The Hole

18

The laboratory was in semidarkness, and at first glance Janet wasn’t sure what she was looking at on the trestles. They looked like giant heads of corn, some six feet long, over a foot in diameter, but they were pink where corn would have been green; pink and wet, like flesh. As she got closer she saw they were translucent, and contained rounded, unformed embryos.

Then she got it.

Pod people. Somebody’s thing is pod people.

Mullins pointed at the pods.

“Is this the same material you told me about?”

“Put on the lights and you’ll see for yourself quickly enough.”

“I don’t have to do that. I’ve got some on a slide.”

Mullins pointed Janet over to a microscope. She looked down, and saw exactly what she expected to see. The illuminated mount gave out enough light for the sample to revert to the basic protoplasm she’d seen in her own surgery.

Mullins was bent over a trestle, examining the pods.

“The geologists we sent down to check out the mines found them. They say the whole system is full of them; hundreds, they said.”

Janet tried to gauge the scientist’s emotional state, but couldn’t read anything through the facemask.

“I told you when I was here before. These are just a manifestation,” Janet said. “One of the geologists has a thing for Pod People, that’s all. You could just as easily have found the nest of a giant spider. Indeed, you might well do just that the next time you go down there.”

“Nobody’s going down there,” Mullins said. “The general is going to burn the place out, just as soon as it can be arranged.”

“I suspect that won’t cure anything,” Janet said. “You people are now as much infected as we are. You just haven’t noticed it yet.”

“Nonsense. We’ve taken every precaution.”

“And it’s not enough. But you’ll be finding that out for yourself when it gets dark.”

Mullins went quiet at that. Now that she had the scientist thinking, Janet pressed her advantage.

“And if you don’t want a mutiny on your hands, I suggest you get some supplies over to us. There’s only six of us now, but we’re running out of food.”

Mullins nodded, although she had a faraway look in her eyes. Janet didn’t want to push too hard. She stood, and Mullins let her walk away.

“Now excuse me,” she said as she went down out of the trailer. “I have an experiment of my own to prepare.”