Wendy's World

by Arthur Saxon
arthursaxon@zombieworld.com

Captain Harris swore.  “Damn it!  Stuart, how’s the dish?”

“Still in bits in the repair bay, I’m afraid, Captain.”

“Terrific.  Mike, you’d better find us somewhere to ditch.  Reserve fuel, Paul?”

“Eleven hours, maximum,” said Paul.  “Sorry, but we were accelerating hard when it hit.  We have plenty of liquid, though.”

“Enough liquid for a safe landing?”

“A landing?  Hmm, not sure about that.  Docking, no probs.  Landing, very dodgy.  Well,” he corrected himself, “we can land easily enough.  Taking off will be the hard part.  Maybe possible though.”

“We’ll do what we can.  Velocity Mike?”

“One-four-two.  Give me a moment … okay, I think I may have found a suitable site.  It’s not a listed system, but I can tell at a glance that it has a couple of planets worth looking at.  Star is a K8, planets are at point eight seven and one point three six A.U.’s respectively.  Nearer one is a bit small, perhaps, but the other looks good – two point three Earth masses.”

“Density?  Likely gravity?”

“I’m way ahead of you.  Point seven g.”

“Perfect!  Go for it.  How long until we can get there?”

“Five hours forty minutes, at this speed.”

“Excellent.  I’ll go and see if Tahir can get that dish fixed in the next five hours.  Stuart, you’d better go and tell Wendy what’s happened.”

“Thanks Captain.”  Stuart jumped to his feet and hurried out of the bridge, heading for the cabin section.  He was beginning to regret his decision to bring his daughter along for the ride.  At sixteen, she was already a veteran of many spaceflights, but they had all been on commercial liners.  Still, all was not yet lost.

Wendy, it turned out, had slept through the whole thing.  Stuart found her stretched out on her bunk, fast asleep, and drooling slightly on to her pillow.  Her pale blue minidress was gathered around her waist.  He pulled it down to cover her panties, then he shook her gently.  “Wendy,” he whispered softly.

“Hmmmm?” she murmured.  She opened her eyes, then screwed them up against the light.  “Um, hi Dad.  What’s up?”

“Sweetie, we’ve had a bit of an accident.  Everything’s okay,” he said hastily as her eyes widened in alarm, “but we’re going to have to make an unscheduled landing.”

“But what happened?” asked Wendy, looking worried.

“We were surprised by a rather large rock.  It took out the ramjet and now we have no way of gathering fuel for the distorter.  But don’t worry – we’re going at a cracking pace and we have some liquid fuel for a conventional landing.  Once we’ve landed, we’ll fix the ramjet and get spaceborne again.”

“Have we sent a distress call?”

“Um, not yet sweetie, but we will, don’t worry.”

“How long before we land?”

“About five and a half hours.  We’ve been lucky enough to find a fairly Earth-like planet not far away.  It’s probably barren, but it will serve our purposes.  Anyway, I’d better get back to the bridge.  You stay here and try not to worry.  Everything will be fine.”

“Okay Dad.”  Wendy lay back down and pulled the covers up to her neck.

 

Five and a half hours later, the atmosphere on the bridge was tense.  “Clouds, eh?”  The captain frowned.  “That’s a little worrying.  I hope there’s no life down there.  I hate going through quarantine.”

“Yeah, me too,” agreed Stuart.  “And Wendy’s going to hate it too.  But we’re here now, so we might as well make the best of it.”

“I wish to God that Tahir had managed to get that dish fixed.  Still, it can’t be helped.  We’re on our own, chaps.”  He took a deep breath.  “Okay men, you all know the drill.  How much longer now, Mike?”

“Four minutes.  I’ll give you a countdown if you like.”

“That won’t be necessary,” said the captain curtly.  “Just tell us when you’re about to hit the switch.”

For the next couple of minutes they were all silent.  Then Captain Harris turned to Stuart.  “Better go and fetch Wendy,” he said.  “Just in case.”

Stuart nodded and left the bridge.

“Okay, here we go!”  Mike hit the button and the black viewscreen suddenly came alive.  A white planet loomed large before them.  “Ninety-one thousand miles per hour, Captain.”

“Apply forward thrusters,” instructed the captain.  “Take us in gently, Mike.  My God!  Look at all that cloud.  The whole planet’s covered!”

“Yeah, looks a little like Venus,” observed Paul with a wry chuckle.

“That’s not even funny.”  The captain scowled.  “But it’s a good point.  What’s the carbon dioxide level?”

“Three per cent.  A little high, but not overly so.  Enough greenhouse effect to give the planet a uniformly tropical climate.  Might be a bit uncomfortable near the equator.”

“In that case, land us between seventy and eighty degrees of latitude.  I hope this planet isn’t just a vast ocean.”

“Negative, captain, there’s land and plenty of it.  There’s also a great deal of oxygen – nearly thirty per cent as a matter of fact.  The rest is nitrogen.  Very similar to Earth in fact.  Should be breathable.”

“Breathable or not, we’re not getting out of our suits while we’re there,” said the captain sternly.  “It sounds like there might well be life down there, and I’m certainly not going to risk any contamination.  Ah, Stuart, you’re just in time.  Hi Wendy.  Would you both please get into your space suits.  We’ll be landing shortly.”

“Entering the atmosphere in two minutes,” reported Mike.

Stuart led Wendy out of the bridge and into what they had collectively dubbed the ‘cloakroom’, where the space suits were kept in lockers.  He climbed into his own and nodded approvingly as Wendy expertly did the same.  She had been on several space flights and knew the drill well.

A sudden jolt knocked them off their feet.  Surprised, Stuart got up and hurried into the bridge, almost colliding with Paul and the captain as they made for the cloakroom.

“We’re a thruster down,” explained the captain with a tight-lipped expression.  “Get yourselves into a pod each.  This could be rough.”

“You mean we’re going to crash?” asked Wendy with a white face.

“It’s a possibility,” said Stuart, ushering her across the bridge and through the far door.  “It’s best to be prepared.  You know how to use a pod?”

“Well yes, but I hope we don’t lose the ship.  It might be days before we’re rescued.”

Stuart had not told her that no distress call had been sent, and he was not about to.  “Yes,” he said, “but don’t worry.  Mike’s a very good pilot – he’ll have us down safely.  Now get into your pod and we’ll keep in touch over the radio.”

On the bridge, the outlook was not hopeful.

“Get into your suit, Mike,” said the captain.  “I’ll take the controls until you get back.”

“I don’t think so, Ted,” said Mike.  “This is not going to be an easy descent, and there’s only one person I trust at the controls: me.”

“Stubborn fool,” the captain growled.  “You’d just better get us down in one piece, then.”

“Will do,” replied Mike.

As the ship tore down through the cloud layer, Mike gritted his teeth and fought to slow their descent.  “Hold on to your hats!” he yelled.  “I’m going to try something a bit different!”

With the main dorsal retro thruster out of action, there was only one way Mike could get any lift, and that was by turning the ship upside down.  He spun it over on to its back, and the gravity compressors whined in complaint.  Mike now fired up the ventral retro thruster, and the ship slowly and painfully began to lift its nose away from the rapidly-approaching ground.  Still there was nothing to see on the viewscreen – just a blank whiteness.

“Altitude?” shouted the captain over the scream of the thruster engine.

“Five miles!  I think we’re going to have to land on our backs, gentlemen – brace yourselves!”

The ship gradually levelled off, then actually began to gain altitude as Mike flipped it over on to its belly once more.  Applying the landing thrusters with a will, he fought to slow the ship down as the main engine tipped them towards the horizontal.

“Oh hell!” he swore as one of the landing thrusters gave out.  The ship began to spin.  “Captain, we’re about two miles up and it’s not looking great.  You guys get out of here – you shouldn’t have much trouble finding me once I get this crate down.”

“What’s the point?” demanded Paul.  “If you don’t make it, then we’re lost anyway!  Nobody is going to come looking for us!”

“Pipe down Paul,” said the captain.  “Mike’s right.  Even if the ship crashes, we still might be able to salvage enough of the distorter to make a beacon.  Come in, Tahir!”

“Yes captain?” came Tahir’s voice over the radio.

“Get your crew into the pods – we’re bailing out.  You have about half a minute!”

“Oh heck!  Will do!”

Mike continued to wrestle with the controls.  “Good luck, Captain,” he said.  “It’s been great working for you.”

“Shut up Mike, I’m not going anywhere.  I have every confidence that you’ll get us down alive.”  Then he spoke into the radio.  “Stuart, Wendy, eject now!”

Wendy gasped.  She had not really believed things would come to this.  She placed her finger on the eject button, but could not quite bring herself to press it.

“Wendy, you heard what the captain said.  Eject!”

At the sound of her father’s voice, she knew she had to do it.  She pressed the button, and instantly felt the massive g-force as her pod was flung from the ship.  A second later its parachute opened, and she began to drift gently downwards.  She knew the pod had its own thrusters, but she did not think she would need them.  Her father confirmed this.

“Good girl.  Now just relax and wait until you land.  I’m probably going to end up about half a mile away from you.  I wish I could see through this damn fog.  Anyway, you won’t need your thrusters – this atmosphere is thick enough for the parachute to work very nicely.  Stay calm, and I’ll see you soon.”

“Okay Dad.”  Wendy’s heart was in her mouth as she began to feel very alone.  She hoped her father would be able to find her once they landed, but if the fog extended all the way down to the ground, that might be tricky.  Thank goodness they both had radios.

“Okay,” came the captain’s voice, “who’s got out?”

“Wendy and I got out fine,” replied Stuart.

“Hopkins here, Captain.  I’m out.”

“Anderson here, Captain.  I’m out too.”

“Jeffries here – also out.”

“Is that it?  What about Tahir and Scott?”

“We’re still in the engine room, Captain.  We’ve decided to stick it out.”

“Silly … with Mike and we’re …spotted a flattish area and … put down if we can…”

“Captain?  What’s wrong?  Your signal’s breaking up.”

