What in the hell was that? thought Felicity.
She had been gliding through the meat and been heartened to find that her optic nerve had merged with four others, which meant that she was getting closer to something, when suddenly she’d been jerked to a stop. For a few bewildering moments, her Sight would not carry her. Not forward, not backward, not in any direction.
It was as if she’d been swimming and the water had suddenly frozen solid around her, holding her fast. Then, just as quickly, it was over. And now that she’d had time to think about it, it made her very worried.
Was it me? She’d never had a moment like that before. Maybe I’m not ready to be doing this. A few days ago, I lost my closest friends. Maybe I should be on leave, or in therapy. Maybe I’m losing it. It was a frightening thought, but not as frightening as the other possibilities. If it wasn’t her psyche, then her powers might be going wrong. And if it wasn’t her powers, then it might be the monster she was in.
Calm down, she told herself. It might have been a one-off thing. If it happens again, you pull back. She cautiously started moving forward once more.
*
It was not a one-off thing.
Said the tech over the intercom, “I just felt a little tremor up here on the surface.”
*
Skimming through the creature’s flesh, Felicity had felt it too. She’d been brought to another sudden halt, held by a force that vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
Oh, I don’t like this at all, she thought. I’m getting out. She focused her will and sent her mind winging back in the direction it had come from.
*
“There’s another!” said Codman.
“They’re not death spasms,” said Odette doubtfully. “They wouldn’t be coming more frequently.” The ripples were also increasing in intensity.
*
They’re coming faster, thought Felicity. You have to get out. She gave a moment’s thought to cutting away from the nerve and heading directly through the creature’s flesh to her body. She wavered — it would get her out more quickly, but the prospect of getting lost was too frightening. Grimly, she pushed on, only to get caught by another freeze. This one lasted longer than any of the others, and she found herself counting desperately. One hippopotamus, two hippopotamus, three — free! She tore herself forward. Get out! Get out!
*
“You know,” said the voice of the tech, “we’re seeing a dram —”
The intercom suddenly went silent. Even the background noise was cut off. Oh no, thought Odette.
“Hello?” she said. There was no answer. “Hey!” she shouted, and it must have carried through to the man ahead, because he looked back. He held up his gloved hand with his fingers spread.
Stop. Okay. But now what? thought Odette.
Then she felt movement against her feet. With difficulty, she looked back over her shoulder and saw the communication cables slithering down the tunnel toward them. They had been severed or torn free.
Oh no.
*
Almost there! Felicity thought. She coursed past the eyeball. Almost there!
But the walls slammed down again, and this time they didn’t lift. Felicity’s soul was caught in the corpse, trapped like a fly in amber.
23
Odette and the two Checquy scientists lay still, tense. More ripples had come, a continuous stream of them that set their air tanks bucking about in front of them. The tunnel walls were now shuddering violently, not keeping their shape but warping and flexing so that it was impossible to move along. Odette could practically feel her teeth rattling in her head.
Someone, she thought, please get me out of here! For a few heart-stopping moments, the roof of the tunnel pushed down on her head, and she cringed, fully expecting to be crushed. Then, mercifully, it lifted a few inches, but she still kept her head as low as she could.
All the team could do was lie flat and wait for things to get better or worse. To try and shout to one another would have put them at risk of biting through their own tongues as they were shaken about. Plus, we must conserve oxygen, Odette thought. Of course, she could shut down most of her breathing and go to sleep, but this was a situation where one needed to remain alert. It was clear, however, that the movement was not limited to the tunnel. Something was sending quakes through the corpse.
*
Trapped.
Be calm, Felicity told herself. It went away before; it’ll go away again. And this time, you bloody well get out of this cadaver and get yourself back in your own brain.
But it didn’t go away. She could still remember the texture of the muscle and the flesh around her and the optic nerve beneath her. If she let herself think about it, she thought she could feel the tons and tons of corpse pressing down and through her.
And it didn’t go away.
What if I’m stuck in here forever? she thought. What’s happening on the surface? What if there’s no one left to help get me out? I’m — I don’t know what I am. Electromagnetism? Thoughts? A soul? What if my body dies? Will I die? Or will I be a ghost, locked in a monster? And at that point she lost it.
I want out! I want out! I want OUT!
If she’d been in her body, Felicity would have screamed or cried or torn at her hair and covered her face, but all she could do was think deafeningly loud, incoherent thoughts until she wore herself out and floated, numb, in the darkness.
*
The creature is alive! thought Odette. That must be it! The idea simultaneously thrilled and horrified her. Somehow, the creature had revived, and, presumably, it was not at all happy to find itself out of the water, strung up in a warehouse, and covered in a chemical skin with people crawling all over the inside and outside of it. It was an astounding development and would have been fascinating to observe from a suitable distance. At the moment, however, her first priority was trying to recall anything she had ever learned about blowholes.
Blowholes close, don’t they? They must, to prevent water getting in. She’d already felt the flexing, but she wasn’t certain if it would close on them completely. The Checquy will come, she told herself. We just need to wait. They’ll kill it, and they’ll come get us.
As long as they do it before our oxygen runs out.
And as long as it doesn’t break out of its chains and somehow get to the ocean.
And as long as they don’t try to kill it in some way that will also inconveniently kill us, like pumping electricity into it or blowing it up.
She thought for a moment of trying to use her spurs to see if her venom would slow the monster down. Not likely, though, she thought. It’s much too big for my reservoirs to have any effect. In addition, in the back of her mind was the unappealing idea that she might need to use her octopus venom on herself if things got too horrible.
She felt a rush of air buffet her feet and pass over her. Is that them? she thought. She looked back hopefully, but there was neither a flicker of light nor a burly, cheerful Checquy Pawn with the Jaws of Life and a sippy cup of gin and tonic. Then she squinted. It was difficult to tell with all the shaking, but it seemed like there was less darkness behind her than there had been before. She caught a glimpse of movement and for a moment thought that something was heading down the tunnel toward them. Then she realized that there was no more tunnel. The walls were pinching themselves together, closing up behind them.
Get away! her brain ordered her. GO! She began writhing forward frantically, shoving her oxygen tank ahead of her until it bumped against Codman’s feet.