Tunnel Vision

“Huh?!” The markswoman pulled out her pistol. “What did you see up there? Was it a monster? Please tell me it wasn’t a monster!”

“We must escape,” stated Qu’l-Nia. There was a catch in her throat Alma had never heard her make before. “I was wrong to bring us down this way. I deliberately sacrificed your safety in order to satisfy my own sense of worth. What kind of a being am I? You must forgive me, Alma. But please, we must go now!”

The two women ran back in the direction they had entered from. The walls of the tunnel began to shake violently as the temple had earlier. Everything around them shifted and vibrated. It seemed they had located the source of the quakes.

“You know,” Alma spoke to the eldritch woman as they fled. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you run! I… don’t know what I was expecting.”

“I could have flown but I did not want to leave you behind.”

“Wha... Seriously?! Wait, what is even chasing us? Can’t I just shoot it?”

“Firearms are not the answer to everything. As I reached the length of the passage, I encountered strange growths protruding from the surrounding walls. As I paused to investigate, I realized the rest of the way forward was replete with them. I regret to admit that I might have continued moving but they then began to rotate rapidly before moving upon me. The growths appeared to be sharp and serrated.”

“You don’t mean…!”

“Yes. I believe they were the gnawing teeth of an unfathomable, subterranean invertebrate. I made an erroneous assumption earlier when I believed only the entrance to be blocked by an unknown alien lifeform. In reality, it seems we inadvertently stepped into its digestive system.”

“What the fuck?!” screamed Alma, almost stumbling to the ground after what seemed now an obvious revelation. What were you thinking leading us down here?! In the middle of some alien gods damned planet?! You should've known better! Why do I just blindly trust you? I try and I try to excuse all the crazy crap you do, but what is wrong with you?!" The ex-soldier's voice echoed throughout the living tunnel.

Qu'l-Nia couldn't bring herself to respond to Alma's panicked barrage of questions. Before Alma could say anything more, she had crashed headfirst into what was once the entrance where they had started—completely sealed shut.

"Qu'l-Nia!" yelled Alma, struggling to pick herself back up from the slime-covered floor. She helplessly ran her hands all over the new tough membrane that had replaced the entry hole. "Did this thing actually trap us inside? We're about to be turned into mincemeat. Please tell me you can do something to get us out of here. Maybe some of that othering singing crap?"

The eldritch woman stared at the wall in disbelief. "I–I do not know. Whenever I try to concentrate, I can feel my hands shaking and my voice trembling. Is this what they call fear? Alma, is this it? Are we going to die? Just like that?"

The sounds of something rough grinding against stone grew louder as it approached.

Alma steeled herself before reaching over to Qu’l-Nia and slapping her hard in the face. There was a faint purple mark where she had been struck. It had almost appeared to be glowing.

The ex-soldier’s expression had turned stern. “Snap out of it, Q! We need to figure out how the fuck to get out of here if we don’t want to turned into mush and eaten!”

Qu’l-Nia’s lips parted but no sound came out. She closed her eyes and shook her head. “There are too many contradicting thoughts going through my mind, I am finding it hard to focus… As if something were influencing my thoughts. It began when I first arrived to this universe. I cannot explain it. I am afraid I am all but useless. It is you who must get us out of here. You must channel that power of yours the same way you did to travel here. It is now or never, Alma.”

“It’s up to me?” She let out an irritated scream. “That’s just great! Why not? At least then the next time I can say, ‘I’ve survived much worse!’ Where would I even begin? I don’t have any fucking clue how I got here in the first place. If I did, I’d have teleported back home already!”

The eldritch woman swung her arm, slapping Alma in the face.

“The fuck?! Why did you hit me?! I didn’t say I wasn’t gonna try!”

“It worked to steady me when you did it. I believed it would have the same effect if I did it to you.”

Alma groaned. “I was. I was steady. I like to complain when things look bleak, okay? I’m used to being relied on thanks to a certain witch. It’s almost laughable how many times I’ve been in this situation.” Alma closed her eyes, straining to ignore the increasingly loud grinding coming from the other side of the creature’s bowels.

“Recall the first time you jumped between universes. What had you been thinking at that moment? What had you been feeling?”

“I was… happy.” Alma smiled a bittersweet smile. “Happier than I’d been in a long time. The mission was going swimmingly and I’d just made up with my best friend. I couldn’t wait to get back to our adventure. It felt like I could finally enjoy that insanity of it all. Like I was ready to accept my role in all of this. I just don’t know why it brought me here of all places.”

“Then if you wish to fulfill that role, you must survive. You must live to see all of our plans come to fruition. Please, Alma. Save us.”

Alma placed a hand on her alien friend’s shoulder and gripped it tightly. The yellow of the young sniper’s pupils shone luminously. From the corner of her vision, she could see a movement in the darkness as the grinding sound now pierced her ears. The noise failed to break her train of thought, however. All she could picture was the two of them going home. To the familiar landscape of Sarracas where all her friends and family lived. Where this whole mess had started and where she hoped it all would end. The ground below their feet grew softer—mushier. Their feet digging deep into the mucosal lining of eldritch intestines. Until eventually there was no ground at all.