Chapter 6: Dark Corridors

"Which one do we take?", asked Claire. "The right one", answered Magda, almost immediately. They had been following a narrow corridor and were now standing between two doors that looked just about as disgusting as everything in this place did. "The left one", whispered Libby, "obviously the left one". "Why?"
"Because I've seen pictures of the alien ships. They are round. And the corridor we have been following was bent a little bit to the right. Which means that, if the hive is also roundish, taking the door to the left has a higher chance to take us to a more outward section and hopefully closer to an exit". Libby could see that neither Claire nor Magda had any objections to her reasoning. Claire's beautiful green eyes were even wide with admiration. 'I'm just a little less clueless than she is, but as long as I can keep them thinking I got things under control, it's all for the better'. Claire seemed to be holding up reasonably well, all things considered.
So they entered the left door, which resembled a sphincter a little more closely than Libby was comfortable with. "Maybe we will even find some clothing here", said Magda, though judging by her posture, she was experiencing less discomfort by her nudity than one may expect from a nun. Claire, on the other hand, always made an effort to cover herself with her hands each time she found Libby glancing at her – And Libby couldn't help but glance from time to time.
Magda's hopes were irrational, though. Libby could think of no reason why the aliens would keep the abductee's clothes around, and less reason to think that they would find them. There wasn't anything around to use as clothing, either: Everything that they saw in the hive was the hive, was in some way an outgrowth from the walls, the ceiling or the floor. They might have been able to cover their decency with pieces of the alien skin that formed the hive's inner surface, but neither did they have anything to cut it with, nor did they care to find out whether the inside of that stuff would be poisonous or acidic.
Besides, being naked was not as bad as it could have been. Sure, Libby and possibly Claire would be thankful for a bra just because their big breasts and their backs were bound to get sore after a while of running around like this, but the air had a humid warmth to it and the floor felt as if it was made for bare feet. The warm flesh underneath felt almost nice to the touch. As if anything in this place could feel nice.
After a few more corridors and a few more doors, Claire pointed out a problem that could turn out to be far greater: "I'm thirsty". Indeed, Libby had pondered how they could keep themselves hydrated should their escape take as long as she feared, and she hadn't come up with any ideas. Granted, she herself had swallowed quite a bit of liquid due to what that alien scumbag had done to her earlier, but she preferred not to think about that. One thing was sure: If the aliens wouldn't get them, thirst would, unless they found something to drink at some point.
"Not much we can do about that either, I fear. We just have to press on and hope that we... unless..." It was pretty obvious. Literally everything in this place was moist. If they had to lick the walls to survive, so be it. Libby rubbed her finger over the wall next to her, and much to her delight, it was now webbed with liquid. She took a heart, tasted it...

and spat it out right away. "Salty", she proclaimed in dismay. Damn. "Let's just move on then, if we..." "Ssshhhhh!" Magda was gesturing wildly for them to be quiet, although they had never raised their voices above a whisper. They stopped in their tracks and held their breath. Then Libby heard it, too. Footsteps, and voices. And they were closing in. While their own bare feet seemed to not create any sound at all on the fleshy ground, alien boots were a different affair.
Anxiously, Libby looked around for a place to hide, though she didn't have high hopes in this corridor. She grasped her gun more firmly and played with the safety. But then Claire pointed to a cavity in the wall a few feet back. It was below waist level and not very deep. 'Two of us might fit in, but all three?'
But they didn't have much of a choice, unless they wanted to have a gunfight on their hands and either get killed or alert the entire hive to their position. So they went for it without another word. Claire and Magda went in immediately, leaving Libby exposed outside in the corridor. "That won't work, get closer together! Closer!" Claire pressed against the side wall awkwardly and Magda pulled her legs toward her, folding into a ball, almost looking like a baby still in the womb. Libby tried her best to squeeze in next to them, and if this had been a niche in a concrete wall, it would have been impossible. But it wasn't a concrete wall. It was a moist, round gap in the wall. So after another push they were in, all three of them, a knot of human flesh. Magda's head pressed into Libby's tit uncomfortably and Libby's hand was on Claire's soft butt. Her face was surrounded by blond hair, her cheeck pressing against a warm shoulder. Libby inhaled Claire's scent. Was it fear she smelled? Whatever it was, for some fucked up reason, it made her wet.
Almost in a rythm with Claire's pounding heart, Libby could hear the footsteps move closer.
The cavity wasn't very deep and the three of them were just below waist level. One look down, one stray ray of light in this otherwise dark corridor, one breath drawn too loudly and the women would be discovered.
When they saw a boot, all three held their breath. It was very dark – both the boot and the surroundings – but it looked like there were bloodstains on it. Luckily, there wasn't much time to make sure, because the aliens moved by without a sign that they had noticed them. Only when the steps sounded far enough away did they dare to breath out. "Can we go now?", asked Claire, obviously directed at Libby, "It feels as if the wall is closing in on me". "Let's wait a few more moments", she replied, making sure the patrol was gone. Then, after another 20 seconds or so, Libby was content and wriggled herself out of their alcove. Slipping away from the warm flesh felt both good and bad, like trading the comfort of closeness in for freedom. Though "free" in this case only referred to the freedom to move and was one of the last words she would use to describe their situation. Magda followed after her. Claire didn't. "What are you waiting for?" Claire didn't follow them. "Get out of there, we need to keep moving!" - "I – I can't. I think I'm stuck!"
How could she be stuck? There was nothing in there to get stuck on. "Hang on... I think... I think it's MOVING!"
"What is moving?", Libby asked apprehensively. Claire looked outright terrified all of a sudden. "My leg! It's on my leg!" Libby looked down. And there it was, something that fit right into this place: Pulsing and wet, some kind of long tentacle had wrapped itself around Claire's ankle, quickly moving up her leg. It was the same color as the wall it had erupted from, part of the hive itself. Had they just not seen it? Had it hidden itself in the shadows, waiting for victims, or had it litterally just grown out of the wall? Any of those answers seemed as likely as the other. None of them mattered. What mattered was that they had to get Claire away from it. "Hang in there!" said Libby, and reached down, trying to get a grip of the tentacle as it crawled up her friend. But it was too wet and slimy and just slithered up between her palms, towards... towards what everything in this place seemed to aim at. Helplessly, Libby watched as their snake-like enemy closed in on Claire's vulnerable pussy, coiling again and again around one leg. Libby thought of her gun. 'No, they will hear the shot and come back'. Now the tentacle's tip touched Claire's lips, revealing a hint of pink. "What are you doing, Magda?! Fucking help me with this!" Libby made one last effort to hold it back, but there was nothing she could do. When the tentacle entered her friend, there was a soft squishing noise... followed by Claire's scream.