Slither (24 page)

"The fuck you talkin' about? Big one?"

"Big, big guy. Like a football player. I guess he
adapted better than most. Shit, maybe he changed over
completely, ain't gonna die at all. He's a big guy. Watch
out for him. He's trompin' around here like a fuckin'
zombie."

The words dragged Slydes's memory back like something on a hook. Big guy. Like a zombie. Ruth had said
the same exact thing. And she'd also said a bunch of
shit about-

"Tell me about the worms ...'

"They're the whole experiment, Slydes. And like I
said-we're the subjects. Any poor fucker who's dumb
enough to come to this island ... becomes part of the
experiment them guys are doing."

Slydes's voice ground like gravel. "What guys?"

"You ain't see 'em? They sneak out every now and
then to check on things. Military guys. Army, navy, I
ain't sure. They're wearin' these camouflage rubber
suits, and gas masks."

Slydes just stared at the information his brother had
given him. "Shit, man-" Jonas's knees shook, and
sweat made his yellowed face shine like baby oil. With
difficulty, he sat down at the base of the tree. "Ahh,
yeah, that's better. You gotta get your ass out of here
now, Slydes. Get out of here before I turn over."

"What do you mean, turn over?"

"I been infected by those yellow things. They look
like fat ticks, and they got red spots on 'em."

Slydes suddenly felt like he had a belly full of spoiled
meat. He knew what his brother was talking about.
Dread nearly closed his throat off. "Jonas, I picked a
couple of the selfsame things off my body the other
night. Am-am-am ... I infected too?"

"You ain't turning yellow so probably not. Maybe
you got 'em off before they could bite. When they bite
they inject this shit in your blood ... that changes you.
Changes you yellow. Changes your insides ... so the
worms can grow in you better."

Slydes looked at his arms, saw no signs of the insane
infection that had stricken his brother.

"But it also changes your brain, too, after enough
time's passed. I ain't there yet, but I will be. It's almost
like you start to take on the instincts of the worms."

"You mean like that little one in the pot house? And
I just saw some more in that creek, little tiny things."

"Them's the worms I mean."

"But-but . . . but Ruth said she saw some worms
ten feet long. That ain't true, is it? Tell me it ain't true."

Jonas grinned through gray teeth. "It's true. Them little tiny things in the creek? They grow fast, and they
grow big."

"Not ten feet!" Slydes protested.

"Oh, shit, man-they get bigger than that."

The information wasn't what Slydes needed to hear.

"The big ones are the worst, 'cause they need to eat
more. They dissolve your insides, brother, and then
suck it out. That's what they eat. They choose smaller
people to lay their eggs in, and bigger people to eat."
Jonas's brow popped up. "And you're a pretty big guy,
Slydes. So what I'm sayin' is you gotta get your ass off this island right now. Get Ruth off too. And leave.
Now While you still got a chance."

'I'm taking you with me, get you to a doctor back on
the mainland."

Jonas shook his head. His yellow finger trembled
when he slipped a reefer from his pocket and shakily lit
it up. "It's too late for me. Get out before I change
more, 'cause you know what happens then?"

"What?" Slydes croaked.

"I'll come for ya. I'll try to infect you. Watch." Jonas
coughed wetly into his hand, then showed it to his
brother. Amid the wad of appalling phlegm, several of
the yellow things twitched. Jonas picked one out and
popped it between his fingers. "This one here, it ain't
got a worm in it 'cause it's one of the ones that changes
you. That white stuff inside."

Slydes saw white strings in the slime.

"It changes your cells or something, to make you a
better host." He popped another one. "Ah, here's one.
Here's a fertile one. See, Slydes, some of these things
have the white stuff, and some of 'em have worms.
This one's got a worm. Look."

Slydes could barely do so ... but he looked anyway.
In the dab of muck hanging off his brother's fingers, he
saw the tiniest bright pink worm wriggling away.

"How do you know all this stuff?" Slydes asked.

