Reeling

Heart pounding, tears flowing, Leo Angelos reached the door to his apartment. Via Doctor Khalil's surveillance systems, he had watched as his son became Unwanted, willingly served as bait, and died to his invisible assailant. The young man who had fought to defend his Third, who had cared for all of his "brothers" with patience and compassion, was gone. The sight had been agony, tempered only by the knowledge that his son's sacrifice had worked. Seeing his dying boy strike out one final time, freeing Charlotte, had filled the grieving father with pride. Charlotte had then vanished, and she must have taken Lamia with her. Otherwise, the new Maximus surely would have been killed in seconds.

Vision clouded by tears, Leo rushed into the Seventh's room and hugged him close. The Unwanted boy had no hope of comprehending the cause of Leo's pain, but he still recognized it. The young man returned the hug, his eyes showing a mix of confusion and sympathy. The Ninth Max risked his life to distract Lamia, trying to run down the invisible enemy with an ATV. I hope he returns soon. My other sons are gentle, and kind, but I need a Max I can talk to… I need him to know how proud I am. Both of him… and his Eighth.

"Mr. Angelos, this is Doctor Youssef Khalil."

Forcing himself to pull away from his son's embrace, Leo hit the flashing button on the wall. "I'm here."

"I'm sorry to disturb you, and again, you have our deepest sympathy for your loss. But you might find at least some comfort in a positive development."

"Is my Ninth son safely en route?"

"Well, yes, and he's bringing the body of his brave predecessor with him. But, Mr. Angelos, there's something else, which we didn't expect."

Fighting down the anguish that made him want to hide in a corner, the bereaved father forced his voice to stay steady. "What is this new development?"

"For the first time in twenty-one years, ever since we set up our surveillance of the Dying Zone… there are animals moving through the area. And they don't even appear to be afraid."

The agony of failure flooded through Hasina, despite knowing this outcome to be certain. Over the course of 1.8 seconds, all of Charlotte-17's remaining implants had failed. Camera footage of Infirmary Room 13 showed a horrific spray of blood and remains striking every surface, and the small space was now a charnel house. As with Klaus-21, Lamia had killed swiftly and with extreme thoroughness. The strongest Watcher in history, with the possible exception of Niko-29… was gone. The fearless woman who had poured herself into her role, embracing 21's vision of the future. The one who had traveled to Elpis alone, and had risked her life to rip Lamia away from its world, dooming the monster to starvation.

Risked her life… and lost it.

Numb, Hasina hit the base-wide comm. "Charlotte-17 is dead. Lamia has executed its captive, and it has left the Infirmary. At any cost to ourselves, we must prevent Lamia from finding the other Watchers. From now on, Fawzia-11's comm has priority. She will report on enemy movements."

Duri-22 had found a small out of the way utility closet. Niko was with the Infirmary evacuees. Fawzia and Peng were currently being pushed around in gurneys, focusing on Watching and trusting Hasina to keep them out of harm's way.

Charlotte-17 endured minutes of torture to buy time… and I have used that time. Attempting to hide the Watchers outside in the blizzard would be a tremendous gamble: In the open, if Lamia found them, our options would be limited. But in the labyrinth of this facility, we can play a game of cat and mouse where the cat is steadily growing weaker.

Theories from the archivists and scientists were pouring in. Using telekinesis, gateways, or healing itself would likely drain the enemy more quickly. It was time for Hasina to set her past failures aside and rise to the most important mission of her career.

The deadliest being ever discovered was within her stronghold, hunting the most precious humans alive. If anyone could keep them safe, while spending as few other lives as possible, it would be her. Dozens of soldiers and hundreds of other personnel moved through the facility according to Hasina's detailed, complex, ever-shifting orders. Several attempts had been made to disrupt Lamia with high-energy discharges, but it showed minimal sensitivity to the sort of sensory overload that could overwhelm Watchers. And even if this had inconvenienced the enemy, there were few options for using such tech inside HQ without tremendous collateral damage. Rather than depend on advanced and esoteric options, Hasina would focus on precise, flexible repositioning of her personnel. Informed by Fawzia's steady stream of data on Lamia's position, Hasina kept everyone moving. Her people maneuvered and repositioned, opening or closing blast doors, sealing or opening chambers, doing whatever they could to divert or misdirect the enemy. Most of them realized that a single misstep could mean a gruesome death, but they would all put the Watchers first, and they all trusted their Chief.

