17.4

Worm, Chapter 17.4 Summary

Krouse, Cody, and Marissa navigate the outskirts of the Simurgh’s influence, the faint but ever-present scream in their heads a constant torment. Visibility is poor, the air thick with fog, dust, and the remnants of snow. The sounds of battle – gunfire, explosions, collapsing buildings – punctuate the eerie quiet, a stark reminder of the ongoing fight against the Endbringer.

During a lull in the chaos, they hear a scream. Krouse, driven by the need to find a doctor for Noelle and rationalizing that any survivor could be of help, insists they investigate, overriding Cody’s caution. They follow the sound to a cluster of buildings, where a fast-food plaza lies covered in snow and ice.

Inside a darkened burger joint, they find eight people held captive by three grotesque figures. One, a hunchbacked man with scythes for arms (Egesa), cackles as his massive, seven-foot-tall partner, Gwerrus, holds a victim aloft. The third, a young woman named Matryoshka, is marked with stark black lines, her body rigid and angular.

Egesa and Gwerrus speak in a strange language, but Matryoshka, with effort, translates. They demand she “fold” their captive, a process that seems to involve absorbing the victim into herself. Matryoshka resists, claiming she’s “too far” from herself and fears losing her identity. Gwerrus, however, is insistent, mentioning the presence of guards, fences, and “trucks” that hunt them. They need to escape, and Matryoshka’s ability is their only way out.

As Matryoshka absorbs her first victim, her appearance subtly shifts, her accent lessening. Gwerrus orders her to absorb her next, then Egesa, and finally the remaining captives. Matryoshka expresses concern about “digesting” them too quickly, but Gwerrus dismisses it, claiming she’s tough enough to withstand the process.

Krouse, realizing they need to act before Matryoshka absorbs someone with medical knowledge, charges. He attacks Egesa with his makeshift spear, inflicting severe wounds. Egesa falls, unable to support himself, but then disappears in a cloud of black smoke. Krouse orders the captives to flee and turns his attention to Matryoshka, slashing at her ribbon-like flesh as she absorbs Gwerrus. He clubs her over the head, momentarily incapacitating her.

Gwerrus, however, proves too durable to harm. Krouse realizes he’s outmatched and tries to escape, but Egesa reappears, holding a scythe to his throat. Gwerrus, now partially absorbed by Matryoshka, orders her to “fold” Krouse. Matryoshka, reluctant to hurt him, hesitates.

Egesa, growing impatient, kicks Krouse, the pain intensifying the Simurgh’s scream in his head. Krouse slips into a memory, a conversation with Noelle in their school cafeteria. He remembers complimenting her writing, comparing it to game design, and learning about her involvement in a competitive gaming club with Marissa.

The memory shifts to a confrontation between Noelle and Krouse, where she expresses her unhappiness and suggests they break up. Krouse, confused and hurt, tries to understand, but Noelle remains distant, citing her own internal struggles as the reason for their incompatibility. Krouse, unwilling to accept this as the end, asks her to tell him to his face that she’s worse off with him. She can’t.

The memory is violently interrupted as Gwerrus attacks. Krouse, back in the present, is thrown off balance, the scythe at his throat. Egesa hisses at him in their strange language, but Krouse, fueled by a surge of anger and the need to return to Noelle, retaliates. He digs his fingers into Egesa’s wound and slashes his throat with a hidden knife. Egesa vanishes in another puff of smoke.

Gwerrus, enraged, pursues Krouse. He calls for Marissa and Cody to scatter, but Gwerrus focuses on him. She’s slow but relentless, easily keeping pace with him through the snow and ice. She catches him, grabbing him by his clothes. Krouse stabs at her hand with the knife, but the pain reflects back to him, his own hand bloodied.

Suddenly, two figures intervene: a man in gleaming armor (Armsmaster) and another in a robe (Myrddin). Myrddin uses his power to shunt Krouse away, minimizing their contact with him. Armsmaster confronts Gwerrus, who claims to be stronger. Armsmaster, after a brief exchange with Myrddin about her power, attacks, using smoke and a nonlethal bullet to test her defenses. Gwerrus is set on fire, screaming in agony.

Krouse, now a ghostly spectator, tries to get their attention, pleading for help for Noelle, but they can’t hear him. Armsmaster and Myrddin discuss the ongoing fight, the quarantine measures, and the President’s controversial D.D.I.D. (Dimensional Displacement and Integration Directive) plan. Myrddin vehemently opposes it, believing it will backfire.

They discover a section of a laboratory, transported along with the people, containing a dead man in a lab coat. Armsmaster expresses a desire to investigate, but Myrddin prioritizes minimizing exposure. They decide to destroy the lab with white phosphorus after the Simurgh is gone, marking the area with red tape.

Armsmaster and Myrddin depart, leaving Krouse alone with the lab. He explores, finding no first aid supplies, only empty vials and paperwork. He comes across a metal briefcase containing six canisters and a document titled “Congratulations on your newly purchased superpowers.”

Desperate and worried he’ll slip back into another memory, Krouse grabs the case and runs, hoping to find a doctor among the people they rescued from the monsters and return to his friends. The cold air burns his lungs, the Simurgh’s scream a constant torment, but he presses on, driven by the need to save Noelle and the chilling implications of the document he now carries.