“… yours too … damn cloud I think … interferen… luck and we’ll meet you down …”

“Good luck Captain!  Let’s hope the signal’s better on the ground!”

“…damn … …over the … shit … steady …”

“Captain?”

From then on nothing but static was heard from the ship.

“I sure hope they get down all right.”

“Me too.”

Dark shapes loomed below, and Wendy looked down at them through the pod window.  As she descended, the shapes resolved themselves into what looked like the tops of tall trees, although they were certainly unlike any trees that could be found on Earth.  “Dad, I’m dropping past the tops of trees!” she exclaimed into her mouthpiece.  “Can you see them?”

“I can’t see anything.  Just whiteness.  Oh, wait a minute – yes, I can see some shapes down below.  You’re right, they’re trees.  Crumbs, we’re going to get tangled up in them!”

“I already am!” wailed Wendy as her parachute wrapped itself around the upper branches of one of the trees.  “Dad, I’m stuck!”  Her pod thudded against the tree trunk, rebounded, then hit a branch and started spinning.

“Don’t panic.  How far are you from the ground?”

“I don’t know!  A long way I think – I can’t see the ground from here.”

“Okay, now I’m stuck too.  Never mind – I’m pretty close to the ground here – I’m going to get out and try climbing down the trunk.”

“I see what you mean about those trees,” came Paul Jeffries’ voice.  “I think I’m going to miss them though.  Oops, that was close…  Okay, I’m down!”

“Well done Paul.  I’ll try to follow suit.  Oh dear, I think I’m … oh hell!”

“Hopkins?”

“Sorry – that was a bit hairy.  My pod’s pretty smashed up – I got caught on a branch and swung into a big rock.  I’m fine though, luckily.  I can get down okay from here, though – I’m practically on the ground.  How about you, Terry?”

“Snagged, I’m afraid, and swinging from a branch.  I think I’m going to have to get out and climb up my parachute to the branch, then somehow get down the tree trunk.”

“Dad, I’m going to try getting out,” said Wendy, her spirits lifted by the reports of the other crewmembers getting down safely.

“Careful Wendy, don’t take any chances.  If you stay there I’m sure we’ll find you.”

“Well I’m not!  If I can’t see the ground, you won’t be able to see me from the ground, will you?  No, I have to get down.”

“Hey guys, my suit’s ripped!”

“Oh heck Brian!  Are you okay?”

“Yeah, the air has a funny smell, but I seem to be breathing it well enough.  Feeling a bit light-headed perhaps, but otherwise okay.”

“That’s good news.  There’s no way I’m going to be able to climb in this suit.  Here goes!”

“Terry, what are you doing?”

“Taking my suit off, of course.  I’ll never be able to climb with it on.”

“I think you will, Terry.  The gravity’s less than Earth’s.”

“Not that much less, I think you’ll find.  Mmm, aaahhh.  The air’s fine.  I’ll see you downstairs!”

The others continued to chat while Wendy opened her pod door and cautiously peered out.  Two feet away from her was a thin branch, and she eyed it warily.  Would it support her weight?  After a moment’s hesitation, she reached out with one foot and tried it.  It seemed sturdy enough.  She bent down, took hold of the branch with both hands, and launched herself at it.

It held her weight, but she had misjudged her momentum and her body fell around the branch until she was beneath it, hanging on for dear life with her arms and legs wrapped around it.

“Are you okay, Wendy?”

“I’m fine Dad,” she replied, and began to edge herself towards the trunk.  When she reached it, she let go of the branch with her legs and felt about with her feet for the branch below.  She quickly found one, and once she had a firm footing she let go with her hands and sat down astride it.  From then on the going was fairly easy, with successively thicker branches occurring at frequent intervals.

“Jeez, this terrain is going to be tough to cross.”

“Why’s that, Paul?”

“It’s wet as hell.  My pod’s already sunk a foot into it – I’m going to have to get out before the door goes under.  I hope there’s some dry land around here or I’m going to sink too.”

“That doesn’t sound good!”

“Okay, I’m on the floor,” reported Stuart.  “I see what you mean – it’s very boggy here.  I don’t seem to be sinking too fast, though – I think the secret is to keep moving.”

“Maybe in your spot,” said Paul.  “But my feet seem well and truly mired.  My pod’s disappearing fast, and I can’t get myself free!  Damn it!”

“Paul!  Try lying on your back and rolling!”

“Ah fuck!  Something’s got my foot!  Hell, I’m going down!”

“Paul!”

“Aagh, fuck fuck fuck!  Stuart, tell Carol I love her!”

“Shut up Paul, you can tell her yourself!”

“No can do – I’m up to my neck.  Watch out for creatures in the mud, guys!  Ackbrbrbff!”

“Paul!”

“Paul!”

Wendy listened with horror as Paul failed to respond.  “Oh my God!” she cried into her mouthpiece.  “Is he dead?”

“Keep calm, sweetie.  We don’t know that.”

“Like hell we don’t!  What the fuck got him?”

“Pipe down, Brian.  What’s the ground like where you are?”

“I’m on some kind of rocky outcrop.  There’s mud all around it.  I think I’ll stay here for a while.”

“Good plan.  I think we should all try finding your outcrop.  I certainly need to get off this mud, anyway.  Terry, how are you doing?”

“I’ve reached the branch.  I’m just making my way towards the trunk.  What’s the visibility like at ground level?”

“Not bad.  It’s misty, but not nearly as bad as it is in the tree tops.  I can’t see an outcrop from here, though.  Brian, what can you see from there?”

“Trees, mostly.  There’s another outcrop about a hundred yards away, and beyond that, what could be some kind of lake.  I can see something pale, anyway.  According to my compass it’s to the north-west.”

“Good, well that’s a start.  Wendy, can you see any lakes or rocks?”

“No.  I can see the ground now, though.  I’ll be down in a couple of minutes, then I’ll let you know what I can see from there.”

“Well, be careful not to step into any mud.  Stay on a low branch if you have to, but try to get a good look around.”

Wendy continued to descend carefully, lowering herself from branch to branch.  When she reached the lowest one, she was still twenty feet above the ground.  Looking down, she saw that it was practically liquid.  She sighed and looked around.  Then she frowned as she caught sight of something pale through the trees.  The next tree in that direction, she noticed, was close enough for her to reach one of its lower branches with a good leap.  This made her wonder if perhaps it might be possible to travel through the forest without ever touching the ground.

“Dad,” she said, “I’m going to try jumping across to another tree.  The ground below me is very soft mud and I think I would just sink like a stone if I tried jumping down on to it.”

“Careful, sweetie.  It might be best just to wait on your branch until we can get to you.”

“But you don’t know where I am!  I think I can see something pale through the trees – I’m going to try to get there.”

“Okay, but don’t take any chances.”

“I won’t.  I think I’m going to take off my suit, though – I don’t fancy leaping around in it – it’s just too clumsy and I run a higher risk of falling if I leave it on.”

“I really wish you wouldn’t do that.  Stay where you are – we’ll find you somehow.”

“Stuart, she’s right,” came Terry’s voice.  “I’ve been without a suit for ten minutes now and I’m fine.”

“Oh very well.  Don’t forget to unclip your radio before you take your suit off, though.  You’ll need it.”

“I know, Dad, I’m not stupid.”  Wendy unzipped the left arm of her suit, and there was a brief hiss as the pressures outside and in equalised.  She pulled the arm off and dropped it, then she reached up and unzipped the helmet.  Taking it off, she unclipped the radio and placed it carefully on the branch beside her before dropping the helmet down into the mud below.  It quickly sank, though the arm she had dropped was still floating.  She removed the right arm of her suit, then unzipped the front.  The next part was the trickiest.  She stood up on the branch, then, leaning back against the trunk, strove to pull the suit down and step out of it without falling off.

She removed her left leg from the suit and placed her foot on the branch.  So far so good.  She then pulled the right leg down as far as it would go, and stepped out of that.  She let the suit fall down to the mud below, and there it stayed, floating beside the two arms.  She sniffed the air.  Brian had been right – it did smell funny, though she would have been hard-pressed to describe in what way.

A loud whistle sounded close to her ear, and she jumped in fright, almost overbalancing and falling off the branch.  But she managed to catch hold of the trunk, then turned to see what had made the noise.

It was a small creature, about the size of a blackbird, and it was sitting on a branch near her head.  Its single, large brown eye stared intently at her, while its long, tentacular toes curled tightly around its perch.  Its body was long and lithe, and a long slender tail hung down to six inches below the branch.  It whistled again, loudly, then extended large, bat-like wings and flew off through the trees.

Wendy smiled despite herself.  As false alarms went, it had been kind of cute.  She reached down to pick up her radio, then gasped in shock.  It was not on the branch!  In a panic, she looked down to the forest floor below, and was relieved to see it had landed on her still-floating suit.  She must have knocked it off the branch when the strange animal had startled her.

But how was she to retrieve it?  It was twenty feet below her, and she had no means of getting down except by jumping, and then how would she get back up?  What if, like Paul, she could not even get out of the mud?  Yet if she left it and tried to continue through the forest without it, how would she communicate with her father?  The thought of being lost, alone, and with no means of contacting any other living person, was a terrifying one.  But then, so was the thought of being sucked down into the mud by some horrible creature.  What on Earth was she to do?

In the end, her fear of being dragged under the mud won out.  After all, if she made it to Brian’s rocky outcrop, then she could use his radio.  Her mind made up, she edged her way along the branch, then leaped towards the next tree.

She landed squarely on a thick branch and crouched, putting her hands down to steady herself.  Then she stood up, ran along to the trunk, and hopped down on to another branch.  From this one she could reach a long bough on the other side of the tree, which pointed straight towards the pale object she had spied.

Several more minutes of running and jumping brought her within sight of a small grey hill of rock.  Perhaps this was Brian’s outcrop!  She made her way towards it, then stopped in dismay as she realised the foot of the rock was out of jumping range of the nearest branch.  She looked around for another way to get there, but could see none.

