Another bright bolt of agony. Another.
Needleworms! Boring up from the mucky depths of the swamp and penetrating the soles of his boots!
He cursed. The damnable creatures were everywhere. He went into a little dance, trying to avoid their keen snouts, but there were dozens of them, sensing a juicy meal. If he stayed here any longer he'd be slowly eaten to death.
Clutching his knife tightly he edged out of his shelter, looking around. There was no one in sight; the searchers were beating through the underbrush up ahead.
He moved on tiptoe back toward the village. And suddenly the thick corded arms of Lloyd Kramer shot around him from behind, pinioning him in an unbreakable grip. The knife dropped from his hands.
"All right!" Kramer called. "I've got him! Let's go back now."
Three men guarded him as he lay bound in one corner of the Colony Administration Building. Lloyd Kramer, Abel Lester and Mark Cameron, Lois' father. They had been facing him wordlessly for almost 15 minutes. None of them would answer his questions—not even when he asked Cameron whether Lois was all right.
Suddenly the door opened and a tall, ascetically thin man entered. Reese knew instantly from the cold set of his features and the fact that his eyes, unlike those of the zombies, burnt with a hard flame of intelligence, that this was Dr. Tersen.
"You can go," Tersen said.