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A glob of coiled intestines crossed before him, cutting off hisview of the snake-thing. Behind it came the spinal area, a flesh centipede. Thisreeled blindly into a foot, which was traveling upside down, its solepointed towardsthe ceiling, while twenty legs bore it to wherever it was going. Thespine andthe foot fell over on their side and kicked their legs for a whilebefore managing to get back up.
The snake-thing crawled nearer. Childe watched it and speculatedon whether or not its underside was equipped with many moving plates to enableit to progress so serpentinely. Did it have an ophidian skeleton?
He was so numb that it did not occur to him to wonder how this whole processcould come about. He just accepted it.
Presently, the many-legged cunt, still followed by the many- legged uterus, walked towards him. The hairy-back animal bumped into his stomach, staggeredback, half-turned, and bumped along his body. It stopped when it cameinto contact with his chin, slid along it and around to his mouth, whereit stopped. He could not see it, but he had the feeling that it was leaningagainst hislips. Its hairs brushed his nose and made him want to sneeze. Theodor from it was clean and faintly musky, and under other circumstances he wouldhave enjoyedit very much.
The cunt remained by him, pressing on his mouth, as if itrecognizedsomething familiar in its blind and deaf world. The uterus wasnestled againsthis neck, its wet skin on his skin.
The snake-thing kept on coming towards him and then itdisappeared aroundhis head. He tried to throw his head back and to turn it, but hecould not. Within a few seconds, he felt it crawling up over the back of hishead. He wanted to scream, to make a superhuman effort that would enable himto burst out of his own skin and run out of the room. Then the thing was coiled upon his cheek, and the wet beard was tickling the lobe of his ear.
The voice was tiny and ti
The words were unintelligible. They were in that same language hehad heard before, in between French and Spanish. Like an u
The tiny ti
Suddenly, there was a silence. The body was still there, but itwas motionless. The vagina-thing abruptly scuttled away with the uterus- thing nosingafter it. Vivie
Her head stopped a few feet from his eyes. Her eyes looked up, evidently atthe thing on his cheek. Her lips moved, but no voice issued. This wasto be expected, since she had no lungs. The lungs were twin creatureslurching likesick dinosaurs along a drying swamp towards the far wall.
Maybe, Childe thought, maybe the thing can lip-read. Maybe she'sgiving him instructions for starting the reassembly process.
But what if there is no reassembly? What if this is final? Whatdo I know about her or others of her kind? All were strange, but Vivie
There is nothing u
The snake-thing slid down over his eyes onto the floor. Itcrawled to Vivie
Presently it communicated something or it tired of trying tocommunicate. It turned and crawled to a point just past his chin. He could not seewhat it was doing until a moment later. It crawled out past him, towing theuterus behind it. Its tail had been inserted into the interior and probably wasbeingimplanted again.
When it was a little distance past his head, it stopped andturned again. Itcrawled back towards him, stopping with the uterus leaning up againsthis forehead. The vagina moved away, and he was able to see that thesnake-thing wasbutting it with its head. Herding it.
When it had the vagina maneuvered into the proper position, itslippedthrough from the rear of the vagina and emerged through the slit. Thevaginamoved backwards as if impelled by telepathy until it was reunitedwith the uterus-thing.
Now what? Childe thought, and then he was able to worry abouthimself for the first time. Maybe the poison did wear off; maybe Vivie
He tried to move but was as unable as before. However, his thinking and his vision were not as unfocused.
Now he began to be impressed with the utter alie
But how did these things, live without the bringing in of oxygenand the carrying away of waste? They had to have some auxiliary source ofenergy andexcretion. Had to Nave!
And how did Vivie
The snake-thing dragged itself in front of him, trailing theuterus, inchase of the anus and buttocks. Obviously it intended to unite withthem. But what then? It was becoming unwieldy and could not corner too manyother piecesand unite before it became too heavy and too awkward.
The head had been busy while he watched the snake-thing. It hadkicked and pushed shoulders and a neck until they were huddled together in acorner of the room. Then the head went off in pursuit of various entrail thingswhile the snake-thing backed into the buttocks and anus and hooked up as arailroad enginewould hook up several cars with another.
At that moment, he felt the floor vibrate slightly under him. Asecond later, two large shoes were by his head. Then the shoes moved on outpast him, and he saw the chauffeur. He was a big man with a skin as dark as asunburned Sicilian's, but his features were Baltic. He had a broad face withhighcheekbones and a high forehead and straight dark hair. The scenebefore him did not seem to bother him in the least.
With swift but efficient movements, he began to reassembleVivie