Eunice stopped. She looked around the chamber as if she had no idea where she was. Bobby turned from the monitor and looked directly at the chamber, which had stopped less than ten meters out. Eunice’s eyes fell upon the central room and the people in it. With no warning at all, she lunged toward them, apparently unaware of the two-inch glass on the front of the chamber. She hit it with a thunk and blood splattered from her nose onto the glass. The act was so violent that Bobby stumbled back a step and several doctors cried out in surprise.
Eunice fell onto the chamber floor so hard her head bounced twice. She tried to roll over, but her arms and legs jabbed around wildly, preventing any coordinated movement.
“Seal the air vents to that chamber,” Helmich said. “Lock down the entire facility, now. Initiate alert phase of the 4:44 protocol.”
Helmich lunged at Bobby and grabbed him by the head, using the two implants as handles. “Tell me what’s happening or I’ll call upstairs and have all three of your friends killed!”
Bobby cried out in pain. “I don’t know! If you let me talk to it, I can find out.”
“God almighty!” someone said.
Helmich turned to look at chamber one. He released Bobby’s head and stared.
Bobby backed out of his reach. He looked at the chamber, and suddenly he forgot the pain in his head. Eunice’s body had somehow broken into two halves. Bobby’s eyes were drawn to the lower half, which was really just two legs held together by part of the hips. The legs were moving, bending at the knees and then pushing off against the floor, scooting the hips steadily across the room and leaving a wide, red smear. Suddenly the legs separated, and one of them moved in a new direction, dragging the other with it by the tattered remains of elastic pants.
The top half of Eunice’s body was trying to crawl up the front wall of the chamber, but her hands kept slipping on the glass. She pressed her mouth against the glass like she was trying to use it as a suction cup. Bobby watched her bloody tongue rolling around against the glass.
Helmich walked out of the center lab and toward chamber one. He stopped a few feet from the glass and just stared.
“Sir?” It was one of the doctors. “I’d like to leave. I volunteered to be on this team, but this—this isn’t what I signed up for.”
Helmich didn’t turn around. He just stared into the chamber. “The facility is locked down,” he said, almost too quietly to be heard. “No one leaves.”
“I agree with Kendrick,” said another doctor. “We should be allowed to leave.”
Suddenly Helmich jumped back from the chamber. He turned around, his eyes wide. “Get everyone with security status down here now! Go to critical phase of 4:44. No one leaves this room until we contain this.”
And then Bobby saw it. Eunice’s mouth had created a hole in the glass, as if her saliva had simply melted it away. And she was coming out through the hole. The red tip of her tongue had pushed through, and it just kept coming. It oozed down the outer surface of the glass, stretching and then thickening like a huge earthworm, getting longer by the second, until the end of it found the floor two feet below the hole. It began slithering across the floor as more and more of it emerged. As the worm grew, Eunice’s face became shriveled and unrecognizable.
The entire center lab erupted into chaos. Some of the doctors tried getting in the elevator, but the security men Helmich had called for were pouring out of it, and they drew their guns to stop the doctors from leaving. Helmich barked out orders, but no one was listening. One of the security guys approached chamber one with an orange canister, kind of like a fire extinguisher, and sprayed the hole in the glass and the nightmare that was coming out of it. When the white cloud settled, the crawling thing kept wriggling ferociously, seemingly unaffected. Another security guy was taking flimsy-looking facemasks to everyone in the room, ordering them to put them on. As he passed Bobby, he hesitated, but then he handed him one of the masks. Bobby couldn’t imagine how the mask could help, but he strapped it over his mouth and nose anyway.
He turned back to Eunice in time to see the worm detach from the remains of her head. The thing was at least four feet long, and it began squirming toward the center room. Suddenly Eunice’s body shoved one of its arms through the widening hole. The arm groped the outer surface of the glass, and Bobby thought he heard bones cracking as it felt its way in a complete circle around the hole.
A gun fired, and Bobby reflexively ducked his head. It was one of the security guys. His bullet had struck Eunice’s protruding arm and shattered it at the elbow. Her forearm dangled from the hole, swinging back and forth. The man shot again and the forearm came loose. It started flopping and squirming on the floor.
