Kyle and I now stood side by side, looking at what had grown on Lahi’s chest.
“Do you think those were there before?” I asked, completely in shock.
Kyle looked at me incredulously. “That is the stupidest thing I’ve heard you say, Steven. No. We would have seen them if they were there before. I mean, we used to take showers together.” His voice seemed to increase in pitch, following his confusion.
In front of us, under Lahi’s girlish face, where his pecs used to be, were two female breasts.
A moment of silence passed.
“You think we’re experiencing a Mandela effect kinda thing? Like with the Jif peanut butter?” I injected, breaking the long pause.
Kyle turned his gashed head towards me, looking as close to a real zombie as one could get. “A what? Are you–? Actually, Steven, just check on Joshua,” he sputtered out, words filled with disbelief and slight irritation. “The Mangle didn’t seem interested in him when they checked us. I think he was knocked out too, so he should be fine. I’ll investigate to see if anything else has changed with Lahi.”
As I made my way to the back door of the truck, I continued with my theory. “You may not think so Kyle, but I’m a believer. I mean how else would Berenstein bears turn into Berenstain bears?” I conjectured. Kyle grunted, as if to tell me to hurry. Offended at my brother's disbelief, I opened the door.
In the back seat of the truck, where Joshua had been sitting, I saw no one. I did a double-take to make sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. They weren’t. “Hey Kyle we got another issue,” I said, my face twisting into worry.
“I was just about to say the same thing,” he replied.
“Joshua isn’t back here, he's missing.” Like lightning Kyle rushed over to where I was. He pushed me aside to get a full view.
“No sign of struggle,” he murmured, continuing to examine the empty seat. Eyes scanning quickly to and fro with obvious distress. “Not only that, the airbags on the doors didn’t go off.”
Kyle moved away from the truck. From his pocket, he grabbed one of the practice MAS units. It was a small black object that shared a look with any other wireless earpiece you’d get from Walmart. “I’ll find you brother," I heard him whisper. He put the practice unit in his ear.
Like during our practice course years ago, he was enveloped in a gray light that covered him like a shell. The shell looked like a chicken egg and gave off a faint aura like a gentle breeze. For me, the most fascinating part of integrating with a practice unit was that it made no noise, despite the visual spectacle. That made the processes feel otherworldly. After a minute, the light disappeared. His once green vibrant eyes were now gray, with various prompts moving around the iris and pupil. If you really looked hard, you would be able to see the HP bar. Practice units didn't have the power of actual MAS units, so they couldn’t change your physical form, but they did give you access to a wealth of observational information, like highlighting footprints or showing heat signatures. With that edge, hopefully Kyle could piece together where Joshua was.
I let him concentrate. With his new observation upgrade, I’d probably just get in the way anyway. In the meantime, I began to mess with the sword. It really did look just like any other starting longsword you’d get from Skyrim or D&D. Holding it made me feel both cool and lame.
I took a closer look at the hilt. In the middle was a button which sported the classic dragon-eating-another-dragon design, but instead of a dragon, it was a squid-like monster eating and chasing around another squid-like monster. I pressed the button. The sword immediately turned its electric field off. Curious, and lacking basic survival instincts, I touched the blade. Nothing happened.
“Alright, get over here, Sitiveni,” Kyle finally said. He didn’t usually call me by my real name, but when he did, I knew things were bad. I stopped playing with my sword and went over to where he was. “We have to start moving. According to my interface, there’s no indication Joshua was ever in the truck. This is obviously wrong, but it means that wherever he may be, it is not a place where we can get to easily. Coupled with the certainty that more Mangle will come, the need to leave becomes our first priority.” He let out a saddened sigh. “Even with your injury, you’ll have to carry Lahi, since your strength is at least double mine.”
I was about to ask if we could use the truck instead of lugging Sleeping Beauty around, but Kyle cut me off. “Don’t ask about the truck, it doesn't work. I already tried it while you were messing with your alien sword. You’ll need to tell me the story of that when you get the chance. Our goal for now is to move towards downtown. There’s a military reserves base there where we can get help, or pick up an actual MAS unit. Which reminds me, here.” Kyle tossed me my Practice Unit.