And any moment now, her greatest champion would arrive…

Buffeted by brutal winds, the HV6 emergency medical pod touched down on the roof of HQ. The instant the hatch slid open, Captain Benicio Martins shot out and pivoted, grabbing Lieutenant Blanchet's ankle and yanking her out onto the snow. The pod promptly launched itself off the roof to make way for others to land.

With his override access, Benicio triggered Eléa's helmet visor to raise. He then scooped up a double handful of snow, dumped it on her face, and then gave her a rough shake and a sharp slap. At any other time, Eléa would not have been pleased with such a wakeup call, but with Lamia inside HQ, she'd want him to do whatever it took to get her moving. Benicio had handled the extreme g-forces without blacking out, but very few others could.

Eléa awoke with a start, coughing, and the moment she looked up at him, Benicio nodded, turned, and sprinted for the nearest hatch. "Listen for Hasina's orders!" he shouted back. "See you on the other side!"

As the snow swirled about him, and more medical pods touched down all over the roof, he flung the hatch open and dived inside, ignoring the ladder. He hit the metal floor in a roll, and launched down the corridor. Hasina was already giving him specific orders. As expected, he would have the most complex and frequent role in distracting and weakening the enemy. He wouldn't have it any other way. He could survive dangers that would kill anyone else. Since his youth, he had always preferred to take on the hardest and most painful role. And since the day of his enlistment, that included taking the greatest risks. He'd seen comrades die back in Brazil, but as he'd come into his own, and advanced past the best of the best, such losses had grown very rare. To be on Benicio's team meant to face the deadliest missions… but you also had a devoted ally with unparalleled ability to get you home alive.

Benicio had never faced an enemy with genuine invisibility, nor telekinesis, but he had faced many threats that could obliterate the human body in an instant. If anyone could harass this monster repeatedly and live to see another day, it would be him.

And if this extradimensional horror turned out to be too much for the Captain…well, he wouldn't go down without a fight.

Boots hit metal far behind him. Lieutenant Blanchet had arrived, and there'd be many more following soon. With Benicio taking point, he hoped most of them would survive this.

Peng's mind reeled. Charlotte had always rubbed him the wrong way, seeming a little too virtuous to be genuine, but he'd appreciated how she kept the spotlight away from him. With her shining as an example, and with Klaus and Niko striving to keep up, it had been easy for Peng to blend into the background. Combined with his deliberately abrasive personality, it was easy for the rest of HQ to expect little of him. Before Klaus-21's disappearance, Peng's workload had been manageable, because most of the others were either more powerful Watchers or had more experience in relevant areas of expertise.

He'd never believed Charlotte was actually as selfless and devoted as she appeared, because only Klaus had ever won Peng's total respect. But now… Charlotte had died a slow, brutal, horrific death, enduring literal torture to buy time for everyone else. And before that, she had walked into deadly danger, fully aware of how badly things might go for her. Freeing Elpis of the mass-murdering monster that had plagued it for decades meant more to her than anything. Charlotte had succeeded, the brave kid at her side had died, and she'd stayed loyal to the last.

Peng genuinely couldn't wrap his mind and heart around it. He'd been so sure Charlotte was insincere, at least to a degree. Peng had misjudged a legitimately good woman, one worthy of 21's legacy. He'd been proven wrong in the most decisive way possible.

That very morning, he'd proposed sacrificing Charlotte to kill Lamia, figuring that if the others shared his suggestion with Charlotte, she'd refuse, proving it was all an act. But, in the end, Charlotte had made that very trade, and the idea had been hers alone.

Fawzia-11's voice came over his comm. The old woman sounded all but broken, having lost the spiritual successor to her murdered protégé. "Watchers… you've heard the recording of Lamia's ultimatum. It can sense that we're in the area, it even knows how many of us there are, and if that changes…" She broke off, reporting on Lamia's latest course change.