“Put your goddamn gun away before a ricochet kills someone!” Helmich said amidst the rising panic. He pointed to the parts of Eunice that had come out through the hole. “Get those things into containment bags!”
“Bobby, you are afraid. Why?”
Several doctors were placing pieces of equipment in front of the slithering thing that used to be Eunice’s tongue, trying to stop it from entering the center room.
Bobby shouted at the Lamotelokhai, “Because everything’s going to hell!”
“If you wish to minimize your risk—”
“I know!” Bobby cried. He made his way to Helmich’s side. “The only way to stop this is to get its help. Please!”
Helmich was opening the seal of a large, silver plastic bag, and he ignored Bobby. He then shoved the bag into the hands of one of the security guys. “Get those things into the bag and incinerate them!”
Another man was already trying to put a bag over Eunice’s severed arm, but the arm had somehow grown legs and was skittering in circles so fast he couldn’t catch it.
Bobby looked again at chamber one. The hole was now larger, and the remainder of Eunice’s upper body was crawling through it. But the body no longer resembled Eunice. It looked more like some kind of lizard, or maybe a lobster. Or maybe both. There was definitely a head, with two round eyes and a wide mouth, and the head had already crawled out the hole in the glass. The arm stub that had been shot off at the elbow now had regrown clawed fingers, which were digging into the glass, steadily pushing the chest through the hole. The longer arm didn’t look anything like the stubby one. It was covered with a glistening exoskeleton that reminded Bobby of a huge insect or lobster leg.
The creature popped out the hole and fell awkwardly to the floor. Bobby then saw there was another head at its back end. The second head looked like a miniature elephant’s, with a foot-long snout that whipped around as if the elephant were struggling to break free of the rest of the body.
Bobby had seen some terrifying things since he had met the Lamotelokhai, but nothing like this creature. A security man shot it twice, but the thing kept moving and changing. Another man made a desperate lunge at the creature, trying to enclose it in one of the silver bags. The bag went over the end with the lizard head but it got hung up on the legs. The creature whipped around and the weird elephant-like snout encircled the man’s wrist.
“Kill it, it’s biting me!” the man screamed.
The other man opened fire, shooting point blank at the creature until his gun only clicked.
The creature released the man’s wrist, and the guy rolled onto his side, holding his arm. “You idiot, you shot me!” And then the elephant thing was on top of him, this time going straight for his face. The silver bag still covered half its body, and the bag began shaking violently like it was full of pissed-off cats.
Another creature the size of Eunice’s leg crawled through the hole. This one resembled a crocodile, but it was still changing. A dog-like leg protruded from its side, just behind one of the front legs. The creature ignored the screaming man already under attack and started walking straight for Bobby. But then the extra dog leg kicked out swiftly and knocked the creature onto its side. It squirmed and then righted itself, but by this time the creature had transformed into a patchwork of reptile an
d mammal parts. The crocodile-like mouth gaped and let out a wet, sloshy growl, as if the transformation process were excruciating.
Doctors were now fighting to get on the elevator, and the two security guys who had been trying to stop them gave up and ran to help the man who had been bitten and shot. There were too many doctors to fit in the elevator, and the doors wouldn’t shut. A fist flew from within the elevator and struck a man who was trying to push his way in. His head jerked from the blow and he fell to the floor. Angry shouts then escalated into a full-blown mob fight and the fallen man was trampled by scuffling feet.
“Bobby, you are still afraid. Why?”
Bobby blinked. The voice in his head had roused him from his horrified trance. “I don’t know what’s happening,” he said, this time with thought-words. “But I have to do something.”
“If you wish to minimize—”
Someone grabbed Bobby roughly by the shoulder and spun him around. Helmich leaned over, his face a foot from Bobby’s. “Alright, do it!” he said.
Bobby shook his head. “Do what?”
“Put the parts back together! If you think it can stop this, then do it. I’ll unlock all the chambers.” He released Bobby and went to one of the computer stations.
