Symbiotic
Novelette 10,010 words Recommended by 1 award/anthology source
"El detonated the EMP against the feeder’s sensor, a delicate organ that he had only seen in fragments, suspended in cytology slides the shape of dominoes. The lab just days ago had been inundated with new specimens, washed up on the long white beaches after the storm."
Content warnings 3
body-horrordeathself-harm
Quasar links out; the story lives on Clarkesworld, where the author gets the click.