She started for the lab door, scared enough that she didn’t give a damn if Casey followed or not. All that remained was getting Vik out. That, and managing to find a way to the dock that didn’t involve the first level with its slime-covered floors and sprawled corpses. That’s where the children seemed to be.

Didn’t matter what she’d told Casey. Even if the kids were turning green, their necks swelling, and their eyes looking weird, she still wasn’t sure she could shoot one.

She hurried to the lab door, used her fragile left hand to input the code, and swung the door open, hissing out, “Vik? You here? Vik! Where are you?”

“Here,” the woman called, turning from where she sat at one of the microscopes. The microbiologist wore a lab coat, her hair pulled back. A grim expression left her lips tight, her forehead deeply lined. “What’s the rifle for?”

“You been keeping score? The kids are murdering adults wherever they find them, and the slime’s all over the first-level floor where it’s eating Mikoru.”

“Where’s Kel?” she demanded, rising from the chair. “Where’s Sheena?”

“Haven’t seen Kel. Sheena’s with Felix. As least she was when they were trying to chop my door open. Vik, listen to me. Pay fucking attention. We’ve got to evacuate. Now. Grab your notes and come. Last chance, or you can die with the rest.”

“She means it.” Casey held her rifle awkwardly where she stood in the doorway, tears on her cheeks. The woman kept sniffing, glancing back and forth from Vik to the hall. “I watched Tomaya murder Jym. And then the slime took her.”

“Easy,” Michaela said soothingly, seeing Casey start to tremble. To Vik, she added, “Get your stuff. Last call.”

“My research! I can’t just walk away from—”

“Finish it at PA! Now, grab what you need, and let’s get the hell out of here. That’s an order.”

Vik leaped off her chair, grabbed up a couple of tablets, her pad, and voice recorder, a series of data cards, and finally a collection of samples that she tossed into a duraplast crate before she snapped the lid shut. As she worked, she said, “You didn’t tell me where Kel is.”

“I don’t know. If he’s not up here with you, it’s not good, Vik.”

“We don’t know why our beautiful children are doing this,” Casey whimpered from the doorway.