Bobby nodded and said, “Okay,” although Helmich was already too far away to hear him over the chaos. Bobby headed for chamber one, but he stopped when he looked through the glass. The last portion of Eunice’s body—her other leg—had split into smaller parts, and the parts had become scurrying, climbing, slithering, and oozing creatures. They were all over the inside of the chamber, and at least one—a black thing like a huge mantis with extra-long legs—had found the hole in the glass and was crawling through it.
There was no way Bobby was going into chamber one.
He started for the next chamber. As he ran by the man who had been attacked, he realized the guy had stopped fighting. The elephant-like creature had released him and was rolling on the floor, trying to disengage from the now-shredded silver bag. The man was still lying on his back. He was alive, but instead of getting up to run away, he was staring in horror at his own body. His green clothing had been mostly torn away, possibly by the claws and fingers of whatever he was becoming.
Bobby backed away and then ran to the door of chamber two. Just as he reached for the hatch’s lever, an arm shot over his shoulder and grabbed one of his hands.
“Open it!” It was Helmich reaching over Bobby’s shoulder.
Together they lifted the lever and threw the hatch open. Helmich rushed in, knocking Bobby to the floor and falling on top of him. Helmich jumped up and quickly shut the hatch. He turned around, facing Bobby. Breathing hard, Helmich raised his hand and stared at it. Something had bitten off two of his fingers. Blood flowed out and fell onto Bobby’s shoes.
Bobby kicked his feet out, pushing himself back from the dripping blood. He got up and looked through the glass front. The doctors, and now the security guys, were still fighting to get in the elevator, too panicked to organize a smaller group to go up first. Something the size of a dog darted past on the other side of the glass wall, too fast for Bobby to see what it was. It had run between the chambers into the vast dark space beyond. Bobby looked to where the transforming man and the creature in the silver bag had been. Now there were only smears of blood on the floor—they were both gone.
Suddenly another dark shape shot out from between two of the chambers and smashed directly into the mass of people fighting in the elevator. The creature, whatever it was, ripped into them in a blur of teeth and claws. The people erupted from the elevator in panic. Bobby could see they were crying and screaming, but it was all eerily silent behind the thick glass. Some of them ran between the chambers to the space beyond, while others fell where they were, struggling but too hurt to get up.
A grunt from behind caused Bobby to turn away from the nightmare beyond the glass. Helmich had pulled off his shirt and was wrapping it around his injured hand. A key card hung on a spiral lanyard around his neck, slapping his bare chest as he worked.
“Hello, Bobby,” the Lamotelokhai said in his head. “You are still afraid.”
Bobby tried to calm himself and focus his thoughts. “I was going to put your parts back together, but now I’m trapped. I don’t think I can get to your other parts.” Bobby looked at Helmich, who was now staring at the glass wall in a trance. “In fact, I don’t think I can even stay in here for long.”
“How many subgroups of my parts can you put together?”
“There’s only one part in here. I can’t get to the others.”
The Lamotelokhai remained silent for several long seconds. “This is an interesting situation.”
Helmich was now rubbing his face with his good hand in the same way Eunice had rubbed hers.
“Maybe it’s interesting to you, but I’m about to die!”
“With the present arrangement of my parts, I cannot help you.”
“Then I’m dead!” Bobby shouted aloud. Helmich didn’t even glance over at him.
“Bobby,” said the Lamotelokhai, “you have access to one of the subgroups of my parts, correct?”
Bobby looked at Addison’s left arm and shoulder within the clear micro chamber latched to the floor. “Yes, but only one.”
“At this moment I am doing what I can to reconfigure the functions of the subgroup nearest to you. Perhaps that subgroup can be of some use to you.”
Bobby started unlatching the micro chamber from the floor. “I thought you said people shouldn’t do things with just a part of you.”
“I am doing what I can to reconfigure the functions of the subgroup. I believe I can reconfigure its functions so that it will not be as dangerous to you.”
Bobby finished unlatching the microchamber. He shoved it over and kicked it away, ripping out the probes and wires. “What can I do with it?”
