Slither - Edward Lee [29]
Of course, there was no one there.
Common sense returned. I didn't come here to play with myself in a portable shower! And then she rinsed all the soap -off,-reached- to turn off the water-
Her shriek whistled through the air. She tore out of the shower, dripping and never more naked. Her bare feet crunched over dried brush and palm leaves, and when she remembered exactly what she'd seen in the shower, she shrieked again.
Annabelle manically patted her hands over every square inch of her body that she could reach, feeling for the things. She had only enough time to wrap a towel around herself before Trent, Loren, and Nora bolted into the cove.
"What's wrong!" Trent exclaimed.
Annabelle stood huddled, shivering but not from cold. "Those things! They were in the shower!"
"What things, Annabelle?" Loren asked.
"Like that thing on Lieutenant Trent's back earlier! That yellow thing with the red spots! But there's a bunch of them!"
Nora flung open the green shower curtain. The others shouldered in behind her.
"More spumarius," Nora observed. "Froghopper larvae."
On the inside of the shower curtain, a drove of the bizarre off-yellow buds seemed adhered. A few more dotted the water pipe that led to the showerhead.
"Wow," Loren said.
"Get some collection vials," Nora told Loren. Then she leaned to peer more closely at the things. They crawled along on the plastic sheet, perhaps moving an inch every two or three seconds. "I can't believe the rate of locomotion," she said. "Didn't think they moved that fast."
"You're damn right they move fast," Annabelle blurted, her fist clutching the towel to her wet bosom. "They were almost at my feet!" She pointed down.
More of the yellow things bumbled around in the sopped ground. One was almost at the tip of Nora's sneaker. When she stepped away to the right, the viscid buds shifted right. Nora frowned, then stepped to the left.
The things on the ground shifted to the left.
"That's really strange for froghopper larvae," Nora informed them. "They're not predatory at all, and they don't have the necessary sensory organs to detect other living things in proximity."
"They're sensing something now," Trent said, still irked by his own experience. "When you move, they move."
Nora stepped out, confused. "Right, and another strange thing is the size. Froghopper larvae are about the size of BBs, but this genus is significantly larger."
Annabelle fingered wet hair off her brow. "Who gives a shit? Would somebody please kill those things?"
Nora pursed her lips. "Annabelle, we already told you, they're harmless."
"How do you know?" Annabelle challenged with a scowl. She turned in a huff and stalked back toward the camp.
Nora was leaning farther; several of the things weren't but a few inches from her face as she inspected them. "Maybe I ..."
"Maybe what?" Trent said. He seemed aggravated.
"Maybe I was wrong about this-"
Before Trent could respond, Loren reappeared with some collection tubes and forceps. "A spumaria this size? You know what I'm thinking, right?"
"That it's-"
"That we've discovered a new species."
Nora shook her head. "Loren, what I'm thinking is that maybe these things aren't froghopper larvae at all."
Loren stalled with the poised forceps. "All right. Why do you say that?"
"The dorsal region. Look how they're moving. I'm not seeing any parapodic structure. It almost looks like cilia."
Loren maintained his stalled poise. Then he winked at her. "Can't be. It's too big." Now he redirected his attention to the slowly moving things on the curtain. "Come to Papa, you ugly little buggers." And then he plucked several up with the forceps.
Nora didn't know what she was thinking. "Come on, let's get them under the scope