“Don’t swallow,” Saul yelled, and Maren doubled over, trying to spit out the foreign creature. It stuck to her tongue, so she dropped one of the water bottles and shoved her fingers in her mouth. She grabbed the slimy shape, tore it out, and threw it aside with a gasp of disgust.

Mark stood before her, swaying drunkenly. His head was completely gone, and the neckline of his uniform had been blasted away from the heat of the bullet. Already, though, the black substance was growing out of where his neck ended, twisting around itself to form the shape of a head, the ragged edges of the skin blooming upwards.

Beyond Mark was the hallway, and at the end of the hallway, pointing a gun at Mark’s remains, was Saul. “Run!”

Maren did. She skidded past Mark and raced towards the hallway, towards safety, the remaining jug of water clutched to her chest. Mark seemed to sense her motion, and one hand lashed out, grabbing at her, but she ducked under it.

A scraping sound gave her warning, and Maren leapt to one side as a shelf toppled over. Its contents crashed to the ground she’d been standing on a second before. Maren caught a blur of motion out of the corner of her eyes, then suddenly, Holly blocked her path. The woman’s face was split in multiple places, letting the pulsing black out to taste the air, and what remained of it looked furious. One of the tendrils shot out towards her, blindingly fast. Maren threw herself to one side and felt the black arm graze her suit.

Another loud crack from Saul’s gun left half of Holly’s torso burst open, leaving the head dangling by a few strands of black. Maren pushed herself forward, into the hallway, ducking as Saul fired more rounds past her. The cracks were deafening in the concrete passageway, and Maren squeezed her eyes closed as she skidded through the opening and into the rec room.

“Now,” Saul snarled, and Gin, who had been standing with her hand over the red emergency button below the control panel, pressed it. The door dropped, and there were two loud thuds as the creatures hit the other side.

“Five-one-one-six-eight-two-seven,” Saul said, his voice quiet again, his gun still trained on the closed door. Gin entered the access code, sealing out the monsters. As soon as he heard the quiet beep of the door locking, Saul dropped his gun to the ground and leaned against the wall. He’d been putting weight on the broken leg, Maren saw, and his face was ghost white as he held out a hand to her. “Come here.”

Leaving the water carton on the ground, Maren stepped towards the defence technician. He gripped her shoulder then raised the hand to press against her neck, his large fingers seeking her pulse. When he found it, he let out a sigh and closed his eyes. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” She took a shuddering breath and smiled at him. “Thanks.”