I caught it with my left hand and looked at it. I hadn't used this thing in years, but it wasn’t like it was rocket science or anything. I plopped it in my left ear. A rush of light overtook my senses. Around me was nothing but gray and silence. Then,
***DNA parsing has begun.***
***25% Complete.***
***First Attribute: Strength.***
I grinned as I heard the robotic voice. It is said that the first attribute to be found in a person's DNA is usually what defines them. At least that's what Ma’he said the first time I used a Practice Unit. I eventually learned that it was just a superstition amongst old soldiers, but that didn’t stop me from feeling proud of it.
***50% Complete.***
***Second Attribute: Endurance.***
Nice! I would be able to improve my overall fitness by applying points when I get a real MAS. Easy way to get rid of my gut, too. Not everyone gets lucky like that. So far, the same as the first time.
***75% Complete.***
***Third Attribute: Intimidation.***
Now that’s different. Last time I went through this, my third attribute was dexterity.
***DNA parsing complete.***
***Final Attribute: (static) P-p-p-p (static) Dexterity.***
The robot finally said, in between static spasms. Weird. Oh well, age must be getting to this thing, I thought to myself. Then, from gray nothing, a green box appeared in front of my eyes. It was my overall stats:
Strength 4 (+3) Endurance 0 (N/A) Dexterity 0 (N/A) Intimidation 3 (N/A)
Plus three on strength–wonder where that's coming from? I pondered. If I ignored the bonus I was getting, the base value of four was actually one more than when I had last used the practice unit. Working cement, I’d expect no less. Without a proper MAS unit, it was incredibly difficult to move stat points up, so to see an improvement of one was actually really awesome. Endurance and dex being at zero is also no surprise. I probably have good potential for both, which is why they showed up, but I haven't been living the kind of life that would naturally improve them. The big surprise, amongst all the expected stuff, was intimidation being at three. I hadn’t had this skill last time, so to see it so high is interesting. I looked at its description.
Intimidation
The scream of a banshee, the tattoos of a barbarian, the regal title of a king. Intimidation is the numerical value of your presence. For every five points of intimidation, starting at zero, enemies have a 5% chance to obtain the Terror debuff.
I mentally clicked on the Terror debuff.
Terror
This enemy is terrified of you. Attack damage: -20, 75% chance of fleeing. 0.5% chance of surrendering with every stack of terror applied.
With an attribute like this, handling big groups of enemies becomes pretty manageable. Satisfied with my understanding of the skill, I exited out of the stat overview. I was then accosted by a bunch of pop ups. These were ‘Notifications of Function,’ as the system called it. They let me know that bodily transformations, weapon and armor smithing, and totem assignment were not available to me.
As I shuffled through them, I saw one I hadn’t seen the last time. It said,
***Retaining and Maintaining Raw Mangle Matter Available.***
I didn’t know what that meant, so I accessed the help screen on the notification. When it popped up, I had the robot read me the important parts.
Retaining and Maintaining Raw Mangle Matter
All practice units can gain the ability to store pieces of Mangle cut loose from its host. These pieces act as ingredients for proper MAS users to craft weapons, armor, potions, and other miscellaneous items. This ability is gained if user has defeated a Mangle.
When it was done reading, I remembered the Mangle’s hand I had cut off. I’ll need to grab that as soon as I’m done here.
As I exited out of the last screen of the function notifications, I saw my HP bar appear.
35/110
it read. The fight with the Mangle must have taken a ton out of me. I didn’t feel particularly tired, or sore though.
Then, a few more HUD icons appeared. One was a picture of an angry man with steam coming out of his ears, and another was a syringe going into a forearm. I read the description of the Angry man Icon.
You are angry. +10 to pain numbing, -5 to intelligence.
I then read the syringe Icon.
