Chapter 34

Alright, let’s do this.

“Start the recording of test subject 12.

This time, restrain the subject. We can’t afford another escapee.

Operator, bring it closer.

Nurse, make the incision. Let’s start with one-fifth of the previous dosage. We don’t need another puddle.

Operator, hold it steady, the nurse can’t work if you let it struggle so much.

Alright, slowly, slowly. Yes, we got a hole!

Halve the dosage for now.

We need to let it permeate the tissue.

Alright, steady now. It seems to be working. We can keep.. Oh! It’s starting to thrash about, we can’t lose him now! Increase the toxin concentration.

Yes, that’s right, just like that. Good, it’s slowing down. Alright, keep going like this. We almost got it.

Alright, it stopped moving, now, quickly, lower the concentration even more.

Nurse, we are ready for the carving process.”

My assistant hands me a towel and I wipe the sweat on my forehead. The operation was a success. At one point, we had a leak in one side, but we managed to plug the hole using some quick patchwork. It seems the worst has passed and the mission can proceed.

Long story short, we caught one of the cash-cows, held it down and slowly degraded it using toxins. Now we are trying to turn the remaining insides into mush so we can add glowing parts of me. We actually did this once already, It’s the same process that gave birth to my illegitimate son Vick - may he rest in peace, far from this horrid place. The only problem is my upgraded toxicity, as most of our test dummies melted before we could make any modifications. It took us 12 tries to adjust, but I think we got it this time.

Alright, now for the hard part.

“Arghh, you fucking cocksucker!”

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I watch as a cut-off body part slowly floats in the wrong direction. I really need hands.

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After some trial and error, we stuffed the carcass with enough flesh to make the glow noticeable from afar. By that point, we were at subject Nr. 14 and I was feeling sore all over my body.

I push the bait toward the darkness above and position myself nearby. Some might wonder why would my prey chose the smaller/darker target over myself, but my genius mind is clearly one step ahead of such a silly question. From my inventory, I slowly release sand around me. The cloud doing a good job of masking the enemy and my vision… I didn’t think this through.

“Abort the mission!”

Um, what now? Crap, I thought I had this.

“Oh, thanks Kevin, I’ll buy army camouflage in the next shop I see. You are very helpful.”

“Ah, you mean dirt? But it’s hard to make dirt stick on you underwater. Everything kind of washes away.”

“Alright, I got it. So you want me to find the glue plant. Get covered in the sticky substance. Ignore the pain of getting digested alive and cower my body with sand. That sounds like a great plan. I’m sure any sane person could work it out by themselves!”

“Yes, I’m being snarky! It’s me who suffers, while you watch the show!”

“Fine, fine. I don’t have a better solution. You win.”

It took me a while to find another carnivorous plant and by then, I modified our strategy a bit. Instead of multiple layers of dirt that would act as cement coffin around me. I let the plant’s leaves stick on my body. By the time I was done, the only part not covered in layers of leaves was my eye.

I look at my freely floating tentacle and suddenly I realise how stupid I’ve been. In the first place, I could’ve always covered myself in leaves, and they would’ve glued me to anything I touched.

…

…

…

Riiight, let’s just get some leaves on my tentacle to help it stick to things. I’ll pretend this was all an elaborate plan on my part. Yes, that’s it! I will need both the tentacle and the leaves to ensure complete success.I’m truly a natural-born genius!

“Now let’s try this again.”

Again, I position myself nearby, this time only releasing a little bit of sand. Not enough to cloud my vision completely, but enough to hide anything that isn’t covered.

I ignore the pain and patiently wait for anything to take the bait.

Two minutes later, I realise a slight oversight in my plans, but it’s too late to change anything as a shadow shoots past me. I can’t let this mistake doom our hunt so I dash after it. A few seconds later my fears come true as the shadow grabs the bait and shoots away from here. Furry overtakes me as I keep chasing, unwilling to admit that all my effort has been wasted, and, finally, after all this time, the stars align to help me.

The shadow starts to thrash about. As I arrive, I waste no time figuring out what happened and extend my tentacle. Thankfully, the wrapping is a piece of cake. The slightest touch makes it stick to the tail-biter and it’s thrashing works against it as it gets more and more tangled. I let the inertia do its work and soon I’m stuck against its skin.

There is no time to waste. Susan unloads every weapon in our arsenal. Toxins, mixed with antibodies, flood out of my body, covering the nearby water with acid-like clouds. Everything organic degrades at a visible speed. Kevin splits his attention from the tentacle, and, under his command, hundreds of vesicles, each containing concentrated venom, bud out from my cellular surface. Where they make contact, they leave holes in our enemy.

My only eye can’t discern everything that’s happening. Still, I can feel the thrashing intensify, but, most importantly, I feel my tentacle and body dig deeper inside my enemy - where its flesh has been turned to mush. Strange protrusions stab my body. It must be the creature’s bones. It takes a while, but soon the thing calms down. It’s clear that the small remaining outbursts are nothing more than its last death throes.

With a satisfying snap, even the bones give way and my enclosing stranglehold splits its body into two parts.

…

We did it.