“There’s nothing for it,” she said to herself.  “I’ll have to try my luck in the mud.”

She walked along the branch as far as she could, then lowered herself until she was hanging with her hands around the branch, and her feet about six feet above the mud.  She swung herself further along the branch until she got herself as close as possible to the rock.  Then, gritting her teeth, she let go.

She landed with her knees bent, which was just as well, for the mud was nearly solid.  She sank up to her ankles, but no further, and she soon managed to free them.  After that it was a simple matter to reach the rock.  Expecting at any moment to be pulled down into the mud, she was greatly relieved to be on dry land again.  She began to climb the rock, looking for Brian.

To her utter astonishment, she found him.  He was sitting on the other side of the rock, with his radio sitting by his side.  “Hey, Brian!” she called in delight.

“Wendy!”  He looked very surprised to see her.  “We all thought … well, that something had happened to you.”

“I dropped my radio in the mud,” she explained.  “Whew!  I was afraid I’d never find you!  I’m so relieved.”  She sat down.

Brian had an odd expression on his face as he looked at her thoughtfully.

She looked up at him.  “Would you please tell my father I’m safe?” she said.  “I’m sure he’s worried.”

“He is, he is,” agreed Brian.  “But there’s no need to call him just yet, is there?”  He took a step towards her.

“What do you mean?” she asked, a little alarmed.  “Please, call him at once.”

“Yes, yes, I’ve noticed that ordering people around comes easily to you,” he said with a hollow chuckle.  “I think maybe you need to learn some respect.”

“Don’t you touch me!” she warned, getting to her feet.  “My Dad will kick your arse.”

“He’ll have to find me first,” said Brian, and he leaped at her.

Wendy shrieked in fright and anger as she fell over backwards, landing with a thud on the hard rock.  The impact took her breath away.  Brian reached up under her dress, grabbed her panties, and yanked hard.  They tore, but not completely, and he began to pull them down her legs.

“You fucking … bastard!” she yelled as she kicked and punched at him.  One lucky blow caught him on the cheekbone, and he reeled.

“Stop that you little bitch!” he hissed, and he punched her in the side of the head.

Sparks exploded before her eyes and she fell back, stunned.  A second later she recovered herself enough to start struggling again, but by this time he had her panties off.  She lashed out at him, but he merely responded by punching her head again.  Her head spun and she felt dazed.  She barely noticed as he pulled her legs apart.

Pulling his trousers down, followed by his underwear, he spat on her pussy and rubbed his saliva around her vaginal opening.  Then he spat on his hand and began to lubricate his throbbing erection.  Positioning it at the entrance to her cunt, he began to push inwards.  This shocked Wendy back into wakefulness, and she tried to push him away and force her legs closed.  But this time he brutally thumped his fist into her stomach and the breath caught in her throat.  She opened her mouth to yell, but she had no wind for it.  Her belly screamed with pain and she instinctively began to double up, but he roughly shoved her back down on to the rock.  He ripped open the front of her dress, tore her bra off with some effort, and then began to knead her exposed breasts with his hands.

There was no more fight left in Wendy.  She merely lay still on the rock, tears running down her cheeks, while Brian thrust himself in and out of her vagina.  “Ohhhh … my … God,” he murmured.  “This feels soooo good, Wendy.  You should lighten up and try to enjoy it.  This is fantastic.”

But Wendy’s thoughts were numbed.  She tried to blank out the awfulness of what was happening, to picture herself in another place, at another, happier time.  She wished her father would show up, suddenly, to rescue her and kill Brian.

And then it was over.  Brian pulled out, stood up, and pulled up his underwear and trousers.  Zipping himself up, he paused to admire her youthful body, now naked from the waist down apart from her muddy gym shoes.  She looked wonderful, with his cum leaking out of her still open cunt.  Except that her eyes were blank and even the tears had stopped flowing.

But he could not afford to admire her for long, he knew that.  He must cover up his crime.  Bending down, he slipped his arms under Wendy’s prone form and lifted her up with a small grunt of effort.  He then carried her down to the edge of the rock, on the side where he knew the mud was softest.

Wendy came to with a start.  “What … what are you doing?” she demanded.  She began to struggle.

“Too late!” said Brian, and he threw her into the mud.

“Bastard!” she shouted as she sailed through the air, then she yelped as she landed bottom-first in the mud.  She sank immediately up to her chest, although her knees and feet were still above the surface.  The mud was smooth, and felt slimy against her skin, caressing her bare thighs and her pussy through the thin material of her panties.  If she had not been frightened for her life it might have been an almost sensual experience.

“Have you ever wanted to commit a crime, but did not go through with it because you feared the consequences?” asked Brian, looking down at her with a half-smile.

“Brian, get me out of here!” cried Wendy in a panic, her legs disappearing completely under the mud.  “I promise I won’t tell my Dad what you did.  Please!”
“Hush, don’t interrupt,” Brian chided her.  “You see, finally I have the opportunity of committing an excellent crime without any repercussions whatsoever.  You are already missing, presumed drowned in mud, so I don’t have anything to explain to Stuart.  He would not even conceive of blaming me for your death.”

“Brian, you’re a total psycho!  But listen, I swear, I won’t tell him what happened.  Please!  I don’t want to die like Paul!”

Brian sighed.  “I wish I could believe you,” he said.  “But once safely under your father’s wing, you would not hesitate to tell him what I have done.  No, this way is much safer.”

Wendy felt herself slowly but surely sinking into the mud.  Every second she expected to feel something grab her, but so far nothing had.  She tried to elevate herself, to lie flat on her back like a person trapped in quicksand is supposed to do, but the mud was so thick and sticky…

“Oh!  There goes my radio.  It’s probably your Dad.  What shall I tell him, I wonder?”
“Please!” shrieked Wendy.

“Oh yes, that’s right.  I’ll tell him I haven’t heard from or seen you.  That’s it.  I had better take it to the other side of the rock, though – I wouldn’t want him to hear you in the background.”

Wendy paddled frantically against the mud, but still she sank.  As Brian disappeared from view, she renewed her efforts to get herself horizontal.  With every ounce of strength she had, she forced her pelvis forward and arched her back, reaching high above her head with her arms.

Little by little, she straightened.  Encouraged, she continued to stretch herself, scissor-kicking with her legs in an attempt to work them towards the surface.  With her arms she began to pull herself backwards, developing a kind of jellyfish stroke in order to propel herself through the mud.  To her amazement, it worked.  Gradually, painfully gradually, she began to move backwards through the mud, while her body progressively edged itself towards the surface.

Turning her head as much as she dared, Wendy tried to get a look at what lay behind her.  Something tall and metallic loomed a few yards away, and she realised suddenly that it was Brian’s pod.  If only she could reach it!  With renewed determination, she continued to swim backwards, and in another minute she found she was lying almost on the surface of the mud.  The last few yards were covered in seconds.  Reaching up, she grabbed hold of a metal rung that protruded from the inside of the pod’s open door.  Using it as a support, she planted her foot against the rock, and managed to clamber up, dripping with mud, inside the pod itself.

Here she hid, and watched through the doorway to see if Brian would reappear.  For a few minutes, he did not, but then, with a suddenness that made Wendy jump, he came over the brow of the rock and walked down to where he had dropped her.

The mud had covered her tracks well, quickly settling until all traces of her progress had vanished.  Satisfied, Brian walked back up the rock and vanished from view.  Wendy breathed deeply.  Then she looked around the inside of the pod.

Like all pods, it was equipped with the bare essentials for short-term survival in an unfamiliar environment.  There was a first-aid kit, a torch, and a small tool kit, which Wendy immediately opened.  Inside she found a hammer, not very large but solidly built, and she clutched it with a new resolve.  She stepped up to the doorway, then jumped across to the rock, landing as lightly and quietly as she could.  Her mud-soaked dress clinging tightly to her body, she crept stealthily up the slope, keeping the hammer behind her back.  As she reached the crest of the outcrop, she spied Brian sitting with his back to her, talking into the radio.  Silently, she took step after step towards the man she now hated with all her heart.

When she was less than four feet away, she heard Brian say “Over”, and then he put the radio down beside him.  She took another step, then another.

“If you’re going to creep up on someone,” said Brian, “try to do it in a place that’s not quite so silent as this one.”  Then he leapt up, turning to face her.

Her plan foiled, Wendy merely clenched her teeth and glared at him.

“So, a survivor, eh?”  Brian chuckled.  “I’d better dunk you myself, this time.”  He drew back his fist for a mighty punch.

The hammer blow took him completely by surprise.  It was a glancing blow (Wendy’s aim was not great) but it was followed up almost immediately by a kick in the crotch.  He managed to grab her leg, but Wendy struck him in the head once again with the hammer.  This time the blow was good.  Blood flowed from his forehead and he staggered backwards.  Wendy yanked her leg free of his grasp.

“You fucking, fucking bastard!” she screamed at him, and she rushed forward to hit him again.

Somehow he managed to avoid the flailing hammer this time, and he caught hold of her arm just before he fell backwards, pulling her with him.  Wendy shrieked as they both fell from the rock and landed with a splat in the mud.  She wrenched her arm free and then battered his head again with her hammer.  He was now, she judged, in no state to give her any more trouble, so she turned her attention to getting out of the mud.  She was currently buried up to her knees, but with an effort she freed her legs and rolled on to her back.  The rock here was too steep to climb, so she began to slide herself around towards a better exit point.  As she progressed, she watched Brian’s head and arm finally disappear beneath the mud.

Fortunately, she found a suitable exit just around the corner.  It was a fallen tree whose bizarre, corkscrew-like roots were sticking out every which way from its base near the foot of the outcrop.  Wendy grabbed hold of one of these roots and started to haul herself up.

Before she had pulled her ankle free of the mud, however, she felt something coil itself around her lower calf.  She looked down and saw with horror that it was a smooth, slimy, dark green tentacle about as thick around as her wrist along most of its length, but tapering to a point.  She kicked her foot wildly, but the tentacle held firm.  It started to draw back, attempting to pull her into the mud, and she kicked at it with her other foot while grimly hanging on to the tree roots with both hands.

