To find out what happened to her husband, Lena joins a team of women including geomorphologist Cassie Sheppard ( Tuva Novotny), physicist Josie Radek (Thompson), paramedic Anya Thorensen ( Gina Rodriguez), and government psychologist Dr. Ventress ( Jennifer Jason Leigh). Together, the group ventures into the Shimmer, encountering many terrors and realizing that the Shimmer itself is imposing itself onto the bodies and psyches of the expedition team. There shall be a fire that knows your name, and in the presence of the strangling fruit, its dark flame shall acquire every part of you.” VanderMeer, Jeff (4 February 2012). "Annihilation: 'Weird' Nature: What's Your Favorite 'Weird Nature' Story?". Weird Fiction Review. Michel, Lincoln. "An Interview With Jeff VanderMeer: "Full Disclosure, I'm Really A Komodo Dragon" ". Buzzfeed . Retrieved 21 July 2014.

Squires, John (April 17, 2018). "Experience 'Annihilation' on Digital, DVD and Blu-ray This May". Bloody Disgusting . Retrieved April 17, 2018. That night we talked about the tower, although the other three insisted on calling it a tunnel. The responsibility for the thrust of our investigations resided with each individual, the psychologist's authority describing a wider circle around these decisions. Part of the current rationale for sending the expeditions lay in giving each member some autonomy to decide, which helped to increase "the possibility of significant variation." All three stared at me then, as if I were the strange cry at dusk, and after a moment the psychologist said, grudgingly, "If that helps make you more comfortable, then I don't see the harm."

But then the surveyor called up to us. "Clear to this level!" This level. Something within me thrilled to the fact that my vision of a tower was not yet disproven.

The surveyor gave me a look of thanks for the support, but my position had nothing to do with helping her. Something about the idea of a tower that headed straight down played with a twinned sensation of vertigo and a fascination with structure. I could not tell which part I craved and which I feared, and I kept seeing the inside of nautilus shells and other naturally occurring patterns balanced against a sudden leap off a cliff into the unknown.As I came close, did it surprise me that I could understand the language the words were written in? Yes. Did it fill me with a kind of elation and dread intertwined? Yes. I tried to suppress the thousand new questions rising up inside of me. In as calm a voice as I could manage, aware of the importance of that moment, I read from the beginning, aloud: " Where lies the strangling fruit that came from the hand of the sinner I shall bring forth the seeds of the dead to share with the worms that…" After the first night spent at the base camp, the 12th expedition comes upon a structure containing a set of spiral stairs descending into the ground. Inside the structure (which the biologist repeatedly calls a tower), along the staircase, they find cursive writing that begins with the words "Where lies the strangling fruit..." The words appear to be written with a plant material growing several inches from the exterior wall. While the biologist examines the writing, she accidentally inhales spores from this material. After returning from the tower, the biologist discovers that the psychologist, who is the appointed leader, has programmed the group with specific triggers via hypnosis. By saying the phrase "consolidation of authority", the psychologist hypnotizes all except the biologist, who believes that the spores she has inhaled have made her resistant. The group decides to return to base camp, and at dusk, they hear a moaning noise from far away. D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 14, 2018). " 'Annihilation' Director Alex Garland On Whitewashing Accusations: 'Nothing Cynical Or Conspiratorial' In Movie's Casting". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved January 11, 2022.