"Is it possible… Lamia's bluffing?" Anya sounded deeply shaken. Mere weeks ago, the gorgeous amazon had made no secret of how useless she felt, believing herself to be the most useless Watcher. She'd grown so much since then… but now a woman with ten times her talent was dead, which had to be a blow to her confidence.

"We can't afford to dismiss the veracity of Lamia's threat," Duri warned, his voice emotionless and analytical. In Peng's experience, that could only mean he was having a very hard time keeping it together. "I've only just awoken the ability to open spatial gateways, but I already know enough to suspect Lamia can do what it says. I can feel when a gateway would open underwater, meaning Lamia could likely find another continent fairly quickly through trial and error. If we take away its hope, if we have Niko project us somewhere it can't follow, I believe it will find a city. And if it has nothing to lose, and pours its full strength into vengeance…"

Hasina joined the conversation, her voice hard and certain. "We will not let that happen. I value your lives above all others, and I would sacrifice everyone else in this building if I believed it would keep the five of you safe. But I will not expose a civilian population to the horrors Lamia can unleash."

"Couldn't some of us escape though?" Peng hated how pathetic that sounded, but he wasn't prepared to get tortured by a monster when Niko could instead whisk him to safety. "If 29 took a couple of us to Mars, Lamia would still sense there are some Watchers here…"

No one, including Niko, immediately responded. Glad none of them could see his blushing face, Peng felt genuine shame. Finally, Anya drove it home. "Would you really have Niko take you away… leaving the rest of us to be hunted?"

In a rush of pride, Peng knew that he wouldn't. "No. I'm staying. But the youngest of us could be kept safe. If just Niko and Anya–"

"I'm not leaving," Anya insisted. "And there's no way Niko will. That kid's more hardcore than anyone but the Captain. Even if Hasina ordered him to hide offworld, no one can force him. He's the only person who can physically project now that… now that Charlotte…"

"Very well," Fawzia said, covering for Anya. "I'm proud of you all. Hasina will do everything in her power to protect us, but we will not flee the facility." She paused to report on another change in the enemy's direction. "Charlotte has doomed Lamia to starvation. The rest of us will keep it here, in Antarctica, for however long it takes. If Lamia manages to capture you… consider following 17's example. The longer you keep silent, allowing the monster to believe you have the power to save it, the more of its time you'll waste."

"Niko probably does have that power," Duri warned.

"But there's not a chance he'll do it," Anya insisted. "If Lamia tries to force him, he'll take it to Eden instead, no matter what it does to him afterward." Her voice gave no sign that she viewed Niko as a child. The kid had fought at her side, losing his eyes to protect her, and it was clear that she now considered him a brother in arms, worthy of her highest respect.

Peng hoped that, someday, Anya might have similar faith… in him.

Voice grave, Fawzia concluded, "If we don't all get through this alive, know that I believe we made the right choice."

Lamia killed Charlotte… The best of us… is gone…

Still unable to speak, Niko felt tears flowing, and he didn't care that it messed up the bandage covering his ruined eyes. The woman who'd respected Klaus so much she'd ultimately surpassed him. The Watcher who represented the level of power and drive Niko needed to achieve… she was dead.

Even more importantly, the killer was now on the move. With the short conference between the Watchers concluded, Fawzia alone spoke continuously. Her words came in an endless stream, reporting on Lamia's movements. The enemy was so fast, tearing through the facility in a predatory rampage, looking for Watchers. Occasionally, it would switch levels by ripping through the ceiling or floor. The casual ease with which it did so, despite the hardened armor layer in every wall and floor… it was not encouraging. If Hasina's orders ever came too slow, or if anyone failed to obey quickly enough, then someone wouldn't get out of the way in time. They had to stay a step ahead, because the enemy moved faster than anyone could run. Lamia might be seeking Watchers, but it would surely murder anyone else who happened to be in its way.

The current plan… is all about time… How long will it take for Lamia to starve? How much can we speed that up by forcing it to heal or use its powers?

How many people will die before then?

