Page 47 of Vicious
The alien doppelganger swept across the floor toward the Mind-I at full speed. I sprinted after it. The captain, Mase, and Poh yelled for us to freeze. The doppelganger got there before I did and slammed its arm backward into my face. I dropped. It snatched up the Mind-I and held the black piece of plastic up to the rest of thecrew.
“It’s done,” my voice said, but it hadn’t come from me. “Now, kill thatthing.”
That thing. It was referring to me. But I wasn’t about to let it take them down that deceptive road. I thrust one ice pick toward the toe of the doppelganger’sboot.
But before the tip sank home, the other boot lifted and pummeled down on my hand with unnatural force. Bones splintered. Painerupted.
I opened my mouth to scream through my agony, but a gunfired.
That thing. Had I been shot? I couldn’t feel anything other than the shrieking throbs in myhand.
Something spilled to the ground inches away from my twisted, broken fingers. The something had my eyes, staring blankly, while blood leaked from the corner of its mouth. They knew. The rest of the crew knewthat thingwasn’tme.
Footsteps poundedcloser.
“Absidy!” Maseshouted.
I wanted to answer, but pain swallowed my voice. A gray film washed over my eyes, darkening theroom.
Poh crouched on top of the doppelganger, her steak knife raised high. She plunged it down, down again, then raked it across its throat. Blood sprayed onto my face. The doppelganger tipped its head toward me, staring with empty holes where its eyes had once been. A deep gash smiled from itsthroat.
“Absidy, talk to me,” Masedemanded.
“Get her to the infirmary,” Captain Glenn ordered from my otherside.
Gentle hands prodded my body, but all I could do wasstare.
A black smoky tendril probed out of one empty eye socket. Another wormed from the other socket. Long. Segmented. Like the alien’slegs.
“Jesus fuck,” Masehissed.
“Get her out of here,” Captain Glennshouted.
Poh backed away from the dead doppelganger. “What? What do yousee?”
A ghostly horn shoved from the doppelganger’s mouth, and behind it blinked an enormous black eye. Peering at me from inside the dead alien. Its ghost about to climbout.
A scream tipped my tongue, but it died in my throat as soon as Mase swept me up in his arms. The pain wracking my body flared, then wentblank.
14
Ifloatedto the surface and blinked. That simple movement took about an hour, my eyelids weighted with iron bricks. Something gripped my left hand and held my fingers straight, though I couldn’t see exactly what. There wasn’t any pain, just an un-naturalness to it that I didn’t really carefor.
The taste of metal danced over my tongue, zipping every cell awake with an iron-fueled high. Except for those cells in my eyelids, which had fallen shut again. The parasites inside me twirled and bounced, urging me to swipe my tongue over the iron cube tucked in my bottomlip.
I did, andwhoa. I sprang my eyes open at the rush of energy galloping down to my toes. The zing also awakened the hunger gnawing at my belly. I wasravenous.
Ellison had her head bowed over the gurney for a long moment. Praying? No, that wasn't an Ellison thing to do unless she'd borrowed Feozva from me. She'd long given up on everyone else's gods and goddesses. Might as well see what an imaginary one created by her deranged sister could do. She was more likely counting the stitches in the blanket. Up close so she didn't miss one. Wow, she must've been bored. Or goingblind.
I wondered at the speed with which my mind was taking all these left turns. Pretty sure I wasn’t just high on iron-addicted parasites, but also on whatever pain medication Ellison had givenme.
"Eight… Three… Two hundred twenty-six," I said to throw Ellison off her stitch-counting.
She lifted her head, her cheeks splotched red, her gray eyes glistening, and rubbed her nose. “You’reawake.”
“I’mcounting.”
Her gaze sharpened. "Not very well. Start again. Withone."
