Hello explorers!

Welcome to the first check in of Annihilation, I hope you all enjoyed the read so far. Below is a brief summary of the 2 chapters and I've included questions for us to discuss what has happened so far!

Summary

Chapter 1: Initiation

The 4 of them enter Area X - the anthropologist, surveyor, psychologist and biologist (whose perspective we're reading from). They encounter a boar but upon a closer look through binoculars, its face becomes strange. We find out more about previous expeditions, there were quite a number before this one. The second one ended with them committing suicide by gunshot, the third one, they shot each other. They were also carrying a device which would light up, and after that they would have 30 mins to get to safety. They were hypnotised while getting from the border to the base camp. They spotted the lighthouse which aligned with what was on the map. However, they also found a tower/tunnel and decided that the best course of action would be to check it out before moving ahead. Inside, they found words written with vines and upon closer look, the biologist inhaled spores that burst from one of the nodules. She decided to keep that information from the rest and slowly realised that the psychologist's hypnotisation does not work on her anymore. From that she realised what the psychologist was saying during the hypnotisations - noted that it was weird she mentioned for them to see the tower as made of stone. She mentioned that in interviews they watched of previous expeditions, they seemed to be seeing the world through a kind of veil.

Chapter 2: Integration

The next morning, the anthropologist is gone and the psychologist seems to not have slept and is injured. They head back to the tower/tunnel as agreed upon before. The psychologist hypnotised the surveyor to agree to her staying guard at the top, so the biologist and the surveyor heads down together. The biologist realised that the tower is breathing and a living being. The surveyor just saw it as a tower made of stone and don't feel the vibrations the biologist mentioned. The biologist realised that the surveyor must be seeing different things because of the hypnosis, so she refrained from commenting on some of the things she sees. As they head down, they realised that the words are getting fresher and there seemed to be words sort of erased (only the biologist can see this) - there's a ghosting of previous words. They deduced that a being is still writing it and is in the tower. The biologist felt that it could not be human. As they descended, they found the anthropologist and realised what must have happened last night - the psychologist gave a command to the anthropologist to collect a sample which caused her death. And then she fled. They head back up after collecting the samples that they can. They realised that the psychologist disappeared once they reached the entrance and decides on the next course of action - examine samples and photographs before deciding. The surveyor wants to head back to the border, but the biologist would like to stay and find out more. The next day, the biologist heads off to the lighthouse where she saw a light coming from the day before. The surveyor who was in disagreement about it, stayed behind.

In this chapter we also find out more about the biologist's past. That she was interested in this field because of a pool that turned into an ecosystem in her childhood. She signed up for the expedition because her husband was in a previous one and he returned, seeming to be so different from himself previously with gaps in his memory. She also recalls what they were trained on - the map being of great importance and her knowledge of fungi. She thinks that the expedition has different goals than what they were told and the psychologist was given different orders.

As a reminder, please use spoiler tags if you're going to reveal or hint at anything not in this section.

Do consider sorting the comments by 'old' to see the questions in order. See you in the discussion!