Another tentacle emerged from the mud.  This one was longer and thicker, though still the same dark green colour.  It slid up her muddy leg, winding around it like a snake climbing a branch, until it reached her naked pussy.  Here it paused before sliding along the groove between her labia, and thence between her buttocks.  She had half expected it to begin probing her lower orifices, and was greatly relieved when it continued past her anus and up to the small of her back.

It now began to wrap itself around her waist, while other, smaller tentacles began to snake their way up her legs.  Wendy was by now quite frantic, and was beginning to lose hope of ever freeing herself.  The combined effort of seven or eight tentacles all trying to pull her downwards was putting an enormous strain on her arms.  Yet still she hung on.

Then the tip of one of the questing tentacles found her vaginal opening.  It slithered inside, and she shuddered and tried to squeeze her thighs together.  But it did not do any good.  She felt the disgusting thing probe obscenely deep inside her and she considered letting go with one hand so that she could try to pull it out.  She knew, however, that she would never be able to hang on to the tree with only one hand.

Another slender tentacle discovered her anus, and proceeded to slide inwards, lubricated by its own slime.  Wendy screamed with the horror of what was happening to her, and she thrashed her body from side to side in a vain attempt to dislodge the invaders of her body.

“Wendy, is that you?” came a voice from above.

“Dad!” she cried in sudden hope.

But it was Terry who appeared from over the crest of the outcrop.  “Stay there, I’m coming!”  He quickly began to descend towards her.  “What the hell…?”

“Terry, I can’t hold on much longer.  Please get them off me!”

“Right, um, will do.”  Terry started trying to pull the tentacles off her, though it was tricky gripping them as they were so slippery.  He could not help but notice the distracting sight of one tentacle lodged in Wendy’s cunt and another still sliding inexorably into her anus.  He also noticed that her mud-soaked dress was gaping at the front, exposing one of her breasts.  Under other circumstances, he would have simply sat and enjoyed the view.  But he forced himself to ignore these enticing sights and worked hard at removing the tentacles coiled around her legs.  Every time he succeeded in dislodging one, however, it would quickly grab hold of her somewhere else.  “Wendy,” he said at length, “I’m going to have to get a knife from Brian’s pod.  Can you hold on that long?”

Wendy’s arms burned with pain.  She shut her eyes and concentrated on hanging on for dear life.  “Yes, I think so.  But hurry!”

Terry ran to the pod and pulled a sharp filleting knife from the tool kit.  The kit not only contained mechanical tools, but also items necessary for personal survival.  These included equipment useful for hunting for animals and preparing their meat.  He returned to the other side of the outcrop and found Wendy still clinging desperately to the tree.  She looked at the end of her tether.  As he descended towards her, her strength finally gave out and she let go.

“Nooo!!”  Terry leaped right into the mud, landing just beside his friend’s daughter.  Frantically he began hacking at the tentacles, which fortunately he found quite easy to cut.  He managed to sever the main tentacle around her waist, then had to reach down through the mud to get at those around her legs.

Wendy, buried almost waist deep, suddenly felt the downward pull lessen greatly.  She launched herself at the tree roots and just managed to grab one.  Her arms felt like jelly.  As the final tentacle restraining her was cut, she found herself free, and with a great effort she pulled herself out of the mud, climbing up on to the outcrop before collapsing in a weary heap.

Terry, meanwhile, was in trouble.  Already more than waist deep in the mud, he could feel tentacles around his ankles, pulling him down.  He could not lift his ankles up in order to reach them – he would only be pulling himself downwards, such were the tentacles’ strength.  He knew he would have to duck under the surface, alarming as the prospect was.

“Terry!” cried Wendy, as she saw his head disappear.  His back remained above the surface for a moment, then sank.  She jumped to her feet.

“It’s all right!” he said, his muddy head breaking the surface again.  “Got them.  Oh hell!”  He disappeared again.

Wendy watched in mounting fear.  Seconds went by, then minutes.  Terry did not reappear.  Wendy put her head in her hands and wept.

A distant, crackling voice brought her back to her senses.  She suddenly remembered Brian’s radio, which was sitting on the rock a few feet away.  She hurried to pick it up.

“Dad!” she said.

“Wendy, is that you?”

“Yes, yes, of course it’s me!  Dad, thank God you’re okay!”

“Wendy!  I’d almost given up hope!  Where are you?”

“I’m on Brian’s rock.  But Dad, I’m afraid Brian’s dead.  Terry too.”

“Both dead?  Oh heavens, this is a tragic day.  What happened?”

“The mud got them both.  Oh, but Dad, Terry gave his life to save me!  I feel awful!”

“He did?  Oh sweetie, I can’t imagine what you must have been through.  Are you okay?”

“I’m fine Dad.  Really exhausted, but fine.  Where are you?”

“Oh, I’m swinging through the trees, Tarzan-style.  I figured I had to get off the muddy ground as quickly as possible.  I haven’t seen any rocky outcrops such as the one Brian described, but I’m working my way outwards from my landing site in an expanding spiral.”

Wendy was puzzled.  “You’re swinging?  How?  There aren’t any lianas in this forest, at least not that I’ve seen.”

“No, but each pod has a toolbox, which contains a length of rope and a grappling hook with retractable hooks.  Very useful.  Ouch!”

“Cool!  I didn’t know that.  What was ‘ouch’?”

“Damn bug, or something.  I just put my hand down on a branch to steady myself, and I almost squashed this little insect-type thing.  I got bitten for my pains.”

“Oh dear!  Are you all right?”

“Yeah, fine.  It was no worse than a wasp sting.”

“Poor Dad.  Well, I’ll just stay here until you find me, okay?”

“You do that.”

It suddenly occurred to Wendy that she was sitting on something, and she realised that there was an eighteen-inch length of tentacle still protruding from her bottom, having been cut by Terry’s knife.  She stood up, then began to pull on it.  It slid quite easily, still coated in greenish slime, and she pulled more and more of it out of her anus.  As it continued to emerge, she began to wonder just how far into her body it had explored.  Inches turned into feet, and feet into yards.  When finally the tapered end popped out with a little wet sound, she estimated the tentacle’s total length at around eleven feet.

“What the heck was it trying to do?” she wondered aloud.

She threw the tentacle back out into the mud, then returned to the spot where Brian had raped her.  Tears sprang to her eyes, but she forced thoughts of that awful experience out of her head.  Lying on the rock were her ripped panties, and she stepped into them and pulled them up.

Unfortunately they did not stay up.  The elastic was torn, and no longer held the panties in place.  Regretfully, Wendy took them off and threw them away.  Her bra, hanging pathetically off one shoulder, was also ruined, and she discarded it, too.  Now dressed only in her torn minidress and gym shoes, she felt practically naked, but she consoled herself with the thought that her father would be here soon to rescue her.

“Wendy?”

Wendy ran to pick up the radio.  “Yes Dad?”

“I’ve spotted a large rock kind of thing.  I’m making for it now.  Could you stand on top of your rock and wave?  If it’s your rock I’m looking at, I’ll be able to see you from here.”

Excited, Wendy ran to the top of the rock and waved frantically.  She had no idea which direction he would be coming from, so she waved in all directions.  “Can you see me Dad?” she asked.

“No, I’m afraid not.  Can you see any other rocks from where you are?”

Wendy looked around.  “I can see another rock, a hundred yards or so away.  Beyond it there’s a lake, I think.”

“Maybe that’s the one I’m heading for.  I can’t see a lake, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one – I can’t see much of anything from here.  I’ll be there in a few minutes, though.”

Wendy waited in eager anticipation, hardly daring to blink as she watched the rock by the lake.

“Okay, I’m here.  Can you see me?”

Wendy’s heart sank.  “No Dad, I can’t.  Is there a lake beside your rock?”

“There is, as it happens.  But looking round the lake, I can see many similar outcrops along the shoreline.  Any one of them could be the one you can see.”

“Well Dad, it makes sense then for you to stay where you are.  I’ll have to try to get to the one I’m looking at, then you should be able to see me.”

“Sound reasoning, except that I don’t want you to have to leave your rock.  Can you do so without sinking in the mud?”

Wendy surveyed the surrounding terrain.  “There’s a great big fallen tree that leads away from this rock,” she reported.  “It doesn’t exactly lead towards the other rock, but the ground at the far end looks a lot firmer than round here.  It’s worth a try, anyway.”  She ran down to the tree and jumped on to the trunk.  Her naked breasts bounced hard as she landed, and she winced.  Holding one arm across her chest by way of support, she trotted along the trunk to the far end, dodging the numerous branches that occurred ever more frequently as she approached the top.

At the far end she climbed down carefully to ground level, and stepped cautiously on to the mud.  Her foot began to sink, but not too quickly.  ‘If I walk quickly,’ she thought to herself, ‘I won’t sink very much at all.’

Fixing her gaze on the nearby outcrop, she began to swiftly walk across the mud towards it.  Sometimes her feet hardly sank at all, while at other times one foot would sink six inches or so before she got around to lifting it up for the next step.  When she was less than ten yards away from the outcrop, the mud began to get really sticky.  Her right foot sank almost up to her knee before she succeeded in freeing her left foot, which had been almost as deeply mired.  Visions of the green tentacles flashed through her mind, and she redoubled her efforts to free her feet.

Her right foot came free with a great sucking noise, but her gym shoe was not on it.  Appalled, she looked down into the hole her leg had left.  As the mud began to close in to fill it, she reached down into the hole and grabbed what she could see of her shoe.  It was stuck fast.  She tried to wiggle it backwards and forwards, then realised she was wasting precious time.  Her left leg had now sunk even deeper than her right had, and she abandoned her attempt to rescue her shoe.  She now found she had to lie down on the mud and alternately bend and straighten her leg in order to pry it loose.  When it finally popped free it, too, had lost its shoe.