You are filled with adrenaline. +10 to pain numbing, +10 to stamina, +3 to perception, +3 to strength, +3 to speed. Ability, ‘Quick Thinking,’ is available. Ability, ‘Quick Thinking,’ is on cooldown. One hour till next use.
That explains why I’m feeling okay even though my HP is so low. I silently hoped that my Quick Thinking ability had been used for finding the seme and not for my Tom and Jerry plan.
Looking at the bonuses adrenaline gave me made me realize that attributes beyond the four major ones could be accessed. It just took certain buffs. I filed that tidbit of information away for later. After a couple of seconds the HUD loaded my whole stat sheet.
Name: Sitiveni L. Lotu Race: Human Age: 27
Active Effects
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
HP: 35/110
DNA Combination: (N/A)
Adrenaline: +10 to pain numbing, +10 to stamina, +3 to perception, +3 to strength, +3 to speed. Ability, ‘Quick Thinking,’ is available. Ability, ‘Quick Thinking,’ is on cooldown. One hour till next use.
Angry: +10 to pain numbing, -5 to intelligence.
MP: (N/A)
Totem Name: (N/A) Strength 4 (+3)
Skills
Inventory Endurance 0 (N/A)
- Retain Matter
Dexterity 0 (N/A) Intimidation 3 (N/A)
With the HUD fully loaded, I saw the gray light around me begin to recede. When it was completely gone, I was back in the living room of the random house. Surrounded, still, in black roots that offered the only light. Kyle was now in the kitchen, beginning a pile of supplies.
He looked over at me. “Good. Took you long enough. Help me look for useful supplies. We’ll need them, as I’m not sure how far we will need to travel. Also, I may have found a solution to our body transportation needs. Time is of the essence; the faster we get what we need, the quicker you, Lahi, and myself can get to safety.”
Just coming out of integration was overload on my attention span. Kyle dumping a ton of info as soon as I appeared didn’t help. It was like a standup meeting before a job. Pretty much everything he said went over my head, but one thing he implied stuck out to me.
“You sure we shouldn’t look for Joshua more?” I asked grimly.
“I’m sure,” he quickly replied, taking a breath. “I don’t know what the spike is for, but the two Mangle that were here are going through Formation. I don’t want you and Lahi around when they finish. Also, with no sign of struggle, there's a good chance Joshua was able to get away.” Kyle turned to look out onto the street. After taking a second to observe the outside, he looked back at me. His eyes filled with determination. “To be as truthful as possible, even if there was a sign of struggle, I would still have us move out. With one of us missing, I have to make sure the others survive,” he explained. I nodded, understanding the hard choice he was making.
As the situation sank deeper into my mind, the pain in my heart lessened. We needed to do what we could right now, and when we gained enough power to safely travel this area, we’ll come back and find him.
We began packing up supplies found around the house. With the help of our HUDs, we located an emergency stash of medical items hidden in the garage. It had some hydrogen peroxide and a simple first aid kit. Those were used to clean and dress the wounds we had.
As we worked, I told Kyle all about the fight I had with Grallnath, and all the details I could remember. When I finished, he smiled and congratulated me on defeating my first Mangle, while also joking about how I beat him to it.
“It's really good that you injured him before his formation could finish,” he said, as he rummaged through the pantries.
I paused in my search of the living room. “Oh shoot, I almost forgot!” the memory of slicing Grallnath’s arm coming back to me. I quickly walked over to the entertainment system. Amongst all the debris, I saw it. It had lost its starry look, but it maintained the form of an arm. I concentrated on it. A small window appeared on my HUD.
Store Mangle Matter?
it read. I gave my mental approval.
From my left ear, a black spike rushed out and stabbed the arm. The spike was still connected to the unit in my ear and looked eerily similar to the one outside. I watched as it began to suck Grallnath’s arm into itself, like a mosquito sucking blood.
“Ewwwwwwww,” I said out loud.
“What’s happening, Steven?” Kyle yelled from the kitchen.
“Nothing big, just sucking off a Mangle,” I answered with a grin.
