The wild ticker broke away from its captors the instant the cage dropped open. It raced ahead for several seconds, then slowed and looked back. They were following it. There were only three: the big one, the really big one, and the little one. All of them easily towered over it.
The big one screeched something the wild ticker understood. Humans. They wanted it to find the humans. It sped off again, darting out from behind rusted car shells and clawing past flash-vaporized surface dwellers still frozen in dust. As it approached the skeletal carcass of another rust bucket, the wild ticker slowed. Barbed wire.
A length of barbed wire ran across the wild ticker's path, going from the back of the car to a nearby cement black. Going around wasn't even a thought. This must have been why the poor creature hadn't been fed since its capture.
Chomp.
Someone started coughing, stopped, then erupted into a hacking fit. The noise covered the sound of the wild ticker eating its way through the barbed wire.
Chomp. Chomp
The big one, now standing directly over the wild ticker, let loose a short burst from his gorgon pistol and the coughing fell to wet gasps. The wild ticker didn't care. It had just one more bite to go.
Chomp.
Through the gap in the gate it went before stopping yet again, this time before a bearded surface dweller sprawled out on the ground and clutching his throat with both hands. The man's features contorted back and forth between agony and surprise. The wild ticker inched forward and touched at the man's forehead with one of its feelers, then jumped back. Finally, after a long pause, the wild ticker lunged forth and sunk its fangs into his face.