Plagiarus praepotens - Pathogen

A shuddering, oily hand rises above the lip of the island. Blue glints are the only hints of detail, algae light tracing a human form as it lifts itself from the ichor. A single drop of the stuff was enough to reduce Kamran to screaming, and Duncan has been coated in it.

A pair of white eyes snap open in the sludge.

“Shayatin,” Kamran murmurs.

Duncan’s outline begins to boil, and the figure staggers forward. Chunks of flesh fall from her like leaves— pustules exploding all over the soldier’s dissolving form. When Duncan opens her mouth to scream, a large sac spills out, beige and glistening. The killer goes to her knees, eyes rolling back in her head. Her body seems to crumple in on itself.

Something is crawling all over her, Kamran realizes. It’s not one sac bursting; it’s hundreds. The largest wet lump on the ground twists and turns, blooming like a flower as a creature cuts its way out from inside. There must be many more that Kamran cannot see. Their shrieks begin in unison, dozens of variations, like perverse jungle birds.

***

Alien: Into Charybdis, Chapter 34