The Queen wasn't looking at them. It didn't even seem to know they existed.
One of its enormous legs pulled free from the fungal network, tearing apart countless membranes that snapped one after another with loud cracking sounds.
Another leg followed, smashing directly into the chamber wall and sending chunks of dirt and concrete flying everywhere.
"It wants to get out!" Otis shouted while climbing into the tunnel.
Arthur looked back only once before his face turned even paler.
"No... it's trying to escape the mushroom."
The swollen abdomen kept dragging behind it, still connected by hundreds of white membranes that stretched until they finally broke. The dying mushroom couldn't hold the Queen anymore, and every movement destroyed another part of the Groove that had grown together with it.
The entire underground shook continuously as they crawled upward.
