"Whatever," Loren said in haste. "But there's nothing more we can do except leave right now before all this shit happens and we get turned into dust."
Nora's mind raced. Her eyes were all over the room, along with her thoughts. "Trent wanted to inspect the dead body, but we already know what he found, so I want you to go back to the campsite, and-"
Loren's look of incredulity couldn't have been more glaring. "No, Nora, we go back to the campsite, get Trent, then go to that girl's boat, and get off this powderkeg island."
"You go," she said. "It'll only take a few extra minutes. Get Trent and come back here. Then we'll all go to the boat together."
"Bullshit!" Loren yelled.
"I want to look around here a few more minutes," she insisted. "There might be some way to deactivate that bomb. There might be some tool here or something."
"Some tool! You're crazy! Come on!"
Nora shoved him for the door. "Just go!" she yelled back. "I'm still your boss, remember."
Loren honked laughter. "Big deal! What, you're going to drop my T.A. credits back at Worm School because I refused to help you defuse an alien bomb?"
"1 don't care!" she yelled. She was determined. "Leave without me, if you want. I'll swim back."
"Yeah, Nora, the bull sharks will love that."
"Just get out! I've made up my mind!" She shoved him hard for the door.
"All right, already. Annabelle was right. You've got serious PMS."
"Blow me!"
"I'll go get Trent and come back," he agreed. if I get eaten by the alien worms or abducted by the spacemen, then it'll be on your conscience."
Loren jogged away, shaking his head.
Now Nora could think. She knew her decision was unsafe and stupid, but there was just too much here for a scientist to walk away from. She edged back out into the hall, then quickly walked down to a far room. More of the weird white light bathed her face when she entered.
She froze.
There was no smell, but there was also no mistake that what she now faced was a rotting human corpse, half eaten by a multitude of infant worms. The white male victim lay bloated, as if the slew of dead worms and ova around him had initially been inside his body and then burst out. There must've been thousands of worms and ova composing the morbid pile.
This guy was a test subject, she thought through a wave of revulsion. They abducted him, infected him, and put him in this room to record the results… He must've been dead for several days; she knew just by looking that the corpse had entered the stage of decomposition known as karyolysis, where the molecular lipids that form body fat begin to liquefy, and now the corpse and dead worms alike all lay suspended in that liquefaction: a congealed mass of organic rot. It was repulsive to look at but…
I should be gagging right now, she knew.
Why was there no death stench in the room?
Very slowly, Nora reached forward into the air, then-
What the hell is that?
Her finger came into contact with something, a barrier. She opened her hand against it, could feel it as surely as she'd ever felt anything in her life. It felt like her hand was pressing against a pane of glass.
But she couldn't see it. No streaks, no shine, no reflection of herself.
A quarantine barrier, she thought, mystified. When she tapped it with her fingernail, the sound ticked exactly like glass. It's solid, and obviously nonpermeableThen she rapped it with her knuckles.
Clunk, clunk, clunk.
– and totally invisible.
She left the room, numb now from all of the impossibilities she'd witnessed. Of course, their technologies would vastly surpass that of her own race. It's not so impossible when you think about it… The realization summoned worse thoughts, though.
What other technologies might be waiting?
She was about to enter another room when she heard…
Rattling?
Loren had closed the door at the end of the hall when he'd left, but now-
Shit!
The door was opening.
Nora ducked back into the first room just as a wedge of sunlight widened on the floor. It must be that guy we saw at the RTG! Nora's heart revved; her gaze tore back and forth for a place to hide, but just when she realized there was nothing, the knob on the door began to turn.
She ducked back into the uniform room during the same second that the door opened.
She held her breath, watching through the crack…
The figure entered, a stark shadow in the black suit and hood. No facial features could be detected beneath the mask's tinted visor. He turned, his back now to Nora, and he seemed to be inspecting the items on the shelf.
Nora glanced to one of the belts hanging on the wall next to her; without thinking, she pulled out a strange flanged tool. She couldn't imagine what purpose it served but it did feel like metal…
If 1 could only hit that bastard in the head…
But her chance was gone before she'd finished thinking the thought. If she jumped out now with the tool, he'd scarcely even be surprised.
He'd taken something off the shelf, something Nora had already seen. The small square box-
Another bomb, she realized. Just like the one he put on the RTG.
He opened the lid and removed the hockey-puck-size disk. Again, he retracted some sort of rod from the disk's side, removed a small cap, and stood the disk upright on the desk. Either the rod had a base she couldn't see, or it had some sort of glue that enabled the disk to stand on end.
Next, the figure's gloved fingers produced a small black cube. He merely touched the disk with the cube, and-
Oh, shit, this is really bad…
A circular line of green light-thin as threadinstantly circumscribed the edge of the disk.
And the line began to blink.
Nora didn't need to see a clock to know that he'd just set the timer on the bomb.
At least it meant he and the rest of the crew intended to leave soon. But HOW soon? she wondered. With no clock hands or numbers, she had no way of knowing how long the timer had been set for.
I screwed up huge, she realized. I 'should've left with Loren. Shit-I should never have come here! We could be on the boat by now, leaving this place. Instead, I'm stuck in an alien coat closet, and I just watched one of the aliens activate a bomb!
She caught a breath in her chest when the door opened and two more men in black suits and masks walked in.
It was clear-by the way they moved and looked at each other-they were communicating, yet Nora heard no words spoken, alien or otherwise. It seemed that the first figure was giving orders to the others, because a moment later they were taking things off the shelves and carrying-them-out.
They're taking their gear back to their ship.
But would they take it all? How potent was the bomb? Would it destroy anything they left behind?
Too many questions that had no answers.
Then the scariest question:
This room… The uniforms…
Nora watched through the crack as the first figure turned and made for the narrow door that led to the room she was hiding in.
She wanted to scream but her fear sealed her throat shut. Oh, please, God, get me out of here!
She could hear the doorknob being turned, could hear the hinge keening, when by another stroke of luck she found another narrow door in the corner. She was through it just as the figure had walked into the room.
She remembered now, how the rooms all seemed to be connected by the narrow inner doors, probably alternate fire routes for the old missile station.
Thank you, God, she thought.
But what room was this? One she'd been in previously?
Her next glance around told her no.
The image that glared back rooted Nora to the floor. It was too vivid… and impossible. It was…