V


The knife had pierced Dave's chest until the hilt pressed against his
rib cage. He stared down at it, seeing it rise with the heaving of his
lungs. Yet he was still alive!

Then the numbness of shock wore off and the pain nerves carried their
messages to his brain. He still lived, but there was unholy agony
where the blade lay. Coughing and choking on what must be his own
blood, he scrabbled at the knife and ripped it out. Blood jetted from
the gaping rent in his clothing. It gushed forth--and slowed; it
frothed--trickled--and stopped entirely.

As he ripped his shirt back to look, the wound was closed already. But
there was no easing of the pain that threatened to make him black out at
any second.

He heard shouting, quarreling voices, but nothing made sense through the
haze of his agony. He felt someone grab at him--more than one
person--and they were dragging him willy-nilly across the ground.
Something was clutched around his throat, almost choking him. He opened
his eyes just as something clicked behind him.

The huge, translucent walls of the monstrous egg were all around him and
the opened side was closing.

The pain began to abate. The bleeding had already stopped entirely and