“What does that even mean? If this is another joke like that Mandela hoo-ha, I’ll have you begging for–what the JIF peanut butter is that!” he exclaimed, walking into the room. “Why is there a needle coming out of your ear?”
I laughed. “It's a skill I picked up. Apparently, if you defeat or injure a Mangle with the practice unit on, you get to suck up the leftovers and use it later with a real MAS,” I explained the essence of a laugh still on my lips.
Obtained: Royal Matter (Rare)
The inner workings of the royal court of the Mangle are a mystery, but the substance the royals are made of are well researched. Adding this ingredient to any craft will increase its outcome by two tiers.
Cool I thought to myself turning to Kyle to tell him about the item. He looked like he was thinking hard about what I said. A creepy vibe was flowing off him, one I was pretty familiar with. He prided himself on the ability to gain and retain tons of info, and because of that, he always got sad when he was surprised.
“Come on, dude. Just ‘cause you don’t know everything about these things doesn’t mean you should get down about it.” I said, trying to sound as encouraging as I could.
“It’s not a matter of whether or not I knew about it, it’s the fact that it was not part of the system before.” He made his way back into the kitchen. I followed behind.
“Unlike most men and women, I was able to read the classified documents Ma’he had on the practice units. I would wager he made them openly available so I could, now that I think about it. There was nothing detailing that this skill was available to us.” He bit his lower lip. “I can only think of one reason the practice units have been updated to have this skill. This destruction must not be an isolated event. The world government would rather lose half the world than give power to the average person. It’s how they’ve kept control so long. The whole world must be in tatters for them to play this trump card.” His words quivered as he spoke.
Thinking about the world was way beyond what I wanted to do right now, so I changed the subject, “Wait, how does letting us suck up Mangle give us an edge?”
With that question, he also looked to throw the massive idea of world destruction into a dark corner of his mind. He relaxed and began to speak. “There are plenty of ways storing valuable assets can be used to garner victory, but I don’t know what the World Government intends for us to do with this ability. Hopefully it will be made more apparent as we dawn actual MAS Units. Beyond unearthing that mystery, MAS units will help us survive, if we get unlucky enough to run into a Formed Mangle.” Kyle got back to grabbing supplies from the kitchen. A new resolve to leave burned in his gray eyes.
“I’ve been meaning to ask, Kyle, what is formation?” I questioned, genuinely curious.
He let out a little snicker. “I really shouldn’t be surprised. You didn’t learn anything from school courses did you?”
A fox-like smile cracked on my face. “I learned what a seme was.” We both laughed. “Let's just say I forgot what Formation was, and assume I know the rest.” I said, a bit embarrassed.
Kyle glowed at the opportunity to share his wisdom, “The Mangle are a type of parasite, but instead of feeding on vital nutrition like other parasites, they feast on the minds of those they latch onto.” I noticed him reach deep into one of the pantries. “Oh good, we got some granola bars,” he commented, tossing a box into the pile we had started.
“Dude, I know what the Mangle are. I just want to know what Formation is, jack wipe,” I ridiculed, looking at the looted items in our pile.
Honestly, this house was pretty packed. Our food pile was getting big, and there was some useful stuff in both the medicine and miscellaneous piles.
“Just listen, Steven,” Kyle continued, “when they feed, they take your memories and habits, leaving nothing of who the person was. If the victim is lucky, they’ll still remember how to breathe when it's done. Most people aren’t lucky.”
While listening to him, I noticed a Nike duffle bag hanging with some other bags by the door. I grabbed it, along with a Spiderman backpack, and began putting the items we collected inside.
“When they collect enough minds, they start to look like whatever they’ve eaten the most of. If a Mangle has been eating the minds of dogs, then they take the shape of a dog. Same for if they eat enough humans,” he added and noticed what I was doing. Taking a look at the pile, and, I assume, doing some mental calculations, he eventually went to the backpacks and grabbed the last one hanging. It was a Frozen backpack with Elsa prominently featured.
