Not wanting to wait for nature to take its course, Willard slid up the rise, lying on his stomach, inching forward with one arm and clasping onto the emergency supplies with the other. As the tunnel tightened around him, Willard's ribs began to ache. He could see that the tunnel grew wide again on the other side. Blowing the air from his lungs compressed his chest enough to give a little wiggle room and with a determined shove, he crushed himself forward, then stopped.

Stuck.

He tried to move back, but a wall of fresh feces had already sealed him in from behind.

While Willard's oxygen supply was more than plentiful, he found breathing to be nearly impossible. The dense fecal matter below and tight intestinal wall above had him in an unrelenting grip. Stabbing pains filled his chest as each breath pressed his lungs into his ribs, which threatened to crack under the strain. As dark splotches began to appear in Willard's vision, he became aware of an escape plan.

He slid a hand down to his waist, pushing past the impacted feces and grappled with one of the several spare tanks of compressed air. Though his muscles suffered from severe spasms, caused by lack of oxygen, he worked his fingers as quickly as he could, twisting the cap off the air tank.

As consciousness faded, Willard felt the cap fall into his hand.

You're about to get a serious case of gas, my friend.

Instantly, the tightness around his body loosened. The tube expanded, wider and wider. Willard climbed up the rise and slid to the other side. He looked down the tunnel and saw a wall of white. He knew what it was, and as the gas from his open air canister continued to expand the chamber, he understood what the end result would be.

Figures, Willard thought, I had to get eaten by a constipated alien.

Preparing for a wild ride, Willard fell to his hands and knees and gripped the pliable fecal floor. And not a moment too soon. Everything began to move, shaking wildly. Willard imagined that the pressure inside the creature's bowels must have become extremely uncomfortable. The travel had so far been even footed, but now the creature must be moving, writhing in pain.

With a sudden burst, like a roller coaster dropping down its tallest peak, everything launched forward. Willard felt himself pulled up, then shoved down. One moment he was impacted in sludge, the next he was being tossed through open air. A sudden decrease in speed pulled at his muscles. Air returned to his lungs. He was free!