We thought he was only stage two when he was shot. We thought we had enough time to burn the body before the cooling meat drove the parasite to seek out a fresh host. We were almost within arm's reach when he erupted into a stage three creature - torso sliced apart to make way for the multitude of stronger, segmented legs that would harden in less than half an hour.
There wasn't any time to think, just act and hope it saved us from death or worse. I wasn't the one who threw that grenade and I refuse to state if my line of sight was clear enough to see who did but they're the only reason we're here and not on the list of casualties.
Nobody ever warns you just how badly the later stages of the parasite smell, how it's not just rotting flesh they leave behind but all the pus and bile the wretched host-body makes in its desperate attempts to expel the damned things. I'd take cleanup duty over recon any day - anything to avoid that stench when it's fresh.
We've never had a stage three manage to hide itself so well after the host has been neutralised. Damned things tend to burst out as soon as new movement is on the horizon, skittering and stabbing and spreading to more host-bodies til there's nothing in the immediate vicinity other than corpses and cocoons.
They'll be giving us our results back soon. I'm hoping for my usual all-clear but I found a tiny tear in my suit, possibly just wear and tear but most likely the stage three. We should have blown that place to kingdom come the minute we crossed the threshold.
My access to the organisation's database has already been revoked so I assume I passed this test - the only test I've passed since I was in school. To everyone who said I'd never amount to anything, I'm proud to say that we've proven you wrong. We've become so much more than we ever used to be.
We hope our squad will Become with us as well.
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