Giving up on the idea of walking the rest of the way to the rock, Wendy slithered along the mud on her stomach, using her arms and legs as a marine turtle uses its flippers when it journeys up a sandy beach to lay its eggs.  In this manner she arrived at the rock without getting stuck again, and with a sigh of relief she hauled herself off the mud.

“I made it, Dad,” she said, and she quickly climbed up to the top of the rock.  “Can you see me?”

“Yes, yes I can!  Look to your left!”

Wendy looked left along the edge of the long lake that lay before her, and cried out in happiness when she saw her father standing on the top of the next outcrop, a hundred and fifty yards away.  She waved at him.

“Wonderful!  Now that we’ve found each other, we need to tackle the next problem, which is how to find the ship.  Since it lies roughly to the west, it makes more sense for you to come to me than vice versa.”

“Okay Dad.  But … how do you suggest I get to you?  By the lake or across the mud?”

“I’m not sure.  Who knows what the lake might contain?  It might be a safer option, but we don’t know for sure.  I would suggest rolling across the mud.  If you roll, you’ll hardly sink at all, and hopefully whatever is in the mud won’t notice you.”

“That’s a good idea – I hadn’t thought of rolling.  Okay Dad, wish me luck!”

“Good luck!”

Wendy took a deep breath, then walked down the rock and lay down carefully on the edge of the mud flat.  Tucking her arms in, she began to roll herself towards the rock on which her father stood, or rather sat, for he had just sat down.

As she progressed, the mud grew wetter, and she began to fear sinking despite her cunning means of locomotion.  However, after a while it began to get drier, and her fears abated.  She was thoroughly dizzy by the time she reached her father’s outcrop.  She lost no time in getting off the mud, though.  Her father smiled down at her.

“Thank heavens you’re safe,” he said.  “But, my goodness!  What happened to your clothes?”

“Never mind my clothes,” said Wendy, looking at her father closely.  “What’s the matter with your face?”

“It’s nothing,” said her father dismissively.  “But tell me what happened to you.”

“Brian raped me,” Wendy said simply.  She had intended to sound cavalier, but even as she spoke the words, the memory filled her mind and her face began to crumple.

“He did what??”

“It’s okay Dad,” she said, sniffing and wiping away a tear.  “But Dad, you look terrible.  Let me see your hand.”

“I’m fine,” mumbled Stuart.  “Come on, we need to get going.”

But Wendy grabbed his hand and forced it open.  She gasped in horror at what she saw.  In the middle of his palm a large red lump as big around as a golf ball was pulsating in time to his heartbeat.  The rest of his flesh was grey and blotchy, even his face, which is what Wendy had first noticed.

“The sooner we get moving, the better,” said Stuart.  “I have no idea what kind of poison that bug had, but I would really like to get to the ship as soon as possible.”  He shivered.

“Yes, yes of course.”  Wendy nodded.  “Are you cold?”

“Yeah, there’s a bit of a chill in the air, isn’t there?”

Wendy frowned.  “No Dad, it’s really hot and humid.  This is not a good sign.  Come on – which direction are we going?”

“That way.”  Stuart pointed.  “Look – we can climb into the trees just on the other side of the rock.”

Together they ascended into the lower boughs of the nearest tree, and began to make their way along towards the trunk.  Wendy, with her bare feet, was very careful to keep an eye out for bugs, not wishing to accidentally stand on one.

Stuart stopped, breathing heavily.  “Wendy,” he said, “I don’t feel too well.  I don’t think I’m going to be able to keep this up.”

“Don’t be silly!” exclaimed Wendy, frightened.  “Of course you must carry on!  I can’t leave you here!”

“That’s exactly what you must do,” said Stuart.  He wrapped his arms around himself, shivering uncontrollably.  “This lake will be easy to spot from the air.  I’ll go back to that rock – you’ll be able to find me easily enough.  I figure Tahir and his crew will have the ship able to fly, at least as far as here, within twenty-four hours, so I’ll expect you back fairly soon, all right?  Here, take my compass.  Just head on a bearing of two-hundred and seventy-six degrees and you should run into them sooner or later.  Keep trying the radio – even if you miss them you’ll pass pretty close to them, I’m sure.  I’m sorry, sweetie – I didn’t intend to find you only to abandon you immediately…”

Wendy hugged him as tears ran down her cheeks.  “Dad, I don’t want to leave you!” she wailed.

“You must,” he said gently.  “Really, you must.”

“I know, I know.”  She sighed and wiped her eyes.  “Oh but Dad, what if I can’t find the ship?”

“You’ll find it.  But listen, it shouldn’t be more than twenty miles away, so if you think you’ve gone further than that, turn back.  Head back here on a bearing of ninety-six degrees, and you’ll come back here.  With luck, I’ll have beaten the poison and will be more able to come with you.”

Wendy nodded, sniffling slightly.  “Okay Dad, I’ll go.  I love you!”

“I love you too, sweetie.  Um, listen, take my jacket – your dress isn’t doing a very good job of covering you up.”

“I know,” she agreed ruefully.  “But don’t be silly, Dad – look at you!  You’re shivering as if you were sitting on an iceberg – you really think I would take your jacket away from you?  Anyway, I’d better go.  I’ll be back with the others as soon as possible, okay?”

“Okay sweetie.  Good luck.”

“Thanks.  Bye Dad.”

She turned and hurried along the branch.

 

An hour later, she reached a point where the forest had opened out so much she could no longer leap to another tree.  Looking at her compass, she realised that she would now have to descend to the forest floor in order to stick to the bearing her father had given her.  She looked down uneasily.  The ground had changed somewhat in the last hour.  Whereas before it had been exclusively a thick, wet, greyish-brown mud, it now appeared to consist of a carpet of soft, low-growing plants which were buried under a thin layer of water.  In some places the water’s depth was over a foot, but mostly it was of the order of an inch or so – just enough to keep the plants constantly wet.  At any rate, it was hard to imagine tentacled monsters living under the surface, and she did not think she would sink far into the ground here, if at all.

Jumping down on to the forest floor, she soon found she was wrong – she sank immediately up to her ankles.  But no further, so she uprooted herself and continued in the direction her father had told her.  It occurred to her that the light was fading fast – somewhere beyond the perpetual cloud cover, the sun was setting or perhaps had already set.  Wendy plodded on, splashing through the water, until it became too dark for her to see the compass properly.  She stopped.

The trees in this part of the forest were not nearly so easy to climb.  Their trunks were smooth, and their branches started about twenty feet above the ground.  Wendy could not see any in the vicinity which she would be able to climb.  So, much as she disliked the idea, she sat down in the two inches-deep water, placed the compass and radio on her lap, and leaned back against a tree, hoping to get some sleep.

 

She awoke with a start.  It was light.  She was lying on her back, and her left ear was submerged while her right was still above the surface of the water.  There was something on her face, moving…  She reached up with her hand and grabbed at something on her cheek.  Pulling it off, she stared at it and cried out in alarm.  It was yellow, slimy and resembled a large, flattened leech.  She threw it away, then realised that there was something else moving on her, and it was weighing her down…

She sat bolt upright and looked down with horror at her front.  Her dress had fallen wide open, and her naked torso was covered in the same disgusting yellow leech-like creatures.  Not an inch of flesh was visible, so many were there.  She began pulling them off in handfuls, throwing them to one side.  When she had removed the last one, she noticed that her skin was covered in little red marks.  With a shudder she realised that they must have been drinking her blood.  She started to get to her feet.

It was then that she felt something stir within her vagina.  A rush of nausea accompanied the realisation that one or more of the creatures must have entered her while she slept.  She reached down and stuck two fingers inside, feeling around for the horrible thing.  She found two, which she managed to remove without too much difficulty.  Her fingers could not find any more, but when she stood up straight and began to walk, she could feel that there were more inside her.  A second exploration with her fingers still found nothing.  In desperation she tried to force more of her hand into her vagina, stretching herself to capacity, but she found it was not easy to get the requisite angle.

She lay down on her back and drew her knees up as high as they would go, until they were positioned either side of her shoulders.  Then, gritting her teeth against the pain, she began to work her hand little by little into her cunt.  She had never been stretched this much before, and she whimpered in pain as her flesh began to tear.  But her desperation to get rid of the parasites was greater than her fear of pain, so she continued to push her hand deeper, lubricated by the slime which the creatures had generated on their way in.

The last set of knuckles disappeared inside her, followed shortly afterwards by the rest of her hand.  When finally she was buried up to the wrist, she let out a deep breath which she just realised she had been holding for the last minute or so.  Reaching around with her fingers, she discovered one, two, three more of the creatures, which she gathered together in the palm of her hand and extracted with a little yelp of pain.

Exhausted, she lay still for a moment, before suddenly remembering her poor sick father.  With dismay she saw that her radio and compass were lying on the forest floor under an inch of water.  She picked up the radio and pressed the button.  “Hello, Dad?” she said.

There was no response.  Her heart sank.  ‘He could just be asleep,’ she told herself.

The compass was still in perfect working order, and she began to jog through the forest, heading straight as an arrow along the bearing two-hundred and seventy-six degrees, holding one arm under her breasts so that they did not bounce uncomfortably.

Half an hour later she slowed to a walk.  She really was not as fit as she ought to be, she reflected.  The scenery was unchanged here, except that the water was in general a little deeper.  In places it reached her thighs, but usually it was only a few inches in depth.  She continued on.

A splashing sound behind her made her turn in sudden hope.  Could it be…?

But her heart sank as she saw it was not her father.  Instead it was a creature the size of a very large dog, with a long, lithe, dark green body and a short head that bore powerful jaws set with an array of small, sharp teeth.  Its legs were long and had pad-like feet.  It was staring at her intently.  Wendy began to back away.