The loss of Charlotte greatly added to the crushing weight on Niko's heart that had started with 21's death. Niko had wanted to be Klaus. Though no one would've allowed him to, Niko would have died for Klaus. And then, mere minutes ago, the youngest soldier in the Organization had died defending them. Niko had felt his heart trying to tear apart. He might've been left unresponsive, even catatonic, if not for this new crisis. Right now, Niko kept it together only by focusing on the many hundreds of lives that might be one misstep away from ending. His left side was very badly bruised from the collision with the driver of that comm vehicle, and his destroyed eyes were a constant source of agony. But he could use that to enhance his Watching whenever he got to resume his primary role. At the moment, he tried to keep up a brisk pace, hand in hand with Doctor Sharma, while Doctor Taibei kept encouraging them to go faster. Unlike Anya, Niko had never managed to enter his Trance while walking. But he was the only person that might be able to cut this nightmare short.

There is a way to stop Lamia from killing anyone else, and making the time required for it to starve totally irrelevant. And I'm the only one strong enough to make it happen.

He knew that no one would approve. No one would even give him grudging permission. But Lamia had the potential to slaughter thousands if Hasina's maneuvers weren't enough to keep people away from it.

Gotta try it right now… before anyone else gets hurt…

Niko pretended to stumble, and he fell to the floor. Supriya cried out in alarm as she lost her grip on his hand, while Wilma knelt to help him up. But neither reaction mattered to Niko. The second he started to fall, he entered his Trance, projecting his mind to the latest coordinates Fawzia had supplied.

There it was, in all its horrifying, monstrous glory. Lamia had stretched into an elongated shape, constantly shifting, bunching, and surging in a chaotic and nauseating way that was very difficult to follow. Bladed ridges of bone gave it traction, while needle teeth stabbed into the metal floor and helped to propel it forward. Blood ran off the nightmarish thing, and its transparent flesh made it easy to see the briar patch of bony spines filling the interior. The blood and bits of skin could only be from Charlotte. As it lunged and sprang down the corridor, it left gouges in the walls and floor, breaking handrails and occasionally shattering overhead lights.

For just a moment, the disgusting abomination filled Niko with animal fear. He was a child, alone in the presence of a monster, and his only hope was for it to pass him by without seeing him…

Then he shoved those feelings down and went through with his plan.

With a burst of power, Niko projected his body into position right next to Charlotte's killer. His right hand thrust out blindly, making contact as his enemy rushed by. A bony blade tore open his palm, and a needle tooth ripped a gash in his forearm, but he used this new pain to intensify his Trance. Finding the loose collection of cells that had once been Elsa's brain, he felt Elsa's nebulous pain, and sadness, all but subsumed in the raging storm of Lamia's hatred, fear, and hunger. He seized on the little girl's altered mind, and then expelled a great burst of power to hurl his mind and body to Eden…

He failed.

The blast of mental power had no effect but to leave him dizzy. A dark force had surged up his arm and gripped his mind, holding him there.

The monster ground to a stop, and a deep, inhuman voice growled, "Foolish child. After the woman pulled me across space against my will, did you believe I'd allow such a thing to happen again?"

Despite all his efforts, Niko couldn't free his mind from that hold. A dozen needle teeth had already sunk into his hand and wrist, and without being able to break physical contact, he couldn't escape the mental grip.

Niko felt grateful for his blindness, his inability to see the hideous thing that had caught him. He heard the disgusting sounds of ripping flesh, and he feared this was the creation of even more mouths.

"Right now, I can feel your intent. If you choose to send me home, then I will allow it. But if you intend me harm… I can stop you!"

A desperate, full-body tug failed to break the thing's grip, though it did worsen the damage from all those barbed teeth in his hand.

The guttural growl came with a wave of vile stench. "If you agree to take me to Elpis… this can all end… If you refuse… you will receive the same treatment as the woman. I'll deal agony such as no child could possibly bear, and you won't even look human by the time you yield and grant my request."

The barbed teeth began to pull, and Niko's arm slowly and inexorably began to enter the monster's body…

Niko drew his gauss pistol with his left hand, pressed the barrel against his forearm, near the wrist, and blazed away as fast as he could pull the trigger.

The monster shrieked as rounds punched into it at Mach 2, but that wasn't the purpose of these shots.