“It is difficult for me to know.”
Bobby stared at the arm and shoulder and frowned. “Okay.”
A sound came from behind Bobby and his gut clenched tight. It was a large body hitting the floor, followed by the moist tearing of flesh. He wheeled around. Helmich was mostly gone. In his place was a hulking jumble of partially-formed animal parts, each of them pushing and straining against the others to the point of tearing flesh wide open. There wasn’t much left that was recognizable as Helmich, other than some pieces of his green clothing. His red glasses lay on the floor to the side. And there, hanging from the creature’s neck and head, which now looked something like a fruit bat, was the lanyard with the key card.
Bobby had to get out of there. With no plan in mind, he picked up the clear shell of the microchamber, raised it high, and brought it down hard on the mass of fighting creatures, halfway enclosing them within the box. He kicked it, rolling the entire box and writhing body onto its side. There was the key card, right on top. He lunged forward and grabbed the card, pulling it back just as the fruit bat tried to sink its teeth into his hand. The spiral cord stretched—it was caught around the bat’s neck. Bobby yanked on it as hard as he could. The bat screeched, the cord came loose, and Bobby fell on his butt next to Addison’s arm. He scooped up the arm and scrambled to his feet.
To get out of the chamber, he would have to jump over Helmich’s transforming body. He couldn’t risk that, so he circled to the side covered by the clear microchamber. He kicked the chamber again, which pushed the struggling mass an inch to the side. He sucked in a lungful of air and kicked it again and again, spitting out one word with each kick.
“Get…out…of…my…freakin’…way!”
One of the creatures within the mass—the fruit bat—seemed to be winning the battle for dominance over the others. A long, wing-like arm protruded from each side. The arms grappled with the floor, allowing the creature to turn the entire mass to face Bobby. It started to stand up.
It was now or never. Bobby kicked the microchamber cover one more time, pushing the creature back another few inches. He grabb
ed the hatch, threw it open, and jumped through into the space between chambers.
His ears were assaulted with cries of people in panic and pain. He glanced at the center room. The elevator doors were trying to close over and over, stopped by several transforming, fighting, screeching bodies. No chance of going that way. There had to be a stairway somewhere, but 162 meters of cavernous space surrounded the center lab in every direction. Bobby could see shapes out there in the semi-darkness. Some of them were on two legs—the doctors and security men who had so far avoided being killed or transformed. But other shapes had more than two legs, or they had wings, or flippers. And most of them were close on the heels of the panicked people.
Where were the stairs? He would have to make it to the outer wall and then search the perimeter until he found them. Or, he could stay here in the center and try to recombine the Lamotelokhai’s parts. To do that he’d have to go into every chamber. But the area was crawling with monsters. Some of them were no bigger than mice, but that probably didn’t matter. One bite or scratch and he would be transformed like all the others. The bodies in the elevator were starting to take shape. In fact, they had all merged together into one, and the massive things was getting to its feet—a creature with a long neck and head like an emu, but a body somewhere between a kangaroo and a velociraptor.
Bobby stood there between the chambers, key card in one hand and Addison’s arm in the other. “I can’t put your parts together,” he said silently.
“I am detecting the cognitive functions of others. There are many of them. They seem to have my parts within them, but they are unable to communicate with me.”
“That’s because they’re deformed animals! Can you make them stop?”
“It is not possible for me to control them. I can only attempt to speak to them.”
Suddenly a dark shape filled the hatch to chamber two, which was hanging open. Bobby instinctively shrank away until his back was against the wall of chamber one. But this put only a few feet of space between him and the creature that used to be Helmich. Apparently the fruit bat had won the struggle for control over Helmich’s body, and now the thing was crawling through the hatch directly toward him. Clawed wings longer than Bobby’s body tapped and scratched against metal as the creature awkwardly grappled with the opening. As it emerged, it paused to look toward the well-lit center room. It then turned and looked out into the dark space beyond the chambers. Finally it looked at Bobby. It started scratching again, this time more violently. It was coming for him.
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