I opened the back door in horror to see our old family mutt Sally weakly whining while laying down on the grass. The sun had almost disappeared so she wasn’t hot, but she was an elderly dog and needed to eat and drink at certain times to take her medications. I ran and got her some water from the sink and told Julio and Jennifer to look for her medications in the pantry while she whined from pain and discomfort. Rijohe had just abandoned her when he took over my parents. And in that case, the worm thing in my dad abandoned her too.

“The medicine isn’t normally where you think it is,” they told me in frustration and started opening all the kitchens cabinets. Having a dog with a special diet and pills was probably very difficult during the apocalypse, but only complete savages would throw away said dog’s medication.

“It has to be here somewhere, where is that expensive ass Farmer’s Dog food? It was in the fridge!” I yelled in frustration.

Julio had an extremely guilty look on his face. I had to think of a plan b as Sally whined after she weakly tried to drink the water.

“It said DOG ON IT! YOU CAN READ MY MIND!” I yelled at the short man who was stuttering.

“Cindybot what’s the deal with animals? Does the control command work on them?” I asked the AI while Julio went on about how English was suddenly his second language. He spoke it better than I did most of the time. The rest of the group arrived to tend to the dog while Cindybot answered:

“What I’ve gotten from the other AIs is that it depends on the animal. Some completely ignore it, while some heed the program. It doesn’t seem to be based on intelligence much either. Someone has a controlled parrot it seems.”

“Yo can I get a pet bird too?” Julio asked brazenly.

"We cant find the medication anywhere," Jennifer said ignoring him.

“Sally sweetie, look at me. I have to try something weird. You have to try too. Be a good girl,” I told her while scratching her ears and rubbing her neck. Sally was part poodle and had a very curly coat that I played with now while steeling myself for what was coming if I failed.

“Tap,” I commanded while looking at her big eyes.

Sally just let out a whine again and wanted more water. I felt nothing from the command.

The room let out a groan while I started to panic.

Kendall. Shit. Let’s look at all of our skills what do we have? I thought to her.

We’re super busy I haven’t been able to focus. Ok let’s see sorry, catching up on your side. Ask Cindybot about the Pet Symbiote she thought back to me.

“Cindybot what does the Pet Symbiote unlock give me? I won it in the last game,” I asked.

Cindybot flashed blue as she processed everything available to her.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“You’re not the first one to get that. A small pet symbiote of your choosing is given to the host to utilize for the challenge. Select from the Pet Unlock ship menu, there are millions of options. This um, doesn’t seem to be pertinent Jon,” the AI said to me. Her earlier good mood was quickly fading.

“How large do the symbiotes need to be to provide the mutualistic symbiotic effects to their host?” Kendall was telling Jon what to ask.

“The symbiote can’t take over the dog's mind that’s ridiculous,” Cindybot scoffed.

“How large?” I asked again. The AI girl floated near my shoulder and processed.

“It can’t take over the dog's brain. Don’t waste your gift on that please,” she begged me.

“I’m not letting my dog die!” I yelled back. Not really at her, but at the entire situation in general.

Wait maybe we’re looking at this wrong. Kendall thought. Ask her if the pet itself could be just be a mutualistic parasite that helps Sally live.

The AI processed as I relayed the question but I could tell she was on the verge of blowing up at me again. To her this was all pointless and made no sense, to me this was the last bit of my old life that I could take with me.

“Echinococcus granulosus can be a symbiote pet. The dog tape worm. It should be enough to heal any current health issues and keep her going short term,” the AI finally responded with defeat in her voice.

“She’s 14 everything she does is short term. This at least gives me some more time,” I said as she selected the pet from the ship system's menus and the near microscopic symbiote appeared in my outstretched palm.

Hello master! the cheery tiny black symbiote thought to me.

“Wait they can communicate?” I asked. This was going to be awkward.

What is my task? It thought to me as it wiggled around my hand.

It felt a lot like a minuscule version of the macaque in the mind game. It was like a small drop of burning acid and silly putty running around my hand and asking for a purpose. Like mostly everyone else in my orbit right now, disappointment was in its immediate future.

Become the dogs symbiote and fix its internal organs as much as possible. Communicate to me you and the dogs needs as needed, I commanded the mini symbiote.

Sally looked at me in confusion as the tiny black ball jumped into her open mouth. Then she started convulsing some as the symbiote began its work. I held her and rubbed her curly ears as the symbiote worked over the next few minutes.

Done master. We are very hungry, anything will do, Sally’s Symbiote thought back cheerfully.

The dog sat up and wagged her tail happily finally. One of her eyes had turned an odd shade of darkened blue but besides that she was perfect.

“YES,” I cried out while hugging her gently. The rest of the group started looking for anything we could feed her and ourselves before we left to the grocery store.

****

Rijohe

“I can’t take you seriously anymore,” Rijohe told Tom with a scoff. His AI Bot remained silent, it seemed to have truly given up. Rijohe however, would fight until his last breath. Tom had just told him that a symbiote would help with the yuini’s transfer to his brain.

“Do you know the origin of the symbiote?” Rijohe continued when the weak ape said nothing.

“The symbiote were the entire reason the Kwitle even exist as we do now. We were similar to small feathered dinosaurs as you apes call them until we stumbled upon the symbiotes on our planet Ultir hundreds of thousands of years ago. The symbiote helped us quickly evolve into the intelligent, magnificent creatures you see today. No. I can’t take you serious. No symbiote would help a Yuini. Especially not at this level of betrayal,” Rijohe was growing more and more upset as he spoke. Even the thought of it was infuriating.

Tom nodded silently and was paying attention to his lesson. It was probably the first time any human had heard it, but he didn’t seem very grateful for some reason.

“That’s great. I wish we had someone like that. We had to run away from wild predators and then each other for hundreds of thousands of years and we’re still stumbling. But anyway, it doesn’t change the fact that she has a symbiote on her side that agrees to the transfer,” Tom said slowly.

Even in the white room he seemed to suffer a lot of physical maladies Rijohe noticed. How deep did the man’s injuries run? No wonder she’s trying to take me over.

He looked over at the man’s mountain ape-like symbiote. It was a large symbiote that was rather unusual with its white appearance.

They call them Yetis in their myths his AI finally thought to him, breaking from it's shocking silence.

He’s, so strong. I don’t like this at all, was the last thing the hawk-like creature thought before going back to its reticence.

“What do you know about this betrayal,” I said to the yeti symbiote. The giant ape smiled for the first time, it had all the strongest features of Tom's face mixed with that of a large chimps.

“Well it seems that I’m the betrayer,” it said with a deeper version of Tom’s voice.