With a spring it leaped towards her.  Wendy screamed and turned, then promptly tripped over a root and fell flat on her face.  The creature was upon her in a moment, its jaws closing on the side of her dress just above her waist.  The expected bite into her flesh never came.  Instead, the animal began to shake its head from side to side, perhaps attempting to rip off what it had bitten.  Startled, Wendy did not waste the opportunity.  She slipped out of her dress then took off, now completely naked, through the forest, leaving the creature to pick over the garment at its leisure.  When she looked back, however, she saw it drop the dress in disgust and set off after her.  Wendy increased her pace, fear driving her on, while the splashing sounds behind her told her that her attacker was following closely.

But not gaining.  In fact, when Wendy dared to look back again, she saw that she had actually gained some ground on the creature.  Obviously its usual prey was slow-moving, and it had not evolved great speed.  But with dogged determination it was still following, and five minutes later, when it was almost lost in the distance, Wendy could see it was still loping steadily after her.

She was desperate to find a tree she could climb.  But, looking around, she saw that all the trees in this part of the forest had tall, straight trunks whose lowest branches were some fifty feet above the ground.  Her heart was pounding and her legs were complaining with the unaccustomed effort.  What was she to do?  If she did not find somewhere to hide soon, she would have to stop in order to rest, and then the creature would soon catch up with her.

Ahead of her, something dark began to come into view through gaps between the tree trunks.  With no idea what it was, Wendy continued along her bearing, checking her compass regularly to make sure she was not deviating from her course.  But it soon became apparent that she would have to make some kind of decision, for the dark object turned out to be a long cliff face, made of a dark rock that was smooth in texture.  The cliff was more than fifty feet high and looked impossible to climb, which left her with two options.  The first was to attempt to go around it, which might take her any number of miles out of her way.  The second was to try one of the many caves whose mouths gaped blackly at regular intervals along the base of the cliff.

Wendy did not like the look of the caves – they looked terribly forbidding, and she had no light.  It was just possible that they might lead right through the cliff to the other side, but for all she knew they might be the dens of creatures like the one that was currently pursuing her.  She reached the cliff having still not come to a decision.  She turned and looked to the left.  The cliff looked like it extended forever in that direction.  She turned the other way and saw a similar sight to the right.

While she contemplated her choices, the sound of splashing drew nearer, and she turned to see how far away the creature was.  To her dismay she saw that it had picked up some companions.  Two other animals of the same species, but both even larger than the first, were now bearing down on her.  She hesitated for only a moment before turning and fleeing into the nearest dark cave.  Behind her, the creatures stopped in their tracks, unwilling to follow their quarry any further.

Wendy was not aware that they had stopped following her, and she resolved to get as far into the cave as possible.  Perhaps in here she would find a rock or something else that she could use as a weapon.  But although the walls of the cave were rocky, the floor was as wet and squishy as the ground outside.  She continued on, certain that the cave would be drier a little further in.

But it remained wet and squishy.  And when she paused in the darkness and put her hand against the wall, she discovered that it, too, was soft, yielding, and slimy to the touch.  She withdrew her hand in disgust.  For several minutes she continued to walk, though slowly and cautiously, penetrating ever deeper into the cave.  Then she found herself walking smack into a squishy wall, and some swift tactile investigation told her she had come to a corner.  She turned left and continued, slowly at first and then more quickly as she spotted a dim light emanating from up ahead.

‘The far side of the cliff!’ she thought to herself as she quickened her pace.  Hurrying forward, she broke into a jog as she became ever more anxious to get out of this bizarre cave.  The end of the tunnel approached rapidly, and she finally burst out into the bright light beyond, blinking as her eyes adjusted.

But it was not daylight, and she had not come out of the tunnel.  Instead it had widened into a huge cavern, in which floating globes the size of beach balls gave off a strong, yellowish-white light.  But these were not what caught Wendy’s eye first.  As her gaze travelled around the walls of the cavern, and across its vast floor, she suddenly realised with horror what she had been walking on since she entered the cave.

The floor and walls were pinkish-red in colour, and were quivering and pulsating with a life of their own.  Rows upon rows of tentacles lined the walls, floor and ceiling of the cavern, and great bloated mounds of flesh residing on the floor heaved and shuddered in response to unknown stimuli.  Wendy had, in fact, entered the internal organs of a giant organism that lived in this hill – perhaps was the hill.  In sudden fear she turned to flee.

But the organism was apparently aware of her presence.  Dark pink tentacles shot out of the floor and coiled themselves tightly around her ankles.  Already starting to run, Wendy’s momentum caused her to fall, and she found herself being dragged backwards on her stomach along the wet, slimy floor.  The compass and radio, knocked from her hands, were left behind on the floor of the cavern.  She screamed in terror and tried to kick her legs free, but it was hopeless.  She was passed from one pair of tentacles to the next, each positioned a little further into the cavern, until finally she reached the middle.  Here she was hauled to her feet and pulled backwards against one of the huge blubbery mounds of flesh.  She yelped as more tentacles emerged from here and wrapped themselves around her arms and legs, pinning her in position.  She tried to struggle, but could not move an inch.  Several tentacles that were absolutely dripping with slime now proceeded to rub themselves over every inch of her naked body.  This had the effect of dissolving and removing every last vestige of mud that she had acquired the day before – whether this was the organism’s intention or not, she had no idea.  The result, however, was that she ended up coated in a thin layer of slime, which she found disgusting in the extreme.

Two tentacles with rounded pads on the ends emerged either side of her head, and the pads fastened themselves to her temples.  She shook her head from side to side, but could not dislodge them.  Worn out, she slumped in defeat, resigned to whatever was going to happen to her.  She wondered what the pads were for, and whether the organism was somehow tapping into her brain.

A new, very long tentacle began to emerge from a nearby mound, and she watched in horror as it snaked its way across the floor towards her.  It reached her feet, then slid up the inside of her leg towards her bottom.  She felt its tip probing at the entrance to her anus, then felt her sphincter expand as it forced its way in.  Lubricated by slime all the way along its length, it slid inexorably deeper and deeper into her bowels.  It seemed to last forever, and she wondered just how deep it was going, and how long the tentacle was.  Her abdomen felt full, and she was overcome with a desire to defecate, which of course she could not satisfy.  However, she suddenly felt her anus forced open even wider for a moment, then noticed a bulge in the tentacle that travelled down away from her bottom and across the floor.

This was puzzling – was the tentacle hollow?  And had it just extracted her faeces?  She watched as the bulge disappeared into the other mound.  A few minutes later, another, larger bulge appeared at the far end of the tentacle, and this one began to make its way towards her.  She braced herself as the bulge climbed up towards her anus, and winced as she was forced wider open than she would have thought possible.  She imagined the bulge being pushed all the way up her rectum, through the many convolutions of her small intestine, and on…

A few minutes later, her stomach suddenly felt full.  The nagging hunger that had been in the back of her mind since she awoke was now strangely satisfied.  Had the organism just fed her?  If so, with what?  How would the creature know what nutrients she needed?  Did it find out through the pads on her temples?

The feeding tentacle, if that was what it was, now began slowly to withdraw from Wendy’s intestines.  She felt it slide through her anus like some kind of never-ending poo, except that, five minutes or so later, it did end, and her anus closed up once more.

But the deep probings were not over.  Another tentacle, this one very slender indeed, came out of the flesh mound behind her and slid its tip between her legs.  Wendy tried to clamp her thighs together, but they were being held slightly apart and she could not prevent this new tentacle from sliding smoothly into her vagina.  It buried itself deep, and she could feel it probing further and further into the recesses of her cunt.  Then it reached her cervix, paused, and forced its way through.  Wendy gasped in pain.

For more than half an hour this new tentacle explored the interior of her womb.  Wendy tried at first to blot it out, to ignore what was happening, but as time wore on she began to wonder if the ordeal would ever end.  At length, however, the tentacle slithered out of her body and retreated into the mound.

Hours passed, with nothing further happening.  Wendy dozed for a while, then woke suddenly as her vagina was invaded again.  This time there were several thin tentacles worming their way into her, and they were strangely shaped, judging by the feel of them.  Wendy winced as something moved sharply inside her, then gasped as she felt her internal organs being manipulated.  What the tentacles were doing she had no clue, but it felt as if her insides were being pulled, pushed, turned around, squashed and stretched all at the same time.  It was a hideous and very uncomfortable experience (if not actually very painful), and she burst into tears and began to scream.

For five solid minutes she screamed without let-up.  But the tentacles ignored her and she eventually gave up.  Nobody would hear her anyway.  She wondered how her father was, and whether he was still alive, and if the ship had been repaired yet.  Thinking on these things was worrying, but at least it helped to take her mind of the unpleasantness happening inside her body.

A bulge moved up one of the tentacles and entered her cunt, stretching her briefly to the point of pain.  She wondered what it was that they had injected into her.  Shortly afterwards, another bulge followed.  What were they doing in there?

The ordeal lasted for well over five hours, during which time Wendy tried everything she could think of to stop it.  She thrashed about in her bonds, which was completely ineffectual since she could move only a few millimetres in any direction.  She shouted at the top of her voice until she was hoarse, but the organism either could not sense sound or it simply did not care.  She urinated, a couple of times, but the liquid merely became absorbed into the slime and moisture that covered the floor.  More than that she could not do, pinioned as she was.

Finally, the tentacles withdrew from her cunt, and a small trickle of blood ran down the inside of her thigh.  She looked at it, worried.  What on Earth had they done to her?  Her abdomen seemed a little bloated now, but she did not feel unwell.

Another hour passed.  She was just dozing off when a squelching noise sounded somewhere off to her right.  She turned her head in that direction and looked to see what was making the noise.  From around the corner of the next mound came a heaving mass of flesh and tentacles, moving slowly across the floor.  Wendy could not tell whether it was part of the Organism (as she called it in her mind) or not, but at times some of its tentacles seemed to extend into the floor.  It gradually approached her, and she was somewhat surprised to see a large oblate eye peering at her from the end of a short flexible stalk.  Its gaze travelled up and down her body as it shuffled closer, then retreated into the fleshy mass when finally it came to a halt some six feet away from her.

