A warm sensation moved down my spine, prying loose the Angel of Death’s frigid grip while neutralizing the progression of the ant toxin, at least enough to allow me to breathe.

And then a powerful limb snaked its way around my waist, adhering to my torn jumpsuit as it lifted me effortlessly off the ground. Suddenly I was moving quickly through the forest, the pain driving me into darkness.

Chapter 19

19

I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as a plant and rose to animal, I died as animal and I was man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?

—JALAL AD-DIN RUMI, Sufi poet

The steady breeze of an air conditioner chilled my exposed flesh. I was naked, my eyes covered by a damp cloth, my arms and lower torso weighed down by the moist embrace of the cryogenic pod’s tetrodotoxin gel.

Stretching beneath the slime, I embraced the joy of no longer being in pain.

I was back.

I could hear someone in the room. “God, what a dream. Andria? Jason? Jason, if that’s you, I’m gonna kick your ass. You have any idea how many times I tried using your emergency wake-up? Hey, butt head, do you hear me?”

I sat up against the weight of the gel and reached for my face to remove the cloth.

A hand cloaked in what felt like a rubber mitten intercepted the attempt, gently guiding my arm back inside the draining vat of sleep gel.

The echo of trickling water calmed me, my mind hitching a ride on the soothing sound. “Guess this is all part of the wake-up protocol. Beats the hell out of being jabbed in the heart by a six-inch needle. So, who’s there? Quit screwing around. Lara?”

Another gloved hand pressed gently against the base of my skull, and I looked up to see Lara hovering over me, her onyx hair falling past her delicate neck, her expression serene—

—only my eyes were still closed!

In the madness that was either another Omega dream, a continuation of the same dream, or a simple trip down Insanity Lane, I found myself tearing the moist cloth from my face—only to discover that I was not in Oceanus, I was in a cave, standing in the shallows of an underground stream bathed in a surreal orange light … that the wet cloth covering my eyes was a palm-size slug, and that my companion was a cephalopod!