Crawler

Illustration of the Crawler.

The Crawler, as it is labeled by the biologist of the 12th expedition, is a mysterious entity living within Area X in the Tower. It is implied in Acceptance that at least part of the Crawler is Saul Evans, as is identified by Gloria/The Director/The Psychologist and the Biologist. As well, the message that it writes on the walls of the tower is also in Saul's logs prior to its creation. Multiple characters also note Saul's past as a Christian preacher, and the similarities between the tower words and his religious sermons.

Overview

The Crawler appears to be an integral component of the "mechanism" that is at work throughout Area X. It inhabits the tower, and appears to constantly, albeit slowly, move up and down the spiral staircase of the structure. As it does so, it writes upon the descending left-hand wall of the tower, inscribing English words in a cursive script. These words are composed of a colony of fungus-like organism that resembles green moss.

Although the content of the Crawler's "message" has been recorded by multiple expeditions, its meaning remains largely obscure. The most complete recorded segment, beginning at the top of the spiral staircase, runs as follows:

“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 gather in the darkness and surround the world with the power of their lives while from the dim lit halls of other places forms that never were and never could be writhe for the impatience of the few who never saw what could have been. In the black water with the sun shining at midnight, those fruit shall come ripe and in the darkness of that which is golden shall split open to reveal the revelation of the fatal softness in the earth. The shadows of the abyss are like the petals of a monstrous flower that shall blossom within the skull and expand the mind beyond what any man can bear, but whether it decays under the earth or above on green fields, or out to sea or in the very air, all shall come to revelation, and to revel, in the knowledge of the strangling fruit—and the hand of the sinner shall rejoice, for there is no sin in shadow or in light that the seeds of the dead cannot forgive. And there shall be in the planting in the shadows a grace and a mercy from which shall blossom dark flowers, and their teeth shall devour and sustain and herald the passing of an age. That which dies shall still know life in death for all that decays is not forgotten and reanimated it shall walk the world in the bliss of not-knowing. And then there shall be a fire that knows the naming of you, and in the presence of the strangling fruit, its dark flame shall acquire every part of you that remains.”
— in Annihilation.

Based on the biologist's description of the residue left behind as it travels up and down the tower, the Crawler is at least eight feet wide.