Prey

Four swarms are coming. After looking outside, David panics and starts crying. On the monitors, they watch the swarms test every seam and door along the outer walls of the main building. Charley guesses that they are new swarms that have formed in the past three hours, since they don’t remember which doors the swarms have already tried. Jack says they need to flock and act like they are animals in a herd. They all need to appear the same so that the swarm can’t single anyone out as weak or vulnerable. Charley reveals that the nanobots evolved vision on their own.

The swarms take on a zigzag pattern, which leads them to the rabbit carcass. Then they retrace the humans’ steps, tracking them. The swarms find the path they took away from the rabbit and come toward the storage space, which Jack can tell is not airtight. Jack and the others hide behind what they can, trying to stay out of sight. The swarms darken the windows, then move on. Then they come in under the west door. Jacks instructs everyone to get into two rows. They shuffle in sync as best they can, trying to imitate a flock of birds that moves as one. The particles divide into two columns. David panics and bumps into Rose, breaking their unity, but they regain their rhythm and move toward a door. Overcome with fear, David runs for a different door, and the swarms give chase and cover him. When Rosie tries to help, they swarm over her as well.

They’re almost to the lab door when the swarm not covering Rosie and David begins heading straight for them. Jack leads them to the cars as the swarm chases them; he and Mae make it into one vehicle and Charley makes it into a Land Cruiser. Ricky radios and tells Jack that Julia is coming to the lab that night. The swarm outside Mae’s window imitates her head and shoulders. This imitation is a new emergent behavior, which angers Jack; their capacity for mimicry indicates that no one told him the actual structure of the particles.

A swarm makes it into Charley’s car. He tries spraying the isotopes and coughs as they cover him. Then a swarm starts to invade Jack and Mae’s car. Jack feels the pinpricks as the particles touch him. The wind rises and gives them a moment to open the car doors as the swarm vanishes. Jack carries Mae to the building, where Ricky and Bobby are waiting. Ricky says Charley is still alive but that no one can retrieve him. Jack steps in until the blowers clean him. Then he goes back out to help Charley. Later he will realize that Ricky manipulated him into going back out there.

Charley is on his back by the car. Jack sees a dirt bike in the back of the Land Cruiser, but he can’t find the key. Looking in the storage shed, he sees Rosie’s body. He finally finds the key hidden along the roof rack of the car. Nine swarms approach him as he gets Charley on the bike. Fascinated by their behavior, Jack waits until they are ten yards away before gunning the engine.

He gets them to the power station, but the airlock doors won’t close behind them. Through the glass, Mae and Bobby frantically pantomime lifting Charley up so that the floor sensor will only sense one pair of feet; protocol only allows one person through at a time. Just as the swarms enters the door and begin to swarm him, he understands their gestures and lifts Charley, allowing the doors to close.