. Growl looked from the control panel to the incoming centipedes to Neb, his huge mouth half open, as if to say: Hurry the fuck up.

Neb touched the panel with shaking hands. His Main Scholar skill triggered, and the symbol meaning on the right was rapid or fast. He touched the symbol gently, then hammered on it, but nothing happened. WHAT is rapid or fast, he almost screamed. He pushed the other symbols and then ran his palm over the whole panel, but still nothing happened. The incoming horror-wave was almost breaking over them. Mallory, Gray and Buzz had joined Meathead forcing the centipedes back, but they did not have enough ammo to last more than another few seconds.

‘FUCKING DO SOMETHING DOC!’ Mallory roared at him.

‘Oh fuck,’ Neb moaned. He touched everything again and then again, slapping his hand down hard, but nothing happened. Neb thought he might pass out. Growl stared up at him intently, silent now, as if trying to convey something. He saw Meathead and the others take one step back and then another as the centipedes forced them deeper into the tunnel. They were all going to be drowned in the hideous wave.

‘Neb,’ said Anna’s cool voice beside him, and she gently took his hand away. Then she put her fingertip under the panel edge and lifted up a protective cover. Neb stared at it dully, wondering how he could have been so stupid. Underneath was a button, and Anna pushed it.

Back up the tunnel towards the central space a metal door rolled across the tunnel and sealed it, slicing through the bodies of the centipedes who were in the wrong place at the wrong moment.

‘FALL BACK, KEEP FIRING!’ Buzz screamed, and Neb joined in with the others in laying down a torrent of destruction on the centipedes. Bodies and heads burst in torrents of goop, and Neb tried not to let himself see any of it too clear. It took over half their remaining ammo to take out the last of the centipedes on their side of the door, but at last they were all still. It wa silent bar the sounds of centipede goop dripping from the roof or from the ruined bodies.

‘Fuck me,’ Meathead said.

Neb was shaking. When he looked at the panel now, it was completely obvious how to use it.

‘Thanks,’ he said to Anna. ‘I don’t know how I couldn’t… It didn’t…’

‘Get it together, soldier,’ she said quietly, keeping her voice low enough that the others couldn’t hear, but still firmly giving an order. ‘I got a hint from my Main Seeker skill -- Up can be as good as down. Otherwise I might not have noticed it either.’

Neb nodded. ‘Yes, m’am,’ he said. He knew his face looked ashen. He forced himself to take a deep breath. To distract himself he reached out to Growl and patted the creature on his head. He lived up to his name with a deep rumble from his stomach.

‘How did you know he was friendly?’ Anna asked.

It was a wild fucking guess in the moment, Neb thought, and he was trying to think of something plausible to say when he was saved by Buzz.

‘Well,’ the commander said. ‘That was a fucking shitshow.’ He looked at the wasted centipedes grimly. ‘Let’s keep moving.’

As if in answer Growl trotted further down the tunnel, then paused and looked back at them. Buzz glanced at the team, and then wordlessly they all followed the creature.

The tunnel sloped steadily downwards. Lights came on ahead of them as they walked, so that each time it felt like they were approaching the tunnel’s end another long stretch ahead was unveiled. It seemed endless.

Growl took them down various side-tunnels and passages, and they found themselves following the creature without ever having explicitly agreed to do so. They kept a sharp eye out for more of the centipedes or any other enemy, pausing every now and then to listen, but they heard and saw nothing.

‘Those fucking things, man,’ Mallory said after a while, as if reading Neb’s thoughts. ‘Gross.’ Neb shuddered. Of all the terrible things they had seen, the centipede horde was the one that had got deepest into his mind.

Neb looked at the game clock and saw there were only twelve and a half hours left. Fuck. They were incredibly far from making it through the gate. He looked around at the others, trying to guess how they felt about it, but they were just moving steadily, scanning, weapons out, in their default mode. They would soldier on, literally and metaphorically, to the bitter end.

Up ahead Growl came to a stop and turned back to them, his mouth of huge teeth half open, tail wagging. He looked undeniably pleased with himself, but it was not obvious why.

‘Has he found something?’ Gray asked.

Then from nowhere, a tall figure dressed in white appeared beside Growl. The humans dropped automatically into defensive positions.

‘What the fuck,’ Mallory said. ‘Did we just get betrayed by a fucking dog?’

There was a long, tense pause, then the figure spoke.

‘I am the Guide,’ it said. ‘What do you seek?’