The Bones Beneath My Skin

The three continue north, primarily driving on back roads. Alex turns on the radio, but there are no reports of yesterday’s events. Eventually, they pull into a rest stop that has some shaded tables. The three of them get out of the truck, and Nate prepares to listen to Alex and Art’s story.

Art tells Nate that she was discovered by a hunter one night during a reconnaissance that she and others of her species were conducting. Art had chased the hunter and infected him, taking over his body and controlling it herself. The hunter had been employed by the Mountain, which was near the location where Art’s ship had landed. When the Mountain sent someone to retrieve the hunter, they found him behaving strangely, as Art didn’t yet know how to operate a human’s arms and legs. When the Mountain studied the hunter, they found that his brain was wrapped in strange-looking tendrils, showing how Art was controlling him. Once they discovered Art, they held her prisoner and subjected her to many questions and tests.

While Art was infecting the hunter’s body, he didn’t age. He “stayed twenty-four years old for twenty years,” according to Alex (183-184).