Free The Defiler by Steven Savile

living wall.
    Sláine stopped, pushing the burning stave in front of them and waiting for the fire to open up a path through the insects. They were packed too close together to allow for retreat. It was impossible to tell how deep the black-carapaced wall was. Their only chance of getting to the other side of the wall of insects was to burn their way through, but looking at the endless wave of antennae and mandibles Sláine doubted the practicality of charging the wall, fire or no fire. Which meant there was no chance they could leave the way they had come - meaning, in turn, there was no route back to the hillside where the Morrigan had opened the door between yesterday and today for them.
    There was no way out.
    They were trapped.
    "What now?"
    The wall of chittering and shrieking insects surged towards them.
    "We're not dying here, not to some flaming bug."
    "Flaming bug, that's almost funny."
    "Just give me your torch."
    Sláine hurled the centre of the living wall, triggering a series of deafening explosions as first one and then dozens of the gaseous insects burst into flame. He didn't wait to see the extent of the damage. The harsh series of detonations and the desperate shrieks of the insects was enough to tell him too many had survived. Without thinking, Sláine shouldered open the nearest door and bundled Ukko through it. He planted his own firebrand in the doorway, praying it would keep the creatures at bay long enough for them to find a way out of this hell hole.
    The room was barren, the walls smeared with what looked like dried blood. There was no sign of the hovel's previous inhabitants, either here or in the lower rooms, as they descended the rickety wooden stair set into the corner of the corridor leading off the main living quarters.
    "We should burn it," Ukko said, looking back over his shoulder at the stairs, "so they can't follow us."
    "No point, they'd just cover over the rooftops," Sláine grunted, kicking down the door. "Come on, before they realise where we've gone."
    The pair of them ran out into the street, looked left, saw the huge wall of seething insects pressing into the narrow street, multi-faceted eyes blazing, saw-toothed blades dragging a screeee-scraaaaw against the baked stone, and ran right, arms and legs pumping furiously.
    The air burned in Sláine's lungs. The incessant screeee-scraaaaw rasping swelled to fill his head until it was all he heard; a death sentence scratched out on the very fabric of the nightmarish city.
    The street ahead divided into three branches, left, right and straight on. Sláine took the sinister path. Beside him, Ukko gasped and panted, his short legs struggling to match Sláine's powerful stride. Sláine stooped low and scooped the dwarf up, hoisting him over his shoulder. The dwarf wriggled around like a lizard, struggling to break free of Sláine's iron grip. "Just lie still and tell me if you see them coming!"
    Thirty yards down the left-hand path the shadows of the huge insects returned, crushing down on them from the high rooftops of the hovels. Sláine didn't waste energy or momentum looking at them, he ran for his life, Brain-Biter in one hand, Ukko in the other.
    This time there was no fire to keep the insects back.
     
    The street opened up into a vast square, outside of the city walls and yet not a part of the desert proper. The centre of the square was dominated by a towering leafless tree. It was a remarkable sight, soaring into the blazing sky, a thousand skeletal branches reaching out over every inch of the square. Their emaciated shadows crept into every crack and crevice, worming into the hard-baked ground, between the stones of the walls of the hovels.
    "They're gaining!" Ukko gasped into his ear, kicking Sláine in the chest frantically as though trying to spur him on.
    Sláine grunted, and looked around, trying to decide which way to run.
    The choices were rapidly disappearing as, street by street, the wall of insects became a noose,