10

The bathroom door cracks open, and a parasite enters. It slithers silently over the linoleum tiles. It arrives at the base of the tub and crawls up the side.

Kylie continues relaxing, her eyes closed. She doesn't see the parasite enter the soapy bath water at her feet. She hears a soft splashing and peers down. She spots the creature swimming toward her between her knees. Kylie shrieks and scrambles up to get out of the tub. As she clambours out, she slips and falls to the floor.

The parasite squirms up Kylie's wet naked back. Kylie shrieks again, jumping up as she tries to slap the thing off.

"Mum!"

The parasite winds toward her lips. Kylie goes to grab it with both hands, but it slips through them. The thing slides into Kylie's mouth as she looks down at it.

Kylie snatches the very end of the parasite's tail. Her long, teddy-bear-spotted fingernails pinch it there, digging into the parasite's flesh, barely stopping it from sliding completely into her mouth. It wildly flaps its tail like a docked trout, desperate to enter her.

Kylie falls to her knees. Her eyes roll back in her head, and her body spasms while she holds tenuously onto the very tip of the parasite's tail. A slight white electrical-telepathic charge can be seen sparking inside her mouth.

We are rushing through some amoebic landscape, past microbes and cytoplasm and cells, and to Perhaps the memories of some creature not of earth. Its eyesight is not like our own; it's in grainy black and white and amber outlines. Various images FLASH in quick succession, including the following:

We are on top of an alien animal, pinning it down. it howls beneath us as we tear into its flesh, feasting. All around us, diseased monstrous beasts feed on more alien animals. They lunge toward them and pin them down, ripping them apart, like some National Geographic documentary shot in Hell. -In FAST MOTION, unfamiliar plant life around us grows sick and withers, dying out.

A group of diseased monstrous beasts cry out In uniform pain. They buckle to their knees; now they're dying. -The diseased beasts feed on their own appendages.

Kylie tries to regain control of her mind. Her eyes fight against flipping back in her head. Tears pour down her face. She pulls the parasite out just a bit. But then it SLAMS back into her and there are more sparks inside her mouth ...

We are climbing up through A creamy, gelatinous yellow. An opening slit widens in front of us, and we see Johnny slowly bending to look at us, the forest behind him.

-We watch Rhiannon soaping herself In The shower.

-We make love to Rhiannon, our hands on her face.

-We sit over A convulsing Mary, impregnating her with our tubule.

-We see the posse members coming in toward us.

With a last, desperate effort, Kylie yanks at the exhausted worm, pulling it fully from her mouth. It flaps in her fingers. Kylie spits up blood.

Kylie tosses the parasite away from her. Though slightly crippled, the little bastard writhes back toward her. Kylie spots her curling iron on the counter; it's plugged in, the red light is on. She grabs it, and swings it into the wormy thing.

The parasite SQUEAKS and trembles with pain. Smoke rises from it as Kylie digs the curling iron in deeper, burning it, and, finally, killing it. Kylie lifts the iron in front of her and looks at it. The dead parasite is stuck to it, dangling from the metal.

"Mom!"

Kylie drops the iron. She quickly steps into her clothes lying on the floor. She runs out of the bathroom and runs to the stairway.

"Mom! Mom!"

Kylie stops. Dozens of the things are slithering up the stairs and up the handrail towards her. Kylie hears her sisters screaming. She looks in their direction, running toward their room.

"Emily! Jenna!"

Kylie tosses open her sisters' door.

Kylie's youngest sister is on her knees on the bed, a parasite sticking out of her mouth. Her eyes are rolled back. Her arms flail spastically. The slithering beast

wags its tail as it disappears down her throat. Kylie's other sister is backing into a corner, with parasites crawling up her body. She's screaming bloody hell, trying to slap them off.

Kylie runs toward her to help. Kylie slaps the parasites off her sister. But there's too many and they're too fast. They slide into her sister's mouth.

"No! Nooo!"

Her sister's eyes flip back in her skull as the thing disappears completely, and she starts spitting up blood. Kylie sees the parasites around the room coming at her. There's a clear path toward a window. Kylie runs to the window and shoves it open. As the things approach her, she crawls out.

Kylie steps onto this shingled, angled canopy over the front porch. She turns to see the parasites slithering out towards her. She looks down. It's probably too far to jump, but she has no choice.

So she jumps down and lands, hard, tumbling over.

She glances back at the front of the house.

Through the kitchen window she sees her Mum and Dad, eyes rolled back, convulsing, spitting up blood. More parasites are crawling towards Kylie through the grass.

She spots her family's old Luv pickup truck on the driveway in front of her. She breaks for it.

She throws open the front door, and jumps inside. The things approach, crawling in after her. Kylie tries to slam the door shut, but it won't; many things are stuck in the door jamb.

They squeak in a chorus of pain, trying to wriggle toward her.

So she SLAMS the door AGAIN, and AGAIN, and she slices the little bastards in half.

Kylie makes sure none are inside. She feels for the keys in the ignition. There aren't any. The creatures crawl up and over all the pickup's windows, trying to get in. Slithery shadows cover over Kylie, leaving her in almost complete darkness.

Kylie crouches down in on herself, and wails.