She did throw a glance over her shoulder at the sound of the scream. Casey, the last in line, had missed a step. A wrist-thick tendril of pulsing blue-green had wrapped tight around her ankle. Her right leg was being pulled back as she tried to balance and break free with her left.

Michaela blinked away the silvering sheen of tears.

Climb! You’ve got to climb! It’s the only way.

89

Kevina, every muscle trembling, her gut knotted, prayed with all her soul that Michaela would move faster, but the woman could only climb so fast with one hand; the rifle cradled in her other slowed her rate to what seemed like a molasses crawl.

Clinging to the rope ladder—the hard-curved side of the Pod more of an unforgiving cliff than a shelter—Kevina heard another scream. She glanced over her shoulder.

Casey was on her back now; the slender fingers of slime-roots were lacing their way over her body. It didn’t matter how Casey screamed, how she kicked or thrashed, the inexorable pulsing ropes of slime were dragging her back toward the dock’s edge.

Frozen, Kevina watched. Saw the moment when one of the green shoots flicked across Casey’s face, found its way into her left nostril. The scream torn from Casey’s lungs was unlike anything Kevina could have imagined. Then Casey bucked, struggled. Her body convulsed as she spewed vomit over her chest. The slime might have rejoiced, following it across the woman’s breasts, up her throat and chin, to send no less than three of the green tendrils into Casey’s mouth.

The next scream was muffled, half choked.

Kevina clamped her eyes shut, fought the terror shakes that sought to paralyze her. Looked up through tears to see Michaela still climbing.

“Climb. Climb.”

With all of her will, Kevina made herself reach for the next rung. Somehow managed to lift her left leg, search for the next foothold. Having broken free of the paralysis, she made it. Rung by rung as the rope swayed and whipped under both of their weights.

And then, magically, the rope ladder stabilized, as if rooted at the bottom.

“Climb, woman, climb,” Kevina whispered.

Her entire world shrank to that ladder, to Michaela’s feet as they advanced upward, rung by rung, and the curve lessened. Kevina could see the edge of the landing pad now. Michaela was moving faster. It might have been an eternity, but Kevina was able to pull herself over the edge of the landing pad. Threw herself flat on her back, sucking air, staring up at the sky where strange tube-shaped creatures seemed to float. Illuminated from the inside by a golden light, they were unlike anything she’d ever seen. Once, she would have called them beautiful, magical even. Now, even as ethereal as the glowing cones might have been, they, too, reeked of danger and death.