As she watched with a mixture of curiosity and disgust, the flesh began to peel back in one place, revealing a glistening transparent globular sac that quivered and writhed as if possessed of a life of its own (which, for all Wendy knew, it had).  More and more of the sac was revealed, until Wendy could plainly make out its contents – a vast number of small, egg-like capsules, each perfectly transparent, and each containing a tiny, wriggling, tentacular creature.  She shuddered in horror.

The large sac, apparently made of flimsy material, broke open, spilling its contents over the floor.  Instantly several short, stubby tentacles arose and began gathering the eggs together in one place, forming a little pile near to Wendy’s feet.  A new structure now emerged from the floor – a great fleshy column that engulfed the eggs and swallowed them up as it rose to a height of three feet or more.  Encased in pink flesh, the eggs were now invisible to Wendy, but she could see where they were, for the column bulged slightly in one place, and the lump rippled with movement generated within.

A tentacle began to snake towards Wendy, originating from just above the lump.  It was thicker than most of the others had been – possibly as thick as her wrist, although it tapered towards its tip.  It made directly for her pussy, slipped in between her labia, and began to slide into her much-abused vagina.  Wendy gritted her teeth and tried to clamp herself shut, as she always did, but it made no difference, and she felt the vile tentacle probe all the way to her cervix, and then beyond, into her womb.

A small, oval bulge appeared at the base of the tentacle, and began to move slowly up the tentacle towards Wendy.  Utterly helpless, she watched as it drew inexorably closer to her cunt, then disappeared inside, stretching her to the limit.  Another bulge appeared, and followed suit.  Then another.  She could feel each one move deep into her body and become implanted in her womb.  She began to cry, hating what was happening to her.  She wanted to die.

Bulge followed bulge, and as each made the journey from pillar to womb, Wendy fancied the lump in the pillar was growing gradually smaller.  Her belly, on the other hand, was growing noticeably larger.  She knew exactly what was happening – the horrible see-through eggs were being implanted into her womb – but she was powerless to do anything about it.

The process took the best part of an hour.  Wendy attempted to sleep through it, but each time one of the eggs entered her, the pain shocked her back into wakefulness.  When finally the eggs stopped coming and the tentacle withdrew, Wendy’s abdomen looked heavily pregnant.  Tears welled up in her eyes whenever she looked down at her belly, so she eventually stopped looking.

An hour later her anus was invaded by the feeding tentacle.  Wendy was by now quite hungry, so she almost welcomed the prospect of food, though she wished they would find an alternative means of giving it to her.  “I have a mouth, you know!” she shouted.  “That’s how I eat, not through my arse!”  But of course there was no response.

After she had been fed, and the tentacle had been withdrawn, Wendy fell asleep, and slept for several hours.  She was awoken by the feeding tentacle, which plunged unceremoniously into her anus and got several feet of its length inside her before she had even achieved full consciousness.  Despite herself, Wendy could not help looking down at her belly.  When she did, she frowned – was it her imagination, or had it grown while she had slept?  She was sure it had – the eggs were obviously growing at a phenomenal rate.  What would they do when they hatched?  Eat her alive from within?  And what were they, anyway?  Would they someday become giants, like the Organism?  Or were they the young of some kind of creature that lived in symbiosis with the Organism?

More hours passed.  Wendy tried to sleep but could not – she simply was not sleepy at the moment.  She had nothing to do but worry about what was going to happen to her.  And worry she did.  Her belly was very definitely bigger now – she looked like a woman in her ninth month of pregnancy.  It was not a look she particularly liked, especially since she knew she was not carrying a beautiful human baby, but a horrible horde of tentacular creatures.  And just how had her womb been prepared for this experiment – had it been enlarged somehow?  She could not think of another explanation for how it was possible for her womb to hold such a huge volume of eggs.

She was fed again.  Afterwards, a couple of extra-slimy tentacles began to give her entire body a new coating of slime, which she felt she hardly needed.  However, as one of the tentacles strayed close to her face, she decided to teach the Organism a lesson.  She grabbed the tentacle in her mouth and bit down hard.

The effect was astonishing.  As a bitter-tasting fluid flooded into Wendy’s mouth, the floor shuddered as if an earthquake were in progress.  The tentacles binding her arms and legs immediately let go and bent themselves to the task of freeing their comrade from the iron grip of Wendy’s jaws.

Seizing her opportunity, Wendy pushed herself away from the mound of flesh and began to run away towards the exit tunnel.  Immediately she felt terribly heavy, her distended abdomen weighing her down greatly, and she had not gone more than two yards when a tentacle emerged from the floor, grabbing her leg around the knee.  But she was not going to give up her advantage so easily.  She knelt down on her free knee, though this was not easy owing to her condition, and managed to get the tentacle between her teeth.  She bit down as hard as she could, grinding her teeth so as to make as much of a mess of the tentacle as possible.

There was another earthquake.  Wendy got to her feet, her legs wobbling with the effort, and continued to make her way towards the door.  She could not run properly, but she managed a kind of half-trot as she crossed the fleshy floor.  Strangely, no other tentacles challenged her.  Had she really inflicted so much pain on the Organism that it should be so afraid of tackling her now?

At any rate, she reached the tunnel entrance without further molestation.  She picked up her radio and compass, entered the tunnel, then slowed to a walk, using her hands to steady herself on the fleshy walls.  Putting one hand under her belly to support it, she walked as quickly as she could, retracing her steps of … how long ago?  She had no idea.

A glimmer of daylight sent her spirits soaring.  It was a hellishly inhospitable planet, certainly, but daylight anywhere looks good to someone who has spent too much time underground.  She reached the end of the cave and stood still for a minute, blinking in the sunlight.

But what should she do now?  The ship might have been fixed by now and was possibly searching for her and her father.  Her father, on the other hand, might well be dead by this time.  Wendy was torn between wanting to succeed in the mission her father had set her, and wanting to see her father again.  In the end the latter won out, not least because she had still not figured out how to get around the hill.  So, turning the compass towards magnetic north, she began to walk back along the bearing ninety-six degrees.

It was tough going.  Supporting herself as well as she could, she walked for maybe two miles before deciding her legs simply could not carry her any further without a rest.  She sat down in six-inch deep water with her back to a tree trunk, and drifted off to sleep.

When she awoke she was covered in the yellow leech-like creatures.  They were swarming over her body like flattened slugs, and she stifled a scream, anxious not to attract the dog-like animals.  She got to her feet and pulled the slimy creatures off her body, but found herself unable to get her hand inside her cunt – her belly was just too huge and got in the way.  She could feel several leech-creatures inside her vagina, but had no way of removing them.  She now looked more pregnant than any woman she had ever seen – how much bigger could she possibly get without exploding?

She continued on her way, but was forced after only a mile to get down on her hands and knees – she was just too heavy now for only two legs to support her.  This of course slowed her down considerably, but she had no other practical means of locomotion.  With dogged determination she crawled onwards, getting to her feet every so often and walking a hundred yards or so before she was forced to drop back on all fours.

Night fell.  How far had she come since she left the caves?  Five miles?  Six?  It was impossible to tell.  Weary to the point of exhaustion, she collapsed against a tree and fell asleep.

In the morning she had to pull more of the leech-creatures off her.  Repulsive as they were, they did not seem to be doing her much actual harm – the blood they extracted seemed to be of a minuscule quantity.  Her belly was now so large that when she crawled on all fours, it scraped along the ground unless she arched her back upwards, which was not at all easy.  Her back ached.

By mid-morning the ground had turned into mud.  She must be getting close to the lake – perhaps it was now only a mile or two away.  But how would she reach it without sinking?  She decided that rolling was probably not the best method, in view of her distorted shape.  Instead she adopted her initial tactic of sculling along on her back.  She sank a little, but was able to stay on the surface.

Her naked body quickly became covered in mud once again.  She was making good progress, however, and in another hour found herself in the shadow of a large rocky outcrop.  She managed to haul herself out, and crawled wearily to the top.  Looking around, she quickly realised it was the wrong outcrop.  She was, however, on the edge of the lake, and when she looked around at the other outcrops, she spied one which had a small metal object on the top of it.  Not sure whether to feel glad or alarmed, she climbed back down, laid herself gently on top of the mud, and began to scull towards the other outcrop, praying that she would reach it before she got pulled under by a tentacle.

Twenty minutes later, she hauled herself out on to the other rock, and recognised it immediately as the one on which she had left her father.  But her father was not here.  Instead there was a simple beacon, set up and ready to transmit.  She switched it on and read the display.  There was a message waiting, which she called up and read as it scrolled by.  It said, “Dear Wendy.  If you are reading this, then we are very sorry to have given up on you.  But we did, and will shortly be taking off.  You will be glad to hear that your father is alive – barely.  We have placed him in stasis and will make sure he gets immediate medical attention when we get home.  We will stay in orbit for a couple of days, hoping that somehow you manage to get back to here and use the beacon.  If you get back here after we leave, well, don’t lose hope.  Just leave the beacon running – I’ll be back this way in a couple of weeks.  Good luck!  Love, Ted.”

Wendy read all this in mounting concern, and as soon as it began to repeat she hit the ‘transmit’ button.  Then she sat down on the rock beside the beacon and waited.  She looked up at the featureless white cloud layer that began a mere twenty or thirty yards above her head.  Idly she reflected that, compared to when they had first landed here, this was a clear day.

Ten minutes passed, then fifteen, then twenty.  Still she scanned the sky, hoping to see the downward blast of retro rockets blasting down through the cloud, or to hear the roar of the mighty engines as her father’s ship descended toward the ground.  She waited, and waited.  Still she continued to hope.

A distant roar began to filter down through the clouds.  In delight and amazement, Wendy watched as the dark shape of the spaceship appeared above and in front of her, descending slowly at a distance of thirty yards or so.  As it came down to her level, a hatch opened in the side and a walkway extended out to her.  Lateral thrusters propelled the ship closer to her, and soon the walkway came within reach.  A figure appeared at the hatch – it was Captain Harris.  He smiled and waved to her.