With the bones in his forearm blasted to bits, Niko tore free from Lamia's grip, leaving his right hand behind. The back of his head struck the wall hard, and for just a moment he was too disoriented to enter his Trance. He heard bone grinding on metal, and he knew the beast would simply seize him again, making the sacrifice of his hand meaningless…

Then a shocking impact of invisible force hurled Niko down the mangled corridor.

He crashed and tumbled along the hard metal floor, losing his pistol and ripping his right leg bloody on a broken railing. Even so, he wondered why Lamia would hurl him away from it. It wanted to seize and torture him, so why–

"Get out of there Niko!" That was Peng's voice, shouting over the comm. "It'll be a minute before I'm strong enough for another shove like that!"

Epic… Niko thought, even as he slid to a stop on a buckled plate of flooring. How angry must Peng be for a breakthrough like–

A different force gripped him, and he knew this time it was Lamia. Seizing the chance Peng had given him, Niko drew on the pain of his newest wounds, resumed his CPN-Ω simulation, and flung his mind to his quarters. With a blast of mental power that left him ill, he tore away from the telekinetic hold, and his body joined his mind. He collapsed to the floor, breathless and shaking, and quickly resumed his Trance. He Watched himself from above, stricken by just how fragile he really looked. It didn't matter that he was hardened for his age, he was just so small. The stump where his right hand had been gushed bright red onto the carpet, more blood flowed from his badly lacerated leg, and the bandage over his eyes had ripped free. He was look'n pretty rough… but he was alive. "Thanks, 24," he whispered over Peng's channel. "If not for you, I'd be…"

"Forget about it," Peng interrupted. "Patch yourself up. If you bleed to death after what I did, I'll be seriously annoyed. Plus, that might leave me as the strongest of the Watchers, meaning a huge increase in my workload. Not cool."

Crawling very slowly so as not to break his Trance, Niko whispered, "How does it feel to be the first member of the Organization to crack telekinesis? Well… other than Klaus, right at the end…"

"It feels exhausting," Peng snapped. "And painful. And I just know Hasina and Fawzia are gonna expect me to use it all the time after this mess is over. That's exactly why I never wanted to be the best at anything. So you better live through this, so you can become a better telekinetic, and I can go back to being comfortably mediocre."

Shaking his head, Niko reached the emergency medical kit hanging on the nearest wall. It was so like Peng to complain about being tired and in pain even while talking to a blind kid who just lost a hand. But he did kinda save my life, so I guess I should let it slide. Niko pulled out a small sheet of synthflesh, wrapping it around his jagged stump. It constricted, bonding to the skin and administering antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and pain meds he'd have rather done without. It took three similar patches to stop the bleeding from the long gash down the length of his calf. That was deep enough to expose the quivering muscle layers, and he fought down nausea. Unlike Anya, he hadn't taken the time to change after their morning in her gym with Benny. Instead of durable pants, he still wore lightweight shorts. That might be a big part of why he got cut so bad, but at least it also made it easy to bandage the wounds. Too bad his favorite nerd shirt was ruined from all this blood…

More than a little dizzy, Niko downed some pills designed to stimulate his body to release all its reserves of blood cells, and he chugged a bottle of fluids that could be absorbed very quickly. His blood volume should be restored soon. His eyes were still seeping, but not enough to be dangerous. He wanted to keep helping, but it was clear he wouldn't be able to transport Lamia against its will. His whole body shook from trauma and exhaustion, and one of his implants administered a powerful mix of meds to counter the risk of shock. He had to repeatedly override its attempts to administer strong anesthetics which would force him to sleep through the next few hours. The boy had yet to come to terms with the loss of his eyes and right hand, and he kept pushing those issues down the road by focusing on the immediate crisis.

Fearing that he might not be up for any further contributions beyond traditional Watching, Niko opened a channel to Hasina.