“Formation is their final evolution–when they bring everything they’ve learned from the things they’ve eaten and become the perfect version of that collective of minds.” He knelt next to me and started stowing items in the bag as he continued to talk. “Depending on the minds used for their formation, they can get powerful abilities. If one of the minds in their collective had a strong desire to fly, then there is a chance the Mangle will have the ability to fly. It gets complicated fast, but just keep the flying analogy in mind. It’ll help ground you when things get out of sorts.”
I stopped packing and looked at him. “How ‘out of sorts,’ can it get?” I asked, a little spooked.
He did not stop packing, but kept going as he spoke. “In school they’ll tell you about the flying ones, and probably hope you don’t hear about the rest ‘til you get to the front lines.” He chuckled under his breath. “Ma’he used to tell me stories. He said there were Formed Mangles that looked like medieval depictions of Satan. They would capture soldiers and torture them right on the battlefield. He described ones that looked and acted human until they got into the camp, where they would unhinge their jaws and start eating soldiers alive. There was even one that could transform into those you loved. ‘That one never attacked,’ he said, ‘it would just stand on a hill and scream down at us all night.’”
When he finished recalling the stories, neither of us felt like picking the conversation back up. Seeing that his Frozen backpack was full, Kyle made his way to the backyard to work on our solution for transporting Lahi, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
At that moment, the darkness of the outside seemed to seep into the house. The reality of the situation crept back into my mind. If a Formed One found us, we would be dead; worse, we could be tortured, skinned alive, bled like hunted animals, and left to fester, still conscious. The thought punched my mind so hard I forgot what I was doing.
My hand, which reached for the last Item to put into the bag, was just hanging there. I pulled it back, looked at it, and bit it. I made sure the bite was quick and painful, so I couldn’t back out. A small drop of blood rolled down my hand. Serves you right, I thought to myself. The HP bar went down by one leaving me with 34/110. If I’m going to die, I will not do it moping around. Not like Dad. Not like Mom. If I’m going to die, I’m going to do it with a smile on my face and my head held high. Not desperately chasing unfounded solutions with no thought of morality.
I looked at the alien sword, now strapped to my Spiderman backpack. Already won my first boss fight. I’d say I’m off to a good start, I voiced in my head chasing the sad thoughts away.
As exciting as it was to mutilate myself, I knew I couldn’t let the wound stay open, so I grabbed a Band-Aid from the backpack and put it over the spot I had bitten. I then put the backpack and duffle bag on and went to meet Kyle.
Behind the house was your typical big, suburban backyard. A white plastic fence surrounded thick green grass. In the darkness, the grass almost looked like the ocean as it swayed with the wind. It made me feel uneasy, since I had a fear of deep waters. I was impressed with how well-kept it was, though. The people who lived here seemed to be remarkably neat and tidy.
Connected to the house and bordering the sea of grass was a cement patio. To the right of the door, on the patio, I saw Kyle. “How’s our luxury chariot coming along?” I asked, looking at the wheelbarrow he was layering blankets in.
“Hopefully good. I worry that Lahi will be very sore when he wakes up, but there is nothing else we can do,” he said, adding the last blanket to the junktown chariot.
He grabbed his backpack with the seme holstered to it, and double-checked our supplies. When everything was set, we did a last-second sweep around the house to make sure Joshua hadn’t fallen or jumped out somewhere where our initial search wouldn’t have found him. Still nothing. Not even a clue of what might have happened to him.
With that, we put Lahi in the wheelbarrow, arms hanging over both sides, legs sticking out towards the front, and began our journey towards downtown.
----------------------------------------
The beginning of the walk was ominous, to say the least. The darkness that made the grass in the backyard look like creepy deep water worked its magic on the street, since none of the street lights were functioning, making it look like the edge of the world would just drop off into nothing. The flashlight we found didn’t work either. The dim light of the moon and the occasional glow coming from the black roots were all we had.
