'You shouldn't have opened the cap!'

‘These have hatched overnight.’

Derilda gasped, panic streaming in her eyes as she scanned the laboratory floor. ‘There’s more over here, these ones are crawling.’

‘You shouldn’t have opened the cap!’

‘I’m calling Dr Ball.’

‘No!’ Lorenzo became very still. ‘We can’t, there’s been too many false alarms, she won’t come.’

‘Okay. I know! We set off a canister of ballistic sauce, seal the doors and just leave. We could put on our mufflers and escape down the hidden corridor.’

Lorenzo studied his colleague for a few seconds. ‘No, it’ll never open, not this time, you’re too anxious, it doesn’t open for tense people.’

‘I’m calm…honestly, I’m absolutely calm.’

‘No, you have an inner glare, the mouth of the corridor will detect it and it won’t open.’ Lorenzo spun around and pointed. ‘Look there! That one’s bigger and it’s got the yellow thingy, like the one in the video.’

Derilda tried to slow her breathing. ‘I’ll try to calm down. Please bear with me.’

‘This lot were already pregnant when they hatched.’

The two colleagues stood still, watching the creatures. Lorenzo rubbed his forehead.‘Can you smell that?’ 

‘I…I..Hey, do you feel hot, like inside, deep inside your body?’