Page 64 of Lagoon

The sound of the gunshot echoed through the twilight and Mann’s head jerked back, blood arcing out of the hole in his head.

He crumpled to the ground, lifeless.

CHAPTER TWENTY

ANGELA COULDN’T TAKEher gaze away from the swell of Riley’s belly. How many fucking eggs were in there? It looked like twenty. Could twenty even fit? Fuckity fuck, why did it make her feel a taut, shivery feeling at the thought of trying?

They were in the lab, in the main area, where there were piles of other eggs, some of which looked slightly less translucent than other eggs, and some of which had been sliced in half—something that she didn’t know how she felt about.

Both Riley and Jonathan were wearing lab coats and nothing else, which meant there were casual flashes of their nudity, which bothered her, too.

Everyone here has gone insane,she thought, and she didn’t like that she was one of the mental patients.

“So, don’t worry,” Riley was saying to her. “You’ll lay those soon. How long did it take for me, Jonathan?”

Jonathan was poking around in one of the sliced-open eggs. “Not long, love. It did vary, I think. The second time was quicker than the first.”

“Our bodies are making an attempt to fertilize them, but it’s not working,” said Riley. “Jonathan and I are working on that. He thinks we might make another injection, maybe for him or maybe for me, or maybe for both, if we want to have viable offspring.”

“What?” said Luther. “Are you serious?”

Angela clutched her stomach. “So, these eggs, they’re… duds?”

“Total duds,” said Riley. “We’re not sure what’s going on, exactly.”

“Right, we need to do more tests,” said Jonathan. “We can definitely say that the females—you and Angela—have ovaries that have turned to testes. So we—Luther and me—might technically be female at this point. The theory that we’re inserting eggs into the women to be fertilized, it seems to be correct. It’s somewhat similar to seahorses.”

“But if it were similar to seahorses, we would gestate the eggs,” said Riley. “And we don’t really know, do we, Jonathan? Maybe I’m laying the eggs because they’re not properly fertilized. Maybe if I could fertilize them, I’d keep them and gestate them.”

“Well, you aretryingto fertilize them, andsomething’shappening,” said Jonathan. “These are altered.” He poked around in the egg he’d dissected.

“Amphibians don’t gestate to maturity, though. They lay the eggs and leave,” said Riley.

“Not all amphibians,” said Jonathan.

“Right, there are some with live birth.”

“Mmm,” he said. “Gastric brooding frogs swallow their young and gestate them in their stomach. They can’t eat the whole time, and then—when they give birth—the babies hop right out of their mouths.”

“Fascinating!” said Riley.

“Eew,” said Angela.

“Totally,” said Luther.

“And there are some species of salamanders who retain their eggs in the oviducts until maturity,” said Jonathan.

“It’s agood thingwe’re not actually giving birth,” said Angela.

Both Riley and Jonathan looked up at that. They glanced at each other, considering.

“Well, from a perspective of pure sexual gratification, perhaps that’s true,” said Riley.

“Right, I mean, we could just keep doing this, I suppose,” said Jonathan. “I lay eggs in you, you lay the eggs, and then we do it again and again, and it sounds—”

“Fantastic,” said Riley with a sigh.

“But I suppose I am wondering why your testes aren’t working. Why can’t we get a viable egg?”

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