Karl didn't understand what was happening, but still, he had to do something.

He remembered his fight with the lone silver-eyed wyrm from before. The two of them had been at each other's throats. But now? The silver—at least the ones that hadn't fled—had all of their attention focused on the hospital's central wing. Yuth had said she'd try to draw their attention, but Karl just didn't know whether or not that would work. The fungus was no earthly thing. Its thinking had to be completely beyond anything any of them could understand.

"You can't let her do this!" Karl said. He locked eyes with the others; Dr. Rathpalla; Larry.

The janitor huffed out spores and shook his head. "There's no use trying to dissuade her," he said. "Yuth honed her willpower tending to the most invalid of invalids in the Quiet Ward. Trust me, once she's set her mind on something, there's no dissuading her."

Larry gave Nurse Costran an affectionate, almost teasing look.

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Great, now the wyrms are sleeping with each other."

Karl blushed at the thought, but quickly pushed his embarrassment aside.

"But—"

But Dr. Rathpalla grabbed him by the claw and pulled him along. "—No. You heard the man, let's go!"

And they did, all of them.

Nurse Costran screamed like a banshee as she rose up into the sky. She fired off a slew of psychokinetic attacks. The blasts were so strong, they pulled up uprooted plants, broken vehicles, and other debris off the ground as they rocketed skyward. The invisible attacks bashed into the silver-eyes overhead and knocked them back, briefly stunning them. As more of the hospital's transformees joined in—first Larry, then another, and another—it was like watching an artillery regiment go off.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Glass and debris swept through the air. As more detritus blasted out into the open, it became easier for Karl to see the other transformees' powers in action, like iron filings around a lodestone.

Karl followed Dr. Rathpalla down the sett-paved street. They were heading toward one of the entry ramps to the garage. Karl was terrified that the wyrms would strike back. But, despite the interference from the ground, the silver-eyes stayed focused on attacking the hospital.

Karl couldn't help but look up and stare. He noticed the wyrms were keeping their distance from the hospital.

That was strange.

It wasn't just a matter of dodging the Yuth and the others' attacks, they'd been doing that from the very beginning. Tablets, most of them had simply fled outright.

"Karl, what are you doing?!"

Dr. Rathpalla turned back to yell.

"Sorry, sorry!" Karl said, as he went over to the psychiatrist and joined him in slithering down the ramp. Karl had to duck down to keep his head and spines from scraping against the ceiling, which left him feeling claustrophobic.

Ichigo and Bever followed close behind, tromping down the ramp's incline.

As Karl reached the base of the ramp, he turned around and looked up and out.

The silver-eyes were still keeping their distance.

Geoffrey's words ran through his mind: if you see something, say something.

"Dr. Rathpalla," Karl said.

The psychiatrist turned back to face him. "What is it?"

"The wyrms… I noticed they're keeping their distance from the hospital. Do you have any idea why they're doing that?"

Dr. Rathpalla looked over the marsh of melted cars, toward the doors to the Central Wing on the far side of the garage. "It's Genneth and Andalon," he said. "It has to be. That must be why they're attacking the Central Wing. The fungus knows those two are a threat!"

"Uh, guys…" Larry said, his voice echoing from out of sight.

Fierce sounds assailed Karl from all sides as he and Dr. Rathpalla wove their way between the cars. He heard screams and crashing thumps bounce out from down where the garage spun in a descending spiral ramp toward the next floor below. Behind him, up on the surface, the silver-eyes' cries suddenly changed their tune. The disorder of the wyrmly polyphony unified into a unison chant loud enough to quiver the bits of broken tile and cement on the garage's floor.

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Turning around, phasing through Bever and Ichigo, Karl slithered back to the exit ramp.

"Where are you going!?" Dr. Rathpalla yelled.

Before Karl could respond, a huge column of dirt and debris exploded upward from the middle of the courtyard.

"Is that a bomb?" Bever said.

The blast flung Yuth and the others back as if they were sticks. Even halfway down the exit ramp, the impact was strong enough to knock Karl off balance.

Karl pushed off the ramp and looked up right as a massive wave of force from above tore through the rain of dirt, striking the stuff out of the air and pulverizing Yuth and the other transformees. Up above, a single silver-eyed wyrm undulated mid-air. Bits of dirt, plant matter, metal, and bone swirled around its claws.

"It's going to attack again!" Bever said.

Karl slithered forward to yell a warning, but then, as the dust settled and his allies got up off the ground.—

"—No…" Karl muttered.

Their eyes were turning silver. Some—including Nurse Costran—clutched their heads, desperate to fight off the mind-control. But many of the others had already lost.

Karl stared the silver-eyes in the eyes as they charged at him.

