He tried to lever her off his body, couldn't, but found enough room to grab the pistol and swipe it upward.
When the gun's blue-steel top strap clacked the back of her head, she fell over.
Loren's heart was a squirming lump. He crawled away backward, stood up against a tree, and aimed-
Several pink worms-pencil-thin and a foot longsquirmed farther out of Annabelle's sex. Her strangely pushed-out stomach seemed to be churning.
She was getting up-
Bam!
He squeezed a shot off into her belly.
Loren managed to not pass out when he witnessed the results of the shot.
The bullet gave her a second navel. Upon impact, a half dozen foot-long worms darted from her vagina, along with a slew of crawling ova. More ova foamed out of the bullet hole.
Then a ten-foot worm snaked out of her mouth, and began to sidewind very quickly toward Loren.
Loren ran faster than he ever had, not at all sure that it would be faster than the worm.
(VII)
Slydes dragged the skinny dark-haired woman by the crotch of her one-piece swimsuit-a convenient handle. He wasn't quite sure why he didn't just kill her right there, but he supposed it was curiosity more than anything.
She might know something.
And Slydes definitely wanted to know what these worms were all about, and those little yellow things, and the shit that had happened to Jonas. The skinny woman might have a clue.
It didn't take him long to get to the farthest head shack, where Jonas grew the bulk of his pot. He dropped the woman, made for the door, but stopped short.
Shit, I gotta piss like a racehorse, it occurred to him.
What didn't occur to him, however, was this: Why the sudden need to urinate when he was so severely dehydrated?
Slydes immodestly opened his pants, then began to go… or tried to. Jesus, he thought. His bladder felt bloated, but only a trickle popped out. I ain't got all day! He pushed, pushed harder, then-
"Ahhh, there she goes."
Suddenly Slydes was voiding his bladder like a floodgate just opened. A few seconds later, though, something struck him as…
Not right.
Slydes looked down-and blanched.
He expected to see a golden arc of urine. But urine wasn't what his bladder was voiding.
It was an arc of BB-sized ova.
Oh, my fuckin' shit!
He couldn't very well stop now; he had to get them all out. Slydes pushed and pushed, thrusting his pelvis ludicrously forward. The clotted stream just kept pouring, and another thing: The more he urinated, the more discomfort he felt.
It was supposed to be the other way around, wasn't it?
He saw now that the ova shooting out of his urethra had gradually gone from the size of BBs to the size of peas. He was literally peeing a pile of ova.
He felt even sicker when he looked at his penis.
It was yellow. With red spots.
"Oh, my fuckin' shit," he groaned.
"Looks like you're infected in a big way," the skinny woman said. She was up on one elbow, watching the grotesque spectacle.
"I ain't infected!" he bellowed. "And who the hell are you anyway? What do you know about this shit?"
"A lot," she said. "My name's Nora Craig, Professor Nora Craig. I'm a marine biologist with the college. You've been infected with what appears to be a genetically hybridized parasite that's part trichinosis worm, part ribbon worm, and part pinworm."
"I ain't infected!" he repeated. "It's-it's-it's… just a few of 'em. Once I piss all of 'em out, I'll be okay."
"You're dreaming, Paul Bunyon. Once you piss all of them out, you'll still have the worms. A lot of those little yellow things already hatched-in you."
Finally, Slydes was done. One last ovum-the size of a gumball-squirmed out.
His face looked understandably sick. He pulled up his shirt, looked with more nausea at his red-spotted beer belly.
What am I gonna do now? he wondered.
When the pile of ova began to move toward Nora, she withdrew a small can of something, and sprayed them.
"What's that?" Slydes demanded.
"Bug repellent. It kills the ova, and the younger worms."
"Give it to me!"
Nora laughed. "It's not going to do you any good, pal. You've got those things all through your body. By now they're insinuated throughout your major organ systems. And some of the ova have already released a virus that's going into your brain. It'll change your behavior too, it'll change your DNA, to make you a more adaptable host. You're a breeding ground for the worms, buddy."
Slydes saw that the pile of yellow things had stopped moving. She ain't lying. It killed 'em. "Gimme that can, bitch! I'll drink it, and it'll kill any of 'em left."
She laughed even more boisterously, holding up the can. "This is poison, asshole. It'll kill you in a few minutes. But you know? I'd rather die from poison than die from those things." She threw him the can. "So go ahead. Drink up."
Slydes looked at the can. He wasn't much of a reader, but he could indeed read the words WARNING: POISON! and the universal skull and crossbones under it. Slydes swore and threw the can away. Three long strides took him over to Nora. He grabbed her hair and dragged her toward the head shack.
Nora shrieked. Slydes liked that. Sassy, smart-ass bitch. If you think THAT hurts… He'd cut on her good, but first…
He needed some water.
That's the ticket. I'll be all right. I'll get me a good long drink of water, and that'll be that. This bitch is just tryin' to scare me. I'm sure I've done peed all them things out…
Wishful thinking for a desperate man… but a desperate man who was also a sociopath. "You're gonna be a of of fun, baby. I saw ya the other day-wanted to do a job on ya right then, lemme tell ya."
"You're a busted redneck no-account loser," Nora said, and yelped louder when he twisted her hair some more. "You're a fucking walking worm farm and you're gonna die."
"Keep talkin'. I'm a gator poacher. Did you know that?"
She responded through grit teeth, "Sounds like the perfect job for a big redneck moron like you."
Slydes whipped out his Buck knife. "But gator ain't the only thing I know how to skin." Then his big bearded face broadened in a grin. "I'll be nice'n slow, too. Might even pop ya a few times while I'm doin' it."
But first, the water. He dug the key from his pocket, and unlocked the dead bolt.
Even in her distress, Nora had to ask: "How do you have a key to that?"
"Damn it!" another voice barked out.
Slydes and Nora turned in startlement.
Trent stood behind them, his face stamped with anger. "Let her go, Slydes."
With a smirk, Slydes released Nora. "Lieutenant Trent!" she almost squealed in delight. "Thank God you're here!"
But 'Dent glared at Slydes. "I told you to never come here without my permission! I told you I was escorting a photo shoot! I specifically instructed you to stay away until it was over!"
"Jonas got more buyers," Slydes said, "and ran out. We needed to come out here to get more product. We'd planned to be in and out real quick but… things didn't work out."
"You're not kidding they didn't work out!" Trent yelled.
Nora looked mystified. "You know this guy?" she asked Trent.
"Yeah, I know him all right. The dumb son of a bitch is my brother, and so is Jonas. I gave them the key to these two head shacks."
"What for?"
Trent frowned. "For hydroponic marijuana. Jonas, my other brother, is a pot grower, and Slydes brings him back and forth in his boat. I've been letting them use these facilities for the past two years."
Nora looked deflated by the information. "I've read all about it," she said. "Hydroponic pot is twice as potent, and has double the street value. The only problem is the need for constant electric light and fresh waterbut that's not a problem out here, is it?"
"No," Trent said. "It's all unmonitored and it's all free."
"And you get.a cut of the profits…"
"Of course I do. It's just pot, for Christ's sake, it's not like it's heroin," he tried to justify. "I didn't see any real harm. The RTG'll be producing electricity for the next fifty years. And since I'm the only one who checks the island…"