Page 29 of Lagoon

“What?” she said in a different voice.

“I don’t know if you want to see it,” he said, no bottom to his voice at all.

Now, she had to see it. She sat straight up and pushed him out of the way. She looked at the screen, and she could see what he meant.

A shudder went through her.

There were long protuberances going from the puncture wounds, going deep into her body, and it looked as if things weregrowingon them, growing in a very unpleasant-looking way, like blisters on top of blobs. She let out a little noise.

She took the wand from him, exploring all over, looking at each one of these strange areas of growth.

As she pushed on her belly, a bit of something green seeped out of one of her wounds.

She dropped the wand, letting out a horrified cry.

Jonathan shut off the machine.

“Wait,” she said. “Wait, I didn’t see—”

“I don’t think you should,” he said. His face was very pale and his eyes were very wide. “This is some kind of nightmare.”

She touched her skin. She ran her finger through the green goo and held it up in front of her face. “What is this?”

“An infection, maybe?”

“Test it.” She thrust her finger at him. “Get samples. Let’s look at them under a microscope. Let’s analyze them.”

He shook his head at her, back and forth. “I’m so sorry, Riley. You have to believe me, if I’d ever thought something like this—”

“Get some slides, for fuck’s sake, Jonathan,” she said. “Stop apologizing.”

IT WAS BUB’SDNA. Under the microscope, it looked like Bub’s blood.

Jonathan was in an ecstasy of horror about it. How could this be happening?

She wanted him to cut her open and get a sample of the growths, but he said that he wouldn’t dare do such a thing. He wasn’t going to cut her.

She said she’d do it herself if she could, but she didn’t think she’d be able to manage it.

She was fierce and angry and obviously terrified, and he didn’t know what to tell her.

They argued about it for some time and then he suddenly had a sharp pain in his stomach. It felt as if something inside him roiled up and rippled through him, like a whip cracking inside his internal organs.

He doubled over, teeth gritted, in too much pain to think or speak.

Then, gripped by the intense urge to vomit, he hurried across the room to one of the utility sinks, where he vomited coffee that looked too green for his liking. He stared at whatever had come out of him, blinking hard, feeling lightheaded.

“Andyouvomit,” said Riley from the other side of the room.

He straightened, looking over at her, wiping his mouth. “Yes, I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s become of me.”

She tried to engage him in the argument again, but he got another wave of pain, and he had to tell her that he wasn’t sure he was well enough to be here.

“Seriously?” she said, gesturing at her stomach. “I’m turning into a lizard here, and you’re too sick to help me?”

“Not a lizard,” he said faintly. “An amphibian. It’s very, very different.”

“Oh, fuck you,” she said. She came across the room and dragged him out of there, taking him back to his cabin and thrusting him inside.

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