Sand Murks

I woke up to a loud chittering noise that drove straight into my brain. On the surface, it sounded like loud, annoying crickets, but in my head, the chittering merged into insidious whispers.

You’re weak…

You’re stupid…

Might as well die…

The whispers started to get louder in my head and they were in my own voice. I didn’t really think that about myself, did I? I countered the intrusive thoughts for the moment, but they were beginning to whisper again.

What the hell is that? I looked around to find the source of the chittering but I saw nothing. Then, out of the dense forest a few hundred yards away I could see a small creature step out from behind a tree. At first, I thought it was a large rat since it had thick grey fur and a long tail, but its face didn’t look anything like a rat. It had an enormous pockmarked nose that was bigger than its head and had a shape similar to a human. What the heck is that? I thought to myself and just as I did a translucent block, like a computer’s message screen popped into my vision.

Sand Murk: Level 1

I was startled at its appearance and swiped my hand through the message as a reflex. My arm went through nothing but air, but as it did, the screen flew away. To my chagrin, another screen popped up in the same place.

Congratulations, new skill learned – Analyze: Level 1

What the hell is this? My temper flared at the intrusion of this vision. I swiped the screen away again. Another screen popped into place.

Skill: Analyze

Level: 1

Description: Grants the user with the ability to identify their surroundings. The higher the level, the more can be analyzed.

I don’t care. Go away! I was about to swipe the message away again, but it disappeared before I could complete the action.

My focus changed back to the Sand Murk that had previously shown itself from the trees. My heart pounded in my chest as above the creature, a little box hovered showing its name and level, but that wasn’t what caused my spike in blood pressure. Although I couldn’t see within the knee-high grass and shrubbery surrounding the trees, five more names and level indicators hovered in close proximity to the first one.

What the hell are Sand Murks?

A screen popped into my vision.

Name: Sand Murk

Type: Mammal

Subtype: Rodent

Feeding behavior; Carnivorous, Scavenger

Description: An insidious pack animal. Its chittering noise slowly seeps into the mind of its prey, causing it to slowly go insane. While its prey suffers from noise-induced madness, it is overwhelmed by the pack.

Strength: Analyze Level 5+ required

Weakness: Analyze Level 5+ required

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When I got to the final sentence of the message, I was left with a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach. Go away. As I thought the command, the screen blinked out of existence. As I looked at the location of the Sand Murks, there were more screens indicating names and levels, and there were more than I could easily count. The chittering quickly grew louder as and the insidious whisper quickly returned.

Give up…no use in continuing…The whispers clawed at my thoughts.

I noticed that while I was reading the screens that popped up in my vision, the insidious thoughts of the Sand Murks could not reach me. Unfortunately, I dismissed all the screens that popped up in my vision. I shut my eyes trying to fight against the onslaught of voices inside my brain. I had to think of what to do. Running away was the best idea I scraped up as the voices grew stronger and my willpower weakened. I opened my eyes to turn and run away, but I nearly gave up on the spot. A veritable sea of Sand Murks chittered in front of me.

I don’t know how, but they seemed to sense my plan and as I took a step backward, they swarmed toward me. The front of the mass of creatures was still a good two hundred meters away from me, with the back closer to five hundred, their numbers thinning where the tree line started. Their speed was incredible and I quickly realized that there was no way to outrun them. Luckily, as they began to run toward me, the pressure in my brain lessened. I realized they must not be able to affect me while they are in motion. I didn’t have much time to decide on a different action than running away due to the closing gap of distance. My only other option would be to try to fight them somehow.

I quickly ran to where I sat my pack down, leaning against it was my H&K AR15 attached to the bag was my machete in its sheath. I would take out as many as I could with the rifle, then I would have no choice but to try and hold them off with the machete and my survival knife that was attached to my belt. I pulled the charging handle of my rifle back, chambering a round. Most of our other ammunition was at the bottom of our bags, so I wouldn’t be able to get off that many shots, but thanks to my dad being prior military, at least I had a thirty-round magazine instead of a store-bought fifteen rounder. Additionally, I had two more magazines clipped to my belt in a small pouch. I flipped the safety off as I brought the rifle around and started to fire at the Sand Murks.

The good thing was that there were so many of them every single bullet struck a target, some bullets even passed right through one creature, striking two. The bad news was that there were so many of them that my bullets didn’t even make a dent. I quickly ran out of bullets from my first magazine and reloaded. As my gun barked loudly and spewed death from the barrel, the noise and screeching of wounded and dying Sand Murks caused the swarm to pause in trepidation. They may have paused, confused from my attack, but I sure as hell didn’t. I could feel the pressure returning from the effects of their chittering, but my continuous stream of fire let me ignore it. Once again, I ran out of ammo and I reloaded my last magazine. As I continued to kill the diminutive creatures, I noticed a blinking exclamation icon at the top right of my vision. I felt relief that the message screens didn’t pop up while I was fighting. Remembering how the sinister voices barely affected me while I was reading them, an idea popped into my head. As soon as I was done, I would get my machete and combat knife out and to keep the voices out of my head, I would open a screen. While the screen was open, I would start to massacre them.

I didn’t think that the Sand Murks were that tough or used to fighting their prey. At first, I thought it was the sound of the rifle that made them stop running but based on how easily they fell to my bullets, I was beginning to think that they generally just surrounded their prey and waited for them to give up to the onslaught of their chittering.

My last bullet left the chamber. I didn’t bother to drop my rifle gently, something I knew my father would yell at me about, I just let it fall from my grasp and I pulled out my K-Bar combat knife from its sheath on the back of my belt and the machete from the sheath on my bag.

Weak… The voices quickly wormed their way into my brain.

I mentally pulled up the text screen for the flashing exclamation mark and the voices lessened in intensity. I didn’t really give the screen a lot of attention, but I could tell at a glance that it was informing me of the first Sand Murk kill and the experiences and bonuses that were associated with it. I carefully jogged to the edge of the Sand Murks and they scooted back in fear, but those at the edge had nowhere to go. They clearly had never encountered a creature that would willingly come so close to them. As I swung the machete down in a diagonal arc in an attempt to hit as many as I could, my plan went to shit.

As my machete came in contact with the first creature, the screen promptly disappeared. My blade sunk into the Sand Murk’s neck lobbing it off and struck the second in the torso. I continued to follow through with the swing like Babe Ruth hitting a home run. The second monster struck a third and the two flew away from my position and a fourth suffered a deep gash.

Useless… The voices began again.

My plan to use the screen failed, but I was happy with the amount of damage I did with my swing. It definitely wasn’t useless, and with that thought, I had another idea.

“NOT USELESS!” I yelled and swung the machete with all my strength into the mass of Sand Murks. I continued to bellow and swing, cutting a large swath through the mass. The yelling helped to occupy my brain so the voices didn’t creep into my head too deeply. As long as the Sand Murks didn’t attack, I would be okay. Unfortunately, a major flaw in my plan soon showed its ugly head.