Sorry for the late post, I got distracted by life things.

We got to my favorite line! On page 108 of my copy

That’s how the madness of the world tries to colonize you: from the outside in, forcing you to live in its reality.

The biologist jumps back in time, talking about research trips after college, talking about her relationship with her husband before he left, talking about her ability to become part of an ecosystem. She’s now becoming part of Area X. She finds her husband’s journal along with a few others, before she steps outside to find the psychologist.

The psychologist shouts the title of the book at her, “Annihilation, Annihilation,” but is confused when the biologist doesn’t succumb to hypnotic suggestion. “I killed you, didn’t I?”

The psychologist has been infected by the thing called the Crawler and is dying. The biologist interrogates her until the end, but there’s not much gleaned from her.

On her way back to base camp in the night, the biologist hears a great creature in the reeds. She tries to get away from it as it tries to cut her off. She does not see it in the dark, but she can tell it’s large and malevolent. She climbs a tree and spends the night in its crook.

Finally we have the confrontation with the surveyor. The surveyor tries to ambush the biologist on her way back, clipping her in the side and arm. But the biologist is no longer fully human, and is able to get around the surveyor and take her out. Of the four who entered Area X, the biologist is the only one left, the anthropologist killed by the crawler, the psychologist killed by her infection, the surveyor killed by the biologist. The expedition is as good as lost.

At the end of our section for this week, the biologist collapses to the ground from her wounds. She feels as though she is frozen, but when she wakes she finds that she’s been writhing on the ground for hours.

For next Friday aim to finish. As always, feel free to make a post about anything you find interesting or want to talk about.