Along with the ominous dark, the neighborhood was strangely empty. It had to be ten or eleven o’clock, but there was no sign anyone was in these houses. We checked a few as we walked, but nothing. The only real clue that there might have been a few people around is the signs of fighting our HUDs were able to detect in some of the buildings. Tables were flipped over and holes from punches or gunshots riddled some scenes. It seemed we weren’t the only ones fighting it out. The only question was where were these people?
A few minutes after we checked the houses, we came across a massive ravine that cut a straight line through the neighborhood. The HUD flashed a danger symbol upon seeing it. Both of us tried to get more data from the practice units on the ravine, but it just gave us a message that it was dangerous and that information on it was classified. We could tell that it was no natural ravine. Besides the fact that it literally ran through the neighborhood, leaving the houses in its wake neatly slashed, it was also completely straight. Like someone took a knife and cut it like a cake. Its depth was just as insane. I had never been afraid of heights–I’ve even climbed up a few mountains during my time in the boy scouts–but this ravine… It was so deep, the moonlight directly above couldn’t reach the bottom.
Focusing our attention on the deep dark, our HUDs were able to detect movement. Nothing we could see ourselves, but the fact that something was down there enhanced the creepy weepies of this thing.
Fearing the unknown behind us, Kyle took a seat and began pondering our next move. I got bored and started to throw rocks around to pass the time. I wondered how long it would take for a rock to reach the bottom. I tossed one at the ravine.
To my amazement, the rock collided with something that appeared to cover the ravine. When it hit, it almost sounded like glass. From where I was standing, the rock seemed to just float in mid-air. I walked closer, getting on my hands and knees as I neared the edge. I reached my hand out, as if to put my arm into the ravine. I couldn’t. There was definitely something there, blocking anything from falling in.
I ran over and told Kyle. When I finished telling him, he cautiously walked over to the edge and began to slowly tiptoe across. My stomach dropped as he tested a large area of the ravine by rolling over it. To our surprise, it seemed the whole thing was covered in this perfectly see-through glass.
Finding that it was safe, we carefully, slowly, and with great anxiety, pushed Lahi and our other supplies across. After several painstaking minutes, we made it.
On this side of the ravine, we found ourselves on a long stretch of freeway, surrounded by desert and mountains. Along the road were the same black roots we had seen before. They crossed and tangled around each other in odd ways, giving off a Nightmare Before Christmas vibe.
As weird as they were, I was happy they were here. Their small glow was the only other available light. I wondered if we could rip one off the ground and use it as a torch.
A chilling breeze hit us as we examined the extreme change to our surroundings. We decided that instead of moving forward, we would set up camp on the edge of the freeway.
“What the hell is going on?” I asked, as we set up the large tent we found in one of the houses.
“I have no idea. I’ve never read or heard anything like this,” Kyle muttered, bringing up his end of the tent. I was surprised he wasn’t moping about not knowing. I guess he realized that this crazy situation is gonna have a ton of unknowns.
A thought entered my mind. “This might be how the Mangle invade places that aren’t theirs. I mean, they wouldn’t cut up the moon, since that’s where they live. That’s probably the reason we’ve never heard of it,” I speculated, completing the tent.
Kyle raised an eyebrow. “Huh, that’s quite the avid deduction, Steven. Didn’t know you had it in you.” He was genuinely surprised, which pissed me off.
Our shelter was one of those family-sized tents that looked like a Twinkie. It wasn’t yellow like one–being green instead–but it did have that general shape.
As soon as we placed the blankets on the floor and Lahi inside, Kyle pulled a cover over himself and went straight to sleep. I took a look about the camp before I went into the tent.
The mountains around us were lit by the stars and moon. It was a gentle light that made the peaks give off a white aura. On the ground, there was sand, dotted with sparse foliage, and desert trees. A breeze kicked up the sand and the dust caught some light from the heavens, sparkling like glitter. It was beautiful. The world was going nuts, people were likely dying, and my brother was missing, but there were still beautiful things unchanged by the weirdness around them. They stood, as if to encourage me, saying, “Things change, but I never change. There is still wonder in this broken world.”
I smiled and went into the tent. The adrenaline from the day slowed down. I laid on the ground and went to sleep.