Fawzia's heart had nearly stopped when Niko manifested physically in front of her. She'd been focused on keeping pace with the enemy, evading its occasional attempts to abduct her, while whispering a steady string of coordinates to her allies. Niko's sudden appearance had initially felt unreal… until the first sight of blood. When Lamia began to pull him in, Fawzia had never felt so helpless. And any other child surely would have died. But the decisive 29 had no fear of pain, and he'd blown off his own hand to escape its grasp. And Peng used a telekinetic blast in his defense. Between this new breakthrough, and Duri's unique ability to create gateways, we might just be able to stop Lamia from taking any more lives. I wonder if invisibility is a power Watchers might be able to unlock… But that's a question for another day, since there'd be no point against Lamia.

Her continuous string of intel for her allies faltered briefly when Niko's quivering voice came over her comm. "I don't think we'll be able to get Lamia offworld. After what Charlotte did to it, it won't fall for that trick again. It'll only allow us to physically relocate it if Lamia senses our intent to take it back to Elpis."

Which is utterly out of the question, Fawzia thought, even as she relayed Lamia's latest coordinates. After Charlotte and that Unwanted boy both died to stop Lamia, I can't imagine anything more dreadful than giving in to its demands. Even if many more lives are lost, it would be better than undoing what's already been accomplished. We will not put the Unwanted at the mercy of this thing yet again. If Lamia's learned how to stop us from relocating it, we'd never get another chance to kill it.

"Inform Hasina and the other Watchers," she commanded, during a brief pause where Lamia stayed still, perhaps listening, or hopefully resting. "No one may attempt to relocate Lamia. You may try to distract Lamia, but only if you're confident that you can avoid abduction. With Lamia on Earth instead of seventy lightyears away, abduction may be far easier for it."

Peng joined the conversation. "But it might still be too difficult with us on guard. After all, if it isn't constantly trying to abduct you, maybe that means Lamia thinks it'll fail."

A dark suspicion grew in Fawzia's heart at that. If the enemy's starving, you'd expect desperation to have it pouring its efforts into abducting us. But instead, it's moving through the base at high speed… Despite her Trance, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Lamia must believe it's more likely to locate our physical bodies than it is to get a solid grip on our projected minds… But no, that can't be exactly right. If it doesn't understand what mental projection entails…

Lamia surged forward again, now in a new direction. It wasn't heading directly toward any of the Watchers, but this new course was far more threatening than where it was going before. When it paused, as if listening… there's no way it heard anything that would lead it closer to us. We know it's capable of detecting us without projecting its mind. It doesn't appear to know exactly where we are, but what if it grows more certain of our location the closer it gets? Or the longer it's here?

Briefly muting her comm, Fawzia issued new orders to the soldier pushing her gurney. The man immediately spun her around and reversed course. Reactivating her comm, Fawzia gave Lamia's latest coordinates, then warned the other Watchers to remain vigilant for their own safety.

Doctor Wilma Taibei's heart pounded as she jogged along, and she knew this was nothing compared to Doctor Sharma's struggle. Wilma found daily self-discipline to be easy, and she remained nearly as lean and swift as during her teens. But Supriya's short stride forced her into a full run. When Niko had disappeared, projecting himself away, the rest of the group had been unable to justify their slower pace. Now, for the sake of all the other patients, the group maintained a speed Supriya wouldn't be able to match much longer. They would all risk themselves for the sake of a Watcher, but no one, including Supriya, would have the others slow down just for her.

Hasina's voice came over her comm. "Infirmary evacuees! Lamia's latest course change has her moving down your corridor, coming up from behind! Move move move!"

A surge of primal terror flooded Wilma with adrenaline, but she would not leave her department head behind. Everyone sped up, heading toward a T-intersection. "Left!" Supriya managed to shout. Wilma agreed. If they split in both directions, it would all but guarantee that half of them would die. Instead, Supriya wanted all of them in this together. It might get them all killed, but it might instead allow all of them to survive. Lamia didn't care about anyone but the Watchers. It would surely massacre anyone it encountered, but it might not specifically choose to follow them.

Then Doctor Sharma let out a cry of pain. She'd almost fallen, and despite recovering, it looked like she'd injured her ankle. Not only did the head Doctor have the stride of a child, now she ran with an awkward limp. Though reasonably fit, Wilma knew she didn't have the strength to maintain a full run for very long if she tried to carry her. Though barely a meter tall, Supriya still had the full build of an adult woman. One of the soldiers might handle her moderate weight far more easily, but the rest of the party had pulled well ahead. Wilma didn't want one of them to backtrack when every second might mean life or death.