Jonas's head tilted at the question. "I think because
I'm changing. The more I change, the more of the
worm's instinct I get in my brain, I guess." Jonas scraped
the crap off his hand and got back to his reefer. "Get
out of here now, brother ... before I try to infect you
with the same shit."

Crazy, Slydes thought. It's crazy.

But he knew now that it had to be true.

'Shh!" Jonas bid. "Listen...."

Slydes stood still.

He could hear something rustle, and when he looked
through some trees, the brush was stirring.

It was stirring a .lot.

"Go!" Jonas whispered. "One of 'em's coming."

When Slydes saw the pink shine roving beneath the
brush, he ran like a madman.

"Report?"

The major had called them into the security room.
He appeared perturbed, but then, he generally did.

"Early this morning we investigated the first structure, where members of the third party have set up a
field lab of some kind," the sergeant replied.

"I know, Sergeant. We all saw that on the monitor
last night. They look like they're examining something
in there. Didn't the colonel order you to find out what
they're examining?"

"I did that, sir." He's already in a bad mood. Now it's
going to get worse. "They're examining the subject."

"Our subject?"

"Yes, sir."

"Our worm, you're saying? They've found samples
of our worm?"

"Yes, sir. And the examples of the motile ova. They
were newborn hatchlings."

"Were the members of the party infected during the
process?"

"I can't say for sure, sir, but they didn't appear to be."

The major leaned over the table. "Corporal, punch
up the camera we have installed there."

"Yes, sir." The corporal put it on the main monitor.
"She's in there again, sir." On the screen, the same
slender woman was back inside, at the worktable.

'She's in there a lot," the major noted. 'You're sure
you found progeny of the subject in there? Are you
sure it wasn't something else?"

it was our worm, sir," the sergeant offered. 'They're
replicating well, all over the island, and not just in humans. There seem to be many examples of the indigenous animal life that are adaptable. And that's actually
good news."

'Yes, it is. But not if we're disclosed." The major
wagged his finger at the corporal. 'Play back from the
moment she reentered the building."

The corporal hit some buttons, and next they were
watching the slender woman in the one-piece swimsuit
unlocking the door and walking in.

Draped across an ink pen was a worm.

'1 guess I can't argue with that," the major remarked. "That's definitely one of ours."

"Yes, sir, it is. And they had samples of the ova as
well. The ones last night probably weren't big enough
to examine closely-not with the field equipment they
have on hand, but-"

The sample she just took in there is fairly mature.'

"Yes, sir..

Silence stood with them in the room. Then the major
said, if they know about the worm, then they may
know about us."

"I don't think so, sir," the sergeant said. "I think
they're just zoological scientists on a field excursion.
They discovered our subject by accident, and at this
point they have no reason to believe it's part of a genetic experiment. If they knew about us, they would have
notified some authority."

"You're right." The major was thinking. "And that's
our good luck. Turn on the jammers so they can't call
out. We can't take any chances-the experiment's gone
too well so far. We're going to be leaving soon."

The sergeant nodded. "I'm confident that everyone
on the island will be infected by the time we leave."

"I agree, but we only have a few more maturation
tests to do in the meantime. Keep an eye on them, and
confirm infection." He looked the sergeant dead in the
eye. "If you can't confirm one hundred percent infection within twenty-four hours, I want you to go out
there and kill whoever's left."

The sergeant and the corporal looked at each other.

The major turned at the door. "I realize that may
sound like an unorthodox measure, but it's all in the interests of the mission's ultimate success. Will that be a
problem, Sergeant?"

"No, sir. No problem at all."

"I thought you were going for another swim with
Annabelle," Nora posed when Loren ducked into the
head shack.

"Yeah, but not till later in the afternoon." He walked
in, then looked enthused. "Wow, where'd you get
that?"

"Your pretentious blond friend almost stepped on it
in the shower earlier."

"Hey, just because I worship her body doesn't mean
she's my friend."

.You a betting man?"

"Sure."

"Okay, I'll bet you that before this shoot is over, she's
putting overt moves on you."

"You're high," Loren said. "And I'll tell you something. I'm pretty sure she and Lieutenant Trent have
something going on."

