Suddenly the blank look on Rochelle’s face vanished and she screamed, ‘Jesus, Chris! Get out of here! Run! Run!. Oh no. Her face then contorted as if she was in pain and she started to whimper in a little girl’s voice. ‘Please, no, I don’t want to go back' into the dark again… I’m scared… let me stay in the light… It’s down there… Oh no…’ The blank look returned, as if a visor was going down over her face. She began to climb off the bunk.
Chris tried to restrain her. ‘Hey, Ro, calm down,’ she said anxiously, ‘It’s alright. Everything’s going to be alright.’
Then she gasped as Rochelle pushed her back with a strength that was alarming. ‘Ro.!’ she cried.
Rochelle was now pulling at her clothes. The fabrics tore like paper and very soon she was naked. Then she was ripping off' the dressings. Chris saw that the ugly wounds across the top of her chest had vanished. Her skin was smooth and unmarked.
Rochelle stared at her. The eyes were losing their blankness again. There was terror in them. As if they were looking up out of a deep pit. Then they changed. Chris’s stomach tightened and her heart began thumping.
This time there was no mistaking it. Those were Alex’s eyes.
‘I guess you’re right,’ said Paul, ‘we can’t be sure there’s only one of them.’
They were in one of the labs on the second level. Paul was hunting through the cupboards looking for the acids he wanted. Linda was keeping guard in the centre of the room, reluctantly holding the flame thrower. The burner was lit which meant she could fire the device at the turn of a handle if the need arose.
Paul closed the cupboard door and slowly turned to her. There was an odd expression on his face, as if something unpleasant had just occurred to him.
It had. ‘If there is more than one it means that any of us might be one of them. You could be.’
‘Come on Paul, don’t do this to me,’ she pleaded. ‘You know I’m not…’
‘Do I? How? There’s no way I can really be sure.’
‘We’ve been alone a lot of the time,’ she said carefully, knowing that this was a potential crisis unless she handled it correctly. ‘If I was part of that thing I would have attacked you by now. I had plenty of opportunity.’
‘Yes,’ he said slyly, ‘but you might not even know you are the thing. That Soames woman didn’t, until towards the end. Hell, / might be it as well and not know it. That would be wild, wouldn’t it? Both of us no longer real but neither realising it?’ He started to laugh.
Linda unstrapped the flame-thrower from her back and put it down on the floor. Then she walked over to Paul. He continued to laugh and she knew it wasn’t far from becoming all-out hysteria. She grabbed him by the shoulders and he flinched. The laughter stopped. With dismay she saw there was fear in his eyes. Fear of her.
‘Listen to me, Paul,’ she said quietly, ‘this is me, Linda. I’m real.’ She grabbed his wrists and pulled his hands towards her. ‘Feel me.’ She put his hands on her breasts. Then she leaned up and kissed him on the mouth.
For a long moment he didn’t respond then she felt the tension begin to drain out of him. He let go of her breasts and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ‘I suppose I’m starting to crack up.’
‘You can’t afford to crack up.’ she told him fiercely, ‘we need you, Paul. You’re the only one who’s capable of getting us out alive. Without you the others are useless…’
But even as she spoke — even as she was feeling secure and safe in his arms, she couldn’t help thinking, is it really Paul?
Rochelle’s body was changing. It was expanding. The shoulders were getting wider and the chest bigger while at the same time her breasts were shrinking — turning into hard pectorals.
Chris couldn’t move. She knew now what was happening, what had happened, but she was literally paralysed with fear. Like a rabbit caught in the headlights of some approaching juggernaut truck. She couldn’t even scream.
The face was the worst thing. The features were melting and flowing like butter in a frying pan. Rochelle’s nose grew thinner and sharper. Coarse pores formed on her cheeks and her chin became clefted and blue black. Her hair was like a million electrified snakes — wriggling, stretching, squirming as it grew longer from her scalp and changed colour, losing the dyed pink and becoming black and greasy.
The body continued to change. It was as if the thing that had been Rochelle was performing a disgusting travesty of an erotic dance before her. The skin shimmered and pulsated as if the muscles beneath were undergoing incredible contortions — but no human muscles could have made those shapes. And they were accompanied by sickening sounds. Grisly sounds. Bubbling, slurping sounds. The body was like a bag of slime searching for a new form.
Chris shut her eyes.
The sounds finally died away. A voice said, ‘Hi, Chris. Good to see you again…’
She opened her eyes. As she feared Alex was standing there in front of her. He looked bigger, more powerful than before. The muscles bulged on his gleaming, naked body. Then she gasped as she glanced down and saw the huge jutting erection. It was so absurdly massive it was like a caricature of a penis, something that a dirty-minded schoolboy might draw on a toilet wall.
Alex gave her a malevolent grin and took a step towards her. She still couldn’t move. ‘Alex, don’t hurt me… please don’t hurt me,’ she whispered.
His answer was to slap her so hard her jaw was almost broken by the impact. She fell backwards, her head spinning, but then a powerful hand had grabbed her by the shirt front and was hauling her upright again. Alex’s face was now only inches from her and she could smell the stink of his breath. A long, black tongue darted out from between his lips and began to caress her face around her mouth. She shuddered with revulsion and tried to pull free but couldn’t. She noticed then that his fingernails had been replaced with black, sharp-looking claws.
The tongue disappeared and he said, ‘Of course I’m going to hurt you, you stuck-up, stupid bitch. I’m going to split you in two with this…’ She felt him prod her in the groin with the impossibly huge member. ‘And that’s just for starters. Then, when I’m finished, I’m gonna let it have what’s left. You’re gonna end up in here with me. And I promise you babe you’re not gonna find it much fun. ’
She began to struggle, kicking out with her legs, but he simply lifted her up and flung her onto the bunk. She bounced off it and hit the wall then lay stunned.
Alex advanced on her with frightening speed. With one savage movement he ripped her clothes open from neck to crotch, his claws leaving long, thin cuts on her flesh. Then he flicked her legs apart with rough ease…
Chris shut her eyes and willed herself to die.
She got her wish. Alex’s first violent thrust ruptured something vital deep within her. She bled to death internally in a very short time. Alex didn’t even notice she was dead.
Paul was furious. ‘I can’t believe it!’ he cried. ‘Are you telling me they both just walked out of here unarmed after all I told them.?’