The soldiers at the front of the group turned left, and those pushing gurneys rounded the corner as fast as they could without spilling their patients onto the floor. They were flipping a coin, putting all of their survival up to the random outcome of which way Lamia would turn when reaching the intersection. Either fifty-seven people would die in the next thirty seconds, or they'd all live.

The grinding of bone on metal reached Wilma's ears. She spared a quick look over her shoulder, past the struggling Supriya, toward the distant source of the rapidly-approaching sounds.

Though the enemy was invisible, Wilma's sharp eyes and basic ocular enhancement implants let her see small gouges scraping into the steel floor. A security door slammed down, but in a terrifying crash Lamia tore through. It was impossible to be sure whether this was accomplished by enhanced bone, telekinesis, or a mix of the two. Death approaches, unseen and unstoppable, and there's nothing we can do but hope it turns to the right… Unless…

Another gasp of pain escaped Doctor Sharma, and Wilma made a decision. There was a way to influence Lamia's course. True, if it knew where it was going, nothing would work. But if it wasn't certain where the Watchers were, but was employing elements of guesswork, perhaps it could be influenced to go right…

Dashing ahead of her superior, Wilma rounded the corner and pulled open a maintenance panel. No ordinary adult could have fit in the small space, but Supriya could. Wilma tore out a boxy piece of equipment to be sure. Supriya staggered around the corner, and Wilma didn't hesitate. She snatched the gauss pistol from Supriya's belt, grabbed her little superior, and shoved her into the small alcove. Supriya couldn't even catch her breath to protest as Wilma slid the panel back into place, hiding her from sight. There. Supriya couldn't have gotten far enough away to be safe for what comes next.

Wilma then tossed her lab coat into the intersection… and sprinted in the opposite direction of the main group.

Everyone else still headed off in the direction Supriya had ordered. If Lamia chose to turn left, they'd all be butchered.

She'd give it a reason to go right.

With both pistols in hand, Wilma came to a stop when the grinding sound grew close. Her heart pounded and her breath heaved, for she'd dashed a good fifty meters down the corridor. She now turned and took position close to the wall. She aimed toward the intersection, angled so that missed shots should strike the distant wall rather than reach the retreating crowd. She kept her eyes on the fallen lab coat, tried to keep her hands steady, and did all she could to ignore the terror threatening to overwhelm her. If she froze up, if she allowed the cost of this plan to consciously sink in, it could mean the deaths of fifty-five colleagues, including two patients who were only alive because of her own intervention.

Shut down your emotions. Think only of your duty. Your responsibility to your patients and coworkers. Nothing matters… except sticking to this plan…

The lab coat shredded into tatters, and two great trenches tore into the metal floor, curving off in the direction of the fleeing soldiers, doctors, and patients.

Wilma opened fire.

Her pulse throbbing in her ears, her body quivering in terror, she nevertheless focused on firing as rapidly as the two pistols could manage. Magnetically-propelled rounds stabbed forth two at a time, accelerated to Mach 2 in an instant by the fusion-powered coils. A couple bullets tore into the wall far down the corridor, digging in by design rather than ricocheting. The rest gave no visible sign… as if they'd vanished.

Instead, the shots elicited blood-chilling shrieks from the invisible enemy.

And when Wilma didn't stop firing, those screams soon reversed direction and sped right toward her.

Mission accomplished.

Wilma kept shooting.

An invisible blast of force hurled her to the floor. She lost one pistol, but kept her grip on the other. Though winded, she forced herself into a sitting position and resumed firing.

Her shots started glancing off an invisible wall. A telekinetic shield that, hopefully, would accelerate the enemy's growing hunger. Determined to make it keep that shield in place for as long as possible, Wilma slid in a new magazine and blazed away. Her body nearly seized with barely-restrained panic, her heart pounded so hard she feared she might black out, but she did not falter.

She kept firing, even as the scrapes and gouges reached her.

The pain, though indescribable, lasted less than two seconds.