A week later, in the clinic room. Looking at the Parasites he had gained from the plant this time, Will finally came to a decision on which one to use.
"Do it." He said to Donny.
"I just cut here?" Donny pointed at the area between Will's shoulder and trapezius with a scalpel.
"Yes."
"What if I cut too deep? Or if I cut the thing." Donny asked, referring to the Parasite.
"Never mind, hand me the scalpel, I'll do it." Will held out his hand.
"Ay, Dios Mio! I'll do it." Monica said in exasperation, grabbing the scalpel from Donny's hand and lightly shoving him out of the way. "Move."
Will had planned to operate on his own but Karen was curious about how Parasites worked, so the entire household was currently inside the clinic watching the procedure.
Like how Will had done on her previously, Monica cut into his skin and soon removed the dog flea Parasite with a pair of tweezers. After storing it away, she stitched him up.
Without the dog flea Parasite inside him anymore, Will could feel his muscles relaxing. He may lose a bit of compatibility with it this way but Will had been planning to change the location it was placed anyway.
Will then turned around on the chair he was sitting on and removed the hookworm Parasite from the newly healed wound on his own before replacing it with the termite Parasite.
Removing the Parasites was only temporary. He planned to charge for Category 1, so having other Parasites sitting inside him would greatly slow him down.
"That's it?" Karen asked as she blinked. She seemed to have been expecting more.
"That's it."
After storing away the Parasites, Will grabbed the tapeworm Parasite and went out to the living room, arriving before Diana's cage.
He had contemplated using it for himself but the problem was that once this particular Parasite was inside of someone, removing it was a difficult process.
In the end, the decision of giving it to Diana benefited the entire household, sans Karen—who had yet to evolve, since they could all start eating evolved food via her eggs. The higher her Category was, the more beneficial it would be for everyone else.
On one of his routine checkups a few days back, Will had also noticed that some of the produce in the greenhouse had started becoming larger and more vibrant in colors.
They would soon be able to eat entire meals with only evolved foods.
Taking out the tapeworm Parasite, Will held it in front of Diana, who stared for a moment before realizing it was food. Broski also came in for a sniff but turned his head away with a huff once he saw what it was.
The girls laughed at his reaction.
"I think the two of them should swap names." Monica said.
"Broski definitely acts more like a princess than Diana." Karen agreed.
When Diana opened her mouth, Will placed the Parasite inside, avoiding the sharp teeth that she had grown. He nodded in satisfaction once the Parasite had been safely swallowed up.
With that done, Will went outside the compound and began setting up traps around the area, in places where animals had left signs of passing by. Diana would need food to reach Category 1.
When he returned to the house, Karen pulled him, Donny, and Monica into the basement. They entered a large room that she had cleared out and placed mats in.
"I know that I've only learned MMA and not any kind of weapon fighting, but some things do translate over, and I'll also be learning alongside everyone else." Karen said as she placed a few wooden weapons aside. She and Donny had to go out and scavenge them a few days ago. "And besides, you're all atrocious at fighting."
"Booooo." Monica and Donny gave her a thumbs down.
"At least Will has an idea of what he's doing."
"Booooooo!" The jeers from the two became louder and more exaggerated.
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"Since all of you are already very fit. Even more fit than me..." Karen let out a sigh. "I guess the first thing I should teach you is how to correctly throw a punch. This can translate into how to correctly use your weapon of choice, since you'll learn how important your form is as well as how to engage all of your muscles correctly..."
Under Karen, they all practiced throwing punches before moving on to weapons. By the end of the session, Karen had moved onto teaching them how to fall down, saying that it was one of the first and most important things she had to learn.
Grandpa observed for a bit before deciding that it wasn't for him and left.
"Where are you going?" Karen asked after the session when she noticed that Will was leaving the house instead of cleaning up and preparing for lunch. "Are you not eating?"
"You don't have to wait for me, I'll be on a special diet for a while. I'm just gonna check on things nearby." Will turned to walk out the front door.
Because they had no more reserve fuel, and he wouldn't need anything heavy duty for his trip, Will took Monica's electric car to his destination.