Nora laughed at the worktable. "You're so perceptive, Loren. What a bright light you are."

"Why do I detect unremitting sarcasm?"

"She and Trent have been doing the naked pretzel
since the first night."

The surety of her words stunned him. "Really?"

"Yeah, and she wants to make Trent jealous-she
loves games. She has no identity unless she's the center
of male attention. That's why she'll be coming on heavy
to you soon. Accept it. And don't be a dope. Don't feed
her atrocious ego and utter lack of character by responding like a -horny mutt."

Loren's head rose in an arrogant pose. "Hey, just
because I'm a few years younger than you doesn't
mean that you know more about human romantic behavior."

"No, but the fact that I'm a woman does. I'm betting
that she puts hard moves on you and you fall like a
house of cards. You'll be absolutely convinced that she's
crazy about you. Too chicken to bet?"

"You're on," he said, grinning. "Loser buys dinner at
the winner's choice of restaurants."

Nora shook on it. "Now let's stop yacking about that
ultraboobed peabrain and take -a look at this."

Loren sat down at the worktable, eyeing the footand-a-half-long worm. "You killed it?"

"No, it was already dead from the seepage at the bottom of the shower stall. Trent sprays it down with bug
spray every day since we found those first motile ova."
She slid the microscope over to Loren. "And I'm pretty
sure we were right last night. This worm here is the
same species as the tiny ones from the lobster. Which
means we weren't seeing things last night. It's a species
that grows at an exponential rate."

Loren's eye lowered to the scope. He went silent for
several minutes. "There's no doubt. The pore scheme
in the coelum is identical, and so are the mucoid ducts
in the parapodal bands." He shook his head in studied amazement. "There's nothing else I've ever seen that's
even remotely like this. This size? Good God."

"This is a species that the helminthology community
is unawareof," Nora pointed out.

"We've discovered a new annelid." He took his eye
away long enough to grin at her. "We get to name it
ourselves."

"Yeah, but it's still a rip-off when you think about it."

"What do you mean a rip-off? It's every zoologist's
dream to get credit for discovering a new species of animal life."

"Sure, Loren. But look at the fact of the matter. If a
paleontologist discovers a new fossil, he makes a fortune. Somebody discovers a new enzyme, a new bacterium, a new friggin' fish-you name it-they make a
fortune and they become famous in their field." Nora
snorted. "We discover a new worm, and nobody will
care."

"Yeah, and we won't make jack shit. But so what?
We'll be the stars of the next issue of The American
Journal of Worms ... for about a month."

All of a sudden the new find seemed almost more
trouble than it was worth. But Nora could still retain
some level of excitement in their next step. "This one's
big enough to dissect. You want the honors?"

"Damn straight."

"Start cutting, Doctor."

Loren got up for the case of exam and dissection implements, as something occurred to Nora. "One thing,"
she said. "We can't tell the others anything about this."

"You're right. They'd overreact in a big way."

"We'll just tell them the worm is typical and nothing
to worry about. Any other way would be-"

Loren laughed. "Can you imagine Annabelle's reaction if she thought there was an undiscovered parasitic worm out here---that doubled in size in twenty minutes? And that they were in her lobster! She'd have a
cow!"

"I'd love for her to have a cow, and every other conceivable farm animal," Nora remarked. "But I'd be
more worried about Trent. He'd have an army quarantine crew out here."

Loren sat back down and unzipped the dissection
kit. With forceps he readjusted the body of the worm
across the stage, then applied stage clips. The case contained cutting instruments called microscalpels, which
looked nothing like typical scalpels. Honed needles
composed the blades, some made of steel, some made
of hard resins. The kit also contained intricate pipettes,
probes, and section lifters. "Yeah, this one's plenty big
enough," Loren muttered. "Let's see what's going on in
here..."

Nora waited.

"Same mucoid ducts that we saw on the parapods of
the ovum," Loren observed.

"Mucoid ducts in the coelum mean it's a skinbreather-like an earthworm," Nora said, cruxed.