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coins.'
        'Watch her,' the youth warned, 'she's trying something.'
        'She's playing for time.' This was the redhead. 'Whoever brought us here is coming back so she's trying to distract us.'
        'I can make her talk.' The youth reached into his pocket and drew out a clasp knife. He took pleasure in easing the blade from its recess.
        'Please. You've got to believe me.' Nausea surged through April. For a moment she thought she'd vomit there and then. She took a deep breath. 'Listen. We were all attacked. We ended up in the water. The river washed us up here… this island.' She swallowed to push down that ball of heat rising in her throat. 'Washed up here. That happened to all of us.'
        The guy in the shirt screamed at her. 'Washed up here! We're not stupid! If we floated here, how come we didn't drown?'
        'I don't know… sorry… don't know.' Inside, she went from searing heat to ice. 'Something's happening to me.'
        'Wrong, sister,' spat the redhead. 'Something will happen to you.' She took a step toward her. 'I'm going to rip every hair out of your damn head until you tell us what's happened.'
        'Please.'
        The man in the shirt kneaded his stomach rather than rubbing it. Something was working on him, too. 'And if she doesn't talk then I'm going to break her neck.'
        A flush of heat ran through April's face as her stomach was hit by cramp. 'Doesn't anyone here remember their name?' She looked at the twenty faces. But now those faces blazed hostility at her. They could beat their fear by beating her. That was their solution. 'And aren't the colours too bright? They blaze at you, don't they?'
        'That'll be the effect of the drug you put in our drinks.'
        'I didn't spike any stupid drinks.' April couldn't stand straight now, the stomach pains were so intense. 'Don't any of you feel a sense of confusion? Like you've been spun around and around so much you…' A bitter taste flooded her mouth.
        The redhead lunged at her and grabbed her hair. 'Confusion? That'll be the drug. It's all adding up now. You drugged us, then you and your friends brought us here, didn't you?'
        'What about the bite marks?'
        'Fucking sadists, that's what you are.'
        The man in the shirt grinned manically. 'That's right. You were going to fuck us round and do something perverted but we woke up too soon. Now we're going to fuck around with you until you wish you'd never been born.'
        'But I'm the same as you! I'm a victim!' Overwhelming spasms ran through her. With them came searing heat and an urge to vomit.
        Only… the sensation was mutating inside of her. Mutating… that can't be the right word, she told herself. Only it was mutating. That's exactly the right word. This wasn't merely change in her stomach; this was mutant transformation. Her very guts seemed to writhe inside her. She clutched her belly as she cried out.
        The redhead who gripped her hair must have thought it was the pain in her scalp that did it. She nodded with satisfaction. 'See how you like being hurt. How about a bit more? Hmm?'
        She dragged April back by her hair. Only it wasn't her scalp that hurt.
        'Something's happening to me,' April gasped.
        'I'm going to make her tell us,' the man said. 'Before her friends come back… uh…' He pressed the heel of his hand into his midriff.
        'You feel it, too, don't you?' April felt the woman release her hair. The redhead backed away as she massaged her own belly with her two hands. 'What is it you feel?'
        The kid in the denim jacket muttered, 'It's the crap she gave us. I've got to eat something. Christ, I'm hungry.' He tried to laugh but there was fear in his eyes. Whatever affected April had started on him, too. The kid's throat muscles twitched.
        Instead of the people directing their anger at April Connor they moved about the beach in a restless way. Their