He arrived at the warehouse shortly after and stared at the Metamorphosis Pod that had evolved into Category 1 and had grown to almost twice its original size. The green and brown from the former tree was more pronounced, same with the red and orange from the flesh-like growth on it.
Staring at it for a while, Will steeled himself and made his choice.
He wasn't able to take advantage of all the corpses from the plant to reach Category 1 this time because Nirvana had taken them all away before he had the chance to use them. With Nirvana still out there, keeping an eye out for him, and hunting for Category 1s being too dangerous. He had to find another way to reach Category 1 in case he needed to fight them or anyone else off.
He took out the axe he had brought along and walked towards the Metamorphosis Pod.
This would be his meal for the next few weeks, and this would be his way to reach Category 1 while laying low.
Three weeks later, after eating and digesting over 90% of the Metamorphosis Pod, Will fell into a coma.
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Inside the secured perimeter of a certain military base outside of Toronto to the north, James Singh was on his way back home after receiving the weekly allotted provisions for his household. The military would have preferred delivering door-to-door but they were currently very short on manpower, and some volunteers had been caught stealing. He had signed up as a volunteer but waiting list was extremely long.
James was completely covered up from head to toe to avoid bites from any pests as the officials had told but he noticed that a few people walking around had ignored the mandate and wore what they regularly did.
He shook his head when he saw them. Near the beginning of the crisis, one of his neighbours had forgotten to close their window at night. The next day, the man had turned and the entire block was sectioned off by the police and swarming with people in hazmat suits.
As he was leaving the area around the pickup station close to his house—which was just outside the military base and next to the gate, since he lived a couple streets away from the base, he walked around a crowd of protesters who ignored the order to stay indoors unless absolutely necessary. Like James, many of these people had been safe since the beginning of the crisis and had not experienced the same hardships that people new to the perimeter or outside had to.
They were chanting together.
"STOP THE GENOCIDE!!"
"STOP THE GENOCIDE!!"
"STOP THE GENOCIDE!!"
And they held up various signs.
These people believed that the virus was curable and wanted the government to stop killing their countrymen. Many of them harassed the military whenever they left the gate, making it hard for them to do their jobs. Even the police that were patrolling inside the perimeter for any dangers were sometimes hounded. The prison they have on base was already full, giving the government a headache.
After leaving the protesters behind, James soon arrived at the home he was 100 times glad he had brought, instead of renting one closer to the city. He would have to thank his brother-in-law for the recommendation the next time he saw him.
He arrived home to find his fiancée and mother-in-law in the kitchen preparing lunch.
The military had just gotten the electricity up for their area but many people were still without power as the powerlines were being repaired and reinforced—many of them had been downed by cars crashing into the poles or animals chewing through the lines.
Mrs. Lee was instructing her daughter on how to season the soup. At first, the two hadn't been on talking terms. But over time, because of the worry the two shared for their family and because Casey constantly ran up to her grandma asking to play, Mrs. Lee's shell had slowly broken down and the two could finally speak to each other—although it was still a bit awkward at times.
"Oh good, you're finally back." Vivian said when she saw James enter the kitchen. "Lunch is ready. Go call Casey."
"I'll do it." Mrs. Lee offered. Her expression brightened as she took off her apron and headed over to Casey's room. "Casey!"
James began taking off his outerwear when Mrs. Lee's worried voice came from the other room.
"Casey? Casey! What's wrong? Vivian! James!"
"What is it?" James rush towards his daughter's room to find her asleep on the ground next to her toys. "What happened?"
"Casey is not waking up!" Mrs. Lee was almost hysterical at this point.
"Casey? Sweetie wake up." James knelt by his daughter and shook her but there was no response. She had been fine when he left the house earlier. "Sweetie?"
"What do we do?" Vivian asked in a worried voice as her eyes began to tear up.
"It's fine, it's fine!" James said, but he felt like his entire body had been dunked in ice water. "The government said if someone falls into a coma, we need to take them to the quarantine area." He picked up his 2 year old daughter and frantically rushed out of the house, towards the military base.
"What if something happens to her?" Vivian began crying. "What if she doesn't wake up?"
"She'll be okay." Her mother pulled her into a hug to reassure her but she also began to tear up herself. This was the first time in years the two had shared any physical contact. "She's my granddaughter, after all."