“Hold on, Dave,” she panted. “I’m coming.”
“Hurry up.”
Sweating and red-faced, she pushed and pushed, until finally the box was close enough. She climbed onto it, then onto the top of the placktoid. Running to the front, she saw Dave’s face peering up anxiously. He was standing in a triangle of walls and mechanical alien just large enough to hold him. She grabbed his hands and leaned back. Scrabbling up the machine’s teeth, he climbed onto the top. She took him to the box and together they climbed down.
The alien still showed no sign of movement.
“What did you do? How did you stop it?” asked Dave. “I could hear it talking, but without the translator I couldn’t understand.”
“I didn’t do anything. It wouldn’t listen to me. It said we were all going to die, it was going to have fun killi
