It instinctively flowed over her body seeking out any external injuries she might have. While it searched it detected her weak pulse and shallow breathing before finding the knife wound. She in turn was dimly aware of it moving across her body. It was drier than she expected it to be making it feel like she was being covered in a living blanket. It covered her completely for a moment before splitting in two and entering her body through both her mouth and the knife wound in her side.

     The one entering her mouth was smaller than the one entering the wound and it explored her digestive tract looking for any injuries and sores for it to patch up or any harmful parasites it needed to rid her of. The other, larger one inspected the injury as it entered it noting the damage the knife had left behind. The knife had pieced her side passing through skin, muscle, and both her large and small intestines before puncturing her liver from which was bleeding the heaviest. It patched it up as best it could; using its own cells as glue to stop it from bleeding. It patched up the rest of the damage using the same method and cleaned the area of fluid that had leaked from the intestines while they were ruptured.

     By this time the smaller part of the symbiote had rejoin the main body through hole that had been in the large intestine. It brought with it information on the state of the insides of her digestive tract. After the pieces had reunited, the completed symbiote explored the rest of its new host’s body. It sought out any parasites or harmful bacteria and integrated itself into her systems to stabilize her before making its way to her brain and making contact with her.

     But when it tried to contact her, it encountered some kind of mental barrier it couldn’t get past but it could still feel her unconscious mind behind it. It had never encountered such a thing with its previous test hosts and it frustrated the symbiote to the point where it banged on it hard in an attempt to break through. It didn’t work but it did jolt her awake.

      She awoke in panic trying to remember what had happened and figure out what was going on. It banged a second time on her mental barrier drawing her attention to it. A sense of relief flooded her mind as she realized her plan had worked and was she safe for the moment. But it soon was replaced by worry when she remembered the desiccated remains of the dead test rats the symbiote had eaten. She had only bought herself some time by letting the experimental creature bind itself to her. But it was time she wouldn’t have had otherwise.

     ‘You never fed us enough,’ the symbiote told her.'Those pieces had to eat their hosts or die,' Its voice was laced with sadness. It had seen the images of the dead rats when they popped to the surface of her mind and felt guilty for failing to keep them alive.