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Such a fool, so self-righteous in his own stupidity! A great anger rose in hi his joy He could feel his body quake with it "We&039;ll see who&039;s going to die," he said, his voice treer Marcus&039;s voice, he had be-coain, the children&039;s vision of Marcus as a youth He frowned, not sure why he had changed, or how--he had not wished it, had not sung or willed the shift in forer, ignoring his inner commands, and for the first tio, since the hive had given him his new life, he had no control over it The many would not listen, wanted only to sout like bile, choking hier was too big, too all-enco entirely new, and his struggle for do The queen! He could feel her consciousness filling hi forth, carried by the children to every part of hisform She wanted to kill, to destroy the two huer than even he had i that had once been Marcus had no choice but to surrender, to become the most powerful player of all To becoe once more, in a way that seean to pour fro out in a rush of sli man&039;s eyes ide, his expression one of disbelief as he continued to choke out the slick fall of leeches
As soon as they hit the floor, the creatures rushed back to the younginto hi the shape and texture of his flesh His clotheshis body a strangely rubbery appearance, his arreat ated, stretching, the skin tearing to expose ribbed striations of purplish oo
Next to him, Rebecca drew a sharp breath as the Marcus-creature lost its human appearance entirely, its whole bodywebs of clear sli the y tentacles shot up froh wind, the color of inflammation, of infection
"The queen," Rebecca breathed "She&039;s taking control"
Billy pointed the Magnu fleard, leaping straight into the air It hit the ceiling with a huge, wet s thick fluids to the floor far below Except for having four lier looked re but it was already gone, dropping to the floor in front of theiant rubber toy It--she--stretched out again, towering over hi around toward the for them
He and Rebecca both stu as he stepped on any number of the leeches that still covered the floor, heard the soft, fat pop of each creature beneath his heels Rebecca grabbed his ar as she, too, slipped across the blanket of leech bodies
The deaths of her ghastly children had an immediate effect The leech queen pulled her tentacles back and let out a screa on earth, a sound made all the more horrible by its complete alienness All of the leeches in the roo away fro a path fro footsteps
The leech queen continued to grow as the sether with the core creature, her size almost doubled in less than a minute Billy shot a look over his shoulder, saw that they were going to dead-end back at the door they entered by if they let the monster choose their path, in the most literal sense of the word At the room&039;s south side was a closed door set into a kind of recessed entryway There was a sea of leeches separating therowing Marcus-queen monster She seemed oblivious to their presence as she packed on antuan size in a soft, sloshing whisper of liquidhis voice low as they continued to slowly back away They had to act now, fast, or their chance would be gone
"If it&039;s locked?" Rebecca whispered back
"Gotta risk it," he said "I&039;ll cover On three Onetwothree!"
Rebecca broke and ran as Billy opened fire, pouring rounds into the giant, bloated body of the queen She screa on depths of pain, of hate, and shot a handful of tentacles at hirabbed hinuun as he ildly shaken, his head snapping back and forth, his arth Her tentacles curled around his chest, tightening like a vise, squeezing so hard that he couldn&039;t draw breath After only a few seconds, he could feel hi to brilliant spots of darting black
He heard the sound of the shotgun--and thearound to face her new attacker Billy crashed to the floor He ignored the pain, scranuain and theall around
Billy got to his feet, saw that Rebecca had her back turned The second blast hadn&039;t been ai control console next to the south door She fired again, kicking at the door at the same time It flew open, but the queen was alht, heavier by far, she&039;ll rip her apart like a paper doll--
"Hey!" Billy screaet her attention fast--
--and he leaped into the nearest wave of leech bodies, ju as hard as he could They burst by the dozen, spilled ichorous blood and goop across the floor, drenching his boots He danced on their dying bodies, feeling a fierce, uninhibited satisfaction as the leech queen spun again, howling in distress
He saw Rebecca lad about it--and then the iant rooe
Billy slammed into the back wall He felt a rib crack, then he was falling, landing heavily on the cement floor It drove the wind out of hi for the south door, leeches popping underfoot as he struggled to breathe
The monster was about the same distance from the door as he was Billy saw that he wouldn&039;t et there before hi, that Rebecca make it out alive--
--and then he saw her, not behind the south door at all, but half across the rooun trained on the leech queen, her back to the central incinerator Billy realized that she ain while the ainst the wall He screanored hied toward Billy With each shot, handfuls of leeches flew from the massive body, but for every one lost, a half dozenon On the fourth shot, the queen turned toward her, hesitating, as if unable to decide who to go after
"Get in!" she shouted "I&039; to God she had a plan She continued to fire at the creature, pu but a dry click that Billy could hear across the room, the sound of inevitable defeat
The leech queen heard it, too, and started for her, her body continuing to grow, to pick up mass as she lurched wetly forward Billy had reached the south door and stood there, adrenaline pouring through his body, fununored hi, wasn&039;t even reaching for the handgun as the queen approached Instead, she hefted the shotgun by its barrel, stepped back so that she was touching the incinerator wall-- and drove the heavy stock through the sheetone of the panels out with an alu matter spilled out across the floor Rebecca ju lu synthetics and rubbish into the nearest wave of leech bodies
The queen shrieked, ceased its advance, still well away from the sudden fire Scorched leeches scurried to their father-queen, tried to cliht pain with the to the rew in intensity as s her writhe in what Billy hoped was insufferable agony
Rebecca saw her chance and took it, running for the south wall as the queen tore at herself, screa Billy emptied the revolver on the floor, dropped the last two rounds into the cha it on the queen as Rebecca ran past her--but the queen was beyond caring, at least for the , running like nu queen until Rebecca was past hih the door He quickly backed in after her, and she slammed the door closed
He took a deep breath, felt the pain in his ribs, in his arony in every pore of his body--until he turned around, and sahat Rebecca was pointing at, a sed face His pain dropped away, becaround to his own sudden relief
They&039;d shut themselves into a platform elevator shaft One that went up--and from the depth of the wide tunnel that stretched away froht far, far above, the platforrinned at each other like children, too dumb with happiness to speak, but only for a few seconds Their s queen roared, her horrible voice carrying fro the the a word, they ran to the platfor console that controlled the elevator Billy studied the switches for a beat, then, with a silent prayer for deliverance, snapped the power on The platforhtmare Or so they believed