With difficulty, Wendy got to her feet and, suddenly shy, tried to cover her breasts and pussy with her arms as she climbed on to the walkway.  As the captain approached her, he stared at her in surprise.

“My goodness!” he said.  “You look like you’ve been through a rough time.  Come on inside.”

“I’m so relieved you were still there to receive my transmission!” said Wendy as they entered the ship.  “I was afraid you might have gone already.”

“We almost had.”  The captain pressed a button and the walkway began to withdraw.  “We were going to leave in another hour or so.  But tell me – how did you get to be so…”  He trailed off, gesturing at her belly.

Wendy started to speak, but emotion overwhelmed her and she began to cry.  The captain put his arm around her.

“There there,” he comforted her.  “Time enough for stories later.  Perhaps you’d like to go to your cabin and find some clothes.”

Wendy nodded, but as she turned to go down the corridor, a spasm of pain shot through her abdomen.  “Oh heck!” she cried.

“What, what is it?” asked the captain in concern.

“Ow.  It’s these things inside me.  I think they’re about to come out.”

“What things?”

Wendy shuddered.  “Horrible, tentacled things.  A whole bunch of eggs were implanted inside my womb.  I think they’re hatching.”

The captain looked anxious.  “We don’t have the facilities for this!” he said.  “I’d put you in stasis but we only have one chamber and if we take your father out, he might well die.”

“Just get us back to civilisation as soon as possible!” said Wendy.  “Whatever happens before we get there will just have to happen.  I don’t want you to take my father out of stasis.”

“Come with me,” said the captain.  “To the medical room.  We’ve lost our only crewmember who had any medical training, but we’ll just have to do the best we can.”  He led her down the corridor and into a small room with a flat bed in the middle.  He helped her up on to it and laid her down.

Wendy began to feel an intense pressure building up inside her, and she opened her legs wide and pushed hard in an attempt to expel what was inside her.  Nothing happened.  The captain looked down at her pussy with a mixture of fascination and disgust, which he tried in vain to hide.  Then he pulled himself together and headed for the door.

“I’m just going to get Scott,” he said.  “He may know some first aid.  I’m certain Tahir doesn’t, and Mike’s busy flying the ship.”  He hurried out of the room and ran for the engine room.

He found Scott and Tahir hard at work on the ramjet computer.  “Have you got a minute, Scott?” he said.

“What’s up, Captain?” asked Scott.

“Scott, I’ve got Wendy upstairs in the med. room.  She’s about to give birth to some kind of tentacled aliens, or so she says.  I need your help.”

“She’s what?”  Scott looked sceptical.

“It’s true!  You should see her – she’s huge!  I’ve never seen a woman so pregnant.”

“Well if that’s the case,” said Scott in a low voice, “we don’t really want her giving birth on the ship.  The last thing we want is to have aliens running around the ship.  Did you ever see that old movie ‘Alien’?”

“Yeah of course.  The original and the remake, not to mention all the sequels.  And I agree.  But what would you suggest?”

Scott shrugged.  “Well Captain, much as I like the girl, she now represents a serious threat to our getting back home alive.  We practically moved mountains to get ourselves down in one piece, then up into orbit again.  I’d hate to see all that effort wasted.  I think we should put her back outside.”

“Don’t be daft, man – we don’t have time for that.  We need to take off in the next couple of minutes, or we’re stuck down here for good.”

Scott nodded.  “I know, Captain.  I wasn’t suggesting we wait for her…”

Captain Harris gasped.  “We can’t leave her here!  What on Earth would we tell her father?”

“That she never responded to the beacon.  Heck, we nearly left before she responded anyway.  Stuart won’t know any different.”

The captain was shocked, but he could see the sense in Scott’s argument.  He was fond of Wendy, but could he really jeopardise the lives of his remaining crewmembers for her sake?

“All right,” he said with a heavy sigh.  “Out she goes.  I’ll need your help though – she’ll put up a bit of a struggle.”

“Certainly.  But perhaps we can sedate her – we’ll tell her it’s a painkiller.”

The captain nodded.  “Let’s do it,” he said.

 

Wendy screamed in pain.  Something inside her was moving slowly down into the birth canal.  She took a few short, deep breaths, then pushed with all her strength.  She felt her vaginal opening dilate as one of the creatures began to emerge from her cunt.

At that moment Scott and the captain entered the room.  Both looked grim.

“Looks like we’re just in time,” observed Scott.  He fetched a hypodermic syringe from a cupboard on the wall, and sucked up some clear liquid from a bottle which he pulled from a drawer.

“Scott’s going to give you something for the pain,” said the captain.

“Okay…” Wendy muttered, sweat pouring off her brow.  “Hurry.”

Scott swapped her arm and inserted the needle, emptying the contents of the syringe into her.

“We don’t really have time to let this take full effect,” he said to the captain.

Wendy, steeling herself for another push, began to feel rather drowsy.  “What’s happening?” she asked indistinctly as Scott and the captain positioned themselves either side of her and slipped their arms under her back and knees.  “What are you doing?”

“We’re just moving you to a more appropriate place,” said Scott.  “Don’t you worry about a thing.  God she’s heavy.”

Wendy tried to remain focused, but found it increasingly difficult to concentrate.  It did occur to her to worry, though, when she heard the sound of the external hatch opening, and saw the walkway extending out over the mud towards the rocky outcrop.

“What are you doing?” she repeated, in some alarm.  She began to struggle feebly, but sleep was overpowering her limbs.  “D… don’t put me outside,” she murmured, and then drifted off into oblivion.

The captain cursed.  “Damnit,” he said, “I can’t do this.”

“You must,” insisted Scott.  “It’s the only way.”

“That may well be,” said the captain, “but I’m not going to abandon my friend’s daughter in her time of need.  Come on, let’s get her back in the med. room.  I want you to stand by her and whack anything that comes out of her, okay?”

Scott shrugged.  “You’re the captain,” he said.  “But I think this is a mistake.  Besides, I won’t be able to do anything until we’re in space.  What if she gives birth in the meantime?  There’s one of them coming out of her right now.”

“Well, get rid of it and then go and strap yourself in.  We’ll strap her down and lock the med. room door.  She surely won’t pop many of them in the time it takes us to get into orbit.”

“And if she does?”

“Well, we’ll just have to deal with them.”

Wendy was carried into the med. room and strapped down to the bed.  A dark pink fleshy object was in the process of emerging from her cunt, and Scott stood by with a hammer at the ready while the captain returned to the bridge.

More and more of the creature emerged, and Wendy’s vaginal opening widened to breaking point.  Her flesh began to tear, and blood flowed.  Then the creature was out of her – a mass of tightly furled tentacles that Scott immediately struck forcibly with the hammer.  The hammer bounced – the creature had the consistency of rubber.  Suddenly it uncoiled and flung a couple of long, slender tentacles towards Scott.  He jumped backwards, but one of the tentacles succeeding in grasping him around the wrist.  The creature rapidly climbed up his arm to his shoulder, and shot a tentacle into his ear before he could do anything about it.  Scott yelled as he tried to remove it, but it threw more tentacles around his head and gripped him like a vice.  There it stayed, while Scott crossed the room in search of a scalpel.  He quickly found one, but then suddenly stiffened as a stabbing pain shot through his head.  He put a hand to his forehead and sank to his knees, his mind clouding over as the creature attacked his brain.  A moment later he slumped to the floor, and moved no more.

Wendy’s cunt expanded once again as another creature pushed its way out of her.  This one came out more quickly, and when it was free it uncoiled like the first.  This one climbed down off the bed, scuttled across the floor, then hauled itself up the wall of the room, where it settled down and attached itself.

“Hurry up Scott, we can’t wait any longer,” said the captain, walking down the corridor and into the room.  He stopped in his tracks when he saw Scott’s prone form.  “Oh my God!” he exclaimed.  He quickly slammed the door and locked it, then hurried back to the bridge.  Strapping himself in, he said to Mike, “Go Mike – Scott’s dead.”

“Dead?  Wha… how?”

“Wendy’s creatures.  Just take off.  We’ll sort it out in space.”

The ship blasted away from the ground and climbed swiftly through the planet’s atmosphere.  A few minutes later it was in space.  Mike programmed the distortion engine and waited for the captain’s signal.

“Whenever you’re ready, Mike.  On consideration I think we’d better leave the med. room locked until we reach Yampata.  How long do you reckon?”

“Sixty-five hours and seventeen minutes until we dock at the station.  Will she be okay for that length of time?”

“I hope so.  But I’m not going to risk all our lives to try to save her again.  I should have taken Scott’s advice – he wanted to dump her outside and take off without her.”

“You’re kidding!”  Mike was shocked.

“Oh, I know it’s horrible.  But he was right – who knows what we’ve let ourselves in for now?”  He sighed.  “I just hope the med. room can contain them.”

 

Wendy awoke to a fiery pain between her legs.  She opened her eyes, blinked a few times, and looked around.  The first thing she noticed was that the walls were pink.  Not all over, but in most places.  Tentacles protruding from the pink patches waved in the air.  The next thing she noticed was that she was strapped to the bed.  She struggled to free herself, but could not.

As she watched the walls, she saw that in fact the pinkness was made up of a number of individual creatures, which had attached themselves to the walls and were now spreading their pink flesh, very slowly but surely, to cover the entire wall area.  Even the door was almost completely covered.  Wendy writhed helplessly in her bonds, feeling a strange sense of deja-vu.

“Captain Harris!” she shouted.  But there was no response.  Perhaps it was because the fleshy walls were absorbing the sound, or perhaps the captain was unwilling or unable to respond.

As the hours passed, the room became totally pink, and resembled the inside of the cavern where she had been impregnated.  Even the floor and ceiling were now covered in pink flesh.  Later still, the bed itself became covered, the pinkness sliding under her body until she was lying not on a sheet, but on squishy flesh.  Over the next few hours this thickened and began to produce tentacles, which proceeded to rub her body all over, coating it with a thick layer of slime.

By the time the ship reached Yampata, Wendy was pregnant again.

THE END
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