Damn me…

Turning around, Karl used a burst of power to lob himself up off the ramp, sending himself tumbling into a group of cars deeper in the garage. Dr. Rathpalla rushed to help him, but turned and yelled as his and Karl's former allies came down the ramp. Larry came barreling down in front of them, his eyes still sane and golden.

Karl got up from the half-crushed cars beneath him with a groan.

Larry slithered around the corner that led to the garage's next lower level, and then immediately went back the way he came, and Karl heard a sound that made the wyrm's cries seem ordinary by comparison.

"Fungus monsters!" the janitor yelled.

— — —

The first thing Jonan did was to grab the laser rifle off one of the doctors beside him. How the guy managed to get a laser rifle was not relevant here.

Never look a free weapon upgrade in the mouth.

The second thing Jonan did was remind himself that ascorbic acid increased the body's absorption of aluminum.

The third thing he did was rush to the front of the group.

The fourth thing he did was pull the trigger, and the fifth was to hang on tight as the good times rolled.

There had to be at least four of the fucking monstrosities ambling down the hallway. They looked like hedgehogs or sea-snails, if hedgehogs had tentacles instead of spines, and if sea snails had clusters of dead birds and human bodies instead of a gastropod foot.

The things shrieked in the flickering light of the laser beam that were roasting them alive.

"Jonan!" Ani yelled.

"Run!" Jonan said; he didn't bother to look back.

Heggy and Dr. B'zool ran up, flanked him, and provided supporting fire.

The noise was deafening. Gunfire fought the creatures' shrieks to fill Jonan's ears. The things made noises like the squeals of wheels on tracks, only so much worse.

"Die you bastards!" Jonan screamed.

The creatures caught fire. Smoke billowed from their bodies. Flames burst.

Each explosion was music to Jonan's ears.

The laser rifle seemed to purr in Jonan's hands. The firearm produced a warmth that made it seem almost alive, which made it all the more concerning when, after maybe twenty seconds, the weapon made a long electronic boooop that bent in the wrong direction, and then the whole thing went dark.

"No!" Jonan squeezed the trigger so hard, one of his fingers broke—but to no avail.

He dropped the rifle as he screamed in pain.

A tentacle hedgehog bashed into the corridor wall, using its tentacles to pull out a chunk of drywall. Distressingly, the creature then held the drywall up in front of itself, using the damn thing as a shield.

Heggy and Jonan spoke in unison: "Fuck."

The shield-bearing monster charged.

Jonan and Heggy ran.

Hearing a scream, Jonan glanced over his shoulder just long enough to see Dr. B'zool's body hanging limply from one of the creatures' tentacles, impaled through the chest.

Jonan couldn't remember whether or not he had a grudge against her. Even if he did, she deserved better than to die like that.

He ran, knocking over a bed, wheeling his arms, panting like mad, while the creatures squealed and shrieked as they scampered right behind him. Somehow, in the middle of all this insanity, Jonan noticed the bed had a really impressive oxygen tank attached to it.

Dr. Marteneiss pointed to the hallway at the right. "They went this way!"

Jonan staggered around the corner, limbs and chest burning. Then, for a moment, he simply couldn't breathe. In a panic he ripped off his PPE mask, gasping for breath, and then wasted several precious seconds retching up black ooze and spores while Ani and some nurses ran past him and Dr. Marteneiss. This was noteworthy, because the ladies went in guns blazing, firing the submachine guns in their grip.

Rising up from his hands and knees as best as he could, in between two gasps for breath, he lifted his head and yelled: "Shoot the fucking oxygen tank!"

It was a risky tactic, as liable to kill them as it was to kill the monsters, though, considering Jonan was on the precipice of death, that was actually a pretty sweet deal.

A second later, there was a terrific explosion around the corner. There were lots of screams, and Jonan didn't want to think about whose they were. Ani—slightly crispy-looking—came around the corner a moment later in a three-legged walk with a nurse whose scrubs were charred and smoldering. Ani clutched one of her hands around her stomach.

Jonan thought he could see blood.

Had she gotten hit by flak?

Despite it being very stupid of him, Jonan pushed himself off the floor and stumbled over to Ani to help her. In the process, he had to gulp down some of that black ooze, which, amazingly, managed to be both sickeningly sweet and yet also the worst thing he'd ever tasted.

Another nurse came out from around the corner, only to look back right as some really, really awful shriek came from somewhere further down the hall.

The woman panted for breath. "Oh fucking hell!"

"Genneth Howle," Heggy yelled, "get your snake-ass down here, pronto It's a madhouse!"

"What are you doing?" Ani asked. "We have to run!"

"Calling for back-up," Heggy said.

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